Sunday, September 17, 2017
VIDEO SUNDAY - "LAURA" REMADE
I don't know why, but September just feels right for mystery programs. The weather is getting crisper, the days are getting shorter.....
There are different ways for the Cineverse to have counterparts in the greater Toobworld Universe. Usually it's with TV series adaptations of the movies. ('M*A*S*H', 'Limitless', 'Buffy The Vampire Lover')
Then there are the movies which are extensions of the original TV series. ('Maverick', 'Batman 1966' and the first eight 'Star Trek' movies, plus the ninth - until Spock goes into the black hole. He be dead, Jim! After that it was all fantasy.)
Other times there would be something about a particular movie that demanded it should be absorbed into Toobworld. ("North By Northwest" - The Professor is Alexander Waverly.)
But during the fifties, there were anthology shows from the studios which adapted their movies into one-shot recreations of those films. 'The 20th Century Fox Hour' ran for three years with such adaptations as 'Cavalcade', 'Miracle On 34th Street', and 'The Ox-Bow Incident'.
Our Video Sunday offering today is another of these movie adaptations. "Laura" is one of the greatest noir films for me, directed by Otto Preminger and starring Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Vincent Price, Dame Judith Anderson, and Clifton Webb as Waldo Lydecker.
This version from 'The 20th Century Hour' is titled "Portrait of Murder" (a title worthy of 'Columbo'!) and it stars Robert Stack in Andrews' role, Scott Forbes standing in for Price, and Dana Wynter as Laura. Best of all, Clifton Webb's Lydecker is ably replaced by the man born to play the role: George Sanders.
Enjoy.........
BCnU!
The 20th Century Fox Hour aired in 1955.
ReplyDeleteThirteen years after this, ABC and David Susskind mounted a two-hour taped remake, starring Lee Bouvier (Jackie Onassis's sister, who'd never acted before).
George Sanders and Robert Stack were brought back to repeat their roles from the older televersion.
In his memoir, Stack recounts his conversation with Sanders as the '68 version got underway; Sanders's quoted remarks show that Waldo Lydecker was never far from his heart and mind.
I wonder if this version is available anywhere ...
That would be an interesting find. The technology would have been better, but the look of videotape would have cheapened it. And a lot would be riding on Radziwell although Waldo does overwhelm the basic story. Thanks as always, Mike!
Delete