Cinema
Laura
Otto Preminger · 1944
Synopsis
New York. Laura Hunt, a young woman who has made a success of advertising, has been killed by a shotgun blast to the face, just behind the door of her apartment. Detective Mark McPherson questions those around her: Waldo Lydecker, an older society columnist who launched her career and kept her suitors at bay, Shelby Carpenter, her penniless fiancé, protected by Laura's wealthy aunt, and Bessie, the maid. McPherson reads the dead woman's letters and diary, and ends up falling asleep in his armchair, beneath her portrait.
Context
The direction was at first entrusted to Rouben Mamoulian, Preminger being only the producer; the two men clashed, Mamoulian was dismissed after eighteen days, and Preminger took over the shoot with another cinematographer, new sets and new costumes, even though Mamoulian claimed a part of the scenes. The portrait of the heroine, painted by Mamoulian's wife, was replaced by an enlarged photograph covered with oil paint. The head of the studio imposed a different ending, in which everything turned out to be imagined by one character; Walter Winchell judged it bad at a screening, and the original was restored.
Who it is for
A film noir of one hour twenty-eight minutes, whose mid-film reversal changes the nature of the story.
Prizes and reception
Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1945 and four other nominations; its theme music, set to lyrics the following year, became a standard.
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