I don't know if I'd go as far as to say film noir is my favorite genre, but it's certainly close. And Laura might be the very best of them. I will confess I haven't seen quite of the few well-regarded classics so you could take my opinion with a grain of salt - more so than usual. But still, Laura is a fantastic film.
Laura is a true mystery - I genuinely didn't know who had done it until it was revealed. Even when the mystery was revealed, I suspected there was a chance McPherson was getting fooled. The movie accomplishes this by presenting a few legitimate suspects - so many that I think it doesn't matter who was actually guilty in the end.
You'll note I'm not spoiling who did it. I suspect not everyone who happens upon this blog will have seen this movie and while the mystery is far from the only reason this film is a classic, it's still a damn good mystery. Ultimately, I think they made the right decision for the killer: in hindsight, he probably makes more sense than the others.
As Roger Ebert notes in his Great Movies review, neither Gene Tierney nor Dana Andrews steals the show. It's Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker, who also happens to get the best lines. He's not a good person, but he's so clever with his insults that it's almost impossible not to enjoy watching him. Gene Tierney accomplishes the difficult task of being sort of a vaguely defined character and yet you can completely buy that she captures the infatuations of all these men. I don't know how 1940 film noir films do this, but it seems to be the one genre that manages to make me understand guys all falling for the same girl. Maybe it is the 1940s female stars, who certainly weren't better actresses than ones nowadays but somehow had... something else.
Anyway, I loved it and it's a must for any fan of film noir.
4/4 stars
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