VINCENTENNIAL: LAURA and DRAGONWYCK Tonight

LAURA and DRAGONWYCK will play as a double feature at the Vincentennial Vincent Price Film Festival at 7:00pm tonight (Monday, May 23rd) at Brown Hall on the campus of Washington University. Admission is free.

“I shall never forget the weekend Laura died”, is the first line, intoned by a somber Clifton Webb, of LAURA (1944), a glossy and gripping story of murder among the elite. Vincent Price often said that his favorite of the films in which he appeared was director Otto Preminger’s 1944 film noir, and most movie buffs who don’t like horror are quick to agree. As noirs go, it’s less a dark and dirty crime drama than most, more reliant on character and script, but it really is a classic and Price’s oily supporting performance is nothing short of sublime. The film pits gruff police detective, Mark McPhereson (Dana Andrews) against smug and cultured columnist, Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb). McPherson has been assigned to investigate the murder of Laura Hunt (a simmering Gene Tierney). Through a series of interviews conducted with potential suspects, McPherson builds his profile of the dead girl – all the while falling under the spell of her striking portrait. But the puzzle unravels when the murder victim materializes in a bizarre twist of fate that forces McPhereson to re-think his entire case. Vincent Price plays Laura’s fiancee, silver-tongued do-nothing gigolo Shelby Carpenter who gets mixed up in the mystery and is too charming for his own good. LAURA has an incredible adult script (the screenplay was nominated for an Oscar) with a fascinating story filled with unnerving plot angles, twists galore and hints of necrophilia and homosexuality. The film’s dialogue is particularly well done: intelligent, humorous at times, and enhanced by the snappy delivery and exchanges between all the actors. David Raksin’s grand musical theme has become a standard

An eerie gothic thriller, DRAGONWYCK is based on the bestselling novel by Anya Seton. Innocent Miranda (Gene Tierney) leaves her rural farm to live with her wealthy and sophisticated cousin (Vincent Price) at Dragonwyck Manor only to discover that he’s a brutish and gloomy tyrant who mistreats his workers and has a sinister skeleton in his closet. Tierney is appealing, Price looks naturally evil and frightening, and Jessica Tandy and Walter Huston offer able support. With outstanding period atmosphere and gorgeous black-and-white photography, DRAGONWYCK was the directorial debut of Joseph L. Mankiewicz, most famous for his multiple-Oscar®-winning “All About Eve.” The New York Times wrote of the star: “Clean shaven and elegantly tailored, Vincent Price still makes a formidable Bluebeard, and his moments of suave diabolism are about the best in the film.”