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DVD Laura
This silky smooth film noir pits gruff police detective Dana Andrews, stiff and blunt in his street-bred manners, against a cultured columnist and acidic wit (Clifton Webb at his prissiest) in a battle of wits during a murder investigation. The cop is a romantic hiding under a hard-boiled exterior who falls in love with the beautiful victim through the portrait that hangs in her apartment. Gene Tierney, whose heart-shaped face mixes the exotic with the girl next door, brings the poise and calm of a model to her role as the object of every man's gaze and the target of a killer. Laura, handsomely shot in dreamy black and white, is the first and best of Otto Preminger's cool, controlled murder mysteries. In the gritty world of film noir it remains the most refined and elegant example of the genre, but under the tasteful decor and high-society fashions lies a world seething in jealousy, passion, blackmail, and murder. Vincent Price costars as a blithe gigolo and David Raksin's lush theme has become a wistful romantic standard. --Sean Axmaker
I am so glad my father made me watch this movie. "Laura" is a fantastic movie. It is, in my opinion, the greatest film noir thriller that has ever been created.
Detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is put in charge of the murder of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney). He interviews the two men who knew her best: smarmy critic Waldo Lydecker (a perfectly creepy Clifton Webb) and her mysterious fiance Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). As the case takes on many twists and turns, Mcpherson has become obsessed with Laura. He can't get her off his mind. But the biggest twist is yet to come - Laura is alive. As Laura and Mark attempt to get to the bottom of the case, a shocking climax draws closer to them.
This film is perfect. Gene Tierney is stunning as Laura. Her icy sexuality and acting skills are perfect for this role. Dana Andrews is splendid as McPherson. Clifton Webb and Vincent Price offer ample support as well.
This new dvd is filled with a ton of bonus features and the remastering job is excellent. This is a dvd that belongs in anyone's collection.
At Long Last
For years I had wondered about this movie, because I have been haunted by the David Raskin theme music. When I found it available on DVD, I gave in to the impulse to find out what it was all about.
I was not disappointed. Taking the film on its own terms, it works for me. The interaction between the characters, the dialog, the mind games, the plot twists, the costumes, the sets - I found this movie held my attention just about every minute. The music enhanced the story. It's not a blockbuster, or a ground-breaking film - it's just a well executed piece of film craftmanship, and that's good enough in its own right. If you enjoy film noir, this is one to see.
The Story Of A Love That Became The Most Fearful Thing That Ever Happened To A Woman!
Dana Andrews is in suitably hard-boiled mode as the detective called in to investigate the death of beautiful society woman Laura (Gene Tierney). There are plenty of suspects, as Laura inspired passion on all sides. Accompanying Andrews on his investigation is misanthropic columnist Clifton Webb, whose protege Laura was. Chief suspect is fickle fiancé Vincent Price, but Andrews isn't ruling anyone out, as his questioning leads to flashbacks that take us toward the moment of the murder. Andrews, meanwhile, is becoming obsessed with the dead woman, and seems to be falling in love with her painting.
And I shall say no more, as the film's plot makes some whiplash-inducing turns. This is the kind of mystery that makes one feel as if one is discovering the genre again for the first time. Tierney, recently beautifully sociopathic in Leave Her to Heaven, here is ambiguously innocent. Andrews is engagingly brusque, and Webb engages in the kind of vicious wit that would make George Sanders proud. Thematically rich and richly perverse, this is marvellous from start to finish.
Not one but two commentary tracks are here, one by film scholar Jeanine Basinger (intercut with memories from composer David Raksin), and the other by Studio Classics regular Rudy Behlmer. Given a choice, I'd plump for Behlmer's track, as I find he doesn't point out the obvious as much, but both are very informative. The deleted scene can be watched independently (with optional commentary by Behlmer), or integrated into the movie. There are two A&E Biography episodes: one for Gene Tierney, and one for Vincent Price. And there's the theatrical trailer. The menu is basic.
An astonishing film, and a package of extras that would make this a strong entry in the Studio Classics lines. This is a very auspicious debut of a new series.
Leave Her to Heaven is one of the most unblinkingly perverse movies ever offered up as a prestige picture by a major studio in the golden age of Hollywood. Gene Tierney, whose lambent eyes, porcelain features, and sweep of healthy-American-girl hair customarily made her a 20th Century Fox icon of purity, scored an Oscar nomination playing a demonically obsessive daughter of privilege with her own monstrous notion of love. By the time she crosses eyebeams with popular novelist Cornel Wilde on a New Mexico-bound train, her jealous manipulations have driven her parents apart and her father to his grave. Well, no, not grave: Wilde soon gets to watch her gallop a glorious palomino across a red-rock horizon as she metronomically sows Dad's ashes to the winds. Mere screen moments later,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Gene Tierney - Cornel Wilde Director(s): John M. Stahl DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Almost as welcome as a shaker full of martinis, The Complete Thin Man Collection represents an eagerly awaited DVD milestone for fans of the fizzy MGM movie series. The best film in the series came first: The Thin Man (1934), W.S. Van Dyke's marvelous adaptation of a Dashiell Hammet novel. The movie gods were in a generous mood when they paired William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora Charles, the upper-class sophisticates whose sleuthing escapades somehow joined the classic form of the whodunit with the giddyup of screwball comedy. Among the series' many attributes, one of its most radical notions was the idea that a married couple might find each other delightful and view life as a goofy adventure together.
It is common wisdom that the Thin Man sequels... More Info about this DVD Director(s): W.S. Van Dyke DVD Release Date: Released the 02 August 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Before he made the classic All About Eve, writer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz made this clever story about three wives who spend an afternoon at a children's picnic mulling over a letter all three had just received, from a woman who says she's just run off with one of their husbands. As the wives--a former farm girl (Jeanne Crain), a radio soap opera writer (Ann Sothern), and a social climber from the wrong side of the tracks (Linda Darnell)--mull over the troubles of their marriages, each begins to think that she's the one left behind. A Letter to Three Wives doesn't have the crackling show-biz milieu of Eve, but it has the same mix of snappy dialogue and topnotch performances. The tone ranges from florid sentiment to unblinking cynicism, yet Mankiewicz... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Jeanne Crain - Linda Darnell - Ann Sothern Director(s): Joseph L. Mankiewicz DVD Release Date: Released the 22 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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The postwar vogue for documentary-style realism, prompted by The March of Time and the critical success of Roberto Rossellini's Open City, cross bred with film noir to create a compelling strain of crime films; this is one of the most low-key and credible, based on the true story of a Chicago reporter (James Stewart) who became convinced of the innocence of a death-row inmate (Richard Conte). Director Henry Hathaway (whose Kiss of Death started the trend) stages the action on the actual Chicago locations, providing a fascinating documentary record of an underfilmed metropolis (the convict's mother is a washerwoman at the Wrigley Building), and leads his cast to appropriately restrained, naturalistic performances. Stewart is just beginning to explore his newfound,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): James Stewart - Richard Conte Director(s): Henry Hathaway DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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An amazingly effective film noir action movie, shot on location in New Orleans in 1950, that has twists of plot and explosions of violence that can still make audiences gasp. Elia Kazan, of all people, directed this story of a public health worker (Richard Widmark) and a police detective (Paul Douglas) who have only a few hours in which to capture some fleeing felons who may be infected with the plague. The bad guys are played, with enormous relish, by Jack Palance and Zero Mostel, the latter only a few years before Kazan ratted him out to the House Un-American Activities Committee. In retrospect, this modest crime picture looks like a crucial turning point in the formation of Kazan's distinctive style, a clear precursor to the blistering location work of landmark films like On the... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Richard Widmark - Paul Douglas - Barbara Bel Geddes - Jack Palance Director(s): Elia Kazan DVD Release Date: Released the 15 March 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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