Laura

Yeah, dames are always pulling a switch on you.

Otto Preminger's wonderfully crafted mystery has become something of a big favourite of many people over the years, and rightly so. But just what is it that makes the film so watchable after all these years?

Sure the cast is solid, but I personally wouldn't say spectacular. Gene Tierney simmers and holds it together whilst Clifton Webb, Dana Andrews & Vincent Price are perfectly admirable in their roles as guys in drippy infatuation with Tierney's vibrant title character.

Perhaps the success of the piece is with the screenplay? Adapted by at least "five" known writers from the novel by Vera Caspary, it is in truth delightfully bonkers! You have shades of necrophilia, potential gay s...

We know right from the outset that the eponymous character (Gene Tierney) has been killed and that investigating police officer "McPherson" (Dana Andrews) is going to have quite a task finding out just what happened. The ensuing story tries to knit together the separate threads of evidence provided by her rather odious sponge of a fiancé (Vincent Price), her maid "Bessie" (Dorothy Adams), her wealthy and rather disapproving aunt (Judith Anderson) and finally from her somewhat supercilious mentor "Waldo" (Clifton Webb) who has a penchant for writing his acerbic newspaper columns from the comfort of his hot bath. It's this latter character that provides us with a bit of extra information, via a narration, to illustrate a story of an ambitious...