Laura (Preminger, 1944)

Laura (Preminger, 1944) - TSPDT #304

A homicide detective tries to solve the murder of a young career woman when the victim suddenly appears before him - alive and well.

The story is very interesting, but the trope of a guy falling asleep in his chair and dreaming the whole story has been played out so many times in exactly this way, that I thought the latter half of the picture being a dream. I am not totally sure if Preminger did play with that or if this type of trick was already common back then. There is also a strange shift of character. We begin with Waldo's voice-over, but we completely lose his perspective during the film. In Sunset Boulevard, that has worked better, where in consequence the dead man still owns his voice-(over).

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