Premise
A woman named Laura has died, and as the detective investigating the case conducts his interrogations, he begins to fall in love with her.

Evaluation
From what I'd heard about this movie, I was expecting something elliptical and atmospheric. Instead, it's practically a comedy. Every line just screams, "Hello! It's us, the writers! Aren't we witty?" And even though sometimes the answer is yes, I prefer more naturalism. A lot of the movie is based on emotional arcs, but very little emotion comes through in the performances.

Commentary
I first heard of this movie in 1990, when it was cited as a chief inspiration for Twin Peaks. I was not actually a Twin Peaks fan, but it was such a big phenomenon that even trivia about it was hard to miss. Even harder to miss are the parallels between Laura and Twin Peaks — they're a lot more obvious than I expected.

I saw on the back of the DVD package that Vincent Price was in the movie. I then proceeded to spend the entire movie thinking that Clifton Webb was Vincent Price! Like, I knew Vincent Price was only in his 30s when the movie was made, but Webb looked so much like Price ended up looking later in life that I honestly thought that Price just looked preternaturally aged even in his youth. As it turns out, Price plays the guy who looks like a cornfed football player!

Speaking of the DVD package, I'm glad I didn't read it very closely, because the blurb on the back gives away the most important part of the movie. Idiots!

Finally, while a lot of the character stuff doesn't work — characters supposedly into one another evince no discernible chemistry — there's one element of the movie that requires no explanation. To wit: throughout the film, people get a glimpse of Laura and instantly become her love slaves, even after she's dead. Are we really supposed to believe that?

In a word, yes.

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