Laura (1944) on Netflix
Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura Hunt, an advertising executive shot at her apartment door. He questions columnist Waldo Lydecker and her fiancé Shelby Carpenter.
- Netflix4.5/5
- IMDb7.9/1056,727 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Laura Hunt, a successful advertising executive, is found shot to death in the doorway of her apartment. Detective Mark McPherson questions Waldo Lydecker, the newspaper columnist who met Laura, became her mentor and steady companion, and whose fame and connections helped her career. He questions Shelby Carpenter, Laura's fiancé, a kept man attached to her wealthy aunt, Ann Treadwell, who loves Shelby and tolerates his affection for Laura. Bessie Clary, Laura's housekeeper, is distraught. Through the testimony of Laura's friends and her letters and diary, McPherson assembles a portrait of the dead woman.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Laura (1944)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Otto Preminger and Rouben Mamoulian blamed each other for problems on the set of Laura; Preminger convinced Darryl F. Zanuck that the material needed a subtler approach, and Zanuck reluctantly allowed Preminger to dismiss Mamoulian and direct the film himself.
- Preminger favored Clifton Webb, who had not appeared before the cameras since 1930, for the key role of Waldo Lydecker, but Fox casting director Rufus LeMaire and Darryl F. Zanuck objected to Webb's effeminate mannerisms, the very quality Preminger wanted. Preminger filmed Webb performing a monologue from Noël Coward's Blithe Spirit, and Zanuck agreed he was perfect.
SPOILER
Darryl F. Zanuck disliked Otto Preminger's first cut of Laura and imposed a new ending revealing that Lydecker had imagined the whole story, but after a screening, columnist Walter Winchell told him he didn't get it, so Zanuck gave in and let Preminger restore his original finale.- David Raksin wrote the "Laura" theme over a weekend, inspired by a "Dear John" letter from his wife; with Johnny Mercer's later lyrics, the tune became a jazz standard recorded by more than 400 artists, including Nat King Cole, Charlie Parker and Frank Sinatra.
- David Lynch's mystery series Twin Peaks borrows plot elements and character names from Laura, including Laura Palmer, a murder victim being investigated by a detective who reads her diary.
- Marlene Dietrich expressed interest in playing Laura while the story was still a play, but without her or another major star attached, author Vera Caspary could not find a producer and abandoned the project.
- Preminger replaced the portrait of Laura that Rouben Mamoulian's wife had painted with an enlarged photograph of Gene Tierney, taken by Fox photographer Frank Polony and lightly dabbed with oils to give it an ethereal effect.
