Laura (1968 film)

Laura is a 1968 American TV film, a remake of the 1944 film of the same name. It was directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and written by Truman Capote and Thomas Phipps.^[1] David Susskind produced.^[2]

The film had previously been adapted for television in 1955.

Plot summary

Cast

• George Sanders as Waldo Lydecker
• Robert Stack as Mark McPherson
• Arlene Francis as Mrs. Ann Treadwell
• Farley Granger as Shelby Carpenter
• Lee Radziwill (billed as "Lee Bouvier") as Laura Hunt

Production

Truman Capote was friends with Lee Radziwill who wanted to act and had made her stage debut in a revival of The Philadelphia Story. He met up with David Susskind and told him, "Lee Radiziwill is going to be an actress and I think we should all put something together for her. I'm sure that she'll be so good I'll write it for her myself."^[3]

Susskind thought Radziwill "wasn't very good" in her stage performance "but I thought maybe I saw a glimmer of something in her performance. The television companies had noticed the publicity, so it looked like we could set something up."^[3]

Capote wrote an adaptation of The Voice of the Turtle for her but Susskind worried it would be too difficult. So he suggested they do Laura.^[4]

Michael Dyne reportedly rewrote Capote's script.^[5]

The show was taped in London in October 1967. Robert Stack and George Sanders reprised roles they had performed on TV in the 1955 version.^[6][3] Stack recalled in his memoirs that "the production resembled a junior high school effort."^[7]

Reception

Critical reception to Radziwill's performance was hostile.^[8] The Chicago Tribune called it the "worst drama" of the season in which Radziwill was "unbelievably bad".^[9] Another review in The Washington Post said it was "disappointing all round."^[10] The New York Times called it "so laboured and so dull that the occasion was just a laboured walk through."^[11]