LAURA

 

The Portrait

Right from the moment we see Laura Hunt's portrait, it is clear we won't be visiting the low places, the out-of-the-way places the other stops along Lonely Street have taken us to. This is a classier crawl, even though the people we meet along the way share tendencies with some of the lower characters we've seen at other locations. 

LAURA was based on a novel by Vera Caspary. It's a great story. Tough detectives. Creepy stalker. Jilted admirer. Glamorous femme fatale. A tragic case of mistaken identity that results in the death of an innocent bystander.  I'm not giving anything away here. It all happens in the first ten minutes. It's the world Caspary created and director Otto Preminger takes us to after the original director was fired.

I think the first place we have to visit is the city where the story is told. We are in Manhattan and not the dark, lonely streets of say, Scarlet Street with Edward G. Robinson but the Park Avenue parts of Manhattan.

Scarlet Street is no Park Avenue

The people are prettier here even if their souls are just as dark as Dan Duryea's or Joan Bennett's. In Laura's world, you can avoid life in Skid Row provided you find a proper suitor.

The makeover begins

The makeover continues

The Reveal!

Gene Tierney as Laura

Glamour abounds in this world. Everything about the characters says elegance and class. Laura Hunt works in the advertising department but becomes the object of Waldo Lydecker, who pushes and pulls her into high society.

While there are many places to visit over the course of the movie, a good deal happens right in the homes of the Park Avenueites. Dinner parties, cocktails on the veranda, intimate gatherings in the apartments of the characters open the door to a different world for us on the crawl.

A seat at Lydecker's table was by invitation only

A private affair

These are not the typical people we run into on the crawl. These are people prone to cocktails on the veranda and extensive day drinking.

            

Bad people in good clothes doing terrible things

  

And yet these people do get out from time to time to eat and day drink at some of the posher places along Fifth Avenue.

Clifton Webb earning his Best Supporting Actor nod

When not interrupting your boss's lunch, it's a good time to grab a quick lunch with the gals or meet that other guy in your life who would dump his girlfriend in a blink to go clubbing with you.

These stops are at trendy places but lack the character of so many other establishments along the crawl. The only place that sees any action is an apartment where Dana Andrews' detective throws a punch at suitor Vincent Price while obsessive-compulsive Clifton Webb watches.

While we're here, it's time to pause and look at the three men in Laura Hunt's life. Those men are Waldo Lydecker (Webb), Detective Mark McPherson (Andrews), and Shelby Carpenter (Price).

Three men and a lady

/All three men are clearly infatuated with the titular Laura. Braggadocio and machismo go a long way with these three.

In typical male modes, these three fight, connive, and backstab one another to be the alpha male. It's like an episode of the Bachelorette. Who will get the double-barrelled rose?

Dana Andrews' Detective McPherson is the outsider here. He's not from this inner circle of socialites and old money. He's constantly feeling judged.

 

We cannot overlook the shotgun as fashion accessory. So prevalent throughout the movie, it even made the poster.

Before we walk away from LAURA, I'd like to take a look at Joseph LaShelle's masterful work as cinematographer. While LAURA picked up seven Oscar nominations, including one for Webb as the obsessive Lydecker, only LaShelle took home a statue in the Black and White Cinematography category.

Joseph LaShelle

Using shadow and light to create sexual tension

LAURA is a great movie. It really makes me wonder what it would have become had Otto Preminger not taken over. Caspary's story is solid and may have carried the movie on its own. Still, Preminger and LaShelle had that ability to take a project to the next level. I was just a kid with a Super Eight camera doing scene-for-scene remakes of B horror movies like The Car or Tales from the Crypt or my opus Dillinger because my cousin got me the poster from the theatre where he worked and used it for the opening credits. I put together a script, hid the microphone in flower pots and between rocks, and operated the camera (except for the scenes I was in). Keep in mind, I had never seen the movie or read anything about Dillinger. I based all three minutes and thirty seconds of Super Eight film on this:

Then technology changed to video and my local Kmart and Sears and pharmacies stopped carrying the Super Eight cartridges. The last thing I shot was a documentary-style three-reel film of our 1984 college spring break trip, which would have been a classic if I had taken it into Joker Marchant Stadium to film the '84 Tigers. My question for Sparky Anderson was going to be, "Sparky, we all know the Tigers are going to win the World Series this year. The question everyone wants you to answer is who is going to win the Best Actress Oscar?"

The Tigers went 35-5 to start the season and led wire to wire. They beat the Padres in the World Series. Shirley Maclaine won the Oscar for Terms of Endearment. I wrapped up my B.A. in English, dabbled in TV production, and developed a talent for writing and directing for theatre. Now I lead tours along the Lonely Street Bar Noir Pub Crawl. Who knows. I've watched enough noir to maybe put something on stage.

     

                                   

RIFFRAFF (1947)

You have to appreciate Noir Alley and TCM. If not for those two details, this ode to the low places and supper clubs probably wouldn't exist. Also, a shout out to MoviesTVNetwork that plays some gems as well. Thankfully, all the shadows align and here we go, off to Panama to extend the crawl internationally. 

Lobby Card

RIFFRAFF takes us to the streets of Panama. Pat O'Brien plays Dan Hammer, a kind of laidback P.I. with a lazier dog and a saucy parrot. Into his path comes a mysterious man with a Maguffin: A map to an oil well hidden somewhere in the jungle. Everyone wants this map. Charles Hasso may have thrown a man out of a plane to get it. Eric Molinar beats people up for it. An oil company hires Hammer to find it. That's the plot: Find the map.

                                    

The Streets of Panama

More of the Streets

The movie begins with the arrival of Charles Hasso, played by Marc Krah, in Panama. He hails a cab and takes us on a tour of the city streets. It's all part of cinematographer-turned-director Ted Tatzlaff's direction of Martin Rackin's script. The first six and a half minutes has zero dialogue. All we see and hear are the sights and sounds around Hasso. 

Hammer and a chanteuse played by Anne Jefferys, spend a lot of their spare time at an outdoor venue that apparently has no name but is clearly the place in town to be seen. Apparently makes a decent champagne cocktail, to boot! But if booze ain't your cup o' tea, yo can always get the Old Guy special- a glass of milk.

                                         

A No Name Cafe in Panama

Strangers in the Night

(Check out the extra. snagging FaceTime.)

Best glass of milk in town

Scene Stealer: The champagne cocktail (and Anne Jefferys.)

Where everybody knows your name even if you don't know theirs

Not just a customer, but also the club chanteuse 

We meet again...

After a night on the town, Hammer goes looking for Hasso who happens to be shacking up at the Hotel Emporio. A fine establishment and quite possibly the only establishment in town.  The rooms are cozy and come with a tub. Car service is available if you're in the mood to go out or go shopping.

Fits the budget 

A helpful staff!

Ring for a ride!

Window shopping is always fun!

(Wonder if Eddie Muller has that tie?)

It's a friendly town. Just ask the guys who want you gone by check-out time.

Don't 'Hasso' him!

Looking for a more upscale place to stay? Ask the guys at the oil company. They know the swankier places!

Ask for the Petroleum Suite- comes with breakfast and a houseman!

A comfortable place to have friends over

                   

Listening to the wise words of the ancient mystagogue

O'Brien and Jefferys seem like an unlikely duo for a noir film, but somehow they make the. chemistry work. Jefferys is a surprise, going from playing Tess Trueheart in Dick Tracy serials to a gal paid by the oil company to distract the man they hire to find the map. She stayed toe to toe with some of noir's toughest character actors and she never weakened. The lady had cinematic presence. Percy Kilbride fills the role of the ancient mystagogue as he guides the other actors with his years of wisdom. 

Overall, I enjoyed RIFFRAFF. Four out of five slugs.