About Books and Movies

FRIDAY FILM NOIR

For those of you who don't know me, I am a classic movie buff and love old movies.  Many of the old movie classics have been remade:  Sabrina, You've Got Mail, A Star Is Born, just to name a few.

Today I will recommend a movie classic starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb and Vincent Price,. The title of the film is LAURA and I would love to see a remake of this film, but I feel it would be difficult to find an actress to replace Gene Tierney.

In today's world LAURA  would be called a cozy mystery where a girl is murdered in Laura's apartment and mistakenly identified as Laura. Andrews plays the detective assigned to find her killer. While he investigates Laura's background he finds himself falling in love with a corpse. In my opinion, this is pure romance.

I won't spoil it for you. Watch it and see if you can guess who wanted Laura dead.

From an article by Andrea Passaflume:  Behind The Scenes:

According to Gene Tierney's husband, famed fashion designer Oleg Cassini, their personal tragedy of dealing with the severe problems of baby daughter Daria just prior to filming helped inform Tierney's performance as the mysterious Laura. "It is ironic that through much of the film she played a girl presumed dead who is actually alive," said Cassini in his 1987 autobiography, IN MY OWN FASHION, " in some ways, Gene was quite the opposite. After Daria's birth, she seemed to die inside. There was a ghostly quality, an evanescence, to both Laura and Gene. Even after Laura is found to be alive, she has a certain mystery, an aura, that permeates the film and gives it much of its magic. And Gene? after Daria, there was a distance I never seemed to be able to bridge."

There were also rumors that leading actor Dana Andrews fell madly in love with Gene Tierney during the making of this film. I  must agree there was definitely chemistry between them on screen.

Raksin's beautiful haunting music fit perfectly with the theme of the film and became one of its most famous and memorable elements.

LAURA earned five Academy Award nominations but cinematographer Joe LaShelle, received the film's only Oscar win.
 
LAURA has endured through the years as one of the most beloved film noir classics in cinema history. Hope you will take the time to watch it.

For interesting reading:

Gene Tierney wrote her memoir SELF-PORTRAIT  in 1979
In 1999 there's a book called VINCENT PRICE: A DAUGHTER'S BIOGRAPHY

If you have a favorite movie classic, please leave a comment.



Until next time,

Jeanette