The forties Hollywood classic Laura - in which Otto Preminger wraps the legacy of high society urban melodrama in the emerging form of the moody film noir - is one of the most notable cinematic influences on Twin Peaks. Namely...well, that's just it: it's right there in the name! The central mystery figure of Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) is reflected in Twin Peaks' Laura Palmer (Sheryl Lee), complete with her very own theme music, haunting portrait, and ambiguous "I am dead yet I live" persona. Not only that; the unforgettable columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) would influence both Waldo the bird and Dr. Lydecker the offscreen veterinarian in the nineties series - and the film even features its own Jacoby to boot. In fact, my coverage of Laura initiates a three-month series (the first of many) which groups several Twin Peaks Cinema topics together based on a common theme - in this case, "What's in a name?": films whose character names are adopted in Twin Peaks (see also Madelaine Ferguson and Gordon Cole, if you're wondering what's next). But if nomenclature was all Laura shared with Twin Peaks, I could leave the discussion to this single paragraph. The connections go much deeper, linking wealthy, jealous patrons; detectives falling under the spell of women whose deaths they are investigating; and of course, victims who prove more complex and human than the mythic memories that survive them. This episode kicks off my monthly standalone podcast feed for Twin Peaks Cinema in earnest (the previous public episodes - all on films written or directed by Peaks creators - were released on my main podcast feed, in addition to monthly patron exclusives stretching back two years). And I couldn't think of a more perfect way to dive in than with Laura herself.
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THE MYSTERY OF LAURA'S FIRST ENDING by Despina Veneti (Preminger Films Noirs)
Laura (1944) dir. Otto Preminger by Oscar Goff (Boston Hassle)
Dana Andrews Blogathon: My Eternal Love for Laura by Marya E. Gates (Cinema Fanatic)
My essay on Laura as my #1 noir
Clip from Laura in my "32 Days of Movies" film clip series, chapter 7: Dreaming in Wartime, alongside several other forties clips of characters who are asleep and/or lost in dreams, visions, and contemplation, as discussed here)
Recently on Lost in the Movies podcast: Halloween
Recently on Lost in Twin Peaks podcast: S1E1 (Pilot) & S1E2 (Traces to Nowhere/"Episode 1")
Recently on Left of the Movies podcast: High and Low
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