Noir-a-Thon: Laura (1944)

After the double feature of This Gun For Hire and Double Indemnity last week got us back in to the swing of things we moved on to the first of three Otto Preminger movies that made the 125 film cut, Laura.


Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price
Year: 1944
Country of origin: USA
Language: English

Synopsis: Laura (Gene Tierney) is found murdered in an apartment, Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) investigates a trio of middle/high class suspects who all have reasons to want her dead.


What Indie Nights? review

Happy Tuesday Bbbg-ers. Hope your respective weeks were fabulous. Welcome to another noir extravaganza, a somewhat subtle example of the genre, to say the least.



I have to say that Laura is definitely the least obvious noir we've watched so far (discounting The Glass Key, which was so far off the mark that we took it off the list). It has none of the genre's indicators that we've come to look out for: the lighting is notably lacking in starkness and there are only a minimum number of venetian blinds, and even those aren't used to the full effect. There are some great shadows cast by hats on faces, some trenchcoats are worn in the rain like there's no tomorrow, and cigarettes are smoked like they're going out of style, but truthfully, these elements are probably present in every film made in the era and taken separately they do not constitute a film noir.

Another point of contention is that there is really no femme fatale, no actual criminals in the conventional sense at all; there is, in fact, no seedy underbelly of society on which the viewer can place all the blame and feel justified.



Indeed, Laura is unflinching in the method in which the criminal is brought to light - we suspect all the usual players (the slimy gold-digging boyfriend, the jealous older woman, the maid, the cop himself) but in the end we are forced to face the fact that the murderer had no underlying criminal tendencies, and that his motives were extremely personal, a fact that is much more unsettling than the ease of blaming it all on the criminal underworld.

It is here, of course, that the film deviates from traditional noir - another novel adaptation, it displays many more of the characteristics of a classic Agatha Christie-like detective story than of a hardboiled crime novel. And there is more than a little of the Queen of Crime's touch to Laura - it is above all a story of relationships, of the intricacies of human beings' complex and twisted feelings towards one another.



This is made far knottier by the sexual confusion running rife beneath the film's outer layer - the Lydecker character, written in the novel as a homosexual, has to be played straight to satisfy the morality code, and the cop's clear sexual ambiguity makes for relationships completely lacking in tension and chemistry, including one of the most wimpy first (and only) kisses ever to be set down on celluloid. Unfortunately, the adherence to traditional class values combined with the casting of obviously gay actors means the characters are not really played properly, and serves only to give the entire story a gleam of unreality and untruth.

Ultimately, because of all this, the film doesn't linger with the viewer, and we are left with the vague feeling that there was something we didn't quite get, or that something terribly important was left out, and if we could only scratch that itch, everything would fall into place. It is an itch, however, that will not get scratched.



Blahblahblahtoby review

It would be very easy to give away spoilers for this film, the major one revolves around a key plot element after all, but I will try my best to avoid them for those of you who haven't seen this and are yet to hear what actually happens.

There is a lot less of the traditional noir use of high contrast light and shadow, being replaced by a lot more of the warmth and soft lighting of society apartments and whilst the ghost of Laura has a strong hold over these men she is far from a femme fatale; her role is largely passive despite times when (as is standard for women in noir) she is painted as untrustworthy.



On face value this isn't really a noir, it's closer to a Hitchcockian melodrama, but I think this is our first encounter with Dugnant's Middle Class Murder theme. We have a not-quite-hard-boiled detective investigating a society murder who finds himself followed around by three overly helpful yet not too concerned suspects whilst becoming ensnared by an obsession with the victim, Laura.

There's no doubting the fact that Gene Tierney is a beautiful woman, but also smart and determined, her character, in flashback, blazing the trail later followed by Peggy in Mad Men as she climbs the ladder in a male dominated advertising agency. However at no point do you get the impression that she would lie, cheat or persuade men to kill for her. This leaves her as nothing more than a bauble for men to crave.



The extroverted, idiosyncratic performance of Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker is almost a show stealer; witty, erudite, pompous and a self-applauding manner is a whole lot of fun to watch; "in my case, self-absorption is completely justified. I have never discovered any other subject quite so worthy of my attention." He baits the other characters and always has a reproach waiting for them in response. His complete contrast with Dana Andrews adds an extra layer to proceedings; calling him, with obvious contempt, "muscular and handsome in a cheap sort of way" whilst constantly trying to undermine his actions.



Andrews for his part seems to be channeling the Alan Ladd school of film noir hero and gives a subtly great performance as the pragmatic, unromantic, typically masculine cop adding meaning to scenes with a simple facial gesture that could easily get missed by the unobservant viewer.

I noticed nothing special in Preminger's direction, it is solid if not spectacular and includes some long takes in which the camera follows the characters around the sets, lingering on some of the homoerotic moments between the two male leads - Andrews initial interview with Webb starts with Webb in the bath and continues as he dries himself in front of Andrews! - and at times giving you a sense that you are another of the suspects tagging along with the detective.



In terms of theme, aside from being populated by morally corrupt people who treat murder lightly (Middle Class Murder) there's more than a hint of Sexual Pathology and Portraits & Doubles throughout. I believe the three motifs will turn out to be intrinsically linked as the Noir-a-Thon rolls onwards.

Laura is a highly enjoyable film but also quite forgettable. I had seen this one a few years ago and had completely forgotten that I'd already seen it by the time I pressed play this time round. It is however definitely worth watching.



I know Brian saw this recently but has anyone else seen it? What did you think? Anyone adding it to their watchlist? Leave me some blah below.

And now for some coming attractions

The Week In Movies 19/9/11 - 25/9/11

The weeks really rack up when you keep track of them this way. The year is flying past. I saw all the Christmas stock at the company warehouse today. That was sort of depressing. But at least a Southern Hemisphere Christmas means generally a nice warm sunny time filled with beer, mojitos, picnics and the beach.

I managed to completely miss the Russian Resurrection Film Festival too. I can't believe it. If this was my job I'd expect to get fired for flagrant disregard of my responsibilities. I know I'm gonna be cursing myself for missing some of those films at the cinema too. I managed to miss How I Ended This Summer at the International Arts Festival in January and it's only just come out on DVD now, that kind of delay is no fun at all.

This week marked my grand reveal as an official contributor to Front Room Cinema which I marked with a look at some of the films that shaped my viewing tastes from my the last 20 years of watching movies.

On the home front I saw some films and I saw some movies, I squeezed them in to every spare second and took several attempts to get some finished in between sleeping whilst forcing myself to stay awake for others.


Starting with the two Japanese films screened this week, Seijun Suzuki's Tokyo Drifter was part of my Top 5 Yakuza movies post a while back and it sat in my mind demanding to be seen ever since. A brilliant piece of cinema whose influence over Quentin Tarantino is so totally and completely obvious. It's a wonderful mixture of violence, ridiculous yakuza movie plotting and French New Wave sensibilities. For a look at some of the incredible imagery on offer go see Leah at What Indie Nights? and her post on this movie. I'm gonna try to see some more of Suzuki's work this week, here's hoping I find some time.

Saturday night saw me sitting alone on the sofa whilst Leah worked and I took the chance to see Pulse after the glowing recommendation received from Jason at Genkinahito. Leah doesn't watch horror movies. I wish she had because this one was excellent. The director, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, seems to have a real talent for creating incredibly disturbing scenes through some quite wonderful cinematography and creepy sound design. I hardly paid attention to the dialogue at times and just soaked up the atmosphere. I certainly agree with the 'existential horror' tag placed on it and if you have any interest in Asian horror films this one should be an essential watch alongside Ringu.


This week's Noir-a-Thon is bringing us to Otto Preminger's 1944 melodrama Laura. So tune in on Tuesday for that review. We saw another classic crime melodrama this week too. Billy Wilder's adaptation of the Agatha Christie play Witness For The Prosecution. Starring Tyrone Power, Charles Laughton and film noir icon Marlene Dietrich this movie is pure entertainment. It is both witty and clever with a fantastic ending, so shocking for it;s time that the film ends with a disclaimer that the audience refrain from telling their friends the outcome so that they can enjoy it for themselves. Do you remember when that idiot told you that Bruce Willis was already dead in The Sixth Sense? I imagine spoiling Witness For The Prosecution for people in 1957 would have been a million times worse. This movie is on the imdb Top 250 and deservedly so in my opinion.


Watching Paul Schrader's American Gigolo I was amazed at the concept of Richard Gere actually being a decent actor and quite an attractive man, because let's be honest he now looks quite a lot like a rat and is reliably awful in everything he does. Paul Schrader is known for looking at the underside of American society and in this movie he paints a believable and disturbing portrait of a man, a satyromaniac in fact, whose carefully constructed life falls apart around him only to find true love. I enjoyed it by the time the denouement rolled round but I had some difficulty with the murder storyline seeming superfluous until then.

Following up one movie about a sex industry with another we saw Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights next. I'd seen it before, but when I was much younger, and I never really appreciated it for what it actually was, finding it a little long among other negative things. Watching it again from a much more mature point of view I realised just why everyone who loves it does so. An often fun and occasionally poignant but always honest look at a group of disparate people linked by their choice of occupation. Julianne Moore is incredible, as always, but this is another fine example of PTA's work with a great ensemble cast.

And then there was Green Lantern. Ordinarily a movie this dull, this un-entertaining and unimaginative would be found under the blahblahblahgay turnoffs heading but as I was alone with some rum and it starred my guilty pleasure Ryan Reynolds I sat in vain hope that at some point I might start to enjoy it. Sadly I couldn't even bring myself to laugh at it's lack of redeeming features I was just so bored.

Another week of a single blablahblahgay turnoff on the list, and for the second week in a row it was a really poor adaptation of a Michael Crichton novel that got turned off. The Dustin Hoffman, Samuel L. Jackson, Sharon Stone starring Sphere is over 2 hours long and incredibly boring throughout. A really bad performance from Stone dragged the acting quality of everyone else down but where this movie failed was in it's direction and its script. A really poor adaptation of a book I've read several times.

There were some great films here, of the less obvious/recent films I highly recommend Tokyo Drifter, Witness For The Prosecution and Pulse. If you've seen them already what were your thoughts? Am I too gushing with praise? I'm always open to recommendations so feel free to suggest something you think I might like in the blahs. On the subject of recommendations if you haven't been over to see Tyler at Southern Vision recently he has a great post to recommend movies based on your own personal taste, check it out here.

Noir-a-Thon Double Feature Part 2: Double Indemnity (1944)

Sadly the DVD of Alfred Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt we bought from eBay would not play so we had to scratch it off of the list, this means we jump straight through to 1944 and Billy Wilders classic, Double Indemnity. If you missed the first part of this weeks double feature you'll find it here and all the Noir-a-thon reviews here.


Director: Billy Wilder
Starring: Fred MacMurray, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward G. Robinson
Year: 1944
Country of origin: USA
Language: English

Synopsis: Star insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) narrates his fall from grace as he encounters a dame he can't resist (Barbara Stanwyck) with an offer he can't refuse.


What Indie Nights? review

Greetings once more, BBBG readers, long time no see.
Following on from yesterday's This Gun For Hire post we're bowing at the pedestal of the noir classic Double Indemnity.



As a total film neophyte before I met Toby, I had to admit that I had never heard of the film, or of Billy Wilder (Sacrilege! Disgust! Fainting and general astonishment ensue!), but in much the same way that one watches Casablanca or Gone With The Wind for the first time having had them built up within popular culture all one's life, the inevitable starting point will be 'It can't be as good as all that - it's so old!'. The amount of sour grapes I've had to eat with that sentiment in mind, faithful readers, I don't even want to talk about...

This is an intensely dark film, perhaps the first that truly earns the title of noir in every sense. Many of the scenes are so visually dark that screenshots are infeasible - night-for-night outside shots, night-time inside shots where the curtains get closed and the lights turned off; sometimes the only reference points are the glitter of an actor's eye or the streetlights outside the windows. And the story is certainly the darkest we have seen thus far on our noir travels - where cold-blooded murder can be committed for nothing more than money and the hallmarks of love can be manufactured and thrown aside as easily as a ten-cent tin of beans.



Barbara Stanwyck is a femme fatale formidable, the coldest and most focused yet. Her plans as exposed by Neff in the penultimate scene (in a room with all lights off and all curtains drawn) are the image of Brigid O'Shaugnessy's litany of murders and crimes done in the name of the Maltese Falcon as exposed by Sam Spade. But Phyllis Dietrichson's cold, calculating actions are infinitely more chilling than O'Shaugnessy's wildly opposing, emotional reactions to obstacle and accusation - Spade laughs at Brigid and never lets himself get taken in by her act, whereas Neff has been caught from the first in Phyllis's subtle web of desire and temptation. Where Brigid weeps and throws herself on the mercy of the men around her, Phyllis coolly manipulates them into positions that will be of most benefit to her. As femmes fatale go, Phyllis Dietrichson leaves all the others eating her dust.



Much has been said about the supermarket setting, and I dare say much of it might be true - the brightly-lit can-stacked aisles provide about as much contrast to the pitch-black Old-Hollywood mansions and insurance offices as is possible on celluloid. Placing his noir characters in a public, family space, in broad daylight, Wilder highlights their absurdity compared to the everyday world - do things like this really happen? he seems to be asking the viewer, almost reassuring them.

Not in our comfortable world of baby food and tinned beans, no sir. This American dream is enough for all of us… or is it?


Blahblahblahtoby review

The first time I saw Double Indemnity I was stunned by the sheer weight of its ending, a thoroughly downbeat way to finish a film despite knowing right from the start that what we are watching is one man's dying confession.



Directed by Billy Wilder, this is one of the master's early efforts, six years before Sunset Boulevard opened an incredible decade of films from him and with a screenplay written by pulp fiction great Raymond Chandler based on fellow legendary pulp writer James M. Cain's novel this film has so much going for it on paper that it's no surprise that it has become known as one of THE great films of Hollywoods golden era. Currenty ranked #54 on imdb's Top 250 its reputation precedes it and as such some are disappointed when viewing for the first time.

But in so many ways this is a perfect example of the films noir cycle. The perfect murder for money and a woman that inevitably goes wrong, the cunning and conniving Barbara Stanwyck who leads MacMurray astray, location shooting at night, a knowing narration from the hard boiled protagonist, subtle homoeroticism, the inevitable betrayal and death of the protagonist, a fatalistic tone throughout and snappy dialogue all contributing to this film being rightly lauded as such.



Aside from the atmospheric lighting and camera positioning that Wilder and his Director of Photography John F. Seitz worked hard to produce, providing the fatalistic tone of the piece; my favourite part of the film is the performance of Edward G. Robinson. His character of chief claims investigator Barton Keyes is a wonderful creation, filled with personality that only someone as talented as Robinson could do justice to. His “little man” inside him could quite easily have become something silly and campy in the wrong hands but this great actor steals the film from third billing as Neff describes the actions of his boss to us in flashback. The fact that the flashback scenes are from the point of view of Neff highlights the homoerotic nature of his relationship with the romanticised figure of Keyes and makes the explicit “I Love You” ending acceptable to the viewer in the Hays Code era of Hollywood production, they’re very close friends after all.

As far as motifs go there is a clear use of the Middle Class Murder and Sexual Pathology signifiers with Stanwyck as arch black widow chasing the money and not caring how many men she ruins along the way and MacMurray opening the film with “Yeah I killed him, I killed him for money and for a woman. I didn’t get the money and I didn’t get the woman. Pretty isn’t it?”



There’s some interesting sub-plots including a relationship with the young daughter of his victim, Lola Dietrichson (obviously an homage to The Blue Angel’s Lola Lola played by Marlene Dietrich) and some extremely tense moments that if this were any other film I might feel the need to way lyrical about but Double Indemnity should need no further praise; it’s a classic, enjoy it for what it is and take great pleasure in the Chandler dialogue and double entendres in the first part of the film.

How do you feel about this movie? Are you in agreement with the classic tag? Has it been wrongly praised and sat on too high a pedestal? Leave some blah below, let us know how you feel and don't forget to come back next week for more from the Noir-a-Thon.

And now for some coming attractions