Laura (1944) • Blu-ray [Eureka! Masters of Cinema]

A police detective falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.

1944 was the year film noir began to dominate the US box office, but whereas Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) set the standard for femme fatales in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944), Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) is not the same sort of conniving vamp at all. And although she’s the catalyst for the deceit and jealousy bubbling under the surface in Otto Preminger’s Laura, she’s a more unwitting cause. The story only begins when detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) arrives to investigate her murder, and we get to know her from the witness statements of the suspects he interviews.

Their testimonies paint a vivid word-portrait of a vivacious, alluring, seemingly innocent young woman. The impression is borne out by the ethereal portrait (painted by an ex-suitor and therefore possible perpetrator) that hangs over the mantlepiece in Laura’s apartment. Then we get to meet her in extended, rather complex flashbacks. Flashbacks are commonly used in film noir and here, director Preminger is always conscious of whose point of view is…