Laura (1944): A Dark Tale of Love

Laura (1944) is the story of an ambitious young woman pulled into the middle of a murder investigation by both amorous suitors and jealous women. Laura Hunt, portrayed by Gene Tierney, is an advertising executive about to marry a shiftless seducer, Shelby Carpenter, portrayed by Vincent Price. To complicate matters, her aunt Anne Treadwell is in love with the seducer and a famous newspaper journalist, Waldo Lydecker played by Clifton Webb, is in love with her.

Besides her aunt, Shelby has a model, Diane Redfern, competing for his attention as well. Somewhere in this hodgepodge of characters and motivations, someone decides to kill Laura but mistakenly murders Diane Redfern. A heroic detective, Mark McPherson, played by Dana Andrews, must solve the murder before the killer strikes again. The resultant film (affliate link)   is a true film noir classic.

Director Otto Preminger uses connotation to build aid in character development. In the scene where we learn that Diane Redfern was the murder victim, Laura, who is in self-denial about Shelby’s romantic adventures, tells Mark McPherson that Diane meant nothing to Shelby. Mark tells her that a negligee and slippers are not the attire that a casual dinner date would be wearing as the housekeeper found Diane dead in one of Laura’s lingerie garments. Diane was borrowing Laura’s clothing, while she was at her apartment. Connotatively, her style of dress showed a sexual relationship with Shelby.  More painful to Laura must be the fact that it occurred in her own apartment. The viewer discovers Shelby’s immoral, unsavory character.

Similarly, Director Preminger uses the clock to aid in Waldo Lydecker’s character development. In the beginning of the film, Waldo Lydecker narrates the story about his antiques as Mark McPherson looks at them. Mark is studying antiques because Waldo has kept him waiting, while Waldo types out a story. Waldo is speaking of an ornate standing alone clock and states there only two like it. One is in his apartment and the other one is in Laura’s. In the climax of the film, we see Mark find the sawed-off shotgun that killed Diane Redfurn secreted in the clock. Such a deadly weapon of destruction hidden in such a beautiful clock is much like Waldo’s own personality. Hidden beneath his immaculate grooming, urbane manners and refined taste was a vicious, small-minded, envious killer. An ugly foundation masked a fine structure.

Mark and Laura could be prototypes for Hollywood heroes and heroines. Mark is a brave detective, who has a silver shin bone from injuries suffered while taking in a machine gun killer. Physically, he is lean and athletic, who can defend himself despite the silver shinbone. Mark proves this by disabling Shelby with one punch to the stomach during an altercation. Mentally, he stays calm when situations become very intense.  He loves Laura, yet he questions her like any other suspect until he is sure she is innocent. Spiritually, he values truth and fair dealings. He is disgusted by Shelby’s affairs with other women, while he is engaged to Laura and asks her how she could have ever gotten involved with a person like Shelby.

Laura fits the prototypical Hollywood hero. Laura suffers adversity before becoming the romantic interest of the hero of the film. An illustration of this concept would be her involvement with Jacoby, Waldo, and Shelby before she decides Mark is a much better choice than the wealthier men.

Physically, Laura is a beautiful young woman. Waldo endorsed the pen because he desired Laura romantically. Mentally, Laura does not panic too often but still leans on Mark. When Waldo has the shotgun pointed at her, Laura pushes it in the air to keep Waldo from shooting her. However, Laura runs out of the room into Mark’s arm for protection. Although she takes advantage of Waldo’s connections and puts up with his stalking for a long time, Laura finally tells Waldo it must end, and he must leave.

 Director Preminger uses a tracking shot to highlight the apprehension felt by the murder suspects when they are attending a party at Laura’s apartment. Mark gets a call from “someone at headquarters” and tells the person on the other line he will soon be bringing the murderer in for questioning. The camera pans from Anne Treadwell to Shelby to Laura and finally to Waldo as they all have a look of horror on their faces. Director Preminger uses this tracking shot to build suspense over who Mark will take for questioning.

When Mark walks towards each individual suspect, the camera again tracks all his movements until the camera stops on Laura. The camera movement again builds suspense in the viewer by use of the tracking shot. When the camera stops, you expect Mark to arrest Waldo, but it is Laura. The camera movement leaves you wondering what will happen next.

Director Preminger uses camera angles to display the character’s power in scenes between Laura and the two male characters, Mark and Waldo.  In scenes with Mark, Laura has a more traditional lower position in the scenes. In scenes with Waldo, Laura is in a higher position within the scene.

In most scenes with Mark, the camera films them from a high angle to emphasize Mark’s height in comparison with Laura’s more diminutive stature. In the first scene where they meet, Mark and Laura are standing under her portrait and Mark dominates the scene due to his height advantage.  In Laura’s scenes with her soon-to-be ex-fiancé Shelby, she is normally standing, while he is sitting. Shelby is unable to dominate these scenes because of his seated position, which clues the viewer to Shelby’s lack of dominance in the relationship.

In scenes with Waldo, Laura is again standing in most of the scenes, while Waldo is sitting. Preminger films the scenes from a low angle, which emphasizes Waldo’s lack of power within the relationship. While Laura is young and vibrant, Waldo is old and bitter. Waldo is such a pathetic figure that he must use his newspaper column to attack Laura’s suitors. The camera emphasizes Waldo’s lesser qualities.

Editing in Laura is used to move the story along, but it does not supply greater meaning.  Film noir classics place a higher emphasis on character development. Two examples of conventional editing are the scenes involving Shelby’s trip to the cabin and Mark questioning Laura.

In the first scene, Laura has called Shelby and asked him to meet her. They have a discussion in his vehicle. The film cuts to Shelby entering a cabin, which Mark enters behind him. The editing allows us to move from the conversation between Shelby and Laura to the cabin without following along for minutes in a vehicle.

In the second scene, Mark has just taken Laura into custody for murder. The scene cuts to an interrogation room, where Mark is questioning Laura. Again, the edit moves us forward in the film without having to ride in the police car or proceed through the station.

Regarding the sign, Director Preminger uses the same haunting refrain throughout the film to build a sense of foreboding.  The music is playing on Laura’s phonograph when Mark does a search for her apartment and this melody is played throughout the scene to build up emotions in seminal moments in the film.

Preminger uses voice-overs in scenes, where the character is recalling some incidents with Laura. Waldo’s radio broadcast is playing in the background in his climactic scene where he tries to murder Laura. The radio broadcast helps to build meaning within the scene because we discover Waldo’s motive for murder.

Laura (affiliate link) stands with four or five other films as true film noir classics. Dark scenery, dark secrets, femme fatales, and very few reputable characters characterized film noir, which was an outgrowth of the cynicism of the post-World War II era.

Work Cited

Laura. Dir. Otto Preminger. With Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, and Clifton Webb. Twentieth-Century Fox, 1944.

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