Laura (1968)

Instant Favorite.

Fantastic!

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I was 21 when this aired, a big fan of the 1944 movie "Laura" and was eagerly anticipating it. However, I remember being very disappointed. I know Radziwill got poor reviews from the critics and it seemed to end her acting career. It might have rerun within that same year. Then it disappeared. I'd almost forgotten it. I do remember a published comment by Robert Stack. Something about the way the camera lenses were used to make Radziwill look younger and "they had me looking like Grandma Moses." And he was right, he looked shockingly old and wrinkled. I looked it up and he was 49 and she was 35 at the time.I would call it a teleplay because it was staged like play not like a TV movie. It had a distinguish cast, but I remember thinking she wasn't a very good actress and wasn't surprised by the critics.

I remember the evening that Laura was on, as if it were yesterday. I was a 7 year old all things Kennedy fan and prepared for HRH Lee by taking my bath early and nestling in front of the black and while set in my pajamas and robe. In retrospect, I was an uber gay Waldo Lydecker...dreaming of the day when I could type my column while soaking in the bath. At 7, I had already seen the original film and found it mesmerizing. I found this version, and Lee's acting, incredible. However, considering I was 7, I don't know that my memory is firing on all cylinders in terms of recall. Was it good? Was it as bad as others recall? We must find a copy...and you know Lee has one. Release it. Release it.

I thought Radziwill was fine, though not as charismatic as Tierney, but Stack was at least as good as Dana Andrews, and George Sanders was just as good as Webb (meaning that both were absolutely perfect). The big improvement, though, was the casting of Arlene Francis and Farley Granger in the parts played in the movie by Judith Anderson and Vincent Price. Price came off as a eunuch and Anderson as an iron maiden, whereas Francis had an itch and Granger was the stud who could scratch it. I remember one scene where we burst into Francis's apartment and found them tangled up on the sofa together. He did his sort of "who-me?" innocent boy thing, and Francis was all "Yeah, what?" with an unapologetic smirk. You could certainly understand what part of Laura Farley Granger had appealed to, whereas Price simply came off as Tierney's charity project. I'd love to see it again lo these many years later.

I have a misty, none-too-clear memory of having watched this when it appeared on TV. SPOILER The main thing which stuck with me, though -- the "touch" which marked this as Capote's take on the story -- was that, when Sanders as Lydecker ended up in the apartment with the gun, what he did was shoot the face off the painting of Radziwill's Laura. As if, in other words, he were revenging himself against the image which haunted them all.Blam! Thud! Wow, man, what an *inspiration* . . . .