Sat 11 Nov 2017
A 1001 Midnights Review: VERA CASPARY – Laura.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[14] Comments
by Marcia Muller
VERA CASPARY – Laura. Houghton Mifflin, hardcover, 1944. Reprinted many times, including: Bestseller Mystery #B74, paperback, no date stated. Popular Library #284, paperback, 1950. Dell D188, paperback, Great Mystery Library #3, 1957. Avon, paperback, 1970. The Feminist Press at CUNY, softcover, 2005. Film: 20th Century Fox, 1944. TV adaption: Season 1, episode 2 of The 20th Century-Fox Hour, as “A Portrait of Murder,” 19 October 1955. TV movie: ABC, 24 January 1968 (co-screenwriter: Truman Capote). [See also the comments.]
The main strength of Vera Caspary’s writing is her depth of characterization; in fact, in many of her mysteries the actual crime takes a back seat to her detailed studies of the persons involved. In this, her first novel, the persona of Laura Hunt, the heroine- initially thought to have been the victim of a brutal murder is so well described that the reader can visualize her and anticipate her actions and reactions long before she appears on the scene.
The other principals — a crime writer and close friend of Laura’s, and the investigating officer who finds himself falling in love with his image of her — are likewise drawn in meticulous detail, through the use of their individual narrative voices. (The story is told in sections, each from the viewpoint of one or the other of the main characters.)
The story they tell is basically a simple one. A young “bachelor girl,” Laura Hunt, has been shot to death in her apartment in Manhattan’s East Sixties.She took the force of the blast in the face, and is virtually unrecognizable except for her attire. Mark McPherson, a police officer with a distinguished record, is assigned to the case and acquires much of his knowledge of Miss Hunt from her friend, a sexually amorphous writer named Waldo Lydecker.
There was a fiance in Miss Hunt’s life — an impoverished copywriter from the ad agency where she worked; and an aunt who is quick to complain about the fiance’s shiftlessness — and to use him when convenient. As McPherson delves further into Laura Hunt’s life, he becomes entranced with the dead woman, a fascination that Lydecker, who narrates the first section, notices and plays upon.
When McPherson takes up the narrative, we find that Laura is not really dead; she had loaned her apartment to a model frequently used by her agency and gone away to her summer cottage for a few days’ contemplation before her impending marriage. McPherson’s attention is now focused on the question of who killed the ordinary little model who was temporarily using Laura’s apartment, and his suspicions eventually point to Laura herself The ending, narrated by McPherson, with an intervening section told by Laura, is predictable, but completely satisfying.
Laura was made into a classic suspense film of the same title, starring Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, and Gene Tierney, and directed by Otto Preminger, in 1944. In another notable novel, Evvie (1960), Caspary’s characterization of a genuine murder victim is even more sharp and haunting than that of Laura Hunt. And her mastery of the deviant but still socially accepted personality is demonstrated to great effect in Bedelia (1945) and The Man Who Loved His Wife (1966).
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Reprinted with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
November 11th, 2017 at 4:00 am
Since this review, the novel’s been reprinted in hc by Library of America, in an anthology with three other female-written ’40’s mysteries. Its trio of narrators originally planned for the movie.
You’re right about Caspary’s characterization – both Laura and Mark are deeper – more aware of the enviroment. And Waldo’s gayer, more extroverted.It’s clear he’s trying to seduce Mark – which is referred to in the movie’s opening scene where Waldo shows Little Waldo to Mark. And the novel’s Mark pegs Waldo’s role in the murder right away.
November 11th, 2017 at 12:45 pm
I have no idea why Netflix no longer has this movie available, but I’m hoping they will return it to circulation, as I’d like to see it again.
November 11th, 2017 at 3:13 pm
LAURA is one of those movies you can watch many times over and enjoy it every time.
November 11th, 2017 at 7:02 pm
I even tracked down a bootleg copy of the TV version starring George Sanders. 20th Century Fox Hour in the fifties showed a one hour adaptation titled A PORTRAIT OF MURDER but it’s LAURA under another name. Sanders plays Waldo Lydecker and Robert Stack is also in it. Not great like the movie but good enough.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:41 pm
Something I hadn’t know before, Walker. Thanks! I’d add it to the information at the top of the review.
And here’s the link to the IMDb page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0501915/reference
November 11th, 2017 at 8:39 pm
There’s also a ’67 tv 90 min version also with Sanders and Stack. And starring Jackie O’s spectacularly untalented sister. Adaptation by Capote(!). Rumor is she had all copies destroyed.I know of no one but myself who’s seen it.
November 11th, 2017 at 8:58 pm
And done as a western – Frontier Gambler ’56.
November 11th, 2017 at 11:04 pm
Thanks, Bill.
Here’s the IMDb link for that one. No credit given to Caspary!
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049235/reference
November 11th, 2017 at 11:05 pm
And for the sake of completeness, from Wikipedia:
“Laura was adapted as a radio play for two different episodes of Lux Radio Theater, the first starring Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney and Vincent Price (February 5, 1945), the second starring Gene Tierney and Victor Mature (February 1, 1954). It was also adapted for the May 30, 1948 broadcast of Ford Theatre with Virginia Gilmore and John Larkin. In addition, “Laura” was presented twice on The Screen Guild Theater (August 20, 1945 and February 23, 1950), both episodes starring Dana Andrews, Gene Tierney and Clifton Webb.”
November 11th, 2017 at 9:27 pm
This review of the original movie brought back memories even though I haven’t seen it in years!
November 12th, 2017 at 12:57 am
Most importantly Caspary is a fine novelist, and not just a good mystery writer. The two things may not be mutually exclusive, but they aren’t always tied together either.
November 12th, 2017 at 12:59 am
Re the Stack/Sanders version it is on YouTube, such as it is.
November 12th, 2017 at 2:46 am
Bit more:Laura started under Reuben Mamoulian’s direction with a different Waldo- Laird Cregar, and a different portrait. Preminger had to push hard to get control.
Laura’s portrait had cameos in two other films: On the Riviera, with Tierney, And It’s A Woman’s World, where Clifton Webb has it in a collection of his female conquests(!).
December 8th, 2017 at 2:20 am
I just watched FRONTIER GAMBLER(1956) starring Coleen Gray as the Laura type character. This routine western has nothing to do with the great film noir movie, LAURA, except it has the same plot gimmick of everyone thinking Coleen Gray was murdered but she returns later. And even more damning, there is no Waldo Lydecker character!