- Title: Laura
- IMDb: link
You can feel the influence of 1944’s Laura over the years in everything from Twin Peaks to There’s Something About Mary. The film noir stars Gene Tierney in the title role as a woman who falls a bit too easily into love and who men become almost immediately obsessed with, even after her death.
As Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates her murder, he comes across a host of suspects including the renown writer Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) who had become a benefactor and friend to Laura who tags along on much of investigation. Along with Lydecker, suspects include Laura’s fiancé (Vincent Price) and the various other women (Judith Anderson and Tierney, who also plays the role of model Diane Redfern) obsessed with him.
The unapologetically convoluted plot is a hell of a ride, but if the film has a flaw is that the twisty turvy tale never really gets away from the most obvious suspect for the crime, even after Laura miraculously reappears in her apartment three days later changing the entire focus of the investigation and making her a suspect as well. If you don’t know who the murderer is 10 minutes in, you haven’t been paying attention.
Through both flashbacks exploring various characters’ interactions with Laura to McPherson’s fixation after her “death” to his meeting with the very much alive Laura, the script highlights the obsessive quality of the woman who men seem to be drawn to like moth to the flame. Decades later, the Farrelly brothers would use a similar setup albeit much more humorous take on the concept. Here, that quality leads to murder and a mystery to unravel.
