by Nathaniel R
Dear reader, we had such fun doing the Montgomery Clift Centennial that we want to do more of them. Of course not every movie star inspires the same passion in cinephiles, nor has a cooperatively small enough filmography to be completist about. For instance I put out the feelers on Gene Tierney, who made 37 films in her career, and received only 2 volunteers. And herewith a confession: I, myself, despite my love of Old Hollywood, was unfamiliar. I had seen only two of her movies and so long ago that I had next to no recollection. So I queued up her most famous picture, Laura (1944), which I'd somehow never seen even when I was a uncool kid in the horrific "colorizing" days of pop culture who relished seeing old black and white movies...
Like so many stars of Old Hollywood, Gene Tierney first made her mark on the Broadway stage. Coming from a wealthy East Coast society family, they steered her toward Broadway rather than Hollywood when she expressed the desire to act. She was a regular on the boards until the age of 20 when Hollywood saw her in "The Male Animal" and snatched her up due more to her great beauty than the warm reviews from critics (Hollywood had tried earlier before she had even set foot on the stage and proved she was also talented). One oft-repeated anecdote about her stardom is that movie mogul Darryl F Zanuck wanted to sign her after seering her on stage and later the same night at the Stork Club wanted to sign her when seeing her in person... and didn't realize it was the same woman!
That anecdote is a perfect intro to my feelings about Gene/Laura... the star/subject of Otto Preminger's much-loved Laura which arrived four years later, securing her place in cinematic history.
The very entertaining and twisty noir is about a great beauty who is suddenly murdered at her front door (before the movie begins) despite being a woman everyone claims to have adored. Tough noir-type Detective McPherson (Dana Andrews, broodingly handsome and sexy as ever) is called in to investigate and falls head over heels for the dead woman via the stories about her and a fetching oil portrait hanging in her own home, a gift from a former lover.
The ghostly portrait of Laura and the detective out to solve her murder
The suspects are the rude dandy Waldo Lyndecker (Clifton Webb) who was Laura's closest confidante and mentor of sorts, Laura's gold-digging fiance Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), one of Shelby's two side-pieces Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson, excellent as ever), and Laura's obsequious domestic help Bessie (Dorothy Adams).
Laura takes it's sweet timing getting to the star's introduction, egaling us with multiple stories about the titular character before Gene Tierney ever shows up in flashback. While Webb's performance allows that Lydecker is an unreliable narrator, his stories about Laura don't line up with what we actually see once Tierney appears. When we finally get to the first flashback, she barely makes an impression. After the makeover, and in multiple scenes thereafter she is intriguing but vague. Laura never quite lines up to what people are saying about her, and Tierney's command of the possibly impossible character is questionable.
Tierney and Webb in Laura... in a relationship that's clearly coded as gay man and his makeover project/ (girl)lriend
Laura with her shifty fiance Shelby (Vincent Price)
Does she love Shelby? Does she know he cheats on her? Why does she dump every man Lydecker tells her too? Is she an expert manipulator of Lydecker, who has helped her achieve great career and society success, or his obedient plaything? Is she a sweet gentle generous country girl or a slick big city careerwoman employer? Just as Tierney shapeshifted before Zanuck's eyes in 1940... Tierney shapeshifts from scene to scene in Laura, trying on different hats (and actual hats... ohmygod the hats) but never settling fully on one.
But does her identity ever cohere? I regret to inform that I could never get a bead on Laura or quite believe her which is a problem in a title character. A little mystery in a star turn can be riveting of course, but this was closer to flatness. I kept wondering what a multi-facted firestarter like, say, Barbara Stanwyck would have made of the impenetrable role.
In the end, Tierney's Laura left me wanting and not obsessed with her in the way the movie obviously intends. But Otto Preminger's Laura is a delight nonetheless, with its amazing mid-film twist, and the stellar supporting ensemble having so much fun painting her portrait for her, with scenery-chewing affectations and agendas, that the soul of the actual woman can safely remain offscreen.
Tierney's first two big starring roles were in Oscar favourites. Heaven Can Wait (1943) was nominated for 3 Oscars including Best Picture but Tierney was passed over. Laura (1944) was nominated for 5 Oscars but Webb was the only cast member nominated. Perhaps the Academy's acting branch shared my initial reservations about her? Nevertheless momentum is a powerful campaign tool and her lone Best Actress nomination was just around the corner in her third consecutive Oscar hit. Tomorrow: Leave Her to Heaven (1945)