'Laura' portrait

Of course, the portrait wasn't exactly a painting -- it was a photograph of Gene Tierney, painted over to make it look like something done in oil.

Unfortunately there's no sign of this film being put out on DVD anytime in the foreseeable future. In fact, it hasn't even shown up on TV in a long time. Woman's World has as you say been discussed on the Executive Suite board -- a much better film, and one that thankfully is out on DVD. As you know June Allyson is in both, and she's a big drawback in Woman's World: her character is very obnoxious here. There's also a sappy, awful and thoroughly unnecessary title song.

But the film is overall pretty entertaining despite its drawbacks, and, since it takes place in a fictitious automobile corporation, you get a look at the US automotive industry (they used Fords in the picture as the products of the "Gifford" Motor Company), and glimpses of its ideas for the future -- back in the good old days when the industry was innovative and competitive...and still in existence.

This suffers a lot when compared to EXECUTIVE SUITE, a definite classic that portrayed very powerfully the tensions and philosophical differences in American corporations of the day.

I am also a great fan of LAURA, and got a big smile when I saw good old Waldo Lydecker risen from the dead and showing off Laura's portrait on his wall of conquests. I didn't think much of WOMAN'S WORLD, frankly, but this little touch adds at least one star to the overall rating.

Yes, I wonder whether Fox ever stuck the portrait in someplace else. Maybe, although it's so recognizable they'd have to be careful about where to use it or how much attention to draw to it. Nothing comes to mind, but it's a fun thing to keep an eye out for.

I understand that the Laura portrait was actually a photograph of Gene Tierney, touched up to make it look like a painting. But the thing that struck me is that, like most of the photos on Gifford's wall, it was in black & white. Obviously, like "Laura's" portrait, they were all made for b&w movies; as with any set decoration, costume or other such visual, objects shot in b&w were specifically chosen to photograph best in that format, so were usually not in the colors they might have been had they been filmed in color. (Something fans of colorization never grasp.) But in real life, who would have a wall full of black & white paintings of ex-girlfriends in his study? Wouldn't such things have been painted in color? (And did he have Arlene Dahl pose for one afterward?)

Funny, I've noticed that same slight camera movement you mentioned. I think you're right about why that was done. And the portrait did look cut down in size -- maybe an alternate version made for Laura?

Am I correct from your opening sentence that you'd never seen this film before, Boomer?

Here's another bit of Clifton Webb trivia, from another movie. Webb's real name was Webb Parmalee Hollenbeck. In his 1957 movie Boy on a Dolphin (with Alan Ladd and, in her American film debut, Sophia Loren), Webb's character is named Mr. Parmalee. I very much doubt that was a coincidence!