Curator Watchlist
A compact, stylish noir that blends murder mystery, romantic obsession, and sharp psychological games. Its atmosphere, performances, and twisty structure still feel fresh, and it remains a key film for anyone interested in classic Hollywood suspense or the way noir turns desire into danger.
Where to watch: Buy
Wed · 1h 28m
Director: Otto Preminger
Starring: Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb
A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he's investigating.
Otto Preminger
Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney, Clifton Webb
A compact, stylish noir that blends murder mystery, romantic obsession, and sharp psychological games. Its atmosphere, performances, and twisty structure still feel fresh, and it remains a key film for anyone interested in classic Hollywood suspense or the way noir turns desire into danger.
Laura is one of those noirs that feels both immaculate and unstable at the same time. It begins as a murder investigation, but quickly becomes a study in obsession, projection, and the stories men tell themselves about women they think they know. The result is sleek, witty, and unnerving, with a confidence that makes the whole film feel larger than its runtime.
Otto Preminger stages the film with a cool, almost predatory elegance, letting the apartment interiors, mirrors, and camera movement do as much work as the dialogue. Gene Tierney gives the title character an almost mythic presence, while Clifton Webb steals scene after scene as a venomous social parasite who seems to narrate his own downfall.
What lingers most is how the movie turns desire into a trap. It is glamorous, but never comforting; sophisticated, but deeply paranoid. Even now, it feels like a blueprint for the modern psychological thriller, and a reminder that noir is often less about solving a crime than exposing the fantasies that make crime possible.
Roberto_ (5★) · 2337 likes
who killed laura p̶a̶l̶m̶e̶r̶ hunt?
nora (4★) · 1940 likes
yeah never trust the 50+ year old man who falls in love with a 17 year old and who thinks she's best when she's listening to him read his own articles aloud
Karsten (5★) · 1467 likes
Won't lie, had a great time watching this. Gasped with every turn this film took. Not one bad performance but Vincent Price really is just THAT dude, ya know? The camera movement, the use of space, it all comes together into an ending that left me completely on edge. Not to mention the fact that Laura really is one of the most fascinating characters I've seen, especially for this time period. I'm sure there are actual reviews that actually go into depth about that. Too tired to add more sowwy 🥴 I wish Vincent Price were still alive so he could get into podcasting.
ScreeningNotes (5★) · 1007 likes
Blown away. I can't believe that this movie exists and that I hadn't seen it until now and that it achieves so much perfection in under 90 minutes. This is absolutely essential viewing for any fans of film noir and particularly for anyone interested in the femme fatale as a symbolic cinematic figure. It's also the first time I've really been bowled over like this since I discovered and fell in love with The Conformist back in May. Anyway: "My… more
Jake Cole (5★) · 981 likes
An incredible film about male projection. LAURA initially plays into the cliché that tends to type all movies that start with the focal character dead, wherein the viewer gets to feel like that person is an active, driving character for the force they continue to exert on the living. But in this case, when Laura is revealed to be alive, her actual presence throws everything that came before into disarray, revealing that image driving the story to be nothing more
A foundational noir about desire, manipulation, and fatal attraction, with the same hard-edged fatalism and psychological tension.
Another Hollywood classic about obsession, self-mythology, and the dangerous power of being turned into an image.
Sharp, cynical, and character-driven, with a labyrinthine mystery and a world where everyone is performing.
One of the great noirs for viewers who want doomed romance, shadowy intrigue, and a sense of inescapable pasts.
A steamy, morally corrosive noir that pairs erotic fixation with punishment and betrayal.
A glamorous, sexually charged noir centered on attraction, suspicion, and the instability of appearances.
A delirious mystery of mirrors, deception, and romantic manipulation that pushes noir into surreal territory.
A fatalistic crime story with a strong sense of doomed identity and the lingering pull of the past.
For viewers drawn to desperate ambition, grim atmosphere, and a city that seems to swallow everyone whole.
A melodramatic noir-adjacent story of desire, class, and self-invention with a strong female center.
A stylish, morally slippery mystery with unforgettable atmosphere and a deep sense of postwar unease.
Combines romantic tension, espionage, and emotional manipulation with extraordinary visual elegance.
murder investigation, obsession, male projection, femme fatale, identity and image, desire and control, narrative unreliability, social performance
film noir, mystery, psychological thriller, black and white, 1940s Hollywood, obsessive romance, urban sophistication, gothic atmosphere, twisted relationships, classic studio era