Watching "Laura" 1944 on TCM

I'm recording it - I don't have time to watch it tonight.

Lead-in with haunting: There's always someone, Haunting someone, haunting someone, I can't sleep easy, Cause I'm afraid of dreaming And then the memory of the dream There's always someone, Haunting someone, haunting someone Laura is the face in the misty night Footsteps that you hear down the hall The laugh that floats on a summer's night That you might never quite recall And you see Laura on a train That is passing through Those eyes how familiar they seem She gave your very first kiss to you That was Laura but she's only a dream She gave your very first kiss to you That was Laura But she's only a dream Yes she gave your very first kiss to you That was Laura, but she's only a dream A dream, a dream

I used to say it was my favorite movie ever. It may still be.

Fantastic movie, OP. Enjoy!

[quote] Starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Vincent Price

And Judith Anderson.

I love this movie and the divine, yet tragic, Gene Tierney.

Discussing Laura? Kind of late to the game aren't you OP? I mean let's start another GWTW or Wizard of Oz thread.

Poor Anne Treadwell.

You just know, for the rest of her life, she'll allow herself take back Shelby when he's dumped by his next, young, sexy, side-stuff society babe.

I don't know if Vincent Price ever played another part quite like Shelby Carpenter.

I wish I had the Carol Burnett portrait as ‘Flora’.

I don't think so, r9.

I'm a big fan of Price's performance in "Laura".

Weirdly, and in a good way, his performance is both over the top while not overdoing it, if that makes sense.

Price as Shelby Carpenter perfectly caught the attitude of a young, fallen aristotrash on the make.

I was a hit with my ‘Laura’ inspired floppy hat at the roller disco 🕺 in 1979.

I wish Dana had stripped down and joined Clifton in that tub.

Great movie. After Jean Arthur, Gene Tierney is my favorite actress. Love her in this but Leave Her to Heaven is a revelation. Nothing in her work leading up to LHTH would indicate she had the acting chops to pull it off.

Clifton Webb and Vincent Price?

Is this a gay movie?

I adore this film, but the only thing I find implausible is Clifton Webb being obsessed with a woman.

You've never seen a gay man obsessed with a woman? Especially when they get to makeover and mold into a female version of themselves?

I think the point was R16 finds it implausible that Clifton Webb could be obsessed with a woman, not the character Waldo Lydecker.

As for Waldo, I think I've known guys like him, and why he'd be obsessed with Laura. If he's gay, he wouldn't be honest about it, socially, and may be in denial, as well. He and Laura don't have a physical relationship but she makes him feel a certain way, because they have a lot in common, she's so beautiful and she's someone he can be proud to have on his arm. She answers a lot of his needs.

[quote]I adore this film, but the only thing I find implausible is Clifton Webb being obsessed with a woman.

She's one more of the beautiful things he collects.

I watched them back-to-back the first time, and WAY prefer "Laura" to "Rebecca". Even though "Laura" doesn't have the wonderful Judith Anderson creeping down the halls.

𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐫

Laura is never directly seen in the film. The first half of the film is simply Waldo's recollections (perhaps accurate, perhaps not) of Laura before her murder. The second half is the Detective's drunken dream after he falls asleep in Laura's comfy chair. Note: Waldo's narration never resumes after Dana Andrews sits in that chair. His dislike-jealousy of Waldo causes him to paint Lydecker in the dream as the treacherous assassin but, who knows who actually killed Laura.

𝘛𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘓𝘢𝘶𝘳𝘢, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘦'𝘴 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘈 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮, 𝘢 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 (thanks r2)

Have you heard the Put it Where I Can Get At It story?

R14, I love Tierney, too, but you do know, don't you, that the illustrious Darryl Hickman accused her of "indicating all over the place" (quoting from years-ago memory) in her LHTH performance.

God forbid.

I want Dana Andrews in me deeply

[quote] Note: Waldo's narration never resumes after Dana Andrews sits in that chair.

Because the flashback is over by then.

[quote] Have you heard the Put it Where I Can Get At It story?

If there’s one thing I love almost as much as Judith Anderson’s portrayal of the fabulously corrupt high society lady, Ann Treadwell, in Laura (1944), it’s Vincent Price’s performance as Ann’s on-off, rather dim-witted toyboy, Shelby Carpenter.

The two actors seem to have got on like a house on fire. While the movie is dark, brooding and intense, their mood on-set was, at times, the opposite.

‘She had to grab my hand in order to give me courage, because she thought I was the murderer. But as the camera went by, I kept forgetting to put my hand down. So Judith suddenly leaned over to me and said, “For Chrissakes, put it where I can get at it!” Well, that did it. I looked at her and it broke us up to such an extent that every time Otto [Preminger (the director)] did a take, we started laughing. Otto threw us off the stage, for about an hour, until we could regain our composure.’ - From The Price of Fear: The Film Career of Vincent Price in His Own Words

A great version of Laura by a real vocalist:

Anderson and Price were also both in The Ten Commandments.

Moses! Moses!

Gene Tierney only got to be in The Egyptian.

Waldo is the original Datalounger

[quote]I want Dana Andrews in me deeply

I'll take his brother, thank you very much.

I'm late the party OP, but you inspired me to put on TCM and now I'm watching "Wait Until Dark" with Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. I love this channel.

Jennifer Jones (recent Oscar winner for Fox's The Song Of Bernadette) was originally cast as Laura.

Jones probably would have been okay, as well as John Hodiak, who I think was pencilled in for the Dana Andrews part, but Laird Cregar (original casting for Waldo) would have been all wrong (but then I don't really like Cregar much - and he wasn't funny, like Webb.

...At least not on screen.)

That Clifton Webb, what a fag!

I like Jones but it wouldn't have been the same. Though she made a few movies before this they weren't huge hits. So Laura worked better with someone who was less known and not an Oscar winner. The best version of Laura's theme is by Julie London. Really fits the song and mystery of the movie.

Love Julie London

r38 You wanna get pushed off a boat, bitch?

Only this face could have been Laura. She took a grade 'C' movie and turned it into an 'A+' classic.

Women should bring back Laura's hairstyle. It's very flattering on most younger women.

[quote]I'll take his brother, thank you very much.

And his socks.

The audience needs to buy in that all these guys are obsessed with Laura. Gene’s mysterious beauty makes their obsessions instantly believable. It wouldn’t have worked at all with that chipmunk cheeked bitch Jennifer Jones.

I don’t think Laura seemed all that mysterious, other than how she got so wealthy when apparently she just worked at an ad agency.

Laura escorted in Dubai, that's how she got the money

How long is Laura's rise, from when she asks Waldo to endorse the pen, to her ad exec job, lavish apartment, maid, house in the country? Gene Tierney was 23 or 24 when the movie was made.

I'm not sure how old she is at the end, but Waldo's narration mentions celebrating her 22nd birthday and how the pen incident was 5 years before that (which surprised me because 17 seems young to be working in an ad agency, but I guess people matured more quickly in those days).

I also believe she had rich relatives who picked up some of her tab.

Other than the fact that I understand how time consuming it was, and probably expensive, I still don't get why woman don't want a look more like Laura's and her contemporaries. Women looked so good in that era. Even average to below average women looked good. I can't imagine a 20 something woman these days looking so sophisticated.

^ Why do some gay men feel the need to lecture women about how they should look?

Such a gay cast!

Oh, shut up, r52.

r51 is right. And it's men, too.

Shut up yourself.

I don't understand the subset of gay men who pick on women although I guess they can relate to the Waldo Lydecker character

You actually think r51 was picking on women with that comment?

On a website that regularly uses the "C" word like "and" and "the" and the other ways women are discussed here? And how men are discussed here? Or how trans are discussed here? Or the bigotry that is here?

And that's the comment you call out?

I'm against all the misogynist and anti-trans comments too. Just don't see why someone had to turn a thread about an 80-year-old movie into a rant against "women today" and how they appear. Geez, I wonder how some of you would react if a female started ranting against "gays today" and told you all to start wearing suits, brylcreem, and fedoras

The post by R51 wasn't misogynist. It was his opinion about women's fashion and hairstyles. This is a forum where we're supposed to feel like we're free to express our opinions to each other.

r58, his opinion involved putting down modern women and how they dress and look. But men are allowed to look like slobs, I guess. You are free to express your opinions, and so am I.

R59 This is the post.

[quote] Other than the fact that I understand how time consuming it was, and probably expensive, I still don't get why woman don't want a look more like Laura's and her contemporaries. Women looked so good in that era. Even average to below average women looked good. I can't imagine a 20 something woman these days looking so sophisticated.

You really find that offensive?

Gay men are interested in women's fashion. In fact gay men design a lot of women's fashions - and hairstyles.

Gene Tierney had a face for hats.

Oleg Cassini - her boyfriend or already her husband at the time, put her in some floppy hats that were cool because they suggested the pre-war period. It's tough to really know when the thing takes place because it's like there's no war on. Carpenter and McPherson aren't in the service and there's no mention of why (as was sometimes the case in wartime films).

I want Clifton Webb in me deeply.

[quote] Carpenter and McPherson aren't in the service and there's no mention of why

Exposition was unnecessary to a WW2 audience. Detective McPhersons was a cripple with his silver shinbone. Carpenter is obviously overage, plus probably further disqualified for service on Morals grounds.

R64 Good points.

Dana Andrews was two years older than Price.

The real point is that the war is nonexistent, in the context of the film. No military people at the party, for ex. If you're familiar with movies made during WWII, no reference to the war is unusual.

Double Indemnity (made the same year) takes place in 1938, to avoid having to include the war.

[quote]Oleg Cassini - her boyfriend or already her husband at the time, put her in some floppy hats that were cool because they suggested the pre-war period. It's tough to really know when the thing takes place because it's like there's no war on.

I finally saw this movie and was so bored I couldn't pay attention. Had to rewatch yet still don't know what is happening. I am shocked it is a classic.

[quote]I adore this film, but the only thing I find implausible is Clifton Webb being obsessed with a woman.

Then as now a beautiful woman is a status symbol. When you walk into a room with someone as stunning as the young Gene Tierney everybody is looking at you— a gay man is not immune to that sort of ego boost.

There are several movies during this period that feature relationships between controlling older men whose sexuality is ambiguous (production codes would not have allowed anything different) who are obsessed with much younger women. In addition to Laura see The Red Shoes and The Seventh Veil for two more examples of this.

R67 you're an idiot. The plot is very easy to follow

R51, I agree, and as a woman, I can confirm it's really not that time-consuming or expensive. The Laura style is really just a set of hot rollers, some drugstore cosmetics, and a pretty blouse and skirt. The hot rollers take maybe 5-10 minutes. The blouse and skirt can be thrifted. I used to do all that, and although I'm plain as a peanut, people complimented me on my hair. Made me feel good.

I think the real obstacle to the Laura look is peer pressure and the overwhelming casualness of our culture these days. To fit in and not make others uncomfortable, you almost have to dress down, even in--or maybe especially in--the workplace.

Yes, I love this movie.