Laura

1944 mystery

Rating: 16/20 (Jen: 14/20, despite the film's reputation as a classic!)

Plot: Somebody murdered the title whorish sweetheart, and a detective has to find out who did it. The suspects: the flamingly homosexual, bath-obsessed Waldo Lydecker; the more-than-likely homosexual Shelby Carpenter; some rich lady; a whorish model; Lee Harvey Oswald; Laura's lesbian maid; Lee Harvey Oswald's lesbian maid; and somehow, in a wild conspiracy, Laura herself. When Detective McPherson becomes enamored by Laura and her alcohol, things get really confusing.

Too imbalanced to be noir although it's noirish. My only real gripe about this movie is that there's not a focus on one character--the detective. Instead, we've got part of the story narrated by Waldo and parts of the story we're seeing from this third-person omniscient rather than limited (knowing only what the McPherson knows) perspective, and I think the movie's a little uneven because of it. Other than that, there's some great writing with witty dialogue and two truly brilliant scenes.