In case you just tuned in, I’m using Louella Parsons’ May 15, 1944, item on Rouben Mamoulian being replaced as the director of “Laura” to take a meandering look at the making of the film, which was released in Los Angeles in November 1944.

So far, we have examined the early writing career of “Laura” novelist Vera Caspary,  four murder mystery films made between 1932 and 1938 based on variations of a story titled “Suburb,” which Caspary sold to the studios eight times before Paramount told her to knock it off. We made a brief detour to “Easy Living,” in which we found that in adapting Caspary’s original story for the screen, Preston Sturges discarded everything but the title and the principal plot device: a fur coat.

We also looked at Caspary’s attempts at writing for the stage, finding that although she labored diligently on plays, they did not turn out well. Her previous effort before “Laura,” “Geraniums in My Window,” received 27 performances on Broadway and earned poor reviews. New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson described “Geraniums” as “a misshapen piece of Broadway clap-trap.”

”Laura” began as a play – and not a very good one.

The Making of “Laura” Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | | Part 12 | Part 13

Spoilers ahead.

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Vera Caspary’s second attempt to turn “Laura” into a play, in  collaboration with George Sklar.

In case you just tuned in, I’m using Louella Parsons’ May 15, 1944, item on Rouben Mamoulian being replaced as the director of “Laura” to take a meandering look at the making of the film, which was released in Los Angeles in November 1944. So far, we have examined the early writing career of “Laura” novelist Vera Caspary,  four murder mystery films made between 1932 and 1938 based on variations of a story titled “Suburb,” which Caspary sold to the studios eight times before Paramount told her to knock it off, and a brief detour to “Easy Living,” in which we found that in adapting Caspary’s original story for the screen, Preston Sturges discarded everything but the title and the principal plot device: a fur coat.

At long last, we will return to the point in Part VI, in which Caspary said she had tried to write a “mystery play.”

In her autobiography, “The Secrets of Grown-Ups,” Caspary wrote: “In a suitcase lay the scruffy typescript of the play I’d written as an escape from political argument.”

The Making of “Laura” Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | | Part 12

Continue reading →