Laura

The UW’s cine-fan theater pays tribute to one of its own, film scholar David Bordwell, who passed away in March, with a series called “Thank You, David Bordwell.” All the Wednesday night screenings this summer will be 35mm prints of films from Bordwell’s own collection, now housed at the Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research. On July 3, Jan de Bont’s bus/bomb thriller Speed “exemplifies the fairly well-crafted action picture,” as Bordwell wrote. July 10 features the French film Vagabond from 1985; July 17 highlights Laura, the Otto Preminger murder mystery of 1944; and the series closes July 24 with Tiger on Beat, a Hong Kong buddy-cop film that Bordwell praised as “exciting, even exhilarating.” All films are at 7 p.m. at 4070 Vilas Hall.

media release: USA | 1944 | 35mm | 85 min.

Director: Otto Preminger

Cast: Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb

Tough and crude cop McPherson (Andrews) investigates the murder of beautiful advertising executive Laura Hunt (Tierney) and falls in love with her portrait. The chief suspects are Waldo Lydecker (Webb), Laura’s cynical friend and companion; Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price), her good-for-nothing fiancé; and Ann Treadwell (Judith Anderson), her rich, unscrupulous Aunt, who loves Shelby. Filled with shocking twists and revelations, Preminger’s classic gracefully mixes elegance with decadence.

35mm print courtesy of Wisconsin Center for Film & Theater Research.