Laura Movie 1944 - A film noir that actually has a happy ending
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The Laura movie is one of the O.G. classic film noirs. A masterpiece by Otto Preminger that is a must-see for film noir fans.
It’s also got a well-deserved 8.0/10 on IMDB and after you see it you’ll understand why.
This post is all about the Laura movie 1944
How is the Laura movie 1944 a film noir?
There are several definitions of a film noir. Some refer to it as just the style of lighting, the dramatic black and white stark lighting that so many film noirs have.
But others think it’s more, it has to do more with the characters of the film. And although it’s hard to pin down there are typically some defining characteristics.
The Laura movie 1944 has all the following typical film noir style characteristics:
An Imperfect protagonist
A Femme Fatale
Witty Dialogue
Dramatic lighting or ‘dark film’
Storyline told via flashback
Other common themes relate to mirrors, smoke, crime of some sort, and there are often detectives on the trail of something.
The Laura movie 1944 manages to bring in the above characteristics and still have a happy ending. Often good endings are hard to find in a film noir.
Why? Because of the nature of the protagonist--i.e. Often a ‘bad guy’ and hollywood code at that time wouldn’t let movies portray ‘bad guys’ get away in the end.
Back to the Laura movie: If you haven’t seen it, stop and see it now, because be warned, there are spoilers ahead!
Laura Movie 1944 Synopsis
When a beautiful woman (Gene Tierney) is murdered, a hard-boiled trench-coat wearing detective (Dana Andrews) is put on the case. As he learns about the victim he begins to fall in love. It doesn’t hurt that she has a sexy life-sized portrait of herself hanging right at eye level in her apartment.
In a classic film noir style twist it turns out that Laura wasn’t the girl murdered after all. But once she returns she becomes one of the suspects, as the girl that was murdered was having an affair with her fiance Shelby Carpenter. (Vincent Price)
Laura Movie 1944 Cast
Gene Tierney
Gene Tierney stars as the gorgeous socialite Laura Hunt. Laura is an advertising executive with quite the glamorous life. Well, at least her evenings seem to be, full of society-type parties with the who’s who of New York.
We’re not exactly sure how she finds time to work with her evenings so full.
Dana Andrews
Dana Andrew’s character Mark McPherson is your stereotypical film-noir style detective. He smokes incessantly, drinks too much, and has a witty comeback to anyone who questions him.
While investigating Laura’s murder, he does all the above while also checking out her large portrait on a regular basis.
He even falls asleep in front of her portrait at one point in the movie after—-you guessed it, smoking and drinking too much.
We’re not joking about the smoking part, he has quite the knack for smoking while talking and talking around a cigarette that is already in his mouth—-definitely a lost skill for sure.
Although he has a hard shell when investigating the murder, it seems that Laura is one who can get through as he changes quite a bit and even manages a few rare smiles once she comes back from the dead as it were.
Clifton Webb
Clifton Webb plays the witty Waldo Lydecker who spends most of the movie with his clothes off (in his bathtub of course).
In all seriousness, Clifton Webb does a phenomenal job playing Waldo Lydecker. It’s hard to imagine him acting any other way after seeing this movie.
He really has a witty, almost nasty comment to anyone all the time. Again, a hard exterior through which is seems only Laura is able to get through.
You actually end up feeling quite bad for his character in the movie.
He refers to something along the lines of when a man has everything in the world except what he wants best he loses his self-respect. He is in love with Laura and considers her “the best part of himself” since he helped ‘create’ her image.
Of course she didn’t think of him romantically at all and he is constantly fighting off her lovers by researching them and exposing them in his writing.
It worked for a couple of her boyfriends, but it didn’t work when he tried to do it for her fiance Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price.)
Not wanting to see her with another man, he plans her murder so their love would be ‘eternal.’
It’s not clear how long he had planned her murder for, or if he had planned it way ahead of time for a ‘just-in-case’ scenario. But he had given her a large grandfather clock for her birthday which is where he hid a shotgun.
When Laura made it clear she wasn’t going to marry him, he rang her doorbell and when a girl answered the door in a dim light wearing Laura’s robe and slippers he shot her.
Laura had actually gone away for the weekend, and unknown to her or to Waldo Lydecker, Shelby had decided to have a rendezvous with his girlfriend at Laura’s apartment while she was away.
When the girlfriend opened the door, she got shot and Waldo left before realizing his mistake.
It actually takes everyone a long time to realize their mistake. The girl had even been identified as Laura by Laura’s maid…not sure how that happened, but they did mention that she had been shot in the face.
Vincent Price
Vincent Price plays Laura’s rather ditzy fiance Shelby Carpenter.
He is a wealthy playboy (or had been wealthy) that had gone through his money and wanted a job. Laura meets him at a party and offers him a job. They begin working together and that’s when their romance begins to develop.
Of course he also started seeing one of the models that worked in the office as well, but Laura didn’t know about that until later.
He seems to always be broke and even pawns an expensive cigarette case that Laura bought him.
Despite his rather obvious flaws, Laura’s Aunt is in love with him no matter what. She says to Laura that he’s no good but he is what she wants. She also mentions that she can afford him. It seems like his big spending habits were no secret to anyone.
It’s implied that they end up together, even though she is quite a bit older than him. Maybe cougars were in style earlier than we thought.
Laura Movie 1944 - The film noir style imperfect Protagonist
The main character of the film, although the film is all about Laura, is actually Dana Andrew’s character Mark McPherson.
Although he’s not a criminal (luckily, so we can have our happy ending) he’s not a perfect character.
He’s biased against women “a dame in washington heights once got a fox fur out of me.”
He’s got a quick temper. And likes to call women ‘dames.’
Laura movie 1944: The film noir style femme fatale
Normally in film noir style a femme fatale is a sexy female character that will get the main protagonist into trouble.
Laura has the following characteristics of a femme fatale:
She dresses in a femme fatale style
She’s sexy
She might be dangerous
She smokes--also a lot
She talks back
Laura does become a murder suspect, but she’s also turns out to be ‘not bad’ which is why we can have our happy ending.
Actually one of the reasons we love the Laura movie is because Laura isn’t a perfect character.
It’s nice how she plays a “good girl” role without coming across too “goody two-shoes” or corny.
We all know those film noirs that make you like the femme fatale character better than the “good” character for this exact reason!
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Laura Movie 1944 - Film noir style witty dialogue
Turn up your volume and turn on the subtitles if needed when watching this movie because it’s got great dialogue.
Most of the witty lines comes from Waldo Lydecker, but Mark Mcpherson has got some good one of her own, and even Judith Anderson chimes in few here and there.
Laura Movie 1944 - Film noir style dramatic lighting
One of the most recognizable elements of film noir: the lighting.
It’s got a special moody/dark quality to it. The term “film noir” actually means “dark film” in reference to the lighting.
The Laura movie has plenty of it! It’s especially dramatic when Laura is being questioned in the Police office by Mark McPherson.
I shall never forget the weekend Laura died…the film-noir style flashback
Finally, our last film noir style element in the Laura movie:
Part of the story told through flashbacks.
The first part of the movie is told through flashbacks from Waldo Lydecker.
He tells detective Mark McPherson how he first met Laura and how he helped give her her start in advertising and how they had become close friends.
Most of Gene Tierney’s role in the first part of the film is told through flashbacks.
What happened to the portrait of Laura?
The portrait of Laura is a major theme throughout the Laura movie.
It’s Mark’s main connection with Laura when he believes her to be dead.
The introduction is shown in front of it, as well as the final credits.
When Laura was believed dead, Mark Mcpherson had put in a bid for it …. I.e. he wanted to buy the portrait just from looking at it all the time.
Since Laura came back, nothing really happened to the portrait of Laura. We’re assuming she kept the portrait. I.e. now that she was alive, it wouldn’t be auctioned off and would presumably stay in her apartment where Mark Mcpherson could look at it all he wanted to.
This post was all about the Laura movie synopsis
What did you think of Laura?
Did you think Dana Andrews or Clifton Webb was the true protagonist?
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In a Lonely Place - Gloria Grahame’s Stunning Femme Fatale Style
Works Cited: Laura. Directed by Otto Preminger, performances by Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson, Twentieth Century Fox, 1944.