Laura- What a Dame

Well, let me first say that I am a big fan of Film Noir. I love the look, the types of characters involved, the sound, and mainly the formula. But Laura messes that formula up, leaving a much harder film noir to dissect and figure out. Laura has a lot of the elements of the film noir- a detective, low key lighting, a murder, and a femme fatale. But the femme fatale, Laura, is showcased differently in this film.

Laura is barely in the film until she shows up halfway through. But she is talked about the whole time, much like in The Third Man. But what is interesting is the woman’s power to attract Detective McPherson even “from the grave.” The detective has never even met this woman but through all his interviews and investigating, he begins to fall in love with the image conjured up in his mind. In the scene where McPherson is smelling her perfume, going through her panties, drinking her alcohol, and staring at her picture on the wall- we see a man who is providing the senses of touch, taste, smell, and sight to the image of Laura in his head. It’s amazing how a supposed dead woman took this man’s heart so quickly. The reading states that the female character in film noir “has the power to intrude visually on the narrative, often continuing to “live” through her portrait. “ And this of course fits perfectly in with Laura.

When Laura enters her apartment and finds McPherson drooling over her portrait on the wall, the detective doesn’t know what to do with his love interest being actually alive. The audience is left with this strange love triangle going on too. The composition of this scene was very interesting. From left to right you have- living Laura, McPherson, and portrait of “dead Laura.” Now the composition of the shot could have never included the portrait, there was no point if it was to just show the A storyline of Laura showing up and McPherson asking her “Why aren’t you dead?” But in addition, we have a B underlying storyline, one of McPherson’s battle of loving the living or dead Laura that was conjured up in his mind.

Laura is a very interesting film that truly shows the femme fatale at one of its high points, especially in such a twisted and difficult film to dissect. No wonder, McPherson had such a hard time figuring out where his heart was leading him.