Laura (1944)
Average Rating: 8.7/10
Reviews Counted: 58
Fresh: 58 | Rotten: 0
A psychologically complex portrait of obsession, Laura is also a deliciously well-crafted murder mystery.
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.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.1/5
User Ratings: 9,016
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
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Gene Tierney
Laura Hunt -
Dana Andrews
Mark McPherson -
Clifton Webb
Waldo Lydecker -
Vincent Price
Shelby Carpenter -
Judith Anderson
Ann Treadwell -
Dorothy Adams
Bessie Clary -
James Flavin
McAvity -
Clyde Fillmore
Bullitt -
Ralph Dunn
Fred Callahan -
Grant Mitchell
Corey -
Kathleen Howard
Louise -
Dutch Schlickenmeyer
Detective -
Harry Strang
Detective -
Lane Chandler
Detective -
Terry Adams
Man -
Dorothy Christy
Woman -
Jean Fenwick
Woman -
Lee Tung Foo
Servant -
William Forrest
Man -
Frances Gladwin
Woman -
Beatrice Gray
Woman -
Cy Kendall
Inspector -
Frank LaRue
Hairdresser -
-
Kay Linaker
Girl -
Forbes Murray
Man -
Jane Nigh
Secretary -
Aileen Pringle
Woman -
Cyril Ring
Man -
Cara Williams
Girl -
John Dexter
Jacoby -
Buster Miles
Office Boy -
-
ADVERTISEMENT
Laura Trailer & Photos
All Critics (59) | Top Critics (10) | Fresh (58) | Rotten (0) | DVD (22)
Few movies make you feel dirtier, and so perversely grateful for the pleasure.
A highly polished and debonair whodunit.
Top CriticLess 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.
A hypnotic and deathlessly interpretable experience.
Gene Tierney makes an appealing figure as the art executive and Vincent Price is convincing as a weak-willed ne'er-do-well.
The plot is deliberately perfunctory, the people deliciously perverse, and the mise-en-scène radical.
Top CriticA feverish trance wrapped in a deadpan investigation
Preminger deals in facades, with how perception cheats us, right down to the ideal image of Laura as a portrait. (Cinémathèque Annotations on Film)
Masterpiece: with time, Preminger's second film has become richer in texture and deeper, more ambiguous in meaning than most noirs of the 1940s.
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.
Will leave you drunk with delight.
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.
Laura is still every bit as gripping in 2012.
A thrilling, absorbing and original example of the genre; it's also beautifully shot, pure escapist entertainment.
Not only one of Preminger's greatest, but one of the great noirs.
OK, the plot verges on absurdity - but who cares?
This interesting film noir has more working for its final half than in its first.
Expertly paced, gripping, and dripping with sensuality, Otto Preminger's Laura has hardly aged a day.
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.
Great suspense.
It is the sleekest of murder mysteries, and ahead of its time -- not least in having a gay suitor for Laura, and possibly two.
Audience Reviews for Laura
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
-
- Waldo Lydecker: Goodbye, Laura. Goodbye... my Love.
-
- Ann Treadwell: Shelby's better for me.
- Laura Hunt: Why?
- Ann Treadwell: Cause I can afford him, and understand him. He's no good but he's what I want. I'm not a nice person Laura, and neither is he. He knows I know he's - just what he is. He also knows that I don't care. We belong together because we're both weak and can't seem to help it. That's why I know he's capable of murder; he's like me.
-
- Shelby Carpenter: I've spent very little time in observing my own character, Mr. McPherson.
-
- Shelby Carpenter: But Lieutenant I don't understand. You sent for me didn't you?
- Mark McPherson: Yeah.
- Shelby Carpenter: Well don't you want to see me? Don't you want to ask me some questions?
- Mark McPherson: I'll be seeing you.
-
- Shelby Carpenter: I knew there was something on my mind. What is it? Oh yes, will you dine with me tomorrow night?
- Laura Hunt: Maybe.
- Shelby Carpenter: No, that isn't what's worrying me. It's the next night.
- Laura Hunt: But Shelby, I can't....
- Shelby Carpenter: Good. And what about three weeks from tonight? And all the nights in between?
- Laura Hunt: Don't you think I have any other engagements?
- Shelby Carpenter: What about two months from now and the month after that?
- Laura Hunt: What about next year?
- Shelby Carpenter: That's all settled. What about breakfast?
-
- Waldo Lydecker: You seem to be completely disregarding something more important than your career: my lunch.
- Laura Hunt: Do you really believe that?
- Waldo Lydecker: Implicitly.
- Laura Hunt: I never heard of anything so selfish.
- Waldo Lydecker: In my case, self absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention.
- Laura Hunt: But, you write about people with such - real understanding and sentiment. That's what makes your columns so good.
- Waldo Lydecker: The sentiment comes easy at fifty cents a word.
- Laura Hunt: If that's the way you really feel - you must be very lonely.
- Waldo Lydecker: Will you kindly continue this character analysis elsewhere? You begin to bore me.
Discussion Forum
What's Hot On RT
New Desolation of Smaug trailer!
Naomi Watts is Princess Di
Gravity sets new record
Trailer for a squirrely heist flick
See what's on TV tonight
Fresh Links
Featured
Halloween Movies For Wimps
Scary movies too scary for you? Here are some alternatives for October 31st.
10 Best Superhero TV Shows
HitFix combs through TV history to compile a superpowered list.
Ridiculous Movie Mistakes
RollingStone proves even the best movies miss a details here and there.
Deadly Movie Kids
Moviefone lists 11 Movie Kids Who Could Kick Our Asses.
50 States, 50 Movies
For July 4th, TimeOut has compiled 50 state-specific movie choices.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Featured on RT
- NYFF: Joaquin Phoenix and James Gray talk The Immigrant 0
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Gravity Stuns with Record $55M Launch 27
- Primetime Preview: Witches of East End, Once Upon a Time and More 2
- Weekly Ketchup: Disney Plans Live Action Cruella de Vil Movie 35
- Primetime Preview: Last Man Standing, The Neighbors and More 5
- Critics Consensus: Gravity is Certified Fresh 68
- Parental Guidance: Gravity and Parkland 2
Top Headlines
Foreign Titles
- Laura (1944) (DE)
- Laura (UK)
A classic noir story shot in the brilliant shadows of forties noir cinematography with all the snappy dialogue that we come to expect of the genre, Laura is fun to watch. The actors' rapid fire delivery presents quick wits, and I always like how fast these films move. The story is as circuitous as The Third Man, but Laura is clearly not as strong because the relationship between McPherson and Laura is not as well developed as The Third Man and a greater mystique is built around Orson Welles's character; regardless, to be mentioned in the same breath as The Third Man is an achievement.
Overall, if you like noir films, then this one delivers.