Well, certainly not forgotten. But I hadn't seen it in 30 years and I was again swept away what must surely be one of the greatest films of the genre. Beautifully cast with Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, and Judith Anderson, Preminger brought a magic touch to it. Such good dialogue and so little fat in it. Great theme song by Raksin with help from Ravel. It couldn't be better.
A little info about the painting here.
And this from THE ART OF THE FILM-LAURA.
Amy Luna ManderinoJanuary 24, 2016 at 11:19 AM
This
portrait is truly stunning. But there's more to the story of it. The
movie is based on the book by Vera Caspary, published in 1942. The
description of the portrait in the book is significantly different than
this portrait. Notably, the description reads, in part, "Jacoby had
caught the fluid sense of restlessness in her body, perched on the arm
of a chair, a pair of yellow gloves in one hand, a green hunter's hat in
the other." The difference is significant because the book version of
the story paints (if you'll pardon the pun) quite a different picture of
the three main characters: Lydecker, McPherson and Laura. In the film,
Laura is all feminine elegance (as she is portrayed in the portrait)
and McPherson is all masculine bravado. But the book (written by a
woman, mind you) emphasized that Laura was a "modern woman" which was
code at that time for a woman who lived with the freedoms of a man. And
while the movie alludes to McPherson's leg injury, the book tells us
that he spent a year in the hospital recuperating and that during that
time, he read many books and became more cultured and sensitive, as a
result. This book is about two people stepping out of their assigned
gender roles and being intrigued by each other as a like-minded, fully
evolved human. Part of McPherson's fascination with the portrait (one
might assume from context) is that it was NOT traditionally feminine or
elegant. Laura has gloves and a hunter's hat, meaning she is ready for
sport, not an evening on the town. She is active, athletic. And it is
significant that she (and the artist) chose to portray her in this way
and NOT in elegant evening wear. So, beautiful as this portrait may be,
it is an example of Hollywood watering down an interesting, complex and
progressive story into tired old gender cliches. Read the book. It's
way more inter
