wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler) (07/11/84)
Now, from your description of the movie Laura, and from what I remember of the movie, I have to assume that you might have fallen asleep a little earlier than you suspect. The movie came out in 1953 and featured Gene Tierney as Laura. She was a young, naive, girl from the midwest who is taken in and befriended by (the nasty) Clifton Webb. Webb introduces her to the artistic community and falls in love with her. Webb, BTW, is a famous radio columnist and knows everyone in town. In their travels around the social circuit, Laura falls in love with, I think, a social butterfly played by George Saunders. Enter Jelousy. Webb plans to kill Laura so George can't have her. There is a murder. The girl's face is blasted with a shotgun. Enter the detective, played by (damnit, I can see his face but can't remember his name). The detective, upon seeing a portrait of Laura in her apartment falls in love with the girl. Next comes several scenes of detective sitting in front of portrait and dreaming. Detective finds murder weapon hidden in grandfather clock next to door. THEN, Laura shows up at door and detective nearly has heart failure. Plot thickens. Who was murdered. Who dunit? Detective finds out Webb pre-wires his broadcasts (before tape they used wire). Detective confronts Webb. Big fight. Detective gets his man. A friend of Laura's was using her apartment to meet a boyfriend (George Saunders). She is wearing Laura's nightie. Webb only sees a lookalike and blasts away. Oh, yeah. Webb commits the murder while he is supposed to be at the studio and on the air (that's the reason for the wire recording). This was probably the first time this idea was used in a plot. Finally, detective gets girl, I think. That's esentially how it went. Laura's theme came from this movie. I was at a variety show in California when the theme was played for the first time. The movie came out a short time later. The theme was played on a harmonica (with backup, etc.), but the name of the guy who played the popular version escapes me. I just saw the movie for the umpteenth time a few weeks ago. It was a biggie in its time. T. C. Wheeler
alle@ihuxb.UUCP (Allen England) (07/12/84)
+ I thought Bogart played the detective and Vincent Price was the socialite boyfriend. --> Allen <-- ihnp4!ihuxb!alle
nosmo@pyuxqq.UUCP (P Valdata) (07/13/84)
Wasn't the detective played by Alan Ladd?
msc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (07/15/84)
Enough of this speculation about Laura. Here's the scoop from
Halliwell's Film Guide.
Laura **** (Halliwell's highest rating)
US 1944 85m bw
TCF (Otto Preminger)
A beautiful girl is murdered...or is she? A cynical detective investigates.
A quiet, streamlined little murder mystery that brought a new adult approach
to the genre and heralded the mature @i(film noire) of the later forties.
A small cast responds perfectly to a classically spare script, and in
Clifton Webb a new star is born.
w @i(Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Betty Reinhardt)
novel Vera Caspary, d @i(Otto Preminger),
ph @i(Joseph La Shelle), m @i(David Raskin)
@i(Dana Andrews), @i(Clifton Webb), Gene Tierney, Judith Anderson,
@i(Vincent Price), Dorothy Adams, James Flavin.
"Everybody's favourite chic murder mystery" -- New Yorker 1977
*Rouben Mamoulian directed some scenes before handing over to
Preminger.
AA: Joseph La Shelle
AAN: script; Otto Preminger; Clifton Webb.
===============================================================
@i means in italics. Halliwell uses italics in the credits
to denote "contributions of a particularly high standard".
--
From the TARDIS of Mark Callow
msc@qubix.UUCP, decwrl!qubix!msc@Berkeley.ARPA
...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{ittvax,amd70}!qubix!msc
"Nothing shocks me. I'm an Engineer."hofbauer@utcsrgv.UUCP (John Hofbauer) (07/16/84)
LAURA was made in 1944 and, in fact, marked Otto Preminger's debut as a film director. If memory serves me right he took over part way through the making of the film when the original director ran afoul of the studio executives. Most of that footage was scrapped and Otto virtually started over. The theme from Laura, which became a very popular piece of music in its day, has absolutely nothing to do with Lara's theme from Dr. Zhivago other than the latter also became a very popular piece of music in its day.
janney@unm-cvax.UUCP (07/18/84)
When David Raksin was here at UNM a few years ago, he claimed that the
royalties from composing the score for Laura were helping to put his
kids through college.
Jim Janney
{{convex,ucbvax,gatech}!unmvax, {purdue,lbl-csam,cmcl2}!lanl-a}!unm-cvax!janneyjenny@ucbvax.UUCP (Kathryn Hargreaves) (07/18/84)
I in no way intended to imply that "Lara's Theme" (from the soundtrack of Dr. Zhivago) = the soundtrack of Laura. They are distinct entities. The original query was about a 'touted Laura's theme.'