Lies and deceit abound in Otto Preminger’s film noir classic, Laura. Detective Mark McPherson arrives on the scene of a high-class murder to find a multitude of suspects - each obsessed with one thing and one thing only - the now deceased Laura. It’s a desire that McPherson comes to learn all too well…
The stylish and saintly Laura Hunt has been murdered (OS Driver: Action). Det. Mark McPherson, renowned for bringing injustice to an end (MC Problem: Inequity) is called to the scene (Protagonist). His mission: to pull together all the pieces of this murder mystery and figure out exactly who was responsible for Laura’s death(OS Goal: Conceptualizing).
He is quickly introduced to a bevy of suspects: Waldo Lydecker, Shelby Carpenter, Mrs. Ann Treadwell, Jacoby and even Laura’s maid (OS Limit: Optionlock). Each and every one of them engage McPherson and other characters in several forms of lies and attempts to manipulate each other (OS Domain: Manipulations).
Treadwell tries to manipulate Shelby into her clutches. Waldo, although confessing that he’s “just along for the ride,” tries to manipulate the scenario so that Shelby will be the one found guilty (OS Response: Projection). Shelby, the only one who knows what really happened to Laura, continues the charade of being upset over her death - doing anything he can to retain his innocent status. The maid takes the glasses and the bottle of wine and tries to hide them out of sight to manipulate the appearance that Laura was better than she really was. Even McPherson himself tries to manipulate the suspects into revealing some answers.
Its not what they’re doing that is problematic - it’s the stories and lies that are told that is problematic. Conflict comes from the characters in the story playing games.
McPherson has a knack for seeing through the lies (MC Issue: Falsehood). He suspects everyone and no one (MC Unique Ability: Suspicion) - his unflappable demeanor growing stronger with every instance of opposition (MC Resolve: Steadfast). His primary tool in solving the case is a little children’s wooden baseball game. At moments of uneasy tension, McPherson pulls the game out and begins to play. Under the guise of “relaxation,” McPherson waits patiently for those around him to reveal more about themselves then they normally would (MC Approach: Be-er).
LYDECKER: Will you please stop playing with that infernal puzzle? It’s getting on my nerves.
MCPHERSON: I know. But it keeps me calm.
This approach, a Be-er in an Action-driven story contributes to his reluctant nature towards driving the plot forward.
One of these suspects is Waldo Lydecker (Antagonist) - a man with a sense of entitlement only slightly higher than the other suspects (OS Issue: Sense of Self). Waldo, a self-appointed mentor to the now-deceased Park Avenue beauty Laura (IC Domain: Situation), begins to spin the tale of his beautiful protege to McPherson. Lydecker tells McPherson where Laura came from, who she was connected to, what her past relationships were like - all the events that led up to her death (IC Concern: The Past). Laura would look to the unfairness surrounding the men in her life (IC Symptom: Inequity) and do what she could to right those wrongs (IC Response: Equity). Nowhere was this more evident than in her relationship with the playboy leech Shelby Carpenter. These events in Laura’s life, while on the surface good and fortuitous, also worked against her as shackles (IC Issue: Destiny).
Laura, it seems, was everyone’s desire (IC Problem: Desire). A point not lost on the detective….
McPherson begins to develop an unhealthy obssesion with Laura (MC Domain: Fixed Attitude). At his first arrival at Laura’s apartment, he begins to reconstruct the events that led up to her murder (MC Problem Solving Style: Logical). McPherson begins rifling through her stuff, reading her letters and going through her diary (SS Concern: Activities). He picks up whatever he can and sits in whatever chair he can find, almost in an effort to “be” Laura - to try to absorb the events of her murder (MC Approach: Be-er). Exhausted, he falls asleep on her chair…
Laura’s return from the dead (OS Driver: Action) spins the mystery into an entirely new direction. Although they both have feelings for each other from the start, Laura and McPherson still both seek clarification on where they stand with the other (SS Concern: Understanding). Their relationship is based on the uneasy reality that they both have never been in a meaninful relationship before (SS Problem: Change). McPherson, pleased that he might have a chance at her (Subjective Story Relationship), now knows that he has a new question to answer - who was the real victim? (OS Concern: Conceptualizing).
McPherson soon discovers the answer.
At the party organized by Lydecker, McPherson pushes the manipulations further when he pretends to arrest Laura for the murder of the young model ingenue - Rita (OS Domain: Manipulations). In the interrogration room their relationship grows stronger. So much so, that when McPherson is released Laura has some startling information of her own to tell Waldo.
From the very beginning, Laura always did whatever Lydecker told her to do, unable to say no to him. But her relationship with Mark has caused her to become more closed off to the other men in her life. Now, she can willingly push Lydecker away for good (IC Resolve: Change). She tells the shocked Lydecker that she’s “never been more sure of what I’m doing now.” She’s able to confront Lydecker (even knowing that he tried to kill her) in a way that she never would have been able to in the beginning.
Laura is able to work things out internally first. This comes as a result of her switch from a Do-er (Situation) to a Be-er (Fixed Attitude).
During a second attempted murder on Laura, Lydecker is murdered (OS Driver: Action). McPherson not only gets his man (OS Outcome: Success), but also the girl (MC Judgement: Good).
Be sure to check back tomorrow for part 2 of this analysis where I’ll go into this film’s very large story hole.
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1 Laura: How to Fix an Impersonal Main Character // May 4, 2007 at 11:08 am
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