Following the murder of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is put on the case to find her killer.
As he is drawn into her world, McPherson finds himself falling under the dead woman’s spell…
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When I first started university, I read something which has stuck with me ever since. It is a line from David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly:
“Because only a man knows how a woman is supposed to act”
The idea of a woman as a construction, an idea, and the clash between the construct and a real person.
That conflict has fascinated me long before I read that line, but it unlocked that theme.
And I soon began to pick it out among movies I enjoyed: Vertigo, Mona Lisa and Ex Machina.
I have only seen Laura once before, almost two decades ago, but it was not as sticky as those other movies.
My re-appreciation for it started after I found a copy of Vera Caspary’s book in a used bookstore. Reading it reignited my interest in the story.
Another catalyst was Foster Hirsch’s biography on Otto Preminger, which provided an in-depth breakdown of the film’s production.
Watching it now, I do not know why I did not enjoy it on my first go-around.
Laura is such a beautiful encapsulation of the idea of the woman as an idea - not just an image, but a story.
The film opens on Laura’s painting - the image which act as the foundation of, and cover for, the various imagined versions of her.
As the camera pans around Waldo’s apartment, his voice introduces us to the story, and also offers the first characterisation of the title character. Unlike the other characters in the film, he references his own role in mythologising her.
The characters’ personal images of Laura are reflections of their own deepest needs and desires:
Laura is a reflection of Waldo’s command of taste, his knowledge of how to own and use beauty and femininity.
For Dana Andrews’ McPherson, she is a mystery to be solved, a beauty who is perfect because she no longer exists - the perfect companion for a man who avoids intimacy.
Dana Andrews’ understated performance matches the film - a placid surface barely hiding the roiling fire underneath.
He is matched by Clifton Webb’s preening, barbed performance as Waldo Lydecker. Once again, his sophisticated front is a mask, hiding a deep well of jealousy and hate.
I do not have any real thoughts about Gene Tierney in the title role. Critics at the time were disappointed, believing the reveal robbed Laura of a sense of mystery and power.
But that is the point.
The power of that image is meant to be punctured. Once we see the real person, we are meant to recognise how artificial it was.
One key change in adaptation, the murder weapon, was a point of contention between the phallic symbolism of Caspary’s choice (a gun disguised in a cane) and Preminger’s belief in realism (the gun is hidden in a clock).
I tend to side with Caspary - the symbolism is obvious now, but fits with Waldo’s character - the mix of urbanity, sex and hidden violence.
Laura is a deceptively cool film - it is all glacial surfaces, hiding the boiling passions and unspoken desires of its characters.
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