LAURA

Directed by Otto Preminger
Starring Gene Tierney

(1944) “I shall never forget the weekend Laura died.” Clifton Webb’s elitist critic/broadcaster Waldo Lydecker – he writes with a “goose quill dipped in venom” – sardonically narrates, as NYC detective Dana Andrews, investigating the murder of Webb protégée and Manhattan smart-setter Gene Tierney sifts through the suspects, among them her aunt (Dame-to-be) Judith Anderson and silkily suave Vincent Price, simultaneously Anderson’s kept man and Tierney’s fiancé. But as the determinedly un-romantic Andrews (well, “A doll in Washington Heights once got a fox fur out of me”) contemplates Tierney’s portrait, backed by David Raksin’s legendary, haunting score – and that Hit Parade theme song – could it be he’s falling for a dead woman? Perhaps Preminger’s most popular picture, Raksin’s most famous score, an Oscar-nominated movie-star-making performance for stage star Webb, and one of the most iconic films noirs of them all. DCP. Approx. 85 mins.
2:55, 6:40

“A slick A-list production with shadows as rich as its budget.”
– Angelica Jade Bastién, The Village Voice

“EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE CHIC MURDER MYSTERY!”
– Pauline Kael

“RIPE WITH PERVERSE SEXUAL OVERTONES!”
– Foster Hirsch

“Two shotguns, two clocks, two murder suspects, two possible victims add up to enough red herrings and false leads to sustain a mystery. But what makes Laura unusual is the social texture of a cosmopolitan society evoked by a handful of colorful, articulate characters in a handful of luxurious interiors lushly photographed by Joseph LaShelle. Indeed, the look of Laura is more brightly lit film blanc than darkly Expressionist film noir…the darkness is mostly indoors in the hearts and souls of the characters.”
– Andrew Sarris

“A masterpiece, so assured in its tricky style and handling of Waldo (ramrod, but swish) that you wonder what brought Preminger to life just as you realize how complex his best films will be.”
– David Thomson

“Reveals a coldly objective temperament and a masterful narrative sense, which combine to turn this standard 40s melodrama into something as haunting as its famous theme. Less a crime film than a study in levels of obsessions, one of those classic works that leave their subject matter behind and live on the strength of their seductive style.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

LEAVE HER TO HEAVEN

Starring Gene Tierney

(1945, John Stahl) Always elegantly coiffed Gene Tierney (in Oscar-nominated role and fresh from her starring role in Preminger’s Laura) and best-selling author Cornel Wilde meet cute – she’s reading his latest book – in a super luxurious railroad car lounge and, despite her engagement ring, it’s instant attraction. And next thing Wilde knows, he’s on horseback watching as she strews her father’s ashes on a New Mexico mountaintop – as Alfred Newman’s score thunders – and suddenly, he’s the new fiancé of someone with a very possessive passion. Big Mistake? A drowning coldly watched from behind the screen’s most menacing pair of sunglasses, a miscarriage via intentional staircase fall, a death by poison, a murder trial with a very surprising defendant getting hammered by relentless DA/spurned lover Vincent Price ensue, amid splendiferous settings, all viewed via sumptuous, Oscar-winning photography by Fox Technicolor specialist Leon Shamroy. Screenplay by Jo Swerling (Man’s Castle and other Depression films), with a colorful cast including Jeanne Crain, Ray Collins (Citizen Kane, Perry Mason), and Darryl Hickman. DCP. Approx. 110 mins.
12:45, 4:35, 8:30

“A TECHNICOLOR MASTERPIECE! Brimming with soft auburns, deep blues, and reds as striking as fresh wounds…What would happen if Laura stepped out of that painting and set her admirers on fire.”
– Angelica Jade Bastién, The Village Voice

“JUICY ENTERTAINEMNT!”
– Pauline Kael

“MESMERIZING! A VERY SPECIAL FILM! A GLORIOUS RESTORATION!”
– Martin Scorsese

“So lurid that it seems to exist on another plane of reality…40s color adds yet another level of abstraction – the actors seem enameled against the backgrounds.”
– Dave Kehr, Chicago Reader

“Proto-Sirkian melodramatist extraordinaire Stahl creates this most propulsive tale of daddy-complex jealousy…Has any woman ever looked more awfully gorgeous than when Tierney casts her father’s ashes across her chest in that luridly empurpled and incestuous consecration?”
– Guy Maddin

“A hallucination dominated by Gene Tierney’s face, a mask of perfect composure hiding these dark and very deep emotions. The drama of the obsession and the color reinforce each other to create something very special.”
– Martin Scorsese