Laura Film Analysis

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Recommended: Depiction of women in movies

Devin Luquette
History of Cinema I
Angela Catalano
13 November 2017
Laura Review In 1944 21st Century Fox released Laura, a film by director Otto Preminger. The American film noir is about a murder mystery of Laura Hunt, played by Gene Tierney, who had apparently been killed by a shotgun blast. Before her death, she had a successful career as an executive on Madison Ave and a healthy social life. Her success came about from her mentor, Waldo Lydecker, played by Clifton Webb, who is an obsessive narcissist. Laura thinks she finds love with another man, Shelby Carpenter, played by Vincent Price, and they arrange a marriage. Once she goes missing detective Mark McPherson, played by Dana Andrews, begins to investigate the murder. She arrives later …show more content…

One element of the film that truly shows its time is the accent the actors have. They all seem to both annunciate their words very clearly and speak their lines quiet quickly, which was very common during early cinema. The socially digressive overtones of the film also draw attention to the age of the film. Not only is the phrase “dame or doll”, the demeaning idea that women fit into the category of being an innocent and virtuous “doll” or a devious and deceptive “dame”, consistently used throughout the film, but the antagonist, Lydecker, is repulsively sexist. For example, Lydecker’s initial reaction to Laura is incredibly disrespectful. He makes assumptions about her character due to her gender and belittles her. Not only until she’s finally given the chance to speak does Lydecker feel she’s proved her intelligence well enough to engage his interest. He finds her charismatic and exceptional for her sex, considering her a prize. He goes on to describe his relationship with Laura to the detective in a very proprietary way, taking credit for all of Laura’s supposed improvements after their relationship begins. His behavior is obsessive and predatory; he stalks her and invasively monitors her other relationships. His keen interest in helping solve Laura’s murder seems more meddlesome than helpful. Lydecker is all around a terrible

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