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Laura Play Trailer

Laura (1944)

tomatometer

100

Average Rating: 8.7/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 57 | Rotten: 0

A psychologically complex portrait of obsession, Laura is also a deliciously well-crafted murder mystery.

100

Average Rating: 8.2/10
Critic Reviews: 9
Fresh: 9 | Rotten: 0

A psychologically complex portrait of obsession, Laura is also a deliciously well-crafted murder mystery.

audience

90

liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 8,918

My Rating

Movie Info

This adaptation of Vera Caspary's suspense novel was begun by director Rouben Mamoulien and cinematographer Lucien Ballard, but thanks to a complex series of backstage intrigues and hostilities, the film was ultimately credited to director Otto Preminger and cameraman Joseph LaShelle (who won an Oscar for his efforts). At the outset of the film, it is established that the title character, Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney), has been murdered. Tough New York detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews)

Mar 15, 2005

20th Century Fox

Cast

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All Critics (58) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (64) | Rotten (0) | DVD (22)

Few movies make you feel dirtier, and so perversely grateful for the pleasure.

December 20, 2011 Full Review Source: Time Out New York
Time Out New York
Top Critic IconTop Critic

A highly polished and debonair whodunit.

April 20, 2009 Full Review Source: TIME Magazine
TIME Magazine
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Less a crime film than a study in levels of obsession, Laura is one of those classic works that leave their subject matter behind and live on the strength of their seductive style.

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Chicago Reader
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A hypnotic and deathlessly interpretable experience.

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Village Voice
Village Voice
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Gene Tierney makes an appealing figure as the art executive and Vincent Price is convincing as a weak-willed ne'er-do-well.

October 23, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

The plot is deliberately perfunctory, the people deliciously perverse, and the mise-en-scène radical.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Preminger deals in facades, with how perception cheats us, right down to the ideal image of Laura as a portrait. (Cinémathèque Annotations on Film)

March 21, 2013 Full Review Source: Senses of Cinema
Senses of Cinema

This is an exquisite transfer of one of cinema's most beloved noirs, with a modest offering of special features that focus on the film's culturally significant history.

February 18, 2013 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Slant Magazine

Masterpiece: with time, Preminger's second film has become richer in texture and deeper, more ambiguous in meaning than most noirs of the 1940s.

April 25, 2012 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
EmanuelLevy.Com

Preminger made darker, more characteristically noir films than this, but his only movie that's as good, or perhaps better, is Anatomy of a Murder.

February 25, 2012 Full Review Source: Observer [UK]
Observer [UK]

Will leave you drunk with delight.

February 24, 2012 Full Review Source: This is London
This is London

The dialogue is stinging and the performances to be savoured in a haunting study of romantic obsession that deserves its return to the big screen.

February 23, 2012 Full Review Source: Daily Express
Daily Express

Laura is still every bit as gripping in 2012.

February 23, 2012 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]
Guardian [UK]

A thrilling, absorbing and original example of the genre; it's also beautifully shot, pure escapist entertainment.

February 23, 2012 Full Review Source: Electric Sheep
Electric Sheep

Not only one of Preminger's greatest, but one of the great noirs.

February 23, 2012 Full Review Source: Little White Lies
Little White Lies

OK, the plot verges on absurdity - but who cares?

February 13, 2012 Full Review Source: Total Film
Total Film

This interesting film noir has more working for its final half than in its first.

August 16, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinema Sight
Cinema Sight

Expertly paced, gripping, and dripping with sensuality, Otto Preminger's Laura has hardly aged a day.

February 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Film and Felt
Film and Felt

O roteiro é, na melhor das hipóteses, medíocre, mas a direção sombria de Preminger, a música-tema e as atuações de Webb e Price transformam este filme em um marco importante do nascente noir.

February 29, 2008
Cinema em Cena

Great suspense.

December 1, 2007
ColeSmithey.com

Audience Reviews for Laura

Really, there's one word in the film-making vocabulary that explains this movie: pacing. Among the founding texts of the noir genre with crackling dialogue and a winding plot, the story's complemented by the steady Dana Andrews and the enchanting Gene Tierney in the title role. You'll be guessing until the end, and it's a roller-coaster the whole way. A can't-miss classic!
December 9, 2007
danperry17

Super Reviewer

Otto Preminger's zippy little noir is a really engaging film. It probably features the best examples of the film noir sensibility, yes, even more so than "The Maltese Falcon" or "Double Indemnity." The entire narrative is so alive and so 'new' that the film feels like it could be released today. The acting is first rate and the directing and writing is stylish and sparkling. This is a very interesting film about the politics and hate between men and women. If you are any real fan of 1940s cinema, "Laura" is an absolute must.
June 13, 2011
stevenecarrier
Steven Carrier

Super Reviewer

    1. Waldo Lydecker: Young woman, either you have been raised in some incredible rustic community where good manners are unknown, or you suffer from the common feminine delusion that the mere fact of being a woman exempts you from the rules of civilized conduct.
    – Submitted by Natascha N (8 months ago)
    1. Mark McPherson: A dame from Washington Heights got a fox fur out of me once...
    – Submitted by Jim E (9 months ago)
    1. Waldo Lydecker: Haven't you heard of science's newest triumph, the doorbell?
    – Submitted by Ramesh K (18 months ago)
    1. Waldo Lydecker: "I'm not kind. I'm vicious. It's the secret of my charm."
    – Submitted by Kate S (2 years ago)
    1. Waldo Lydecker: In my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject so worthy of my attention.
    – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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Foreign Titles

  • Laura (1944) (DE)
  • Laura (UK)
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