Like WITNESS FOR THE PROSECUTION and other favorite films of mine, discovering who really dunnit doesn't spoil LAURA's enjoyment on repeat viewings; instead, paying closer attention to the real killer the next time you watch makes you realize all the clues to their true nature that you were having too much fun to catch the first time around. For example, when you re-watch Clifton Webb as waspish columnist Waldo Lydecker during his flashback-laden dinner conversation with Dana Andrews' Lt. Mark McPherson about Gene Tierney's Laura Hunt, you suddenly realize how truly obsessed and self-centered Lydecker really is. Note that everything he says about Laura really ends up being more about him than about her: "...she deferred to my tastes...the way she listened (to me) was more eloquent than speech...", etc. Though Webb steals the show with his Oscar-nominated performance and viciously witty lines (if I start quoting Webb's best lines, I'll pretty much be transcribing every word out of his mouth), the whole cast hits all the right notes in Otto Preminger's spellbinding adaptation of Vera Caspary's novel, with Vincent Price and Judith Anderson memorable as two of the wolves-in-chic-clothing in Laura's circle, and Andrews and Tierney's chemistry sending sparks flying even before they actually share the screen after the Act 2 twist. Tierney is quite convincing as a sophisticated yet soft-hearted young woman whose kindness almost does her in; as Andrews aptly points out, "For a charming, intelligent girl, you've certainly surrounded yourself with a remarkable collection of dopes." Webb and LAURA's screenwriters re-teamed later for the similar THE DARK CORNER, which might as well be called LAURA 2 -- and I mean that as a compliment! :-)
