Ring Lardner Jr.Critiques

Laura is the film which made me fall in love with the movies. When Otto Preminger was told to take over this project from wunderkind Rouben Mamoulian, it was reportedly a mess. How much was already in the can has always been in dispute; some still maintain that the famous opening shots are director Mamoulian’s work. David Raksin’s famous score, however, so beautiful and haunting that it set the tone for the entire film, had not yet been written. Preminger told Raksin to take the weekend and come up with something or he would use Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Lady instead.

Raksin’s marriage was falling apart at the time, and over the weekend he wrote the theme from Laura as much for his wife as for the film. Sadly, it did not save his marriage. It did, however, change forever this film. Raksin’s score was so haunting and beautiful that Preminger framed the entire picture around it, turning this into perhaps the greatest romantic noir film ever to grace a movie screen.

Dana Andrews had his greatest role as Detective Mark McPherson, assigned the murder of society girl Laura Hunt due to office politics. Wlado Lydecker is also the role for which Clifton Webb might best be remembered. He gives an outstanding performance as the deceased Laura’s vain and famous benefactor. Using his wit and intellect to destroy all of Laura’s suitors in his weekly column, we see everything played out in flashbacks told to McPherson during the investigation.

Vincent Price had arguably his best non-horror role as Shelby Carpenter, the one man Waldo could not drive away. Laura was to have been married to Carpenter, a heel with perfect manners. The more McPherson learns about Laura the more he wonders why such a sweet and down to earth girl ended up a society page murder mystery. She liked baseball and shares a favorite book with McPherson. Her portrait, painted by one of the suitors Lydecker destroyed in his column, hangs ominously above the chair where Mark McPherson reads her diary, searching for clues that will help him unravel the mystery of both her life, and her violent death.

Laura's fiercely loyal maid, Bessie, attempts to protect Laura’s reputation at every turn. McPherson is sympathetic and wants to protect her reputation also, because he has fallen in love with a ghost. David Raksin’s haunting score sets the atmosphere to every film buff's favorite murder mystery/noir/romance. Halfway through this film, on a rainy night in Laura’s apartment, the entire case will be turned upside down in one of the most famous twists in screen history.

This film was adapted from the terrific Vera Caspary novel and is a mystery classic as well. Both the novel and the film are timeless treasures to be cherished. This is one of the finest films ever made and one you simply have to see. It will make you fall in love with the movies.

A sports reporter marries an important journalist.

2/4 (Indifferent).

There are a handful of funny parts, and Tracy & Hepburn are good together. But it pushes the relationship problems too far to be redeemable. It might have made a good drama, with a very different ending.

(Jan. 2022)½

Corea, anni cinquanta: durante la guerra, in un ospedale militare statunitense da campo, si svolgono le vicende di un gruppo misto di personale medico militare. Tre ufficiali medici, pur prestando la loro opera di chirurghi con bravura e dedizione, sono insofferenti alla disciplina, insolenti verso i superiori, pronti alle burle nei riguardi dei colleghi e ad amoreggiare con le attraenti infermiere. Vittime preferite sono il religiosissimo maggiore e la nuova capo infermiera che, immedesimatisi in pieno nella disciplina militare, si situano agli antipodi rispetto al temperamento goliardico dei tre medici. I due, tanto moralisti in pubblico quanto amanti assatanati in privato, sono messi alla berlina e l'infermiera viene soprannominata "Bollore" dopo che un loro amplesso viene diffuso via altoparlante a tutto il campo grazie a un microfono piazzato dal caporale "Radar" sotto la branda del maggiore.

Subito dopo è la volta di un dentista dongiovanni (Cassiodoro) caduto in depressione perché auto convintosi di essere omosessuale. Quando rivela ai colleghi l'intenzione di suicidarsi, questi organizzano una sorta di ultima cena, scenograficamente ricomposta come l'ultima cena di Leonardo da Vinci, in cui gli viene somministrato un veleno, che in realtà è un sonnifero. La successiva "visita" di un'infermiera ne confermerà l'eterosessualità. Per questi e altri problemi disciplinari due dei chirurghi vengono inviati in missione in Giappone dove, tra una partita di golf e l'altra, compiono con abilità un difficile intervento sul figlio di un potente personaggio dell'esercito americano, non mancando di porsi in contrasto col direttore medico dell'ospedale militare. Tornati alla loro tenda in Corea, riescono a evitare un'inchiesta sul loro comportamento, scommettendo di vincere un torneo di football organizzato da un generale. Avuta, con stratagemmi e trucchi, la vittoria sulla squadra avversaria, per due di loro arriva la comunicazione che possono lasciare l'ospedale da campo e tornare a casa.

Hijinks in an army hospital.

It's exactly like watching four or five episodes of the TV show back-to-back. Which is fine, but I guess I was expecting a lot more. The one thing that makes this movie significantly better than the TV series: Japanese Rockabilly.

Concept: B
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: C
Special effects/design: A
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 3.1/4½

A detective investigates a woman's murder.

It's a more intelligent film than your typical murder mystery, and the ending is effectively suspenseful. It does drag in places, though - mostly because one of the main characters is a tedious person.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: C
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 2.7/4½

Among the many gems was the first rhyme I ever encountered for my name: from Ring to his son on his birthday."Here's wealth for you, David.You'll spendid? How splendid.I feared you would savid."And the eternally perfect father's retort to a child: "Are we lost daddy I arsked tenderly. Shut up he explained."

To tell the truth I was expected a read that was a lot more interesting.

What a glorious find! The entire script and movie stills!! Finest kind.

ultimate insider's view of Hollywood, screenwriting and the Blacklist, by the last of the Hollywood Ten

Maru

Donald Sutherland, Elliott Gould, Tom Skerritt, Sally Kellerman, Robert Duvall, Jo Ann Pflug, Rene Auberjonois

This short story was well crafted and well written, which is a real art -- telling a complete story in a few pages. The reader gets a feel for the main character George, a traveling salesman out in the middle of nowhere on a lonely road, reflecting on his long career. And the little descriptive details provide the reader with a good mental picture of the action. This new take on the classic lonely hitchhiker story had a twist that I did not see coming -- and I don't want to reveal too much -- but it had just the right amount of "eerie" that you want to see in a good paranormal/horror story, the kind of thing that I might think about before I fall asleep and wonder about. Laura is an entertaining read!