February Recommendation: Laura

 

                                       

                                       Remember the old expression, Love makes you do crazy things? Well in my latest monthly recommendation, it is exactly shows what it means to fall for someone who does not except it. Laura was another one of those great film noirs’ that I just found by accident but in a good way possible, it was literally after watching The Third Man that I started to get obsessed with film noir and Laura was on the list of film noirs to watch. So, I thought why not checking this out and at first I had this movie pegged for a moment that this was going to be one of those movies that the protagonist was going to be obsessed with the victim moreover was going to go crazy, but then the twist and turns came around and I was like "holly crap this is amazing" Staring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews who sincerely make this movie work and Vincent Price before long before he became the master of B-movie horror. This year I had to spice things up, mainly because I just need a breath of fresh air and honestly this was a great decision, I have made in the month of Valentine’s Day also, no romantic comedy can top The Cutting Edge.

                                       Manhattan detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates the murder of Madison Avenue executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) in her fashionable apartment. On the trail of her murderer, McPherson quizzes Laura's arrogant best friend, gossip columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) and her comparatively mild fiancée, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). Through the course of the case things start to turn interesting when nothing you would expect becomes real.

                                        The thing that makes this film one of the greatest films of all time is, the fact that it immerses you the moment you turn the film on, you begin to understand that the character of Laura has died/murdered and Andrews character is assigned to investigate on who killed this beautiful woman, then you meet these great actors that bring these suspects to life, you first meet Clifton Webb's character who when you first see him is this up tight narcissistic gossip columnist that nobody likes but yet you see that he's doesn't look like a killer or someone you'd never pegged to have wanted to kill someone but gives you an inside of how he met Laura and the same goes to both Vincent Price and Judith Anderson who despise Webb's character but yet you get the feeling that they would be capable of murder. And really that's what makes this film great is that the film takes its time with point A and B moreover gives you a layout on what the mystery is and who could possibly be the number one suspect, but then again at first when watching the movie I thought that McPherson was going to lose his mind over a dead woman, but then it introduces a twist that makes you believe that oh there's something more to the case and nothing of what you first heard or thought of isn't what it seems, furthermore I don't want to spoil everything because I want you all to watch this great movie. The book itself is really a first-person narrative and it is really written by each of the character's point of view and what I like about the film is that you follow it like a normal film noir where you go through the protagonist journey till the very end. Otto Preminger who I've known in terms of movie roles and television though I'd sometimes forget that it was him, he was in the infamous Stalag 17 where he plays the Nazi warden of the POW camp then in the mid-sixties played Mr. Freeze in the Batman TV series, but he really started off in Hollywood as a movie director/producer and Laura he was originally producing the movie but he had his own version of the movie where he actually clashed with the original director till he was like "you know what you think, you can do better? Go ahead, be my guest", and long behold he made one of the great romance/mysteries of all time. Both Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews makes this film great and bring a lot of talent to the table, this was my first time experiencing Gene Tierney as an actress and she does a fantastic job playing this young up and coming executive in which blooms into a drop dead gorgeous woman who every man wants to be with for Dana Andrews, if I had to make a list of the top two actors that can play the tough guy detectives it would most certainly be Humphrey Bogart and Dana Andrews. Andrews really does a great job playing a detective that knows when a lie is being said and has the presence that has the sort of fear that once you cross him, you would get what you deserve, I mean hell he sucker-punches Price in the stomach and I thought that was the most awesome/bad a** moment in the whole film. Speaking of Vincent Price, once I saw his name in the opening titles I was like "OH SNAP" because this was a much younger Vincent Price before he becomes this iconic b-movie horror legend but in a way, he does a great job playing the good-looking guy that is obviously wanting Laura for himself, but you see is only about himself. A side from Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews who both do exceptional work in the movie but Clifton Webb who plays the middle age columnist seems like a sort of alley in this murder mystery because he tells the story of how he meet Laura to Andrews character in the first act of the movie but through the course of the second and third act you slowly see that he's not what you think he is, moreover the interesting fact was that Webb was a stage actor for most of his life and Otto was really persistent in wanting to cast Webb as the hated gossip columnist so, in his mid-fifties he got his big role and delivers on it. I am not going to lie, it is hard finding a great romantic comedy or to be truthful I fear I am running out of some of my personal favorite rom-coms and so, sitting down and watching Laura I got to admit it felt like a breath of fresh air especially when you are trying to mix things up on Valentine's Day. So, I highly recommend watching Laura, it is one of the greatest murder/mystery movies I have ever seen moreover one of the greatest movies ever made.