Oh for the times when you could go to upstate New York for several days, not read a newspaper and be blissfully unaware of your own murder. It's a soft bellied noir but none the worse for teetering on a cliff edge of absurdity as sharp as Gene Tierney's exquisite cheekbones. Pure enjoyment all round.
I don't use a pen. I write with a goose quill dipped in venom.
For me Premingers "refined" cinematic style and storytelling seem somewhat unfit for a film noir. So even though the film is great in terms of production quality it lacks the x-factor that some of the great noirs possess.
One of those essential film noir movies with an excellent gorgeously filmed leading actress and a great supporting cast of murder suspects (that include Judith Anderson and Vincent Price). Excellently filmed with a nail-biting finale. Few other films have this one's class and undying beauty.
i really love the first scene, the pan shot without pause by a dolly-in, accompanied with a monologue that feels hypnotizing like the rest of the film, while in the middle it falls into noir-cliché cycle, it's still a brilliant, moody, suave thriller with a great performance by charismatic Dana Andrews
I was so confused at the supposed dream scene! I was honestly dumbfounded that she was alive, was not expecting it. Bravo Otto! I love Gene and Dana together..When Laura is brought into questioning by Gene the lighting used on her face is brilliant, an angel yet a possible femme fatale. I assumed Shelby would be the one who committed the murder as of most of Vincent's roles are macabre/clandestine
I guess my disappointment comes from the fact that I was expecting a very different kind of film. I just wish that movies like this one, with all that vanilla glamour and safe plot twists, were reclassified as "film beige".
I love this film to pieces. I consider it as the noir-ification of a gothic melodrama. I also love this review by the late Roger Ebert: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-laura-1944
Ironically, I too have fallen in love with a dead woman after seeing this film.
Un chef-d'oeuvre absolu du cinéma, le film noir par excellence, avec l'inoubliable Gene Tierney, pour un des plus beaux fleurons du film noir américain... www.cinefiches.com
"You better watch out, McPherson, or you'll end up in a psychiatric ward. I don't think they've ever had a patient who fell in love with a corpse."
Every dialogue from the characters, especially Waldo Lydecker - brilliantly portrayed by Clifton Webb, and Laura Hunt played by one of the greatest Hollywood beauties Gene Tierney. It's kind strange to see young Vincent Price before his horror icon era. The suspense in this film is marvelous. Clifton Webb might be my new favorite actor of the old Hollywood age. His performance was so ethereal and poetic.
Preminger has an amazingly subtlety with his camera movements that make them seem so natural. He paints with his camera. The story itself isn't elite but the acting and composition make up for any flaws. it was great.
Rewatched and re-loved. Watching this we must remember Laura Palmer...
Solid flick. I'm surprised Hollywood hasn't done a second-rate remake yet. *knock on wood*