Trivia for
Laura (1944) More at IMDbPro »

• The film was begun by Rouben Mamoulian, but Otto Preminger, who initiated the project as producer and took over the direction, brought on a new cameraman and scrapped all of Mamoulian's footage.
  
  
• The character of Waldo Lydecker appears to be based on the columnist, broadcaster, and "New Yorker" theater critic Alexander Woollcott, a famous wit who, like Waldo, was fascinated by murder. Woollcott always dined at the Algonquin Hotel, where Laura first approaches Waldo.
  
  
• Darryl F. Zanuck was opposed to casting Clifton Webb because of his known homosexuality, but Preminger prevailed and the 54-year-old Webb, making his first screen appearance since the silent era, was nominated for an Oscar.
  
  
• The portrait of Laura is, in fact, a photograph done over with oil paint.
  
  
• The original choice for the role of Laura was Jennifer Jones, who turned it down
  
  
• One of the film's most durable legacies was its theme song "Laura," composed over one weekend by David Raksin. Otto Preminger had originally wanted to use Duke Ellington's "Sophisticated Lady."
  
  
• The haunting theme melody was inspired by a "Dear David" letter that composer David Raksin received from his wife. The lyrics were added later by Johnny Mercer.
  
  
• This movie is famous for the haunting "Laura Theme". When asked why she had turned down the part of Laura, Hedy Lamarr said, "They sent me the script, not the score."
  
  
• Rouben Mamoulian directed "Laura" at first, but was replaced by Otto Preminger, who also produced the picture. He immediately destroyed all of Mamoulian's footage, including a scripted ending where everything was revealed to be a dream, and brought a new cameraman onto the set.
  
  
• David Raksin ended up scoring the film only after Alfred Newman determined he did not have time to score it, and Bernard Herrmann subsequently turned the project down.
  
  
• The portrait of Gene Tierney as Laura appeared in On the Riviera (1951) (in color) co-starring Danny Kaye, then later in Woman's World (1954/I) starring Clifton Webb, the frustrated Waldo Lydecker of "Laura". In "Woman's World" the painting hung on a wall amid portraits of several other women who were supposed to have been former romantic interests of Webb's character.
  
  
• This film was intended to be narrated by Waldo, then Mark, then Laura, respectively. Mark's and Laura's narratives were later dropped.
  
  
• With Johnny Mercer's poignant lyrics, David Raksin's "Laura" theme was the basis for notable recordings made in 1945 by Woody Herman and His Orchestra (vocal by Woody) on Columbia, Dick Haymes on Decca, Johnny Johnston on Capitol, and in 1947 by Frank Sinatra on Columbia.
  
  
• Gene Tierney originally did not want to make this film but did it anyway under contract obligations.
  
  
• Ranked #4 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Mystery" in June 2008.
  
  
• Vera Caspary first wrote her story as a play, Ring Twice for Lora, in 1939, then adapted the play into a novel entitled Laura. The novel was serialized in Collier's (17 October-28 November 1942), under the title "Ring Twice for Laura." In a 1971 article in Saturday Review (of Literature), Caspary recalls that Otto Preminger read the manuscript of the novel and expressed interest in collaborating with her on a revised version of the play, which he would then produce. They did not agree on the dramatization, however, and Caspary reworked the play with George Sklar in 1942. This stage version opened in London in 1945, and on Broadway on June 26, 1947. Preminger first worked on the screenplay with Jay Dratler, then brought in the team of poet Samuel Hoffenstein and Elizabeth Reinhardt.
  
  
• Stars Gene Tierney, Judith Anderson, Dana Andrews and Vincent Price all died within three years of each other.
  
  
• The famous theme song David Raksin wrote for the film was originally entitled "Judy" in honor of Judy Garland.
  
  
• Vera Caspary's novel "Laura" falls into five sections and five separate voices, telling its story from the viewpoint of each of its principal characters. It was too cumbersome a structure for a 1940s mystery, so the script (by Jay Dratler and others) simplifies and concentrates the narrative for director Otto Preminger to play with.
  
  

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