Laura

In cinemas 24 February 2012

Directed by Otto Preminger | Starring Dita Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb| USA 1944 | 88 mins | Cert U

"I shall never forget the weekend Laura died..." So begins Preminger's masterpiece about erotic obsession, jealousy, deceit and deadly betrayal.

The narrator welcoming us into the pleasingly perverse upper-crust New York of the film is Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb), a columnist who writes 'with a goose quill dipped in venom', first encountered at work in his bath by Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews), the detective investigating the recent murder of beautiful advertising executive Laura (Gene Tierney). But Waldo's not the sole suspect; there's Laura's fiancé Shelby (Vincent Price), and Shelby's somewhat older lover Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson)... And can McPherson's judgement really be trusted anyway, given that he too appears to have fallen for the dead woman he's hearing about? A brilliantly witty, tortuous script (including, very memorably, Lydecker's mordantly egotistical commentary) and Preminger's cool, sharp-sighted direction ensure that the film succeeds gloriously as both social satire and taut suspense. One of the subtlest, most sophisticated and most invigoratingly acerbic Hollywood crime movies ever made.

Geoff Andrew

From 24 February
BFI Southbank
Curzon Mayfair
Filmhouse Edinburgh
IFI Dublin

26 March
Clwyd Theatr Cymru

28 March
Barn Dartington

29 March
Riverside Hammersmith

13 April
Aldeburgh cinema

16 - 18 April
National Media Museum Bradford

18 April
Regal Henley

20 - 24 April
Quad Derby

21 - 24 April
Hippodrome Bo'ness

26 April
Clwyd Theatre Cymru

27 April
Ritz Belpher