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From: wetcw@pyuxa.UUCP (T C Wheeler)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Laura
Message-ID: <877@pyuxa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 11-Jul-84 14:15:10 EDT
Article-I.D.: pyuxa.877
Posted: Wed Jul 11 14:15:10 1984
Date-Received: Thu, 12-Jul-84 04:07:21 EDT
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Piscataway N.J.
Lines: 41

Now, from your description of the movie Laura, and from what I remember
of the movie, I have to assume that you might have fallen asleep
a little earlier than you suspect.

The movie came out in 1953 and featured Gene Tierney as Laura.  She
was a young, naive, girl from the midwest who is taken in and
befriended by (the nasty) Clifton Webb.  Webb introduces her to
the artistic community and falls in love with her.  Webb, BTW, is
a famous radio columnist and knows everyone in town.  In their
travels around the social circuit, Laura falls in love with, I
think, a social butterfly played by George Saunders.  Enter
Jelousy.  Webb plans to kill Laura so George can't have her.

There is a murder.  The girl's face is blasted with a shotgun.
Enter the detective, played by (damnit, I can see his face but
can't remember his name).  The detective,  upon seeing a portrait
of Laura in her apartment falls in love with the girl.  Next comes
several scenes of detective sitting in front of portrait and
dreaming.  Detective finds murder weapon hidden in grandfather
clock next to door.  THEN, Laura shows up at door and detective
nearly has heart failure.  Plot thickens.  Who was murdered.
Who dunit?  Detective finds out Webb pre-wires his broadcasts
(before tape they used wire).  Detective confronts Webb.  Big
fight.  Detective gets his man.  A friend of Laura's was using her
apartment to meet a boyfriend (George Saunders).  She is wearing
Laura's nightie.  Webb only sees a lookalike and blasts away.

Oh, yeah.  Webb commits the murder while he is supposed to be
at the studio and on the air (that's the reason for the wire
recording).  This was probably the first time this idea was
used in a plot.  Finally, detective gets girl, I think.

That's esentially how it went.  Laura's theme came from this
movie.  I was at a variety show in California when the theme was
played for the first time.  The movie came out a short time later.
The theme was played on a harmonica (with backup, etc.), but
the name of the guy who played the popular version escapes me.

I just saw the movie for the umpteenth time a few weeks ago.
It was a biggie in its time.
T. C. Wheeler