So I was invited to lecture on film noir at Hillsdale in March, as part of CCA IV. I chose the most beautiful noir, Laura, a 1944 Otto Preminger movie adapted from a murder novel by Vera Caspary, starring Gene Tierney as the eponymous young beauty—indeed, she was the most delicate beauty among Hollywood actresses. The three men involved in her life & death are played by Clifton Webb, the sophisticated, arch critic, Vincent Price, the cad with the underdog story, & Dana Andrews, the Irish cop with metal in him to thank for a moment of heroism… This is also the most honored noir, I think—five Oscar nominations, one win. Preminger, Webb, & the writers all were nominated for the Oscars, but lost to Going My Way, the wonderful Leo McCarey musical comedy about a decent & prudent priest (the father of American singers, Bing Crosby). The cinematographer, however, won the Oscar, the wonderful Joe LaShelle, because the movie is beautiful, refined, & even achieves a tragic stateliness on occasion. It’s a morally serious America that has neither preachiness nor evasiveness about the major issues of justice & greatness in a democracy. This is noir purged of the sordid aspect of crime… David Raksin scored the movie & came up with a beautiful theme that became a jazz standard; Johnny Mercer wrote the plangent lyrics. Big hit in 1945. If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it! If you have, watch it again!
I, of course, will not be a noir protagonist involved in some kind of dark intrigue going on behind glittering facades, merely a lecturer about the same. I’ll be speaking on beauty’s connection to law & to advertising, on mid-century America & the questions artists raised about national character.
Also, if you’re going to be in Hillsdale, let me know—let’s meet!
I leave you with the music. Here’s the younger Sinatra singing the song, conducted by Axel Stordahl.
This is the older Sinatra, conducted by Gordon Jenkins.