The 1944 movie “Laura” was based on the book by the same
name authored by Vera Caspary. The movie was selected for preservation in the
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress in 1999. It was named one of the
ten best mystery films of all time by the American Film Institute, and Roger
Ebert included it in his “Great Movies” series.
However,
according to Wikipedia, Vera didn’t consider herself a "real" mystery
writer. She began her career as a copy editor in an advertising agency then
eventually moved into journalism then playwriting.
An article in The New Yorker
claims that the writing of “Laura” was a kind
of accident, done for money. The writer indicates Caspary did not like murder
mysteries herself, and she saw in them a structural flaw. “The murderer, the
most interesting character,” Caspary wrote, “has always to be on the periphery
of action lest he give away the secret that can be revealed only in the final
pages.” If she was going to write one, she decided she needed to do it
differently.
And different it is.
Detective Mark McPherson
investigates the murder of Madison Avenue advertising executive Laura Hunt in
her fashionable apartment. The detective reads her diaries and letters, and interviews
her friends, eventually becoming obsessed with the Laura. When she returns from
a trip, the police realize the victim is one of the advertising agency models.
This casts suspicion on Laura who denies any knowledge of the murder.
The film was nominated for five
Academy awards, and won for “Best Black and White Cinematography.”
Vera continued to write publishing
nearly twenty novels after “Laura.” A fascinating aside about Vera’s writing
surrounds the claim she made in her memoir that she rewrote and resold the
exact plot of her story Thicker than
Water eight times over her career. Who says formulaic writing doesn’t work?
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