In praise of 1940s New York City

I watched the movie Laura over the weekend. (Thanks to Malcolm for making it top of mind for me again.) It's a completely sumptuous black-and-white movie, a famous film noir. But while I have a weakness for murders and whodunnits, that's not why I love Laura.

Everything about it is so idealized, romantic and gorgeous. The crime that sets everything in motion is a hideous murder (I'm not giving anything away here). A woman answers the doorbell only to get a face full of buckshot. At close range. EWWW! Yet the murder takes place offscreen and even as the police investigate the crime scene, there's no blood. Anywhere. There's beautiful furniture and priceless antiques and a beautiful portrait of the title character. There's a bar for cocktails, but there's no blood spatter, no brain matter, no stray teeth stuck in the upholstery.

Because this isn't Martin Scorcese's New York. It's Manhattan in the 1940s, at it's most sophisticated. Women have names like Laura Hunt and Anne Treadwell and they wear hats and gloves. They only leave the island of Manhattan to go their weekend places, in the country or perhaps the Hamptons, or maybe to the Kentucky Derby, to mix with the horsey crowd. All the men wear ties, everywhere. (All the lovemaking, like the violence, takes place offscreen, but I wouldn't be surprised if the men wore ties with their pajamas … no, make that smoking jackets.)

Everyone is smart. Everyone is witty. Each bon mot is better than the last, no matter how many cocktails are sipped.

The women keep journals and diaries. The men write their women letters, even though they live only a short cab ride apart and will be seeing one another for dinner this coming Tuesday. It's not unusual for a lady to commission a portrait of herself (like this one of the main character) and then fall in love with the artist.

I hope I'm not making this movie sound trivial because it's not. It's storytelling of a very high order, with terrific performances from top to bottom. It is also an almost perfect example of filmmaking in the 1940s. It reflects who and what America wanted to be as we came out of The Great Depression and believed there was an end in sight to WWII.

I wonder what current movies will be remembered as classics 60 years from now, and what they'll say about us.

(For those who prefer books to movies, if you can lay hands on Laura by Vera Caspary, read it. It's a great read because it's written in three different voices -- each chapter is told by a different character.)