The screenwriters maintain the feminist flavour of the novel. Laura herself is portrayed as confident, successful and desirable: the two men who want her are degenerate in different ways, Carpenter more conventionally so than Lydecker, whose complexities would keep a psychiatrist occupied for weeks. Lydecker is prissy and self-regarding, and the film goes as far as it could under the Hays Code of censorship to suggest that he is a somewhat sad homosexual looking to portray himself as conventional by having a beautiful and much younger woman as an appendage. The twist towards the end gives this masterpiece its special lustre.
Andrews, an actor of refinement and subtlety, brings out his inner thug as McPherson, the detective. Vincent Prince is sublimely loathsome as Carpenter, and all too credible as a social parasite. Clifton Webb, one of the most gifted actors of the era, carries the film as Lydecker, exuding both effeminacy and ruthlessness.
But the star in every sense is Gene Tierney, cast exactly according to type. In real life she was a New York brahmin from a Swiss finishing school. She was just 23 when filming began, but she plays Laura with utter conviction and faultless maturity. Rouben Mamoulian, whom 20th Century Fox hired to direct the film, was sacked and replaced by Preminger early in the production: but such was the brilliance of the ensemble cast, script and Preminger himself that the joins cannot be seen. The film is one of those rare beasts that can be legitimately called immaculate.
