That haunting portrait (here in color), that David Raskin theme, floral centerpieces, New York apartments with elegant, curtains and furnishings...it can only be that 1944 classic, "Laura," darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, my God, girls, did you see it, last night, on Channel 13??????????
Every time I see "Laura" I realize how perfect it is, from the dialogue, right down to the production design.
This film operates on two levels as gay fantasy. Speaking for myself, I would LOVE to have Laura's apartment, just as it was in this film! The curtains; oh, God!!!!!!!!!!!
The second is the notion of gay men wanting to be glamorous, like Laura, or surrounded by glamour like her, as embodied by Clifton Webb's brilliant, and daring for its time performance as Waldo Lydecker, who is a study in obsession. Webb was Oscar nominated for this performance in the Supporting Actor, but is in the film so much I think he should have been m=nominated as Best Actor.
As for Gene Tierney, and her patrician beauty, this is the film that, had she done no other, she would be remembered for today.
I always said "Laura" was full of home decorating and fashion ideas!!!!!!!!!! Now I would like to implement them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And meet for glamorous luncheons, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I've always had a complex relationship to this film. On one hand, I dream of being Laura (who doesn't?): glamorous, sophisticated, with a blue-collar, uber-butch, uber-protective policeman for a lover. OTOH, I'm also that cop Marc McPherson (Dana Andrews), a less-educated but street-smart mook who yearns for some magical image of 1940s Manhattan chic and refinement to sweep me off my feet and agree to take me on. On the third hand, I'm Waldo: a conflicted, not-always-self-aware obsessive enthralled with the ideal of molding Laura to suit me yet also powerless to resist Marc's brutish masculine allure.
ReplyDeleteOf course, forty+ years after I first saw this film on PBS-13, I must accept it as unattainable fantasy. The 1940s are long gone, along with the wonderful NYC of that era, Laura herself proved to be somewhat of a sham (tho an endearing one), Marc wasn't all that bright after all, and Waldo was a friggin psycho who ended up dead and exposed, his carefully-wrought image obliterated.