DVD Review (extended version) By Esmerelda Jones... Author of Vintage & Victorian Fiction

Drifting Away...

The drifting music of Laura melts us into the portrait of a murdered beauty. We are infatuated. Vincent Price walks into the scene and all we see is his usual handsome, tall and most charming presence. Judith Anderson claims your attention as she does in another unforgettable movie "Rebecca." Laura is cool and ravishing.

Vincent price

After all though, I was subdued by Clifton Web, as the splendidly audacious Waldo Lydecker. His words are choice and sautéed in lemon juice; a wonderful contrast to Laura. I must agree with him, when he sees that gum-chewing Detective Lieutenant Mark McPherson has become infatuated with the portrait of Laura, he sneers "Have you ever dreamed of Laura as your wife, sitting by your side at the policeman's ball; or in the bleachers... or listening to the heroic story of how you got a silver shinbone from a battle with a gangster?  (pauses) ...I see you have." Laura's image does not transform into a housewife.
 

Note: The extended version includes high fashion scenes, glitzy vogue clubs and restaurants plus the making over of Laura into a notable beauty. These were deleted from the original, pronounced as being too glamorous for war-time. (By the end of the war people were craving luxury). This review is continued in Symbols of Prosperity.

Gene Tierney

© Esmerelda Jones