LAURA *** / **** Image B
Sound B - Extras B starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price, Judith Anderson screenplay by Jay Dratler and Samuel Hoffenstein and Betty Reinhardt, based on the novel by Vera Caspary directed by Otto Preminger PINKY * / **** Image C
Sound B - Extras A + starring Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, William Lundigan screenplay by Philip Dunne and Dudley Nichols, from a novel by Cid Ricketts Sumner directed by Elia Kazan by Walter Chaw A camp classic
of a very particular variety, Otto Preminger's stylish, pedigreed Laura might best be read as a satire
of Hitchcock's Rebecca, reuniting that film's Judith Anderson with another late, lamented
mistress and acres more scenery to chew.
At first blush, the plot
sounds like a rehash
of the Chandra Levy affair, the case
of the intern murdered while she happened to be the
mistress of married, Democratic Congressman Gary Condit.
The film is exceptionally written — every line
of dialogue
sounds like something a person might actually say and, as someone who was a high school senior in 2002, it felt so authentic that I thought I was watching a documentary about my generation's coming -
of - age instead
of a comedy - drama from the co-writer
of Frances Ha and
Mistress America.
Now I must admit the English language gives the term «master» a much more powerful and commanding
sound of authority than «
mistress» but I want my gift infused with feminine, not masculine power.