8.1 | / 10 |
Users | 5.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
A detective investigating a murder falls in love with the dead woman's portrait.
Starring: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price, Judith AndersonFilm-Noir | 100% |
Romance | 54% |
Thriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio Mono (48kHz, 24-bit)
Spanish: Dolby Digital Mono
French: Dolby Digital Mono
English SDH, French, Spanish, Dutch
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
It was director Otto Preminger's first great film, and—though Anatomy of a Murder gives it a run—it may be his greatest. The 1944 film noir Laura is one of studio Hollywood's classic whodunits, but the twisting plot and suckerpunch surprises are only the beginning of the film's charms. Yes, it's a mystery movie—and one that keeps you guessing until the last act—but more than that, it's a dark examination of romantic obsession, female idolization, and the male desire to possess and control. If not a prototypical noir in a visual sense—much of it takes place in relatively bright interiors, with few concessions to intense chiaroscuro lighting, dutch angles, or the like—it has many of the genre's thematic hallmarks. A flawed, morally suspect protagonist. A potential femme fatale. An underbelly of sex and violence. Acidic dialogue. A wary cynicism about love. More than anything, though, the film is defined by its uneasy ambiguity. With a screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Elizabeth Reinhardt—based on a novel by Vera Caspary, who would be graylisted in the 1950s for her communist sympathies—Preminger keeps us questioning the supposedly good intentions of the film's characters. Especially the male ones, who are each—in their own ways—infatuated with the titular Laura, played by legendary screen beauty Gene Tierney.
In love with a portrait...
20th Century Fox has been doing some fine work lately with the "Studio Classics" line of Blu-ray remasters, and Laura is no exception. With a 1080p/AVC-encoded transfer that's been carefully restored—removing all specks and debris—Joseph LaShelle's Academy Award-winning black and white cinematography looks better than it ever has on home video. While not quite as moody as some of LaShelle's other collaborations with Preminger, this film noir's photography is luscious, with deep shadows and crisp but never overblown highlights. There are a few scenes where black levels are slightly elevated—I'm thinking of the sequence where Lydecker waits outside Laura's apartment in the snow—but this is presumably to preserve detail. Overall, the tonal balance is excellent. Clarity is strong too. From the weft of Waldo's slim-fitting suits to the texture of McPherson's face, high definition detail is in abundance, with the only noticeable softness occurring—understandably—during cross-dissolve scene transitions. Just as importantly, the print looks entirely natural, with no smeary digital noise reduction—fine film grain is easily visible here—and no edge enhancement or other unnecessary embellishments. No compression or encode concerns either. A fantastic looking mid-century film on Blu-ray.
Laura is of course known for the popular eponymous jazz-standard song that composer David Raksin's haunting main theme inspired—it's been recorded over 400 times, by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane—and as you'd hope, the music here sounds wonderful. The film's lossless DTS-HD Master Audio mono track is clear, dynamically broad, and wonderfully detailed. There's none of the tinny, crackly high-end you sometimes get with scores from this era, and any crackles, clicks, hisses, or thumps that may have existed on the source tapes have been completely attenuated here. The audio is very clean. This goes for the dialogue too, which is always bright and full and easy to understand. The disc includes optional English SDH, Spanish, French, and Dutch subtitles—in white, drop-shadowed lettering—as well as French and Spanish dubs in Dolby Digital 1.0.
With one minor addition—a short retrospective with interviews of several film critics/historians—the extras on Laura's Blu-ray release have been ported straight from the 2005 DVD, including two audio commentaries, two A&E biographical documentaries, a deleted scene, and a theatrical trailer. Also note that the disc includes both the theatrical cut and an extended cut that runs one-minute longer and shows a montage of Laura's rise to high- society status, a sequence that was deemed too "off-putting in its decadence" for wartime audiences.
For fans of classic Hollywood mystery—and film noir in particular—20th Century Fox's newly minted Laura Blu-ray is simply a must-own release.
A sharp examination of unhealthy obsession and manipulation, the film is one of Otto Preminger's best, featuring Academy Award-winning
cinematography from Joseph LaShelle and a main theme that would inspire jazz singers for years to come. With a few minor changes, the Blu-ray is
basically a straight port of the 2005 DVD, but I don't hesitate to recommend shelling out for the upgrade—the film is gorgeous in high definition, and
David Raksin's score sounds better than ever. Get it and bask in the beauty of Gene Tierney; her face was made for cinema.
The film is currently unavailable at Amazon—for unspecified reasons—but I imagine it will be back in stock shortly.
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