WHODUNIT?

New Zealand Listener, Volume 13, Issue 313, 22 June 1945, Page 18

WHODUNIT?

LAURA (20th Century-Fox)

Ts is a murder mystery for grown-ups with a sophisticated taste in crimea highly-polished and debonair study in homicide among New

| Xork’s upper crust. The ingredients are familiar enough. To take only one example: the detection is done by a police lieutenant named Mark McPherson ‘(Dana Andrews) who, like all others of his impolite Hollywood breed, wanders into rooms wearing his hat and talks with an eternal cigarette drooping from his lips. Again, the heroine wears a succession of ridiculous hats which are, in themselves, almost sufficient motive for murder but which all characters in the story seem to take for granted. And there are several other people involved who might similarly have wandered off a Thin Man set at M-G-M. It is in its details, and its concentration on character rather than on evidence, that Laura is different from the average whodunit, and a good deal better too. In the matter of detail, for instance, the detective is not attended by one of those flat-footed, dim-witted sergeants who customarily provide comic relief by acting as a foil to the brilliance of the principal sleuth. The method of murder is also unusual if a trifle messy: a double-barrelled shotgun full in the face at close range-a method which has the advantage of keeping the

audience in doubt about the identity of the victim as well as of the murderer. Much of the credit for these variations doubtless belongs to Otto Preminger, whose direction is slick and suspenseful. But the really distinguishing feature of the entertainment is the performance of Clifton Webb, whom old-timers may recall as a screen actor about 1924. He plays Waldo Lydecker, one of those omnipotent newspaper columnists and tadio commentators who earn enormous salaries and prestige by insulting one section of the public while flattering the others. As Sheridan Whiteside, Monty Woolley has already made us familiar with this strictly American phenomenon, but Mr. Webb, though just as venomous in his role as Lydecker, is a younger and slightly more romantic figure than the man who came to dinner. It is his overwhelming interest in Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) that gives the story its chief interest, for he has made this high-powered young woman his protegee, groomed and developed her talents, and invested her with "authentic magnetism." And then she begins to look elsewhere, principally at Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). Mr. Price is aptly described as a "male beauty in distress"; but "authentic magnetism" is, I cannot help feeling, rather an overstatement for one of Miss Tierney’s ability. The appearance of a famous Broadway actress, Judith Anderson, in the role of another suspect, strikes me as a somewhat unnecessary extravagance’ on the part of 20th Century-Fox since, apart from one small scene, Miss Anderson has nothing to do that a hundred less expensive actresses could not have done as well. But Laura is, on the whole, a picture I can recommend with confidence.