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Hello, this is Jeanine Basinger,
chairman of the Film Studies Program...

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...at Wesleyan University
in Middletown, Connecticut.

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Here's the famous film
from 1944, Laura.

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With the first credit
showing the stars,

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Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews
and Clifton Webb.

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You're also experiencing two things
that made Laura famous.

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The beautiful portrait of Gene Tierney
that's in the frame...

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...and the luscious
and perfectly beautiful score...

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...written by David Raksin.

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This is David Raksin.
We're running the film Laura...

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...and I am supposed to
remember things about it...

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...which I doubt I can
be prevented from doing.

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I shall never forget
the weekend Laura died.

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That's one of the most famous
opening lines in any film.

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"I shall never forget
the weekend Laura died."

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Delivered by Clifton Webb, who was
nominated for best supporting actor...

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...and who was making
his screen debut in sound films.

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See that clock? You'll see it again.

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It plays an important role.

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Only one other clock in existence
in Laura's apartment.

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...and I had just begun
to write Laura's story when

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another of those detectives
came to see me.

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And here's the leading man,
Dana Andrews.

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Dana Andrews,
one of my favorite film persons.

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The opening of this film, this scene...

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...establishes the two main
male characters of the story.

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This detective here, Mark McPherson,
played by Dana Andrews...

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...who's exploring the beautiful
apartment of the other man...

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...and his name is Waldo Lydecker,
played by Clifton Webb.

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He's narrating.

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Always been very interesting to me
that the person who's narrating this...

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...is a person who is dead.

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And now the two men
confront each other.

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In this film, you can almost draw a line
right straight down the middle.

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One half belongs to Waldo,
and there he is.

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What an entrance,
in his bathtub, typing.

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And the other half belongs to this man,
Mark McPherson.

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In Waldo's half of the movie,
Laura is presumed to be dead.

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In Mark's half of the movie,
Laura is found to be alive.

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The two men
are both obsessed by her...

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...and it is a story of their obsession
with Laura and her beauty...

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...and their attempt to find out
who, in fact, murdered her...

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...that covers the plot.

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Now, there's a very funny look...

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...when Dana Andrews sees
Clifton Webb getting out of the tub.

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And Clifton Webb is not seen...

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...and Dana gives
a sort of a little grimace.

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From Sergeants McAvity and Schultz,
I should find it intolerable.

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Hand me that washcloth,
please, Mr.

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Mr.

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McPherson.

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These two men
are perfect opposites.

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Very well played
by two excellent actors.

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Clifton Webb, seen here,
was originally a truly brilliant...

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...and famous
Broadway singer/dancer...

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...a factor that most people who love
him in the movies don't even realize.

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Oddly, he never played
a musical performer in any movie.

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That's one of those ironies
that abound.

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In films, after this wonderful debut...

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...he almost always
played some variation...

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...of the Waldo Lydecker character.

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He always was witty, acerbic, a man
of great taste and sophistication...

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...even when he played a father,
as he did in Cheaper by the Dozen.

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Or even when he played a priest,
as he does in Satan Never Sleeps.

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He was a cranky father
and a very elegant priest.

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Laura typecast him.

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He did, however, become
a leading man for a series...

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...that grew out of his hit movie
Sitting Pretty in 1948...

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...playing Mr. Belvedere
in a series of two movies...

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...and this was later turned
into a hit television series.

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I do.

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Dana Andrews is one of the most
underrated leading men...

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...of the 1940s and 1950s.

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When people talk about this movie,
much is said...

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...about the haunting, brooding quality
of Laura and of her beauty.

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But take a good look at Dana Andrews.
Look at his eyes.

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They have a haunting quality too.
He's enigmatic.

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He's tense, he's offhand.

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There's something slightly mysterious
about him also.

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And Dana Andrews plays him well.

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He is, in fact, best remembered
for this movie...

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...but also for Ox-Bow Incident...

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...and the great role
he played as a veteran...

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...having problems
adjusting to civilian life...

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...in The Best Years of Our Lives.

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He has great assets
for a screen actor.

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He has a rich, beautiful voice,
he's distinctive-looking...

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...he's very masculine, handsome.

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He has an excellent ability to seem,
on the one hand...

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...like a very nice,
average, trustworthy guy.

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And on the other hand turn it around
and seem to be rather cruel...

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...rather arrogant and untrustworthy.

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These characteristics are perfect
for Mark McPherson...

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...because McPherson
is tightly controlled.

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Notice how he keeps himself
under control...

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...playing with this little game
that he has in his hand.

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He's undemonstrative.
If he feels tense or emotional...

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...he drags out this toy to play with
to control his reactions.

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We learn from Waldo that Mark
has been very brave as a policeman...

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...shot in the line of duty.

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Yet we're going to see Mark
fall in love with Laura...

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...with the dead woman...

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...and come under the spell

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of her atmosphere.

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Andrews is also sexy,
and his performances...

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...always contain an under-the-surface
sense of highly charged emotions.

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Here, the two lead characters
go to the apartment of Ann Treadwell.

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Notice, again,
the amazing art direction.

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The elegant clothes.

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All the clothes were designed
by Bonnie Cashin.

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And they're the height of fashion
for their day.

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This is, of course, Judith Anderson.
She was a great classical actress.

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She played a very, very famous
female role of a villainous lady...

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...who killed off people and all that.

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I can't remember the name of it,
and I should.

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Judith Anderson,
who's playing Ann Treadwell...

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...first came to real notice in movies...

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...playing the frightening
Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca...

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...which was directed
by Alfred Hitchcock.

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She was Oscar-nominated
for the role...

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...but actually lost out to Jane Darwell
in The Grapes of Wrath.

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Judith Anderson was a highly respected
actress in both theater and films...

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...ultimately becoming a dame
of the British Empire.

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She could play villains, as she did with
Mrs. Danvers and in Lady Scarface.

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She could play a sympathetic victim
wife, as in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof.

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And she was a master
at playing this type...

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...of brittle, sophisticated,
yet vulnerable woman.

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This is a great performance
she gives in Laura.

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Couple of checks went through
your account, endorsed by him.

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There's not a lot of music
in this picture, maybe 35 minutes...

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...and that's not very much.

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There's a place later which would
have been inundated with music...

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...and I deliberately didn't do that.

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Now we learn about Shelby,
a secondary character...

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...on whom much of the suspicion falls
for Laura's death.

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We learn that Ann supports him,
gives him money.

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And soon Shelby
will enter the frame...

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...and we will see that he is played
by the great character actor...

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...who later became a star,
Vincent Price.

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In fact, Laura's interesting because it
has two male character actors...

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...who began as supporting actors...

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...and who, against odds, ended up
becoming legendary leading men,

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Clifton Webb and Vincent Price.

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Vincent Price
was a well-educated man...

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...with a wide range of interests.
Here he comes.

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Young, tall, handsome.

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His interests included art and cooking.

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He was the author of a cookbook.

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He is, here, in the earliest stages
of his career...

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...in which he was playing always
weaklings or misguided playboys...

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...and sometimes a
crazy comedy-relief figure.

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He was a sort of second-string
George Sanders...

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...in this period of his career.

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He became famous
for his raised eyebrow...

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...and his little wicked smile,
not unlike George Sanders.

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But he finally moved over to the period
where he found his true fame...

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...when he began playing
villains in horror films.

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He reveled in his roles
in horror films...

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...bringing to them humor and wit
and tongue-in-cheek delight...

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...but never any real condescension.

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The great thing about Vincent Price
is he could be funny as well as sinister.

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And he was always ironic.

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He's very modern,
and his work always holds up.

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His career followed a trajectory.
He was first in all kinds of movies...

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...from murder mysteries like this
to costume films...

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...like Song of Bernadette to dramas
like Leave Her to Heaven...

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...to musicals like Up in Central Park.

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Comedies, Champagne for Caesar.

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Westerns, Baron of Arizona.

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But finally in 1953 he was in
Andr� De Toth's House of Wax.

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And that brought him to his
natural milieu, the horror film.

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And working with Roger Corman,
William Castle...

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...he became really legendary.

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This exterior was also used in the film
Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?

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This is a standard 20th Century Fox set,
and it does turn up in many movies.

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And you can watch for it
and see it again.

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Now, this is a place where they might
have had music in those days...

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...but I decided no way.

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Here they are at Laura's apartment.

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And when you enter
Laura's apartment...

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...you again see the beautiful
Oscar-nominated art direction...

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...and interior decoration
that caused this film to be nominated.

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00:11:58,968 --> 00:12:01,553
The art director was Lyle Wheeler.

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He had won an Academy Award
for Gone With the Wind in 1939...

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00:12:06,768 --> 00:12:11,730
...and he would also win for
Anna and the King of Siam in '46...

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00:12:11,815 --> 00:12:16,902
...for The Robe in 1953,
for The King and I in '56...

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00:12:16,986 --> 00:12:20,656
...and for The Diary of Anne Frank
in 1959.

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He was, of course, nominated here
for Laura, but he did not win.

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He was also the art director
on Hitchcock's Rebecca...

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...on Kazan's
Gentleman's Agreement...

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...and many other Preminger films...

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...including Daisy Kenyon,
River of No Return, In Harm's Way.

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He had a talent for creating historically
accurate sets, as in The Robe.

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Now we focus
on the portrait of Laura.

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Not bad indeed. Not bad indeed.

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This famous portrait
is actually a photograph.

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And we have it in our archives,
in Gene Tierney's archive...

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00:13:02,198 --> 00:13:05,033
...in the Wesleyan University
Cinema Archives...

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00:13:05,118 --> 00:13:07,870
...where we have
the Gene Tierney papers.

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00:13:07,996 --> 00:13:11,373
Originally they did make
an actual oil painting.

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00:13:11,541 --> 00:13:16,920
The original director, Rouben Mamoulian,
had his wife, Azadia, paint one.

202
00:13:17,088 --> 00:13:20,924
But when Otto Preminger
took over direction from Mamoulian...

203
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...he didn't like the painting.

204
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He thought it lacked the mystic,
mysterious quality...

205
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...he wanted for the film.

206
00:13:28,933 --> 00:13:35,230
So he sent Gene Tierney to the famous
Fox house photographer Frank Polony...

207
00:13:35,482 --> 00:13:39,401
...to have a beautiful,
mysterious photograph made.

208
00:13:39,527 --> 00:13:42,696
Then they enlarged the photograph
and brushed it...

209
00:13:42,780 --> 00:13:44,865
...so it would look like a painting.

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00:13:44,949 --> 00:13:48,785
So, in fact, the famous
Laura portrait painting...

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00:13:48,870 --> 00:13:52,706
...is actually the blowup
of a photograph.

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00:13:53,374 --> 00:13:58,253
It's the famous portrait of Laura,
which was done from a photograph.

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00:13:58,588 --> 00:14:00,672
They painted over the photograph.

214
00:14:00,840 --> 00:14:04,176
And it certainly is quite beautiful.

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00:14:04,886 --> 00:14:07,596
Somebody inherited it, some guy.
As a matter of fact...

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00:14:07,680 --> 00:14:11,350
...I don't even remember who it was,
but I know he showed it to me.

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00:14:12,185 --> 00:14:16,730
In the black-and-white films designed
by Lyle Wheeler, such as Laura...

218
00:14:16,898 --> 00:14:20,692
...he consciously used shadows,
sharp and deep.

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00:14:20,777 --> 00:14:23,737
He worked with the cinematographer,
knowing these things...

220
00:14:23,821 --> 00:14:27,908
...were gonna fall on his sets, and the
characters that inhabited his sets...

221
00:14:27,992 --> 00:14:30,744
...were going to live
in a world of shadows.

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00:14:30,912 --> 00:14:37,668
He was the supervising art director
at 20th Century Fox from 1944 to 1960.

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00:14:37,794 --> 00:14:42,297
So he oversaw all the visual aspects
of each film made there...

224
00:14:42,382 --> 00:14:45,634
...always working with the writer,
the art director.

225
00:14:45,802 --> 00:14:50,264
He approved all sketches
and he scouted locations.

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00:14:50,348 --> 00:14:54,810
He was also a key figure
in early color experiments.

227
00:14:55,061 --> 00:14:58,313
And he was a very important man
in developing designs...

228
00:14:58,398 --> 00:15:01,400
...for the CinemaScope frame also.

229
00:15:02,485 --> 00:15:07,072
McPherson shows how cleverly
he can control people.

230
00:15:07,282 --> 00:15:12,035
But he does need to pull out his toy
in order to remain calm.

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00:15:13,079 --> 00:15:14,329
I would have put music here...

232
00:15:14,414 --> 00:15:16,957
...but unfortunately
I didn't have 67 trombones.

233
00:15:21,087 --> 00:15:23,964
Now, this is a very interesting place
where there's a little trio...

234
00:15:24,048 --> 00:15:28,594
...consisting of violin,
piano and accordion.

235
00:15:29,012 --> 00:15:31,763
I don't know what they were playing,
but it wasn't Laura.

236
00:15:31,848 --> 00:15:34,808
And I had to do it, you know, there,
so I just tricked it...

237
00:15:34,892 --> 00:15:39,229
...so it looks like the guy's bow
is going correctly and everything.

238
00:15:41,441 --> 00:15:45,193
I remember we dined here the night
before her 22nd birthday.

239
00:15:45,820 --> 00:15:47,613
Just we two,

240
00:15:47,697 --> 00:15:50,365
happy, making plans
for her future.

241
00:15:50,491 --> 00:15:55,537
The camera moves slowly toward him,
we fade into the past...

242
00:15:55,705 --> 00:15:59,625
...and have our first glimpse
of Laura...

243
00:15:59,792 --> 00:16:03,128
...played by the exquisitely beautiful
Gene Tierney.

244
00:16:03,212 --> 00:16:08,216
One of the truly great faces
of 1940s cinema.

245
00:16:09,761 --> 00:16:12,512
Now, this is supposed to be Muzak.

246
00:16:12,597 --> 00:16:19,353
Tierney said that Laura was the role
most often associated with her career.

247
00:16:20,021 --> 00:16:22,564
And she herself described Laura as,

248
00:16:22,649 --> 00:16:26,443
"A woman of mystery
and glamour, unattainable.

249
00:16:26,611 --> 00:16:31,323
"The kind of woman I admired
in the pages of Vogue as a young girl."

250
00:16:31,949 --> 00:16:35,661
Originally she was unenthusiastic
about the role...

251
00:16:35,745 --> 00:16:38,121
...according to the notes
in our archive.

252
00:16:38,247 --> 00:16:42,250
She felt that her time on camera
was less than she would like to have...

253
00:16:42,335 --> 00:16:46,129
...and as she put it,
"Who wants to play a painting?"

254
00:16:46,255 --> 00:16:47,923
- Now, this is...
- Young woman,

255
00:16:48,633 --> 00:16:52,636
either you have been raised
in some incredibly rustic community

256
00:16:52,720 --> 00:16:54,429
where good manners
are unknown

257
00:16:54,597 --> 00:16:57,224
or you suffer from the common
feminine delusion

258
00:16:57,308 --> 00:16:58,934
that the mere fact
of being a woman

259
00:16:59,018 --> 00:17:02,020
exempts you from the rules
of civilized conduct.

260
00:17:03,398 --> 00:17:08,026
I couldn't resist letting that play.
He delivers it so brilliantly.

261
00:17:08,111 --> 00:17:11,446
But, you see, notice how Laura
is costumed here.

262
00:17:11,531 --> 00:17:16,034
She is dressed beautifully, elegantly.
She's very pretty.

263
00:17:16,119 --> 00:17:19,079
But she is not the height
of sophistication.

264
00:17:19,163 --> 00:17:24,960
She is dressed as if she is a young girl
just starting out her career.

265
00:17:25,128 --> 00:17:29,131
This is important, because
after Waldo enters her life...

266
00:17:29,215 --> 00:17:34,928
...and takes her over, she does begin
to look very, very different.

267
00:17:35,096 --> 00:17:39,266
This is supposed to be Muzak,
and it went away from the theme...

268
00:17:39,350 --> 00:17:43,353
...and begins to play a version of
the theme done, I think, as a waltz...

269
00:17:43,813 --> 00:17:45,647
...with a string orchestra.

270
00:17:45,773 --> 00:17:48,567
Tierney said that working
with Otto Preminger...

271
00:17:48,651 --> 00:17:52,446
...which she would do
in several other movies, was hard.

272
00:17:52,530 --> 00:17:56,158
She commented on how hard
he drove his cast...

273
00:17:56,534 --> 00:18:01,204
...but also never failed to add
that he drove himself equally hard.

274
00:18:01,289 --> 00:18:04,291
She felt he was wonderful
as a director.

275
00:18:04,375 --> 00:18:08,003
Quote from Gene Tierney,
"He was simply tireless.

276
00:18:08,212 --> 00:18:11,757
"When the rest of the cast seemed ready
to drop from exhaustion...

277
00:18:11,841 --> 00:18:17,345
"...Otto would still muster as much vigor
as he had the day began."

278
00:18:18,055 --> 00:18:20,390
On her performance, Tierney said,

279
00:18:20,475 --> 00:18:25,145
"I'm pleased that audiences
still identify me with Laura.

280
00:18:25,271 --> 00:18:30,025
"I never felt that my own performance
was much more than adequate.

281
00:18:30,234 --> 00:18:35,363
"Tributes, I believe, are for the
character, the dreamlike Laura...

282
00:18:35,490 --> 00:18:38,700
"...rather than any gifts
I brought to the role.

283
00:18:39,160 --> 00:18:41,453
"I do not mean to sound modest.

284
00:18:41,537 --> 00:18:44,122
"I doubt that any of us connected
with the movie...

285
00:18:44,207 --> 00:18:48,168
"...thought it had a chance of becoming
a kind of mystery classic...

286
00:18:48,252 --> 00:18:51,588
"...or ever enduring
beyond its generation."

287
00:18:51,798 --> 00:18:55,175
That's a direct quote
from Gene Tierney.

288
00:18:55,301 --> 00:18:59,679
But Laura is one of those
happy accidents of filmmaking.

289
00:18:59,847 --> 00:19:04,226
The mystery of what will become a hit,
much less become a classic.

290
00:19:04,393 --> 00:19:06,895
It's like Casablanca in that regard.

291
00:19:06,979 --> 00:19:13,068
It originally started out as a B film,
was elevated to A status...

292
00:19:13,194 --> 00:19:17,989
...and through a series of accidents
of casting and changing of director...

293
00:19:18,074 --> 00:19:22,244
...became one of those things
that turned out to be great.

294
00:19:22,495 --> 00:19:26,581
Just as Ronald Reagan and
Ann Sheridan were originally to play...

295
00:19:26,666 --> 00:19:31,253
...the Humphrey Bogart/Ingrid Bergman
roles in Casablanca...

296
00:19:31,337 --> 00:19:36,132
...John Hodiak was originally
to play Mark McPherson...

297
00:19:36,300 --> 00:19:40,720
...either Hedy Lamarr or Jennifer Jones
to play Laura.

298
00:19:40,888 --> 00:19:46,434
Rouben Mamoulian was
the original director, not Otto Preminger.

299
00:19:46,978 --> 00:19:51,565
And Laird Cregar was considered
to be one of the actors...

300
00:19:51,649 --> 00:19:54,609
...to play Waldo Lydecker.

301
00:19:56,612 --> 00:19:59,239
Johnny, please tell
the gentleman I'm busy.

302
00:19:59,323 --> 00:20:01,199
In the end, they went
with a leading man...

303
00:20:01,284 --> 00:20:05,370
...who was not yet considered
a real lead, Dana Andrews...

304
00:20:05,621 --> 00:20:09,165
...and a key player who had not made
a sound movie before...

305
00:20:09,250 --> 00:20:12,752
...this man, Clifton Webb.
This is a great scene.

306
00:20:14,130 --> 00:20:16,881
As you notice the young man
slowly moving up...

307
00:20:16,966 --> 00:20:18,967
...slowly moving up.

308
00:20:19,051 --> 00:20:23,054
Staring, staring. Butting in.

309
00:20:23,139 --> 00:20:25,974
Getting closer, getting closer.

310
00:20:26,142 --> 00:20:29,561
Soon Waldo will deal with him.

311
00:20:30,730 --> 00:20:32,647
Here it comes.

312
00:20:33,482 --> 00:20:35,609
If you come
a little bit closer, my boy,

313
00:20:35,693 --> 00:20:39,321
I can just crack your skull
with my stick.

314
00:20:42,325 --> 00:20:46,161
And now, for reasons
which are too embarrassing to mention,

315
00:20:46,704 --> 00:20:48,997
I'd like to endorse that pen.

316
00:20:49,582 --> 00:20:52,500
Mr. Lydecker! Thank you.

317
00:20:52,585 --> 00:20:56,838
This film was produced for the studio
by Darryl F. Zanuck...

318
00:20:56,964 --> 00:21:00,717
...producer, writer, head
of 20th Century Fox for years.

319
00:21:00,801 --> 00:21:06,806
An important figure in film history,
and one of the truly legendary moguls.

320
00:21:07,266 --> 00:21:10,518
He's one of the most famous
of the big studio tycoons.

321
00:21:10,645 --> 00:21:12,646
And he was skilled in many areas.

322
00:21:12,730 --> 00:21:15,398
From developing stars
such as Betty Grable...

323
00:21:15,483 --> 00:21:18,318
...the box-office queen of the 1940s...

324
00:21:18,402 --> 00:21:22,572
...and being able to make great
World War II escapist entertainment.

325
00:21:22,657 --> 00:21:26,951
But he also took the studio in
a new direction in this time period...

326
00:21:27,036 --> 00:21:29,037
...with message pictures such as...

327
00:21:29,121 --> 00:21:32,874
...Gentleman's Agreement,
Pinky and The Snake Pit.

328
00:21:34,043 --> 00:21:38,380
Waldo now tells
how he shaped Laura's career.

329
00:21:38,464 --> 00:21:43,009
- We see Laura grow.
- He's talking about Laura, of course...

330
00:21:43,094 --> 00:21:44,844
...so the music is playing the tune.

331
00:21:45,721 --> 00:21:49,683
And it's supposed to add
a little glamour.

332
00:21:49,850 --> 00:21:53,645
This material was cut
from the original release.

333
00:21:53,813 --> 00:21:58,274
In it, we see how absolutely
important Waldo was...

334
00:21:58,359 --> 00:22:04,322
...in shaping Laura's grooming, her
clothes, the people she meets, et cetera.

335
00:22:04,407 --> 00:22:08,993
Gene Tierney is exquisitely beautiful
in this montage.

336
00:22:09,245 --> 00:22:13,915
We see Laura beginning to dress
in a more sophisticated way.

337
00:22:14,750 --> 00:22:16,418
We return to Waldo...

338
00:22:16,502 --> 00:22:23,258
...to remind ourselves that he is telling us
about Laura and shaping our image of her.

339
00:22:25,678 --> 00:22:31,015
But Zanuck felt this was too much
of a fashion parade...

340
00:22:31,100 --> 00:22:35,270
...and that it deterred
the storytelling process.

341
00:22:35,604 --> 00:22:38,940
And yet I knew Laura
would never betray anyone.

342
00:22:44,488 --> 00:22:48,616
Here's a beautiful scene. Snow, cold.

343
00:22:48,701 --> 00:22:53,204
Think about how smart they were in
Hollywood about creating atmosphere.

344
00:22:53,372 --> 00:22:57,751
This is a scene of Waldo's
misery and unhappiness...

345
00:22:57,835 --> 00:23:01,796
...where he's gonna stand outside
and spy on Laura.

346
00:23:02,131 --> 00:23:05,049
There's many ways to do it,
but what they choose to do...

347
00:23:05,134 --> 00:23:08,553
...is take the time
to turn it into something...

348
00:23:08,637 --> 00:23:13,391
...where we feel the cold and misery
and isolation and rejection...

349
00:23:13,476 --> 00:23:18,146
...that he's feeling by making it
a scene of miserable weather...

350
00:23:18,230 --> 00:23:23,651
...in which he has to stand out
in agony in his overcoat.

351
00:23:25,488 --> 00:23:27,322
I demolished his affectations,

352
00:23:27,490 --> 00:23:30,909
exposed his camouflaged
imitations of better painters,

353
00:23:31,035 --> 00:23:32,327
ridiculed his theories.

354
00:23:33,662 --> 00:23:36,956
I did it for her,
knowing Jacoby was unworthy of her.

355
00:23:37,082 --> 00:23:40,835
It was a masterpiece
because it was a labor of love.

356
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:44,923
Naturally, she could never
regard him seriously again.

357
00:23:45,674 --> 00:23:47,842
There were others,
of course,

358
00:23:48,677 --> 00:23:50,762
but her own discrimination
ruled them out

359
00:23:50,846 --> 00:23:53,848
before it became necessary
for me to intercede

360
00:23:55,142 --> 00:23:58,520
until one night at a party
at Ann Treadwell's.

361
00:23:58,646 --> 00:24:02,565
It was one of her usual roundups
of bizarre and nondescript characters

362
00:24:02,650 --> 00:24:04,984
corralled from every stratum of society.

363
00:24:04,985 --> 00:24:07,904
There's many ways to do it,
but what they choose to do...

364
00:24:07,988 --> 00:24:11,407
...is take the time
to turn it into something...

365
00:24:11,492 --> 00:24:16,287
...where we feel the cold and misery
and isolation and rejection...

366
00:24:16,372 --> 00:24:21,000
...that he's feeling by making it
a scene of miserable weather...

367
00:24:21,085 --> 00:24:26,506
...in which he has to stand out
in agony in his overcoat.

368
00:24:28,384 --> 00:24:30,176
I demolished his affectations,

369
00:24:30,386 --> 00:24:33,763
exposed his camouflaged
imitations of better painters,

370
00:24:33,889 --> 00:24:35,181
ridiculed his theories.

371
00:24:36,517 --> 00:24:39,811
I did it for her,
knowing Jacoby was unworthy of her.

372
00:24:39,937 --> 00:24:43,690
It was a masterpiece
because it was a labor of love.

373
00:24:43,774 --> 00:24:47,777
Naturally, she could never
regard him seriously again.

374
00:24:48,529 --> 00:24:50,697
There were others,
of course,

375
00:24:51,532 --> 00:24:53,616
but her own discrimination
ruled them out

376
00:24:53,701 --> 00:24:56,703
before it became necessary
for me to intercede

377
00:24:57,997 --> 00:25:01,416
until one night at a party
at Ann Treadwell's.

378
00:25:01,500 --> 00:25:05,420
It was one of her usual roundups
of bizarre and nondescript characters

379
00:25:05,504 --> 00:25:07,881
corralled from every stratum of society.

380
00:25:08,007 --> 00:25:11,134
This is Mr. and Mrs. Preston.
They've been waiting to meet you.

381
00:25:11,218 --> 00:25:12,427
How do you do?

382
00:25:15,556 --> 00:25:18,141
- Hello, Shelby.
- Excuse me, honey.

383
00:25:22,146 --> 00:25:24,397
You're Laura Hunt.

384
00:25:24,481 --> 00:25:27,942
- Yes?
- Hello. I'm Shelby Carpenter.

385
00:25:28,027 --> 00:25:31,696
- Want to dance?
- I'm not alone.

386
00:25:32,948 --> 00:25:35,825
Oh, him? I'll bet
he's still doing the polka.

387
00:25:35,910 --> 00:25:38,244
Excuse me, please. Yes.

388
00:25:38,913 --> 00:25:40,455
Betsy Ross taught it to me.

389
00:25:40,539 --> 00:25:43,249
- Hello, Waldo. Darling, how are you?
- Hello, darling.

390
00:25:43,375 --> 00:25:45,251
- You've met Shelby.
- Unavoidably.

391
00:25:45,419 --> 00:25:46,836
He was awfully nice to me in Louisville...

392
00:25:46,921 --> 00:25:50,798
The theme song of this movie,
of course, can be heard here.

393
00:25:50,883 --> 00:25:54,677
Originally, Otto Preminger
thought he would like to use...

394
00:25:54,762 --> 00:25:57,221
...George Gershwin's song
Summertime...

395
00:25:57,306 --> 00:26:01,059
...from Porgy and Bess
for the theme song.

396
00:26:01,477 --> 00:26:03,770
And then he decided Duke Ellington's

397
00:26:04,688 --> 00:26:07,941
Sophisticated Lady would be perfect.

398
00:26:08,025 --> 00:26:11,069
But David Raksin came up
with the haunting melody...

399
00:26:11,153 --> 00:26:13,947
...that became the Laura theme.

400
00:26:14,031 --> 00:26:17,825
It was turned into a popular song
after the movie...

401
00:26:17,910 --> 00:26:21,204
...when Johnny Mercer
added the famous lyrics,

402
00:26:21,288 --> 00:26:24,582
Laura, she's the face in the misty light

403
00:26:24,667 --> 00:26:27,710
The footsteps
That you hear down the hall

404
00:26:28,337 --> 00:26:32,340
The theme I wrote for Laura
has had a life of its own.

405
00:26:32,466 --> 00:26:34,801
It's sort of become
a very, very big deal.

406
00:26:34,885 --> 00:26:38,805
And later I converted it into a song,
and Johnny Mercer wrote a lyric to it.

407
00:26:38,889 --> 00:26:42,183
And that song has, as of now...

408
00:26:42,267 --> 00:26:46,479
...well over 400 different recordings,
which is pretty good going.

409
00:26:47,564 --> 00:26:51,693
The witty dialog that is particularly
present in this scene...

410
00:26:51,777 --> 00:26:56,197
...is part of the contribution
of Hoffenstein...

411
00:26:56,281 --> 00:26:59,033
...one of the major screenwriters
that worked on this.

412
00:26:59,118 --> 00:27:04,831
He was a poet, actually, who became a
screenwriter in the last years of his life.

413
00:27:05,040 --> 00:27:08,334
Originally, Preminger,
who was going to produce the film...

414
00:27:08,460 --> 00:27:12,797
...not direct it, worked
with Jay Dratler on a script.

415
00:27:12,881 --> 00:27:16,092
But Preminger wasn't satisfied
and got permission...

416
00:27:16,176 --> 00:27:19,762
...to hire Hoffenstein
and Reinhardt to work.

417
00:27:19,847 --> 00:27:22,390
Their adaptation,
which was excellent...

418
00:27:22,558 --> 00:27:26,269
...moved the film up
from B status to A status...

419
00:27:26,353 --> 00:27:30,189
...and Zanuck then became
the executive producer.

420
00:27:30,315 --> 00:27:33,526
Most people attribute
the wonderfully sharp dialog...

421
00:27:33,610 --> 00:27:36,154
...delivered by Clifton Webb,
which, as I said...

422
00:27:36,238 --> 00:27:40,033
...is so much a success of the movie,
to this writing team.

423
00:27:40,117 --> 00:27:42,785
But the movie has two great triumphs.

424
00:27:42,870 --> 00:27:48,499
It's not just this witty,
brittle, sophisticated dialog...

425
00:27:48,584 --> 00:27:51,627
...but also the ability
of this writing team...

426
00:27:51,712 --> 00:27:54,964
...to create a dreamy romanticism...

427
00:27:55,049 --> 00:27:59,093
...and a great yearning on the part
of characters inside the frame.

428
00:27:59,178 --> 00:28:01,761
It's brittle and sophisticated...

429
00:28:01,847 --> 00:28:06,350
...and haunting and romantic.
And that's why it's so good.

430
00:28:09,146 --> 00:28:13,441
It's good to remember
that we are in a flashback here.

431
00:28:13,567 --> 00:28:19,405
The flashback is one of the most popular
narrative devices of the 1940s...

432
00:28:19,531 --> 00:28:21,908
...and of the film-noir movie.

433
00:28:21,992 --> 00:28:25,119
A flashback is always used
for a particular reason.

434
00:28:25,204 --> 00:28:28,331
It wants to create a relationship
with the viewer...

435
00:28:28,415 --> 00:28:31,125
...in which a character,
through a flashback...

436
00:28:31,210 --> 00:28:36,339
...can explain, influence, control,
shape and even deceive...

437
00:28:36,423 --> 00:28:41,010
...the audience about characters
or information about characters.

438
00:28:41,095 --> 00:28:44,180
There always needs to be a reason
for a flashback.

439
00:28:44,264 --> 00:28:45,890
It has to accomplish something...

440
00:28:45,974 --> 00:28:50,269
...that presumably could not be done
as well any other way.

441
00:28:50,646 --> 00:28:54,565
The old films knew there needed to be
a reason to tell a story out of order...

442
00:28:54,650 --> 00:28:58,361
...and to bring the past
visually on the screen.

443
00:28:58,445 --> 00:29:02,698
So they would always consider
who would be narrating...

444
00:29:03,242 --> 00:29:05,201
...whose point of view
would be available...

445
00:29:05,285 --> 00:29:09,038
...how much time would be passing
on the screen in the story...

446
00:29:09,123 --> 00:29:10,915
...while it was being told...

447
00:29:10,999 --> 00:29:14,127
...who would be listening,
what's the purpose.

448
00:29:14,253 --> 00:29:17,964
This is a masterful flashback.
There you go.

449
00:29:18,048 --> 00:29:21,717
You now learn
how he was spying on her always.

450
00:29:24,304 --> 00:29:28,724
Now a little underscoring music, because
there's a slightly dramatic scene here.

451
00:29:28,809 --> 00:29:32,103
So the music is sort of
messing around with that.

452
00:29:33,730 --> 00:29:37,942
This is a flashback that allows us
to have Gene Tierney...

453
00:29:38,026 --> 00:29:44,490
...who is presumably dead, enter
the film and begin to participate in it.

454
00:29:44,616 --> 00:29:49,745
Otherwise we would be going half
the running time without ever seeing her.

455
00:29:50,247 --> 00:29:54,417
It also has one other
very clever purpose,

456
00:29:54,501 --> 00:29:58,880
it diverts suspicion from Waldo.

457
00:30:00,507 --> 00:30:02,508
We're back to the tune.

458
00:30:04,261 --> 00:30:06,012
But I'm playing around with it,
you know...

459
00:30:06,096 --> 00:30:09,390
...so I don't repeat it too often
hopefully.

460
00:30:11,310 --> 00:30:12,852
There you are.
Read them.

461
00:30:12,936 --> 00:30:17,064
Waldo, of course,
is one of the obvious choices...

462
00:30:17,149 --> 00:30:19,692
...to consider to be the villain.

463
00:30:19,776 --> 00:30:25,198
And he is the person, however,
who tells us the story...

464
00:30:25,324 --> 00:30:27,200
...who presents Laura...

465
00:30:27,367 --> 00:30:31,871
...who we can see clearly adores her
and is obsessed by her.

466
00:30:32,080 --> 00:30:33,414
He's also witty...

467
00:30:33,498 --> 00:30:34,914
...sophisticated...

468
00:30:35,375 --> 00:30:40,171
...and seems to be a man
who would not be the villain.

469
00:30:41,423 --> 00:30:46,677
By establishing Waldo as one
of the two protagonists seemingly...

470
00:30:46,762 --> 00:30:50,848
...and by allowing him to shape
our vision of Laura initially...

471
00:30:50,933 --> 00:30:57,480
...and tell her story, all suspicion is
diverted from him as a possible villain.

472
00:30:57,564 --> 00:30:59,398
I should have told you before.

473
00:30:59,858 --> 00:31:03,110
Shelby and I are going to be
married next week.

474
00:31:04,404 --> 00:31:10,993
The music, the Laura theme, is used
perfectly to convey characterization...

475
00:31:11,078 --> 00:31:14,413
...to provide a sense
of nostalgia and memory...

476
00:31:14,539 --> 00:31:19,335
...and to give a brooding atmosphere
with underlying sexuality.

477
00:31:19,503 --> 00:31:22,380
As I said, the score
was one of the things...

478
00:31:22,464 --> 00:31:27,301
...that helped build this film to A status
and to focus people on it.

479
00:31:27,386 --> 00:31:31,514
Interestingly, the composition
of the score for Laura...

480
00:31:31,723 --> 00:31:35,893
...was first offered to Alfred Newman,
who turned it down...

481
00:31:36,895 --> 00:31:40,856
...and then offered to Bernard Herrmann,
who turned it down.

482
00:31:40,941 --> 00:31:44,527
They thought it was going to be
just another detective movie...

483
00:31:44,611 --> 00:31:47,613
...and they were not interested
in working on it.

484
00:31:47,739 --> 00:31:50,324
David Raksin's great contribution...

485
00:31:50,409 --> 00:31:54,870
...was to see this movie
essentially as a love story...

486
00:31:54,955 --> 00:32:00,835
...and a story of obsession in which
Laura haunts two different men...

487
00:32:00,919 --> 00:32:03,754
...who remember her
and think about her.

488
00:32:03,880 --> 00:32:10,386
His score truly uplifted the film
and did so much for it.

489
00:32:10,887 --> 00:32:13,556
When I met with Preminger...

490
00:32:14,099 --> 00:32:18,644
Well, as a matter of fact, I met him
for the first time, really met him...

491
00:32:18,770 --> 00:32:21,897
...the day after I went to the running
with Darryl Zanuck, you know...

492
00:32:22,024 --> 00:32:25,359
Zanuck, who was the boss of the studio,
in his little projection room...

493
00:32:25,444 --> 00:32:27,361
...and they ran the film.

494
00:32:27,654 --> 00:32:32,283
And I saw immediately it was not
a detective story, but a love story...

495
00:32:32,367 --> 00:32:34,493
...in a detective-story milieu.

496
00:32:34,703 --> 00:32:39,248
And I was horrified to hear
Darryl Zanuck...

497
00:32:39,333 --> 00:32:42,251
...who was
a very, very astute cutter...

498
00:32:42,336 --> 00:32:45,296
...but he said that he was gonna
take the big scene...

499
00:32:45,422 --> 00:32:48,132
...and he was gonna cut it severely.
He had already cut it.

500
00:32:48,216 --> 00:32:51,177
And I heard myself,
to my astonishment, say,

501
00:32:51,261 --> 00:32:55,514
"Well, Mr. Zanuck, if you cut that,
people are not gonna understand...

502
00:32:55,599 --> 00:32:58,309
"...that the detective is falling in love
with Laura."

503
00:32:58,393 --> 00:33:01,937
And Zanuck, who had never seen me
before because I'd never been...

504
00:33:02,022 --> 00:33:06,317
...to one of those meetings, turned
to his cutter and said, "Who's that?"

505
00:33:06,401 --> 00:33:08,903
She said, "That's the composer."

506
00:33:09,154 --> 00:33:13,324
And I said, "Well, Mr. Zanuck,
that scene needs music.

507
00:33:13,408 --> 00:33:15,284
"Why don't you let me
write some for it?

508
00:33:15,410 --> 00:33:19,372
"If it works, fine, if it doesn't,
you know, you can get rid of it."

509
00:33:19,539 --> 00:33:21,290
He said, "Fair enough."

510
00:33:21,375 --> 00:33:24,752
The next day,
after this evening running...

511
00:33:24,920 --> 00:33:27,505
...was the first time I met Preminger.
That's when he told me...

512
00:33:27,589 --> 00:33:32,176
...he was using Sophisticated Lady.
I told him it was wrong for the picture.

513
00:33:32,636 --> 00:33:36,555
And he argued with me.
He said, "She's a whore."

514
00:33:36,681 --> 00:33:39,266
So I looked at him.
I said, "By whose standards?"

515
00:33:39,351 --> 00:33:42,559
He turns to Al Newman and says,
"Where'd you find this fella?"

516
00:33:42,771 --> 00:33:45,481
But Al said to him,
"Listen, Otto, you never know...

517
00:33:45,565 --> 00:33:49,151
"...what this guy's gonna come up with.
Why don't you just sort of let him go."

518
00:33:49,236 --> 00:33:53,948
So I did, and Al Newman and I played
the tune for him together...

519
00:33:54,032 --> 00:33:57,493
...and Otto Preminger liked it at once,
and it stayed in the picture.

520
00:33:57,577 --> 00:34:01,789
And it became something of a hit
on its own.

521
00:34:02,958 --> 00:34:05,626
I called to tell you, Waldo,
I'm frightfully sorry.

522
00:34:05,710 --> 00:34:08,087
I can't have dinner
with you tonight.

523
00:34:08,255 --> 00:34:11,507
Oh, no, no. I'm not sick.
I'm just dreadfully nervous.

524
00:34:11,758 --> 00:34:15,553
This movie is in the tradition
of the detective, murder-mystery...

525
00:34:15,637 --> 00:34:18,681
...whodunit film in that
you have quite a few scenes...

526
00:34:18,765 --> 00:34:21,892
...in which there isn't
much physical action.

527
00:34:22,018 --> 00:34:25,187
A classic whodunit
has scene to scene...

528
00:34:25,272 --> 00:34:28,274
...with conversations
between suspects...

529
00:34:28,442 --> 00:34:32,319
...and between the detective
and suspects as clues unfold...

530
00:34:32,487 --> 00:34:35,823
...and events happen
that give you insight.

531
00:34:36,032 --> 00:34:39,160
All through the flashback,
we return to Waldo...

532
00:34:39,327 --> 00:34:42,621
...not just to remind ourselves that what
we're seeing

533
00:34:43,123 --> 00:34:44,748
is his version of events...

534
00:34:44,833 --> 00:34:49,628
...but also to remind us
that Mark McPherson is his listener...

535
00:34:49,796 --> 00:34:55,134
...that he is, in fact, receiving this
information and is an equal partner...

536
00:34:55,302 --> 00:34:58,471
...in the presentation
of the story of Laura.

537
00:34:58,638 --> 00:35:02,558
It's just as important to know
how obsessed Waldo is...

538
00:35:02,642 --> 00:35:04,226
...and how he sees her...

539
00:35:04,311 --> 00:35:06,854
...as it is to know
that Mark McPherson...

540
00:35:06,980 --> 00:35:11,275
...is beginning to listen
and become obsessed also.

541
00:35:11,776 --> 00:35:13,486
It was my fault.

542
00:35:14,070 --> 00:35:16,071
I should have
stopped it somehow.

543
00:35:16,156 --> 00:35:21,660
Waldo's narration has served
to plant suspicion on Shelby...

544
00:35:21,745 --> 00:35:26,248
...and to emphasize the fact
that Shelby is weak.

545
00:35:27,459 --> 00:35:30,002
Now we focus on Mark...

546
00:35:30,086 --> 00:35:33,047
...and his own possible suspicion
of Waldo.

547
00:35:43,141 --> 00:35:45,100
Hello. Mosconi's?

548
00:35:45,268 --> 00:35:47,436
This is Lieutenant McPherson,
Homicide Bureau.

549
00:35:47,521 --> 00:35:51,732
Now we see McPherson doing his job.

550
00:35:52,359 --> 00:35:55,486
He's been fairly inactive,
just a listener...

551
00:35:55,570 --> 00:35:59,073
...but now he begins his investigation.

552
00:36:00,116 --> 00:36:01,492
Yeah.

553
00:36:04,371 --> 00:36:07,873
I see. Well, that's all I wanted to know.
Thanks.

554
00:36:07,999 --> 00:36:11,126
- She's here, McPherson, the maid.
- Okay.

555
00:36:12,546 --> 00:36:15,673
- Come in, Miss Clary.
- Never mind the "Miss Clary" stuff.

556
00:36:15,757 --> 00:36:18,842
This woman is really wonderful.

557
00:36:18,927 --> 00:36:21,303
This actress is Dorothy Adams.

558
00:36:21,388 --> 00:36:24,223
She was very famous
for playing domestics...

559
00:36:24,307 --> 00:36:27,768
...or working-class people,
during this period of time.

560
00:36:27,936 --> 00:36:29,728
She's very effective.

561
00:36:29,896 --> 00:36:33,107
Notice how carefully
she has been dressed.

562
00:36:33,233 --> 00:36:35,943
The cross that hangs
around her neck...

563
00:36:37,487 --> 00:36:39,822
...the perfect little touch
for the character she's playing...

564
00:36:39,906 --> 00:36:43,534
...the loyal, devoted servant,
the working-class moment...

565
00:36:43,618 --> 00:36:46,912
...who's tough, nevertheless,
very tough...

566
00:36:47,122 --> 00:36:52,251
...and who continues her job
even though Laura is gone.

567
00:36:52,794 --> 00:36:54,628
What do you want to know?

568
00:36:54,796 --> 00:36:57,172
What we all want to know,
who killed Laura Hunt.

569
00:36:57,257 --> 00:36:58,966
How would I know?

570
00:37:00,594 --> 00:37:02,928
You don't think I done it?

571
00:37:03,179 --> 00:37:05,806
I know you cops
get crazy notions...

572
00:37:06,141 --> 00:37:10,769
Look at the beautiful lighting
in this minor moment in the film.

573
00:37:10,895 --> 00:37:15,899
It has been lit as if it is the key moment,
is as important as anything.

574
00:37:16,067 --> 00:37:17,234
Look at the details.

575
00:37:17,319 --> 00:37:21,363
The little figure on the shelf,
the corner of the painting...

576
00:37:21,448 --> 00:37:24,867
...the costuming, the careful way
that Dana Andrews...

577
00:37:24,951 --> 00:37:29,079
...listens to Bessie's tirade.

578
00:37:29,623 --> 00:37:33,542
This film won the Oscar
for best cinematography...

579
00:37:33,627 --> 00:37:36,754
...and it was done by Joseph LaShelle.

580
00:37:36,963 --> 00:37:39,089
His first film as a cinematographer...

581
00:37:39,174 --> 00:37:43,218
...had only taken place
one year before in 1943...

582
00:37:43,345 --> 00:37:48,557
...a minor movie about the home front
during World War II called Happy Land.

583
00:37:48,725 --> 00:37:53,228
LaShelle, however, had worked
in the movie business since 1924...

584
00:37:53,396 --> 00:37:59,693
...and he continued working until 1969
in a long and distinguished career.

585
00:37:59,819 --> 00:38:03,322
He was known as one of
the most stylish of cinematographers.

586
00:38:03,531 --> 00:38:07,117
He was a master at taking literature
or theater pieces...

587
00:38:07,202 --> 00:38:11,705
...and moving them to the screen
by experimenting with unusual angles...

588
00:38:11,790 --> 00:38:17,169
...and rich, deep lighting and by trying
to translate the descriptions of places...

589
00:38:17,253 --> 00:38:20,506
...that were present in novels
onto the screen.

590
00:38:20,674 --> 00:38:24,343
Here, he has created
an extremely specific world...

591
00:38:24,427 --> 00:38:28,180
...of sophistication.
Deep, beautiful shadows.

592
00:38:28,264 --> 00:38:30,349
Not a single scene in this movie...

593
00:38:30,433 --> 00:38:35,396
...is without incredible lighting.
Such care, such detail.

594
00:38:35,563 --> 00:38:39,024
His lighting and shadows
make these sets look real.

595
00:38:39,234 --> 00:38:43,237
They are, of course, decorated with
great detail, but it's the lighting...

596
00:38:43,321 --> 00:38:48,075
...that takes the decorated edge
off them and renders them lifelike.

597
00:38:48,243 --> 00:38:51,286
That was true in the restaurant scene
we just saw...

598
00:38:51,413 --> 00:38:54,581
...and it's true here
in Laura's apartment.

599
00:38:54,791 --> 00:38:57,251
A couple of highball glasses.

600
00:39:02,966 --> 00:39:06,802
Here comes the cast
of possible suspects, basically...

601
00:39:06,886 --> 00:39:10,055
...other than Laura herself
when she turns up.

602
00:39:10,265 --> 00:39:13,976
One of the great things about
the way this movie is presented...

603
00:39:14,185 --> 00:39:16,395
...is that all three of these people...

604
00:39:16,521 --> 00:39:21,567
...are funny, witty, sympathetic
and unlikable by turn.

605
00:39:21,776 --> 00:39:25,279
This is a mark
of Otto Preminger's directing.

606
00:39:25,405 --> 00:39:31,577
He was a superbly talented director
who liked to use long takes in movies...

607
00:39:31,661 --> 00:39:36,790
...such as in this scene in which
the characters can be in the frame...

608
00:39:36,875 --> 00:39:41,128
...being who they are, and the audience
can watch all of them equally...

609
00:39:41,254 --> 00:39:45,507
...and study their very coherent
movements and conversations...

610
00:39:45,592 --> 00:39:50,763
...without a lot of interpretation,
even when there is a cut.

611
00:39:51,097 --> 00:39:54,266
These people sometimes
seem really awful...

612
00:39:54,350 --> 00:39:57,436
...and other times
they seem understandable.

613
00:39:57,604 --> 00:39:59,897
What are you going to do?
Sell them?

614
00:40:00,315 --> 00:40:02,941
I don't know.
I suppose so. Thank you.

615
00:40:03,067 --> 00:40:07,070
If I'm appointed administrator of the
estate, I shall probably just call in Corey.

616
00:40:07,155 --> 00:40:09,239
You mean Lancaster Corey,
the art dealer?

617
00:40:09,324 --> 00:40:11,366
Yes. He was
a friend of Laura's.

618
00:40:11,451 --> 00:40:14,661
Let him dispose of everything.
It'll be less gruesome that way.

619
00:40:14,746 --> 00:40:16,789
Not quite everything, Ann.

620
00:40:18,041 --> 00:40:23,962
This is actually a well-disguised scene
of exposition in which Waldo tells us,

621
00:40:24,130 --> 00:40:27,883
"I'll need this back,
and, of course, my clock."

622
00:40:28,051 --> 00:40:31,637
Again, the clock,
casually referred to.

623
00:40:31,805 --> 00:40:36,934
Notice how cleverly they keep
the clock in the story.

624
00:40:37,018 --> 00:40:41,980
The clock is seen, the clock
is mentioned, the clock is referred to...

625
00:40:42,065 --> 00:40:45,734
...and yet it all seems so casual
that you couldn't possibly think...

626
00:40:45,819 --> 00:40:48,570
...there was anything
significant to the clock.

627
00:40:49,113 --> 00:40:51,323
Nothing is leaving here
except you, Lydecker.

628
00:40:51,449 --> 00:40:55,828
I think the next is a crucial scene
in the picture, you know.

629
00:40:56,037 --> 00:40:58,372
The scene in the apartment...

630
00:40:58,498 --> 00:41:02,751
...that's the scene that Zanuck
was gonna cut further, having cut it.

631
00:41:02,919 --> 00:41:05,838
And I persuaded him to let me
write music for it, which I said...

632
00:41:05,964 --> 00:41:10,133
...would help the audience to understand
what the detective is feeling.

633
00:41:10,844 --> 00:41:14,304
And now these characters leave...

634
00:41:14,389 --> 00:41:19,059
...but they have been re-established
for us as three main suspects...

635
00:41:19,143 --> 00:41:24,690
...as three people of questionable
characters, but not unsympathetic.

636
00:41:26,109 --> 00:41:29,528
Now we have movie rain.

637
00:41:30,196 --> 00:41:32,656
This, of course,
is a hallmark of the films...

638
00:41:32,740 --> 00:41:35,492
...that were later designated
film noir.

639
00:41:35,577 --> 00:41:40,539
At the time, it would have been called
a detective movie or a crime movie.

640
00:41:40,623 --> 00:41:45,043
These movies are famous for wet,
dark streets and lots of rain.

641
00:41:45,336 --> 00:41:48,881
Now McPherson comes
into Laura's apartment...

642
00:41:49,007 --> 00:41:52,885
...in one of the great scenes
of the movie.

643
00:41:55,179 --> 00:41:59,224
The deeply shadowed, beautiful film.
And here's the portrait.

644
00:41:59,350 --> 00:42:04,187
Here's the music. He stands.
He looks.

645
00:42:04,772 --> 00:42:10,360
The entire atmosphere of the room
is permeated with a sense of Laura.

646
00:42:10,570 --> 00:42:15,490
Her portrait, her music, the darkness,
the shadows and the rain.

647
00:42:15,658 --> 00:42:21,747
This is what you call movie atmosphere
done at its absolute best.

648
00:42:21,998 --> 00:42:26,418
McPherson moves into her apartment
as if he belongs there, as if it's his.

649
00:42:27,879 --> 00:42:33,508
He's loosened his tie. He takes off
his jacket. He makes himself at home.

650
00:42:33,843 --> 00:42:37,679
He sits down and starts
to go through her things.

651
00:42:57,408 --> 00:43:00,285
And something is bothering him.

652
00:43:00,536 --> 00:43:07,125
And the haunting presence of Laura
is what is on his mind.

653
00:43:10,088 --> 00:43:11,713
Goes into her bedroom.

654
00:43:11,798 --> 00:43:15,550
Notice how the camera stays with him
all during this.

655
00:43:15,635 --> 00:43:20,722
He's alone. It's just us and him.
This is her bedroom.

656
00:43:20,890 --> 00:43:24,851
He's gonna open a drawer,
look at her things...

657
00:43:25,019 --> 00:43:29,439
...pull one of them out,
a filmy scarf...

658
00:43:30,191 --> 00:43:33,568
...leaving us to imagine what else
is in there, of course.

659
00:43:33,736 --> 00:43:37,155
He's going to smell her perfume.

660
00:43:37,991 --> 00:43:42,577
Everything about Laura is here.
He's experiencing it.

661
00:43:42,745 --> 00:43:45,998
He's moving around,
making himself at home, as I said...

662
00:43:46,082 --> 00:43:48,375
...looking at her clothes now...

663
00:43:48,584 --> 00:43:53,005
...but really feeling Laura.

664
00:43:53,840 --> 00:43:58,677
It's upsetting him. He doesn't have
his little toy to keep himself calm.

665
00:43:58,761 --> 00:44:03,640
Just walks around,
thinks about everything.

666
00:44:03,808 --> 00:44:06,101
Now, of course, gets himself a drink.

667
00:44:06,185 --> 00:44:11,940
You notice he drinks quite a bit, in the
great tradition of the 1940s detective.

668
00:44:12,108 --> 00:44:13,734
And now, of course...

669
00:44:13,860 --> 00:44:19,031
...he goes to look again
at the portrait.

670
00:44:19,407 --> 00:44:20,907
The portrait and the music.

671
00:44:20,992 --> 00:44:26,538
Always the portrait and the music,
the haunting quality.

672
00:44:29,042 --> 00:44:32,586
I had to come up with a theme,
and it was over the weekend, as usual.

673
00:44:32,712 --> 00:44:37,299
Friday I was talking to Preminger,
and he said, "All right, my boy.

674
00:44:37,383 --> 00:44:39,718
"If you feel you should write
something else, write something else."

675
00:44:39,802 --> 00:44:44,639
So I did. And I...
I can write themes very, very fast...

676
00:44:44,724 --> 00:44:48,643
...lots and lots of them, but I didn't
get any that I really cared for.

677
00:44:48,770 --> 00:44:52,814
And on Saturday morning,
over the weekend, I received a letter...

678
00:44:52,899 --> 00:44:55,067
...from the lady to whom
I was married...

679
00:44:55,610 --> 00:44:57,235
...and with whom I was
very much in love.

680
00:44:57,361 --> 00:44:59,029
I couldn't figure out
what she was saying...

681
00:44:59,113 --> 00:45:02,657
...so I folded it up and put it
in the pocket of my work jacket.

682
00:45:02,742 --> 00:45:07,412
And on Sunday evening,
without thinking, I sort of...

683
00:45:07,622 --> 00:45:11,416
...reached into my pocket and pulled this
thing out and said, "What's this?"

684
00:45:11,626 --> 00:45:14,336
I smoothed it out and put it on
the piano and started to read it...

685
00:45:14,420 --> 00:45:18,757
...and it suddenly dawned upon me
she was saying, "Farewell, buddy."

686
00:45:19,092 --> 00:45:21,134
And that hit me very hard...

687
00:45:21,219 --> 00:45:23,303
...and believe it or not,
corny as it may seem...

688
00:45:23,387 --> 00:45:26,765
...that's when I started
to play the theme on the piano.

689
00:45:27,558 --> 00:45:29,434
Now, if you saw that
in a Warner Bros. picture...

690
00:45:29,560 --> 00:45:32,395
...you'd know it was phony,
but it isn't.

691
00:45:33,189 --> 00:45:36,108
My music always has
a strain of melancholy in it...

692
00:45:36,275 --> 00:45:39,694
...including places where
it probably shouldn't.

693
00:45:40,154 --> 00:45:43,865
McPherson, did it ever strike you
that you're acting very strangely?

694
00:45:44,033 --> 00:45:46,827
It's a wonder you don't come here like a
suitor, with roses and a box of candy,

695
00:45:46,994 --> 00:45:51,748
I was just doing very well in my career.
I was not known by the public...

696
00:45:51,833 --> 00:45:54,835
...but I was certainly generally known
in my own profession...

697
00:45:54,961 --> 00:45:58,130
...and had a very good reputation.

698
00:45:58,256 --> 00:46:01,508
I was actually assigned to this film
by Al Newman, who decided...

699
00:46:01,717 --> 00:46:03,677
...that since it had had trouble
while it was working...

700
00:46:03,761 --> 00:46:07,389
They had to stop and shoot stuff over.
He didn't wanna bother with it.

701
00:46:08,599 --> 00:46:13,603
So he elected to do another movie,
but he conducted this one...

702
00:46:13,980 --> 00:46:16,022
...and did a marvelous job of it...

703
00:46:16,149 --> 00:46:17,732
...and liked the music very much.

704
00:46:17,817 --> 00:46:21,695
And so from then on,
I had a career of my own going.

705
00:46:21,779 --> 00:46:24,447
Before that I was known in the
profession, but nobody else knew me.

706
00:46:24,532 --> 00:46:27,784
But from then on,
you might say it was a calling card.

707
00:46:27,869 --> 00:46:31,454
I don't think they've ever had a patient
who fell in love with a corpse.

708
00:46:34,500 --> 00:46:39,129
That's one of the main things
that people discuss about Laura...

709
00:46:39,338 --> 00:46:43,717
...that, in fact, this woman is dead,
or so we all believe...

710
00:46:43,843 --> 00:46:48,013
...so he believes, and yet
he's become obsessed by her.

711
00:46:48,181 --> 00:46:51,892
Now comes the moment.
He's been drinking.

712
00:46:52,018 --> 00:46:55,520
He's been wandering in her apartment.
It's dark, it's rainy.

713
00:46:55,646 --> 00:47:02,277
He's alone, he's upset and angered
by Waldo. He sits down in the chair...

714
00:47:02,445 --> 00:47:06,948
...the music swells up,
the portrait is well lit.

715
00:47:07,575 --> 00:47:11,203
Again, we're allowed
to soak up the atmosphere...

716
00:47:11,370 --> 00:47:14,039
...to participate in the feeling.

717
00:47:14,207 --> 00:47:19,127
The feeling... The depth of feeling
of this image, the care that is taken...

718
00:47:19,212 --> 00:47:23,048
...with this in every way,
and the time that is given to it.

719
00:47:23,216 --> 00:47:26,551
Now he falls asleep.

720
00:47:27,220 --> 00:47:30,430
And he is asleep.
He lets go of the camera.

721
00:47:30,598 --> 00:47:33,141
The camera, which has kept him
so close...

722
00:47:33,226 --> 00:47:36,686
...moves away from him,
completely away from him.

723
00:47:36,812 --> 00:47:38,063
He's not active.

724
00:47:38,147 --> 00:47:40,315
Sound. Off-screen sound.

725
00:47:40,399 --> 00:47:42,067
We hear it.

726
00:47:42,235 --> 00:47:45,403
We cut, and we see Laura...

727
00:47:45,571 --> 00:47:51,117
...as she appeared
in Waldo's flashback...

728
00:47:51,285 --> 00:47:54,412
...the last moment we saw her.

729
00:47:54,580 --> 00:47:58,458
She enters, she turns on the light,
he wakes up...

730
00:47:59,126 --> 00:48:01,711
...and the shock hits him.

731
00:48:02,129 --> 00:48:03,964
What are you doing here?

732
00:48:07,718 --> 00:48:10,845
Many people discuss this...

733
00:48:10,972 --> 00:48:15,767
...as a dream sequence
and as almost a sense that...

734
00:48:15,851 --> 00:48:19,187
...in fact, he, since we saw him
fall asleep...

735
00:48:19,272 --> 00:48:24,484
...is dreaming about Laura
and dreaming that she's alive.

736
00:48:24,610 --> 00:48:27,862
This, of course, was a tradition
of the 1940s films.

737
00:48:28,197 --> 00:48:31,950
Often people fell asleep in chairs,
had dreams and then woke up...

738
00:48:32,034 --> 00:48:35,912
...and we found that none of what
we'd invested in had actually happened.

739
00:48:35,997 --> 00:48:41,251
That is not the case in this film,
but there is the dreamlike atmosphere...

740
00:48:42,920 --> 00:48:44,546
...suggested and hinted.

741
00:48:47,842 --> 00:48:53,305
Quickly, Mark becomes a detective and
starts analyzing the situation for her...

742
00:48:53,389 --> 00:48:58,601
...and cleverly covering all plot questions
that the audience might have...

743
00:48:58,686 --> 00:49:01,062
...about why she did not call...

744
00:49:01,147 --> 00:49:04,899
...where she has been,
why she didn't know anything about it.

745
00:49:04,984 --> 00:49:07,902
It's very good screenwriting.

746
00:49:08,070 --> 00:49:11,489
- Do you have any idea who it was?
- No.

747
00:49:11,657 --> 00:49:15,201
Gene Tierney, beautifully lit here.

748
00:49:16,704 --> 00:49:19,039
Again, Joseph LaShelle.

749
00:49:19,123 --> 00:49:23,251
He had worked up from lab assistant,
through camera operator, et cetera.

750
00:49:23,336 --> 00:49:25,378
He knew every step of lighting...

751
00:49:25,463 --> 00:49:29,591
...every step of anything
to do with cinematography.

752
00:49:29,675 --> 00:49:33,928
Some of his other famous movies
were How Green Was My Valley...

753
00:49:34,013 --> 00:49:35,430
...The Song of Bernadette...

754
00:49:35,514 --> 00:49:38,141
...The Long, Hot Summer,
The Apartment.

755
00:49:38,684 --> 00:49:41,519
He was considered
a very flexible cameraman...

756
00:49:41,604 --> 00:49:45,148
...able to work equally well
in black-and-white or color...

757
00:49:45,232 --> 00:49:50,070
...and skilled at comedy,
drama, outdoor Westerns, whatever.

758
00:49:50,196 --> 00:49:55,116
Joseph LaShelle, who won the Oscar
for best cinematography in this movie...

759
00:49:55,201 --> 00:49:59,496
...was nominated for an Oscar
15 times...

760
00:49:59,663 --> 00:50:05,168
...which makes him one of the all-time
most-honored artists in film history.

761
00:50:07,254 --> 00:50:08,380
Beautiful, wasn't she?

762
00:50:09,090 --> 00:50:11,049
Do you suppose...

763
00:50:15,012 --> 00:50:16,763
Sit down, please.

764
00:50:21,060 --> 00:50:24,062
This is Monday night.
You left on Friday.

765
00:50:24,146 --> 00:50:25,480
Rather a long weekend, isn't it?

766
00:50:25,564 --> 00:50:29,234
The original director of this film,
Rouben Mamoulian...

767
00:50:29,568 --> 00:50:33,405
...was a very talented director
of both film and theater.

768
00:50:33,489 --> 00:50:37,492
He was the original director
of stage musicals such as Oklahoma!...

769
00:50:37,576 --> 00:50:40,286
...Carousel, Silk Stockings.

770
00:50:40,454 --> 00:50:43,748
In his movie career,
he only made 14 movies...

771
00:50:43,874 --> 00:50:48,086
...but they were all excellently directed
and tastefully mounted.

772
00:50:48,170 --> 00:50:53,091
He was also a key innovator
in the transition to sound period.

773
00:50:53,259 --> 00:50:56,094
But in this movie,
working on this movie, he clashed...

774
00:50:56,220 --> 00:51:00,557
...with Otto Preminger,
who was the named producer.

775
00:51:00,641 --> 00:51:02,684
And although he'd shot a decent...

776
00:51:02,768 --> 00:51:05,770
...relatively significant portion
of the movie...

777
00:51:06,021 --> 00:51:09,274
...Preminger claimed never to have
used a single frame.

778
00:51:09,650 --> 00:51:14,946
There are different opinions on this,
but since this movie is so coherent...

779
00:51:15,072 --> 00:51:19,576
...has such a definite style and feeling
to it, I think we have to assume...

780
00:51:19,660 --> 00:51:26,040
...that it is very much all
Preminger's vision and decision.

781
00:51:29,295 --> 00:51:33,256
Which does not mean, of course,
that the other contributors...

782
00:51:33,340 --> 00:51:36,009
...the screenwriter,
the cinematographer...

783
00:51:36,135 --> 00:51:40,847
...the designers, were not key people
in creating the film.

784
00:51:41,056 --> 00:51:44,392
It just means that Preminger
guided it all together.

785
00:51:44,977 --> 00:51:46,811
How else did the girl
get into the apartment?

786
00:51:47,021 --> 00:51:50,523
You knew she was in love with Carpenter,
that he'd given her your cigarette case.

787
00:51:50,608 --> 00:51:51,941
You know all that,
don't you?

788
00:51:52,151 --> 00:51:54,986
I knew that she was in love with him.
She told me so herself.

789
00:51:55,070 --> 00:51:58,072
- When did she tell you?
- At lunch last Friday.

790
00:51:58,365 --> 00:52:02,160
I also know she meant nothing to Shelby.
I understand him better than you do.

791
00:52:03,078 --> 00:52:07,707
Now we get to see Laura,
not as Waldo describes her for us...

792
00:52:07,791 --> 00:52:11,044
...and presents us for her,
but as she is...

793
00:52:11,128 --> 00:52:16,216
...or at least as McPherson sees her
and encounters her.

794
00:52:16,342 --> 00:52:21,095
She's not a weak person,
she is not easily dominated.

795
00:52:21,680 --> 00:52:24,557
My own safety? Do you suspect me?

796
00:52:24,642 --> 00:52:28,019
I suspect nobody and everybody.
I'm merely trying to get at the truth.

797
00:52:29,772 --> 00:52:35,109
Here's a beautiful medium close-up
of the exquisite Gene Tierney.

798
00:52:35,277 --> 00:52:40,073
Her beauty and its exotic quality
do so much to create...

799
00:52:40,199 --> 00:52:42,867
...the mood and atmosphere
and to make this film work.

800
00:52:43,744 --> 00:52:46,412
She isn't just an ordinary
beautiful woman...

801
00:52:46,497 --> 00:52:49,249
...she's an exotically beautiful woman.

802
00:52:50,626 --> 00:52:53,044
Sorry, Miss Hunt,
but I must insist you do as I say.

803
00:52:54,088 --> 00:52:57,465
She was never thought of
as a particularly great actress...

804
00:52:57,550 --> 00:53:00,093
...although she was nominated
for an Oscar...

805
00:53:00,177 --> 00:53:02,470
...for her work
in Leave Her to Heaven.

806
00:53:02,638 --> 00:53:06,057
But the interesting thing
is how effective she always is...

807
00:53:06,141 --> 00:53:08,184
...in every film she plays in...

808
00:53:08,269 --> 00:53:11,437
...particularly when she was
directed by Otto Preminger.

809
00:53:11,564 --> 00:53:14,649
I know that you went away
to make up your mind

810
00:53:17,403 --> 00:53:20,572
whether you'd marry
Shelby Carpenter or not.

811
00:53:20,656 --> 00:53:26,494
Preminger, as a director, truly appeals
to connoisseurs of film style.

812
00:53:26,662 --> 00:53:29,372
Although he had directed films
prior to Laura...

813
00:53:29,540 --> 00:53:33,668
...this was his first really big success
as a director.

814
00:53:33,836 --> 00:53:36,963
His career easily divides
into two sections.

815
00:53:37,089 --> 00:53:41,134
First, where he's a house director
at 20th Century Fox...

816
00:53:41,218 --> 00:53:45,179
...although a big-name one,
and where he constantly had to fight...

817
00:53:45,264 --> 00:53:48,308
...for control of his films
with Darryl Zanuck.

818
00:53:48,434 --> 00:53:49,765
In the second phase...

819
00:53:49,852 --> 00:53:55,064
...he became a successful and dominant
independent producer/director...

820
00:53:55,149 --> 00:53:59,152
...who operated independently
of the studio system.

821
00:54:00,487 --> 00:54:02,780
Despite all the battles
with Zanuck at Fox...

822
00:54:02,865 --> 00:54:05,199
...his work during the years
he was there...

823
00:54:05,284 --> 00:54:09,370
...which was approximately
1936 through 1954...

824
00:54:09,455 --> 00:54:14,208
The work is excellent,
and it's perfectly represented by Laura.

825
00:54:15,919 --> 00:54:20,298
Now Laura is brought into play
as a suspicious character.

826
00:54:20,466 --> 00:54:23,885
And we see her meeting
with Shelby...

827
00:54:24,094 --> 00:54:27,639
...with them talking in the car
in the rain...

828
00:54:27,806 --> 00:54:30,183
...and we know that something
is going to happen.

829
00:54:30,267 --> 00:54:34,729
Now suspicion begins to fall
in a wider circle.

830
00:54:34,855 --> 00:54:39,567
Since the tradition of this type of movie
is to have a femme fatale...

831
00:54:39,652 --> 00:54:44,322
...or a woman that can't be trusted,
it works very well to have a sense...

832
00:54:44,406 --> 00:54:47,950
...that Laura herself is someone
who cannot be trusted.

833
00:54:49,578 --> 00:54:51,329
This is just, you know,
mystery-film music.

834
00:54:55,334 --> 00:54:59,671
Again, we've now moved away
from Waldo. Having had his story...

835
00:54:59,838 --> 00:55:04,592
...having had the key scene in which
he warns Mark that he's becoming...

836
00:55:04,677 --> 00:55:10,765
...in fact, a necrophiliac detective,
we move toward other characters...

837
00:55:10,849 --> 00:55:13,017
...and increase suspicion on them.

838
00:55:13,143 --> 00:55:16,604
In this particular scene,
of course, Shelby...

839
00:55:17,231 --> 00:55:22,318
...who has gone to Laura's cottage,
her escape place...

840
00:55:22,486 --> 00:55:25,863
...to look for the gun.

841
00:55:26,031 --> 00:55:27,782
Or to look for a gun.

842
00:55:27,950 --> 00:55:31,244
Or to look for something.

843
00:55:31,370 --> 00:55:32,870
Or to do something.

844
00:55:32,955 --> 00:55:38,501
But whatever it is,
we're suspicious, and it is the gun.

845
00:55:39,169 --> 00:55:41,879
But Mark has followed him.

846
00:55:50,806 --> 00:55:54,934
Again, it's good to notice the
wonderful art direction of this movie.

847
00:55:55,227 --> 00:55:59,647
In this particular set,
which is only going to be used briefly...

848
00:55:59,732 --> 00:56:03,276
...they could have been so casual
in creating it.

849
00:56:03,402 --> 00:56:07,238
It is, after all, a second home for her
out in the country.

850
00:56:07,364 --> 00:56:10,324
But when the camera moves
so that you can see everything...

851
00:56:10,409 --> 00:56:13,703
...again, it's marvelously decorated.

852
00:56:13,787 --> 00:56:17,331
It's created very much
not only as a home...

853
00:56:17,416 --> 00:56:20,835
...but it's reflecting
of what you have seen...

854
00:56:21,003 --> 00:56:24,756
...that would have been Laura's taste
in her main apartment...

855
00:56:24,923 --> 00:56:29,427
...done here in a more
country-home setting.

856
00:56:29,595 --> 00:56:34,348
So there's an incredible unification
between the set direction here...

857
00:56:34,558 --> 00:56:38,019
...at the country home
and the apartment in New York.

858
00:56:38,103 --> 00:56:43,983
Again, it's as if she has put all these
items out. They are hers personally.

859
00:56:44,318 --> 00:56:49,906
They reflect her desire to create a home,
a place that reeks of her...

860
00:56:49,990 --> 00:56:54,118
...and her atmosphere.
And that's also true here.

861
00:56:55,412 --> 00:56:58,080
Notice there's no music at all here.

862
00:56:58,332 --> 00:57:03,795
We are not under the spell
of her portrait and her music here.

863
00:57:04,004 --> 00:57:07,131
And this is a real confrontation scene
between...

864
00:57:07,299 --> 00:57:11,344
...one of the main suspects, Shelby,
and Mark McPherson.

865
00:57:11,720 --> 00:57:16,265
All detective movies have to have
scenes like this. The question is...

866
00:57:16,391 --> 00:57:18,351
...how well directed will they be...

867
00:57:18,435 --> 00:57:23,064
...how well written will they be,
and how well acted will they be?

868
00:57:23,315 --> 00:57:26,526
Or will the audience just wait
for them to go away?

869
00:57:26,693 --> 00:57:27,735
This is a good one...

870
00:57:27,820 --> 00:57:32,281
...because both actors manage
to keep within their characters...

871
00:57:32,616 --> 00:57:36,577
...and give us a very strong sense
of forward movement in the story.

872
00:57:36,662 --> 00:57:41,165
You know, she thought... Well,
she thought she was in love with me.

873
00:57:41,333 --> 00:57:45,837
Sympathy for Shelby
is brought forward here.

874
00:57:46,171 --> 00:57:48,381
His story begins to seem logical.

875
00:57:48,465 --> 00:57:51,634
And suddenly it's like,
"Maybe he didn't do it."

876
00:57:54,972 --> 00:57:59,392
In the novel Laura,
written by Vera Caspary...

877
00:57:59,560 --> 00:58:02,770
Laura was both a stage play
and a novel.

878
00:58:03,021 --> 00:58:07,775
...there were five sections to the story,
in which Waldo narrated one...

879
00:58:07,860 --> 00:58:11,404
...and very definitely
made Shelby suspicious...

880
00:58:12,781 --> 00:58:18,369
...one narrated by McPherson,
in which Laura was found to be alive...

881
00:58:18,453 --> 00:58:21,038
...a transcript of Shelby's statement...

882
00:58:22,541 --> 00:58:26,586
...a point of view of Laura,
who also narrated her story...

883
00:58:26,837 --> 00:58:31,716
...and then, of course, the final climax,
epilogue and solution.

884
00:58:31,884 --> 00:58:37,179
The film tightened this up, of course.
It speeded events forward...

885
00:58:37,389 --> 00:58:40,808
...and just has the two men,
Waldo on the one side...

886
00:58:40,893 --> 00:58:44,353
...when she's believed to be dead,
and McPherson on the other.

887
00:58:44,479 --> 00:58:48,482
What it has done, really,
is eliminate Laura's point of view.

888
00:58:49,902 --> 00:58:54,071
Having a simpler structure
makes it harder for the viewer...

889
00:58:54,197 --> 00:58:58,910
...to get ahold of motives.
And Preminger's careful direction...

890
00:58:58,994 --> 00:59:01,120
...that moves us to suspect
one person...

891
00:59:01,204 --> 00:59:05,958
...and then another equally,
maintains a balance in ambiguity...

892
00:59:06,043 --> 00:59:10,171
...that makes this a very mature
and intelligent detective film.

893
00:59:10,422 --> 00:59:12,590
Not only for myself, but for Laura.

894
00:59:12,758 --> 00:59:16,886
In a panicky sort of way, I felt I must
keep out of this to keep Laura out of it.

895
00:59:17,262 --> 00:59:19,764
I know now how foolish
and hopeless it was,

896
00:59:19,890 --> 00:59:22,016
but there was only
one thing on my mind,

897
00:59:22,100 --> 00:59:24,685
the safety of a person whose life
was dearer to me than my own.

898
00:59:24,770 --> 00:59:26,604
Don't you understand that?

899
00:59:26,772 --> 00:59:28,648
Did you think
Laura had done it?

900
00:59:29,191 --> 00:59:30,524
Did you?

901
00:59:30,651 --> 00:59:34,195
Suspicion toward Laura is
beginning to mount. And, of course...

902
00:59:34,279 --> 00:59:37,698
...that's one of the directions
that the screenplay is going.

903
00:59:37,783 --> 00:59:40,826
On Saturday, when our men went to the
hotel to tell you that Laura was dead,

904
00:59:40,911 --> 00:59:44,872
- you seemed sincerely shocked.
- I was. I hadn't expected that mistake.

905
00:59:44,957 --> 00:59:46,999
But you had your alibi ready,
no matter who was dead.

906
00:59:47,125 --> 00:59:49,669
Yet you knew the minute
Laura got back it wouldn't stick.

907
00:59:50,087 --> 00:59:52,713
Don't you see? I was incapable
of thinking that far ahead.

908
00:59:52,798 --> 00:59:55,299
I was incapable
of thinking at all.

909
00:59:55,509 --> 00:59:58,302
I was groping for some way
to keep Laura's name out of it.

910
00:59:58,553 --> 01:00:01,722
Shelby has been presented
as a weak character.

911
01:00:01,890 --> 01:00:07,353
So we're not sure
whether he is really weak here...

912
01:00:07,521 --> 01:00:09,313
...or just lying.

913
01:00:09,606 --> 01:00:13,025
I told her the whole story,
just as I've told you.

914
01:00:13,944 --> 01:00:16,070
She phoned you after she promised me
she wouldn't call anybody.

915
01:00:16,154 --> 01:00:17,196
What did she want?

916
01:00:17,280 --> 01:00:20,992
It's perfectly natural she'd want to see
me, especially after what's happened.

917
01:00:21,326 --> 01:00:23,911
Why don't you tell the truth? She sent
you here to get rid of this gun.

918
01:00:23,996 --> 01:00:28,833
Now McPherson is cleverly checking
to see if the radio really was broken...

919
01:00:28,917 --> 01:00:33,629
...as Laura said it was.
And, of course, it isn't.

920
01:00:33,797 --> 01:00:38,259
Again, another reason to suspect
Laura herself.

921
01:00:38,468 --> 01:00:42,763
Notice, again, how cleverly they
deflect our suspicion from Waldo...

922
01:00:42,848 --> 01:00:46,475
...who has more or less disappeared
briefly from the movie...

923
01:00:46,601 --> 01:00:49,645
...while we double our worries
about Laura...

924
01:00:49,730 --> 01:00:54,400
...and whether or not she was
the person who killed Diane Redfern.

925
01:00:54,735 --> 01:00:58,070
I always love movie rain.
This is really good movie rain.

926
01:00:58,155 --> 01:01:00,614
It's coming down thick and heavy.

927
01:01:02,659 --> 01:01:06,245
See, there are no phony
little snippets of music there.

928
01:01:06,371 --> 01:01:10,291
Again, we are at Laura's apartment.

929
01:01:13,628 --> 01:01:15,254
- What's that?
- Breakfast.

930
01:01:16,715 --> 01:01:18,883
He lets her know
that he's perfectly aware...

931
01:01:18,967 --> 01:01:21,218
...that she went out
and what happened.

932
01:01:21,553 --> 01:01:25,222
They go in the kitchen, and notice
how beautifully lit the kitchen is.

933
01:01:25,307 --> 01:01:29,226
There is nothing left undone
in this movie.

934
01:01:29,311 --> 01:01:34,190
There is no time in which everything
is not impeccably presented...

935
01:01:34,274 --> 01:01:35,983
...and coherently presented.

936
01:01:36,068 --> 01:01:39,945
My mother always listened
sympathetically to my dreams of a career

937
01:01:40,030 --> 01:01:41,739
and then taught me
another recipe.

938
01:01:41,823 --> 01:01:43,407
And Laura is a surprising woman.

939
01:01:43,533 --> 01:01:46,827
She's not just a femme fatale,
she knows how to cook.

940
01:01:46,912 --> 01:01:51,207
And here's poor Bessie,
wearing, of course, the same outfit...

941
01:01:51,291 --> 01:01:56,003
...as this is a one-outfit role
if there ever was one.

942
01:01:56,546 --> 01:02:00,049
It's all been a mistake, Bessie.
I'm not a ghost. Really.

943
01:02:01,176 --> 01:02:04,011
I found you,
and you were dead.

944
01:02:05,180 --> 01:02:07,181
It was Miss Redfern's
body you found.

945
01:02:09,434 --> 01:02:13,437
Now we see how much
Bessie loves and admires Laura.

946
01:02:13,563 --> 01:02:15,564
Since she's been working for her...

947
01:02:15,649 --> 01:02:18,859
...we then get a sense of Laura
as a good person.

948
01:02:18,944 --> 01:02:23,322
The balance of presentation
is excellent in this film.

949
01:02:23,406 --> 01:02:27,785
After building suspicion about Laura
for the last couple of scenes...

950
01:02:27,869 --> 01:02:29,829
...now we see Laura's good to Bessie.

951
01:02:29,913 --> 01:02:32,248
And furthermore,
Laura knows how to cook.

952
01:02:32,332 --> 01:02:36,585
These are all good things
for women in the movies.

953
01:02:37,254 --> 01:02:40,256
Somebody should have warned her.
Poor Bessie.

954
01:02:40,382 --> 01:02:43,300
By the way, I've asked Waldo Lydecker
to come here this morning.

955
01:02:44,052 --> 01:02:47,972
Now we're going to see what happens
when Waldo comes.

956
01:02:48,181 --> 01:02:50,099
I'm not doing it for fun.

957
01:02:51,685 --> 01:02:54,061
Why did you break your promise
and go see Shelby last night?

958
01:02:54,146 --> 01:02:56,856
The great thing about the direction
of Otto Preminger...

959
01:02:56,940 --> 01:02:59,316
...which is so perfect for this movie...

960
01:02:59,401 --> 01:03:02,945
...is that he really asks the audience
to decide for itself...

961
01:03:03,029 --> 01:03:06,657
...which character it most
sympathizes with in this movie...

962
01:03:06,741 --> 01:03:09,410
...or admires, or even believes.

963
01:03:09,494 --> 01:03:12,872
This style of filmmaking
is called "objective."

964
01:03:13,123 --> 01:03:17,251
Of course, it's never really objective,
since it is all being shaped...

965
01:03:17,419 --> 01:03:22,548
...but we are given an opportunity
here to make decisions.

966
01:03:22,674 --> 01:03:24,717
Here comes Shelby.

967
01:03:24,843 --> 01:03:28,012
And to our surprise,
they are back together again.

968
01:03:30,432 --> 01:03:33,517
Preminger made other movies at Fox,

969
01:03:33,643 --> 01:03:36,478
Whirlpool, Angel Face, Fallen Angel...

970
01:03:36,563 --> 01:03:40,316
...Where the Sidewalk Ends,
Daisy Kenyon, Forever Amber...

971
01:03:40,400 --> 01:03:43,652
...That Lady in Ermine,
River of No Return.

972
01:03:43,862 --> 01:03:50,659
All of his films have this characteristic
of letting an audience make decisions.

973
01:03:50,744 --> 01:03:53,495
He always treated the audience
with great respect...

974
01:03:53,663 --> 01:03:57,291
...and assumed that the audience
was intelligent.

975
01:03:57,584 --> 01:04:00,794
Preminger was famous for saying that
if you're going to adapt something...

976
01:04:00,879 --> 01:04:04,840
...to the screen, don't do a great novel
like War and Peace...

977
01:04:04,925 --> 01:04:08,135
...go out and get yourself
a potboiling bestseller...

978
01:04:08,220 --> 01:04:12,389
...and then you won't disappoint
the reader. Here comes Waldo.

979
01:04:12,557 --> 01:04:16,227
And here comes Waldo's shock.

980
01:04:18,605 --> 01:04:19,855
Waldo.

981
01:04:21,233 --> 01:04:22,858
He collapses.

982
01:04:23,026 --> 01:04:25,903
Now we see Waldo sympathetically.

983
01:04:26,071 --> 01:04:28,364
He's vulnerable. He's weak.

984
01:04:28,448 --> 01:04:33,786
Again, seeing him this way
diverts suspicion from him.

985
01:04:33,912 --> 01:04:37,581
His obviously caring for Laura. He's ill.

986
01:04:37,791 --> 01:04:41,502
Of course, it could be he's collapsing,
you know, because he's the murderer.

987
01:04:41,586 --> 01:04:44,922
There's the clock
in the background again.

988
01:04:45,257 --> 01:04:48,801
That is a very good way
Preminger has...

989
01:04:48,885 --> 01:04:53,264
...of shifting our suspicions
and ideas around.

990
01:04:55,517 --> 01:04:59,353
This movie was nominated
for five Oscars.

991
01:04:59,437 --> 01:05:02,147
For best supporting actor,
Clifton Webb...

992
01:05:02,274 --> 01:05:04,858
...best direction, Otto Preminger...

993
01:05:05,026 --> 01:05:08,237
...best screenplay,
best cinematography...

994
01:05:08,321 --> 01:05:12,157
...and best art direction
for interior design.

995
01:05:12,284 --> 01:05:18,163
It won one Oscar, the one for best
cinematography by Joseph LaShelle.

996
01:05:18,373 --> 01:05:23,961
But this is a beautiful, elegant film
with a very distinguished cast.

997
01:05:24,087 --> 01:05:29,466
And I think of it as a typical film
of the 1940s.

998
01:05:29,634 --> 01:05:33,137
It's a little bit better,
a little bit more elegant than others...

999
01:05:33,221 --> 01:05:35,222
...but it represents the period...

1000
01:05:35,307 --> 01:05:38,600
...and it represents
the category of film noir.

1001
01:05:39,019 --> 01:05:40,978
It's an old family custom.

1002
01:05:41,104 --> 01:05:45,149
Now we learn that Waldo has
arranged a party. And at the party...

1003
01:05:45,233 --> 01:05:50,070
...which is the traditional finale
of any detective film...

1004
01:05:50,155 --> 01:05:54,199
...in which all suspects are brought
together, is going to happen.

1005
01:05:55,160 --> 01:05:59,913
Characteristics of Preminger's
directorial style include...

1006
01:05:59,998 --> 01:06:04,835
...very few reaction shots,
fluid camera movements...

1007
01:06:04,919 --> 01:06:10,049
...long takes, no flashy cutting
or montage sequences...

1008
01:06:10,175 --> 01:06:12,634
...and always
impeccable compositions...

1009
01:06:12,719 --> 01:06:17,931
...with elegant settings and costumes
and truly imaginative casting.

1010
01:06:18,016 --> 01:06:22,353
Some of these things are apparent here
and others not so much...

1011
01:06:22,479 --> 01:06:25,481
...because this is the beginning
of his career.

1012
01:06:26,358 --> 01:06:29,860
Now the music.
The popular song is, in fact...

1013
01:06:29,944 --> 01:06:33,530
...still going to be heard
as background music.

1014
01:06:35,033 --> 01:06:38,911
David Raksin came
to Hollywood in 1935...

1015
01:06:39,037 --> 01:06:43,707
...with an excellent musical background.
A very well-educated man.

1016
01:06:43,917 --> 01:06:46,377
His father had operated
a music store...

1017
01:06:46,544 --> 01:06:50,381
...and also conducted accompaniment
to silent films.

1018
01:06:50,548 --> 01:06:52,633
Over his first six years
in Hollywood...

1019
01:06:52,842 --> 01:06:55,594
...Raksin arranged, adapted
and wrote music...

1020
01:06:55,762 --> 01:07:01,058
...for a very large number of features,
shorts, cartoons, documentaries...

1021
01:07:01,226 --> 01:07:04,645
...including a major assignment
from Alfred Newman...

1022
01:07:04,854 --> 01:07:07,189
...who needed someone to work
with Charlie Chaplin...

1023
01:07:07,273 --> 01:07:10,984
...on the score he wanted
to create for Modern Times.

1024
01:07:11,111 --> 01:07:14,238
Chaplin had an excellent sense
of music in films...

1025
01:07:14,322 --> 01:07:18,200
...and he could create lovely melodies.
But he couldn't write music...

1026
01:07:18,493 --> 01:07:21,078
...and he couldn't even play the piano.

1027
01:07:21,204 --> 01:07:23,205
So he needed help.

1028
01:07:25,458 --> 01:07:28,669
Raksin's big breakthrough
was with the score for this film.

1029
01:07:31,798 --> 01:07:35,342
The irony that he was nominated
for an Oscar and didn't win...

1030
01:07:35,427 --> 01:07:38,470
...is not lost on most film historians...

1031
01:07:38,638 --> 01:07:42,599
...because the score for Laura
is as famous as that of any movie.

1032
01:07:42,767 --> 01:07:45,185
And it is often used
to teach beginners...

1033
01:07:45,270 --> 01:07:49,606
...what effective use of film music
could be or should be.

1034
01:07:49,774 --> 01:07:54,278
Other scores that Raksin did that are
highly regarded are his scores...

1035
01:07:54,362 --> 01:07:59,366
...for The Bad and the Beautiful,
Will Penny, and Force of Evil.

1036
01:08:00,243 --> 01:08:03,954
Raksin's scores are also
considered highly modern...

1037
01:08:04,038 --> 01:08:08,333
...or even slightly ahead of their time.
And, of course, they hold up today.

1038
01:08:08,626 --> 01:08:11,628
Here's one of my favorite scenes
in this movie...

1039
01:08:11,713 --> 01:08:17,468
...and one of the great scenes between
two women that appears in any movie.

1040
01:08:17,635 --> 01:08:18,677
Let's watch.

1041
01:08:18,761 --> 01:08:20,804
McPherson suspects Shelby.

1042
01:08:21,764 --> 01:08:24,057
He seems to suspect me too.

1043
01:08:25,185 --> 01:08:26,518
And so do
some of my friends.

1044
01:08:26,644 --> 01:08:30,564
You? Don't be absurd.
You could never do a thing like that.

1045
01:08:30,815 --> 01:08:32,065
And Shelby?

1046
01:08:32,150 --> 01:08:35,569
I don't think he did it,
but he's capable of it.

1047
01:08:37,822 --> 01:08:40,282
Are you as interested in McPherson
as he is in you?

1048
01:08:40,366 --> 01:08:42,659
But, Ann, I only
met him last night.

1049
01:08:43,036 --> 01:08:45,037
That's more than
long enough sometimes.

1050
01:08:45,497 --> 01:08:47,456
Gene Tierney is given the key light.

1051
01:08:47,540 --> 01:08:51,043
She's turned forward
so we concentrate on her face.

1052
01:08:51,169 --> 01:08:53,754
But watch Judith Anderson.

1053
01:08:53,963 --> 01:08:56,882
Listen to Judith Anderson.

1054
01:08:57,342 --> 01:08:59,718
He's no good,
but he's what I want.

1055
01:09:00,512 --> 01:09:03,347
I'm not a nice person,
Laura. Neither is he.

1056
01:09:03,515 --> 01:09:06,600
He knows I know he's
just what he is.

1057
01:09:07,101 --> 01:09:09,478
He also knows
that I don't care.

1058
01:09:10,355 --> 01:09:14,066
We belong together because we're
both weak and can't seem to help it.

1059
01:09:14,692 --> 01:09:17,069
That's why I know
he's capable of murder.

1060
01:09:17,862 --> 01:09:19,655
He's like me.

1061
01:09:21,824 --> 01:09:23,534
No, dear, I didn't.

1062
01:09:24,869 --> 01:09:28,288
That is an impeccable performance.
As she puts on her makeup...

1063
01:09:28,373 --> 01:09:31,375
...straightens her hair
and pulls down her veil...

1064
01:09:31,543 --> 01:09:34,795
...what she is doing
is as natural-looking as anything...

1065
01:09:34,879 --> 01:09:40,133
...you'd ever see in the movies,
but she's presenting a grim truth.

1066
01:09:40,218 --> 01:09:41,385
"I am capable of murder.

1067
01:09:42,053 --> 01:09:44,012
"I didn't do it, but I could have."

1068
01:09:44,097 --> 01:09:45,639
I love that scene.

1069
01:09:45,723 --> 01:09:50,143
It's also a great example
of directorial style.

1070
01:09:50,270 --> 01:09:51,770
Gene Tierney is the star.

1071
01:09:51,938 --> 01:09:55,399
She is turned toward the camera
and placed in the light...

1072
01:09:55,567 --> 01:09:58,277
...and is just reacting and listening.

1073
01:09:58,444 --> 01:10:02,072
But the emphasis
on Judith Anderson...

1074
01:10:02,156 --> 01:10:05,242
...is done with great balance
and presentation.

1075
01:10:05,785 --> 01:10:11,081
Now everyone waits to see
who, in fact, will be arrested.

1076
01:10:11,165 --> 01:10:12,916
You'll see when I come in.

1077
01:10:13,251 --> 01:10:15,419
Right. See you later.

1078
01:10:20,758 --> 01:10:23,677
Audiences always laugh at that.

1079
01:10:24,470 --> 01:10:27,347
Everybody's apprehensive.

1080
01:10:28,766 --> 01:10:31,435
Is it Judith Anderson?
Is it Vincent Price?

1081
01:10:31,603 --> 01:10:34,605
Is it Clifton Webb? Or...

1082
01:10:35,315 --> 01:10:38,150
It's Gene Tierney. Yes.

1083
01:10:38,276 --> 01:10:40,569
Oh, Bessie, poor Bessie.

1084
01:10:40,862 --> 01:10:44,072
She's got her maid's uniform on.
It's a two-outfit role.

1085
01:10:45,158 --> 01:10:48,368
Not Miss Hunt. Please!

1086
01:10:48,536 --> 01:10:50,287
"Thank you, Bessie."

1087
01:10:50,371 --> 01:10:52,331
Thank you, Bessie.

1088
01:10:54,000 --> 01:10:55,667
Thank you.

1089
01:10:58,463 --> 01:11:01,632
Gene Tierney is wearing
one of the costumes designed for her...

1090
01:11:01,799 --> 01:11:03,508
...by Bonnie Cashin.

1091
01:11:03,676 --> 01:11:07,304
Later, of course, Gene Tierney's
costumes were all designed...

1092
01:11:07,388 --> 01:11:09,723
...by her husband, Oleg Cassini.

1093
01:11:10,183 --> 01:11:14,478
But these clothes are remarkable
for how well they hold up.

1094
01:11:14,646 --> 01:11:18,857
Except for those exceedingly odd hats
that she walks around in...

1095
01:11:19,108 --> 01:11:21,401
...where they're folded back
from her forehead...

1096
01:11:21,486 --> 01:11:24,529
...everything could
actually be worn today.

1097
01:11:26,616 --> 01:11:28,325
Try to prove her guilty.

1098
01:11:28,409 --> 01:11:31,578
Get on the witness stand
with your poor shreds of evidence.

1099
01:11:31,704 --> 01:11:34,790
I'll expose your cheap methods
you used on her.

1100
01:11:35,041 --> 01:11:38,669
Laura was remade twice for television.

1101
01:11:38,836 --> 01:11:44,007
In 1953, with the beautiful
Dana Wynter playing Laura...

1102
01:11:44,217 --> 01:11:47,594
...George Sanders playing
Waldo Lydecker...

1103
01:11:47,762 --> 01:11:51,515
...and Robert Stack playing
Mark McPherson...

1104
01:11:51,683 --> 01:11:54,851
...and directed by the stylist
John Brahm.

1105
01:11:55,019 --> 01:11:57,312
This is a great moment,
where Shelby sees...

1106
01:11:57,397 --> 01:11:59,940
...which side his bread is buttered on
and decides...

1107
01:12:00,024 --> 01:12:01,733
...to go back to Ann.

1108
01:12:03,903 --> 01:12:05,696
Come in.

1109
01:12:06,698 --> 01:12:08,240
Sit down.

1110
01:12:09,701 --> 01:12:12,369
- That'll be all, Gallagher.
- Yes, sir.

1111
01:12:12,537 --> 01:12:14,663
Now, see, under
certain circumstances...

1112
01:12:14,747 --> 01:12:16,581
...there would've been music
leading into this.

1113
01:12:16,666 --> 01:12:19,376
But I couldn't do it,
I just couldn't do it. Too corny.

1114
01:12:21,671 --> 01:12:26,007
Laura was also remade
for television in 1968...

1115
01:12:26,259 --> 01:12:31,888
...starring Jacqueline Kennedy's sister,
Lee Radziwill, as Laura.

1116
01:12:32,056 --> 01:12:36,059
That version has more or less
disappeared from the world...

1117
01:12:36,269 --> 01:12:37,894
...but the Dana Wynter version...

1118
01:12:38,062 --> 01:12:43,859
...can be seen on the Fox Movie Channel
network in the show Hour of Stars.

1119
01:12:43,985 --> 01:12:48,071
It's quite a wonderful piece, actually.
Not as good as this in any way...

1120
01:12:48,197 --> 01:12:51,450
...but very interesting.
And the comparison is wonderful.

1121
01:12:51,576 --> 01:12:55,620
So look for that Hour Of Stars
on the Fox Movie Channel.

1122
01:12:57,915 --> 01:13:00,083
Then why...

1123
01:13:00,376 --> 01:13:02,419
Why did you tell me the radio
at your country place was broken?

1124
01:13:03,755 --> 01:13:05,964
- Because it was broken.
- Not when I tried it.

1125
01:13:06,048 --> 01:13:09,050
Just as I was leaving the village,
I asked the local handyman to fix it.

1126
01:13:09,135 --> 01:13:10,427
How did he get in?

1127
01:13:10,595 --> 01:13:13,096
I always leave a key under the flowerpot
on the porch.

1128
01:13:13,806 --> 01:13:17,559
You're too intelligent to make up
something I could check so easily

1129
01:13:18,311 --> 01:13:20,854
but you're intelligent enough to have
broken it yourself to...

1130
01:13:21,022 --> 01:13:25,233
The fact that McPherson is a man
that just can't trust women...

1131
01:13:25,359 --> 01:13:31,448
...and just can't really get over
the fact that it might be her...

1132
01:13:31,616 --> 01:13:34,785
...and he is obsessed with her,
comes out in this scene.

1133
01:13:34,952 --> 01:13:36,745
Again, with the remarkable lighting.

1134
01:13:36,829 --> 01:13:40,957
Notice the two lights
in the upper left-hand frame.

1135
01:13:41,876 --> 01:13:46,338
The beautiful shadow here
of him leaning over her.

1136
01:13:47,882 --> 01:13:51,301
This is a love scene,
and a very strange one indeed...

1137
01:13:51,385 --> 01:13:56,640
...since he is interrogating her
under hot lights at the police station.

1138
01:13:56,808 --> 01:13:59,851
This is what you call
a modern kind of love story...

1139
01:14:00,019 --> 01:14:04,064
...in which the man makes love to
the woman by accusing her of murder...

1140
01:14:04,273 --> 01:14:08,985
...and by grilling her to make absolutely
sure that she can, in fact, be trusted.

1141
01:14:09,111 --> 01:14:11,988
Or did you agree to pretend you had?
Was that it?

1142
01:14:13,407 --> 01:14:15,992
She's vulnerable.

1143
01:14:17,662 --> 01:14:19,913
He explains it all to us.

1144
01:14:20,081 --> 01:14:23,750
But again, the exposition
that's contained in that...

1145
01:14:23,918 --> 01:14:27,170
...comes in the form of an argument
between them...

1146
01:14:27,380 --> 01:14:29,506
...or in the form of his grilling her...

1147
01:14:29,674 --> 01:14:33,343
...which automatically makes it
more interesting to us as viewers...

1148
01:14:33,427 --> 01:14:37,430
...because we don't really know
what is gonna happen here.

1149
01:14:38,140 --> 01:14:42,435
Now he asks a question that has
nothing really to do with the murder.

1150
01:14:42,520 --> 01:14:44,104
"Are you in love with him?"

1151
01:14:44,188 --> 01:14:48,483
Obviously he asks her
because he is in love with her.

1152
01:14:48,568 --> 01:14:52,946
And now we know it's over.
It's not Laura.

1153
01:14:53,030 --> 01:14:55,323
That's what I wanted you to think.

1154
01:14:55,867 --> 01:14:59,077
You and a few others.
I didn't even book you.

1155
01:14:59,203 --> 01:15:01,413
You mean this was
some sort of a game?

1156
01:15:01,497 --> 01:15:04,040
I was 99% certain
about you

1157
01:15:04,333 --> 01:15:06,710
but I had to get rid of
that one percent doubt.

1158
01:15:06,878 --> 01:15:09,045
It's a good question.

1159
01:15:09,213 --> 01:15:14,885
But, of course, it wouldn't be as
interesting in a movie if he didn't do it.

1160
01:15:15,011 --> 01:15:20,432
Now she forgives him. And we see
that they are going to be together.

1161
01:15:21,142 --> 01:15:23,602
I'll call a cab for you.

1162
01:15:23,728 --> 01:15:28,148
Now we're moving toward
the finale of the film.

1163
01:15:28,566 --> 01:15:31,860
Laura's going to arrive home.

1164
01:15:33,738 --> 01:15:38,450
We're going to re-establish that
her apartment is being watched.

1165
01:15:38,743 --> 01:15:42,078
This reminds us
of the guys in the basement.

1166
01:15:42,830 --> 01:15:47,999
And now we begin
to finally focus on Lydecker.

1167
01:15:48,669 --> 01:15:52,255
After allowing him to narrate
the first half of the movie...

1168
01:15:52,465 --> 01:15:57,677
...in fact, be the hero, or at least
the semi-protagonist of the first half...

1169
01:15:57,762 --> 01:16:04,309
...and then diverting suspicion from him,
now we focus on Waldo Lydecker.

1170
01:16:05,144 --> 01:16:07,854
Again, we follow McPherson
in an apartment.

1171
01:16:08,022 --> 01:16:12,275
But here it isn't atmospheric, haunting.
He's businesslike, he's crisp.

1172
01:16:12,485 --> 01:16:15,946
The camera watches him,
follows him...

1173
01:16:16,113 --> 01:16:20,116
...and as he moves, the clock chimes.

1174
01:16:20,284 --> 01:16:24,287
Suddenly he focuses on the clock.

1175
01:16:24,455 --> 01:16:28,959
The clock has been with us in the frame
from the very beginning of the movie.

1176
01:16:29,168 --> 01:16:33,672
The twin clocks,
one here and one at Laura's...

1177
01:16:33,798 --> 01:16:36,299
...subtly put forward...

1178
01:16:36,509 --> 01:16:40,095
...so that it isn't jumped on us
out of nowhere.

1179
01:16:40,304 --> 01:16:43,640
Movies really know how
to plant things visually.

1180
01:16:44,725 --> 01:16:49,437
It's a little bit wonderful
how quickly he finds the problem.

1181
01:16:50,272 --> 01:16:53,233
But then, you know, it's not
totally unbelievable either.

1182
01:16:53,317 --> 01:16:58,071
And certainly the clock has been
mentioned often enough by Waldo.

1183
01:16:58,823 --> 01:17:01,658
There we go. And here...

1184
01:17:02,994 --> 01:17:05,161
...is nothing.

1185
01:17:07,123 --> 01:17:09,207
It still doesn't
make sense to me, Laura.

1186
01:17:09,542 --> 01:17:13,003
We move over to Waldo and Laura.

1187
01:17:13,129 --> 01:17:17,966
Now Waldo is upset because
he realizes that Laura, in her way...

1188
01:17:18,050 --> 01:17:24,097
...has yet again fallen in love or begun
to focus on a man other than Waldo.

1189
01:17:24,181 --> 01:17:26,474
There's the clock at her house.

1190
01:17:26,600 --> 01:17:29,477
Reminds us again, very subtly...

1191
01:17:29,603 --> 01:17:33,606
...that there's another clock
with a hiding place.

1192
01:17:33,691 --> 01:17:35,567
...as if he were
waiting for me.

1193
01:17:35,776 --> 01:17:38,945
Do you know what
he calls women? "Dames."

1194
01:17:39,196 --> 01:17:42,574
A "dame" in Washington Heights
got a fox fur out of him.

1195
01:17:42,658 --> 01:17:46,036
- His very words.
- That doesn't mean anything.

1196
01:17:46,328 --> 01:17:48,204
He isn't like that.

1197
01:17:48,622 --> 01:17:51,207
Laura, you have
one tragic weakness.

1198
01:17:51,584 --> 01:17:54,711
With you, a lean, strong body
is the measure of a man

1199
01:17:54,795 --> 01:17:56,546
and you always get hurt.

1200
01:17:58,215 --> 01:18:00,717
No man is ever
going to hurt me again.

1201
01:18:02,053 --> 01:18:04,387
Now Laura asserts herself.

1202
01:18:04,597 --> 01:18:10,226
She realizes that Waldo plays this game
with her over and over.

1203
01:18:10,436 --> 01:18:14,397
Laura is not a weak character
in this film.

1204
01:18:15,232 --> 01:18:18,109
...except what he wants most,

1205
01:18:18,569 --> 01:18:20,695
he loses his self-respect.

1206
01:18:20,946 --> 01:18:23,156
It makes him bitter, Laura.

1207
01:18:24,909 --> 01:18:30,038
Now we begin to realize, in fact,
Waldo is the problem.

1208
01:18:31,832 --> 01:18:34,125
Until recently...

1209
01:18:34,710 --> 01:18:39,923
...people have heard stories,
film historians have been told stories...

1210
01:18:40,007 --> 01:18:44,344
...about how Preminger's version
of the film's ending was shot.

1211
01:18:44,553 --> 01:18:47,263
And there have been
different endings suggested.

1212
01:18:47,348 --> 01:18:51,226
One in which it did, actually,
turn out to be a dream sequence...

1213
01:18:51,310 --> 01:18:54,562
...which no one believes
was actually there.

1214
01:18:54,647 --> 01:18:57,398
And one in which
we have learned earlier...

1215
01:18:57,483 --> 01:19:01,569
...that Laura really does
respect and appreciate...

1216
01:19:01,654 --> 01:19:03,780
...what Waldo has done for her...

1217
01:19:03,864 --> 01:19:07,450
...and she does not want him
to be hurt.

1218
01:19:07,660 --> 01:19:12,205
She sets up a scene
in which she tries to hide the gun...

1219
01:19:12,289 --> 01:19:16,835
...and persuade Waldo to flee.
And she tries to help him get away.

1220
01:19:16,919 --> 01:19:21,047
But, in fact, he still comes back
to kill her.

1221
01:19:22,758 --> 01:19:28,054
So that version,
McPherson doesn't kill Waldo...

1222
01:19:28,139 --> 01:19:29,639
...they just capture him.

1223
01:19:30,141 --> 01:19:35,687
No one really knows exactly
whether these endings were ever shot...

1224
01:19:35,813 --> 01:19:40,150
...although Preminger says
he did shoot a second ending.

1225
01:19:40,317 --> 01:19:44,404
So we don't know exactly
what the facts of that matter are.

1226
01:19:44,613 --> 01:19:47,740
That will be something
that some enterprising film historian...

1227
01:19:47,825 --> 01:19:49,617
...will find out for us.

1228
01:19:49,702 --> 01:19:51,035
But from the beginning...

1229
01:19:51,120 --> 01:19:55,957
...we've been very much deflected
away from suspicion of Waldo.

1230
01:19:56,625 --> 01:19:58,626
The voice-over at the beginning...

1231
01:19:58,711 --> 01:20:02,005
...in which he talks to us about
remembering the day she dies...

1232
01:20:02,173 --> 01:20:06,384
...helps also to set up
his innocence for us.

1233
01:20:06,677 --> 01:20:11,639
And we don't have a lot of people
to suspect.

1234
01:20:11,724 --> 01:20:14,726
He would, of course,
be one of the key ones...

1235
01:20:14,810 --> 01:20:19,647
...so that was a clever device
in screenwriting to help us.

1236
01:20:19,732 --> 01:20:22,317
Now we see Waldo pause
on the stairs.

1237
01:20:22,401 --> 01:20:26,779
Look at the beautiful shadows.
And look at his face.

1238
01:20:26,989 --> 01:20:30,825
He looks back, and we know
that he's hatching a plan.

1239
01:20:31,952 --> 01:20:35,955
It was the most difficult thing
I ever had to do in my life.

1240
01:20:36,373 --> 01:20:38,875
All I need is the gun.

1241
01:20:39,710 --> 01:20:43,796
McPherson, ever the detective,
knows all he needs is the gun.

1242
01:20:43,881 --> 01:20:47,675
He goes and finds the clock.

1243
01:20:47,760 --> 01:20:50,220
She didn't know it had a hiding place.

1244
01:20:50,304 --> 01:20:55,350
He now finds it.
And indeed, there is the gun.

1245
01:20:55,517 --> 01:20:59,771
So McPherson now understands
exactly what has happened.

1246
01:21:02,942 --> 01:21:05,151
Have you ever seen this before?

1247
01:21:05,402 --> 01:21:09,572
The clock is ticking, ticking, ticking.

1248
01:21:10,074 --> 01:21:13,493
It all begins to come into place.

1249
01:21:14,078 --> 01:21:16,204
In case we don't get it, he tells us.

1250
01:21:18,332 --> 01:21:21,542
The music is low behind.

1251
01:21:21,752 --> 01:21:24,254
See, this is a very difficult kind
of scoring.

1252
01:21:24,421 --> 01:21:29,008
You've gotta do something which is,
in a suppressed way, dramatic.

1253
01:21:29,176 --> 01:21:30,885
And that's what there is.

1254
01:21:31,053 --> 01:21:36,432
Raksin, in his later years,
became associated with...

1255
01:21:36,600 --> 01:21:41,020
...teaching classes
in film music theory and technique.

1256
01:21:41,188 --> 01:21:44,440
One of the things I always appreciate
about David Raksin...

1257
01:21:44,525 --> 01:21:47,277
...is he's said to be the man who...

1258
01:21:47,361 --> 01:21:50,863
...when Alfred Hitchcock
said there could be no musical score...

1259
01:21:50,948 --> 01:21:55,451
...for his film Lifeboat because they
were out in the middle of the ocean...

1260
01:21:55,619 --> 01:21:58,288
...and as Hitchcock said,
"Where would the musicians be?

1261
01:21:58,372 --> 01:22:00,456
"Where would the music come from?"

1262
01:22:00,624 --> 01:22:05,128
And Raksin said, "Well, the same place
as the camera."

1263
01:22:05,296 --> 01:22:08,131
Always a wonderful story.

1264
01:22:09,008 --> 01:22:11,384
I couldn't make myself
believe that...

1265
01:22:11,593 --> 01:22:13,886
That's another one
of the little fragments, melodics.

1266
01:22:13,971 --> 01:22:17,307
See, this score
is a monothematic score.

1267
01:22:17,391 --> 01:22:19,642
There's almost no other music in it.
What there is...

1268
01:22:19,768 --> 01:22:22,270
...is these little fragments of music
which I put in...

1269
01:22:22,438 --> 01:22:26,316
...which are intended, you know,
to add a little depth and glamour...

1270
01:22:26,483 --> 01:22:29,485
...without really changing the thing.

1271
01:22:29,653 --> 01:22:31,654
I'm as guilty as he is,

1272
01:22:31,822 --> 01:22:35,783
not for anything I did,
but for what I didn't do.

1273
01:22:37,870 --> 01:22:41,873
Now we are presented with Laura
as a sympathetic woman...

1274
01:22:41,999 --> 01:22:46,085
...but reminded that Waldo
has not left the building...

1275
01:22:46,170 --> 01:22:48,713
...and we see him turn and head back.

1276
01:22:49,214 --> 01:22:52,925
I can't understand why you've tried so
hard to protect Shelby the last few days.

1277
01:22:53,010 --> 01:22:55,094
I was nearly frantic for fear
you'd arrest Shelby.

1278
01:22:55,179 --> 01:22:58,348
I knew he wasn't guilty.
He hasn't enough courage to kill a fly.

1279
01:22:58,515 --> 01:23:00,558
And Waldo was doing everything
he could...

1280
01:23:00,642 --> 01:23:04,520
We're now told what, in fact,
we already have seen...

1281
01:23:04,688 --> 01:23:09,275
...but the objective balance
that was given to it before...

1282
01:23:09,360 --> 01:23:15,531
...is now reshaped for us
as explanation and motivation.

1283
01:23:16,533 --> 01:23:18,618
This is one of those odd things...

1284
01:23:18,702 --> 01:23:22,872
...that he does, in fact,
put the gun back in the clock...

1285
01:23:22,956 --> 01:23:26,042
...to have it all picked up tomorrow.

1286
01:23:26,210 --> 01:23:29,212
You sort of wish
he had taken it with him.

1287
01:23:35,219 --> 01:23:36,761
He makes sure she's locked in...

1288
01:23:36,887 --> 01:23:39,639
...but he's doing that thing
that movie people do...

1289
01:23:39,723 --> 01:23:42,558
...which is the equivalent of
going down to the basement...

1290
01:23:42,643 --> 01:23:44,352
...or up to the attic.

1291
01:23:44,520 --> 01:23:50,316
He's leaving her alone,
knowing that Waldo is on the loose.

1292
01:23:50,484 --> 01:23:53,984
Of course, the film
has clearly established for us...

1293
01:23:54,071 --> 01:23:56,322
...there's someone watching outside...

1294
01:23:56,490 --> 01:24:00,576
...and there are the men in the basement
listening to her phone calls.

1295
01:24:00,744 --> 01:24:03,246
So on that basis, it seems logical.

1296
01:24:03,455 --> 01:24:06,374
And very quickly,
that will be resolved.

1297
01:24:06,500 --> 01:24:10,670
Now we are alone with Laura
in her apartment.

1298
01:24:10,879 --> 01:24:16,384
Again, now the clock,
fully established for what it is...

1299
01:24:16,552 --> 01:24:19,262
...her music and her portrait...

1300
01:24:20,222 --> 01:24:24,725
...her space, her beautiful apartment
with her beautiful things...

1301
01:24:24,810 --> 01:24:29,147
...the sense of her as this mysterious
and wonderful woman.

1302
01:24:29,231 --> 01:24:31,607
She turns out the lights...

1303
01:24:31,775 --> 01:24:35,111
...and goes alone into her bedroom...

1304
01:24:35,279 --> 01:24:41,075
...and we see she is alone. And now
swish pan over to the kitchen door...

1305
01:24:41,326 --> 01:24:45,913
...which everybody conveniently forgot
Waldo would have a key to...

1306
01:24:45,998 --> 01:24:50,126
...or be able to enter through.
And here is Waldo.

1307
01:24:50,711 --> 01:24:55,047
Waldo has told us earlier
to be sure and listen to his broadcast.

1308
01:24:56,216 --> 01:25:01,053
So we know that there is
a broadcast to be arranged...

1309
01:25:01,138 --> 01:25:03,848
...to be listened to.
That's good screenwriting...

1310
01:25:03,974 --> 01:25:08,686
...and explaining how he will cover
his own entrance.

1311
01:25:08,770 --> 01:25:11,772
And everyone assumes
he's at the broadcast...

1312
01:25:11,857 --> 01:25:14,734
...which is one of the reasons
they're not worried for him.

1313
01:25:14,818 --> 01:25:20,031
But because the gun is still there,
he is able to bring it out.

1314
01:25:20,741 --> 01:25:23,576
The clock chimes,
always the clock.

1315
01:25:24,411 --> 01:25:27,663
Now she knows it's time
to listen to Waldo's broadcast...

1316
01:25:27,831 --> 01:25:30,249
...and she goes to turn on the radio...

1317
01:25:30,375 --> 01:25:32,710
...which is beautifully built
into her wall...

1318
01:25:32,794 --> 01:25:37,340
...in a very modern, modernistic way
for the day.

1319
01:25:37,591 --> 01:25:39,175
Waldo's voice.

1320
01:25:39,343 --> 01:25:43,221
And thus,
as history has proved, love is eternal.

1321
01:25:44,306 --> 01:25:47,308
It has been the strongest motivation
for human actions

1322
01:25:47,392 --> 01:25:49,227
throughout centuries.

1323
01:25:49,728 --> 01:25:51,812
Love is stronger than life.

1324
01:25:52,356 --> 01:25:55,441
It reaches beyond
the dark shadow of death.

1325
01:25:56,693 --> 01:26:01,197
I close this evening's broadcast
with some favorite lines from Dowson.

1326
01:26:01,698 --> 01:26:06,536
Now Waldo will quote Dowson's
Days of Wine and Roses...

1327
01:26:07,454 --> 01:26:10,540
...as he prepares to murder her...

1328
01:26:10,707 --> 01:26:14,710
...as he speaks of love,
the importance of love...

1329
01:26:14,878 --> 01:26:20,383
...and as he tells us once again,
indirectly, that he loves Laura.

1330
01:26:21,635 --> 01:26:24,220
Now we find out that he didn't leave.

1331
01:26:26,390 --> 01:26:29,016
So they start checking for him.

1332
01:26:29,226 --> 01:26:31,227
Laura's listening.

1333
01:26:33,397 --> 01:26:36,899
And Waldo appears, beautifully lit.

1334
01:26:39,236 --> 01:26:42,196
Then closes within a dream...

1335
01:26:43,574 --> 01:26:45,783
- That's the way it is, isn't it, Laura?
- Waldo!

1336
01:26:45,951 --> 01:26:48,411
You have
heard the voice of Waldo Lydecker

1337
01:26:48,495 --> 01:26:50,121
by electrical transcription.

1338
01:26:50,205 --> 01:26:53,374
In those days, the explanation
would be necessary.

1339
01:26:53,458 --> 01:26:57,044
How could he be narrating
and not be present?

1340
01:26:57,129 --> 01:27:01,841
So they make sure we understand
it was electrical transcription...

1341
01:27:01,925 --> 01:27:05,595
...which is what a recording
was called then, for radio release.

1342
01:27:05,721 --> 01:27:08,139
Do you think I could bear the thought
of him holding you in his arms...

1343
01:27:08,223 --> 01:27:10,850
And now Waldo's obsession
comes forward...

1344
01:27:11,435 --> 01:27:17,857
...and his inability to ever allow her
to have any life other than with him.

1345
01:27:17,941 --> 01:27:21,986
He'll find us together, Laura,
as we always have been...

1346
01:27:22,112 --> 01:27:27,074
But Laura doesn't collapse,
she tries to save herself.

1347
01:27:27,159 --> 01:27:31,454
She runs forward,
and now comes the big finale.

1348
01:27:32,331 --> 01:27:38,836
Waldo lurching forward,
being shot, dying, falling...

1349
01:27:41,590 --> 01:27:45,760
...and saying, "Goodbye, Laura."

1350
01:27:46,011 --> 01:27:50,598
His entire life...
And there's the clock.

1351
01:27:50,891 --> 01:27:55,311
...was taken up with
his obsession with Laura.

1352
01:27:56,021 --> 01:27:57,897
Good-bye, my love.

1353
01:27:58,273 --> 01:28:01,776
And goodbye, my audience.
Thank you very much...

1354
01:28:01,860 --> 01:28:04,987
...for watching the movie with me.
Thank you.