Imatge de l'autor

Vera Caspary (1899–1987)

Autor/a de Laura

34+ obres 1,076 Membres 38 Ressenyes 3 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Obres de Vera Caspary

Laura (1942) 553 exemplars
Laura [1944 film] (1944) — Autor — 204 exemplars
Bedelia (1945) 139 exemplars
Evvie (1960) 21 exemplars
Stranger Than Truth (1946) 17 exemplars
Laura (Screen Play) (1945) 17 exemplars
Thelma (1952) 9 exemplars
The secrets of grown-ups (1979) 8 exemplars
Bachelor in Paradise (1961) 7 exemplars
A Chosen Sparrow (1964) 6 exemplars
The husband 5 exemplars
Thicker than water 5 exemplars

Obres associades

Women Crime Writers: Four Suspense Novels of the 1940s (2015) — Col·laborador — 162 exemplars
Women Crime Writers: Eight Suspense Novels of the 1940s and 1950s (2015) — Col·laborador — 59 exemplars
Easy Living [1937 film] (1937) — Original story — 25 exemplars
La Gardenia Azul (1953) 14 exemplars

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom normalitzat
Caspary, Vera
Altres noms
Caspary, Vera Louise
Data de naixement
1899-11-13
Data de defunció
1987-06-13
Gènere
female
Nacionalitat
USA
Lloc de naixement
Chicago, Illinois, USA
Lloc de defunció
New York, New York, USA
Llocs de residència
Chicago, Illinois, USA (birth)
New York, New York, USA
Educació
business college
Professions
novelist
screenwriter
short story writer
playwright
Organitzacions
Communist Party
League of American Writers
Agent
Edith Haggard
Biografia breu
Vera Caspary was born in Chicago, the youngest of four children in a Russian-German Jewish immigrant family. After her high school graduation in 1917, her father enrolled her in a six-month course in a business college. Subsequently, she began working as a stenographer and held a series of menial office jobs, producing articles for magazines in her spare time. By 1927, she had become a full-time freelance writer. She was a prolific Hollywood screenwriter and also published about 20 novels. In 1949, she married one of her writing collaborators, Isidor "I.G." Goldsmith, a film producer born in Vienna. The couple split their time between Hollywood and Europe until his death in 1964.

Membres

Converses

"Laura" by Vera Caspary a Book talk (juliol 2012)

Ressenyes

A murder told from the viewpoints of the four main characters.

A woman is shot in the face when she answers the front door. She is identified as Laura, the woman who rents the apartment. The damage to her face is so extensive that some of the people have doubts.

Waldo Lydecker, a snide, self-centered gossip columnist claims to be a close friend of Laura, and also to have strong feelings for her.

Shelby Carpenter, a smooth, southern gentleman, who is engaged to Laura. They were to married the day after the day she was murdered.

Mark McPherson, the detective assigned to the case, finds he is fascinated by Laura to the point that he is possibly falling for her. A distraction he doesn’t need to succumb to.

Lydecker and Carpenter each make good suspects. For McPherson either one would do, but he is a man for truth and not publicity. He takes his time and learns more about Laura than he expected. Each suspect has secrets regarding their friendship with Laura.

Obsession, guile, subterfuge, suspicion and sarcasm run throughout the book. Sifting through layers, the relationships separate to disclose the murderer.

A classic read, that was also a hit movie. Between the two, the book was better for mood and tension.
… (més)
 
Marcat
ChazziFrazz | Hi ha 24 ressenyes més | Dec 21, 2023 |
Laura is the film which made me fall in love with the movies. When Otto Preminger was told to take over this project from wunderkind Rouben Mamoulian, it was reportedly a mess. How much was already in the can has always been in dispute; some still maintain that the famous opening shots are director Mamoulian’s work. David Raksin’s famous score, however, so beautiful and haunting that it set the tone for the entire film, had not yet been written. Preminger told Raksin to take the weekend and come up with something or he would use Duke Ellington’s Sophisticated Lady instead.

Raksin’s marriage was falling apart at the time, and over the weekend he wrote the theme from Laura as much for his wife as for the film. Sadly, it did not save his marriage. It did, however, change forever this film. Raksin’s score was so haunting and beautiful that Preminger framed the entire picture around it, turning this into perhaps the greatest romantic noir film ever to grace a movie screen.

Dana Andrews had his greatest role as Detective Mark McPherson, assigned the murder of society girl Laura Hunt due to office politics. Wlado Lydecker is also the role for which Clifton Webb might best be remembered. He gives an outstanding performance as the deceased Laura’s vain and famous benefactor. Using his wit and intellect to destroy all of Laura’s suitors in his weekly column, we see everything played out in flashbacks told to McPherson during the investigation.

Vincent Price had arguably his best non-horror role as Shelby Carpenter, the one man Waldo could not drive away. Laura was to have been married to Carpenter, a heel with perfect manners. The more McPherson learns about Laura the more he wonders why such a sweet and down to earth girl ended up a society page murder mystery. She liked baseball and shares a favorite book with McPherson. Her portrait, painted by one of the suitors Lydecker destroyed in his column, hangs ominously above the chair where Mark McPherson reads her diary, searching for clues that will help him unravel the mystery of both her life, and her violent death.

Laura's fiercely loyal maid, Bessie, attempts to protect Laura’s reputation at every turn. McPherson is sympathetic and wants to protect her reputation also, because he has fallen in love with a ghost. David Raksin’s haunting score sets the atmosphere to every film buff's favorite murder mystery/noir/romance. Halfway through this film, on a rainy night in Laura’s apartment, the entire case will be turned upside down in one of the most famous twists in screen history.

This film was adapted from the terrific Vera Caspary novel and is a mystery classic as well. Both the novel and the film are timeless treasures to be cherished. This is one of the finest films ever made and one you simply have to see. It will make you fall in love with the movies.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Matt_Ransom | Hi ha 2 ressenyes més | Nov 22, 2023 |
Originally published by Vera Caspary in 1942 as a seven-part story in Collier’s Magazine under the title Ring Twice for Laura, today we know it simply as Laura. This classic mystery-romance is sometimes overshadowed by the magnificent film it spawned a couple of years later, starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. Director Otto Preminger's masterpiece is one of the finest mysteries in the history of motion pictures. But that lofty height is equaled by the original source for the film, Caspary’s terrific story. Quite simply, this is one of the finest and most unusual mystery novels ever written. Caspary used a unique narrative structure to create an atmospheric and involving novel of mystery and romance which has stood the test of time.

The story revolves around Detective Mark McPherson's investigation into the murder of Laura Hunt. McPherson has somewhat of a celebrity status within the department due to some front page cases with which he has been involved. But he is unprepared for the high society circles Laura moved in, and Caspary allows the reader to see through the detective's eyes the affectations of the rich. It is a world where people begin their insults with endearing terms like darling, then proceed to use words the roughest seaman wouldn't use to tear you apart.

Laura's benefactor and sometimes companion, Waldo Lydecker, is the poster boy for such behavior. He uses his well known newspaper column to destroy all of Laura's would-be suitors. Only the man she was set to marry, Shelby Carpenter, was able to withstand the glare of Lydecker's poison-pen scrutiny. But on the weekend before she was to be married, a knock on the door late at night, followed by a shotgun blast, cuts her life short.

Waldo Lydecker begins the narration, then McPherson picks up where he left off. It is during McPherson's narration we get to see events as they really are, bringing about for the reader an understanding of the detective's thought process and actions so twisted out of context by Lydecker. Caspery's descriptions of the encounters between Lydecker and McPherson are splendid. You can almost feel the breeze in the popular open-air restaurant where they dine and hear the young woman going from table to table singing, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Caspary also allows the reader to feel McPherson's frustration with the pretty-boy, Shelby Carpenter. Above all this, however, Caspary paints a picture of Laura that allows us to understand how McPherson has fallen in love with a dead girl, because we have also.

Laura could not have been more different from these people, her inner beauty inspiring loyalty in her working-class maid, Bessie. McPherson soon begins to wonder how a smart girl like Laura managed to surround herself with such morally empty people, their arrogance and gutter ethics only surpassed by their lack of character. But Caspery is smart enough to let us see into a woman's heart as well, and make us understand.

On a rainy night in Laura's swanky 5th Avenue walk-up apartment, while McPherson sits underneath her painting looking through her diary, searching for a clue to her murder, Caspary suddenly turns an already great mystery-romance novel into a classic. We simply can't put it down at this point. It is a fantastic read and stands with a handful of others in the genre as one of the best ever written.

Since this edition appears to no longer be in print, I highly recommend purchasing the book or Kindle version, because it is the same story. The difference is simply the magazine layout, which included some nice illustrations to accompany each segment of the story. Here is one example that is actually on-line — https://i.pinimg.com/originals/b4/51/f5/b451f5336b9f02cf055a9b3cd524d610.jpg — to get an idea of what it looked like in magazine form before it became the sensation that it was — and still is, for mystery lovers.

Other than the illustrations, all you will be missing apparently is the famous article Caspary wrote about the book, called My “Laura” and Otto’s. But that too, has been placed on-line by UNZ — http://www.unz.org/Pub/SaturdayRev-1971jun26-00036 — so that you can still enjoy it. The book in novel form is still available, however, and despite the passage of time, it is as fresh today as it was in the 1940s. This is one book in the mystery genre you don't want to miss.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Matt_Ransom | Oct 6, 2023 |
First appearing in Collier's Magazine in 1942, this fantastic mystery/romance novel by Vera Caspary is sometimes overshadowed by the magnificent film it spawned, starring Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney. Director Otto Preminger's masterpiece is one of the finest mysteries in the history of motion pictures. But that does not detract from how wonderful the story is in novel form. Quite simply, this is one of the finest and most unusual mystery novels ever written. Caspary used an unique narrative structure to create an atmospheric and involving mystery which has stood the test of time.

The story revolves around Detective Mark McPherson's investigation into the murder of Laura Hunt. McPherson has somewhat of a celebrity status within the department due to some front page cases with which he has been involved. But he is unprepared for the high society circles Laura moved in, and Caspary allows the reader to see through the detective's eyes the affectations of the rich. It is a world where people begin their insults with endearing terms like darling, then proceed to use words the roughest seaman wouldn't use to tear you apart.

Laura's benefactor and sometimes companion, Waldo Lydecker, is the poster boy for such behavior. He uses his well known newspaper column to destroy all of Laura's would-be suitors. Only the man she was set to marry, Shelby Carpenter, was able to withstand the glare of Lydecker's poison-pen scrutiny. But on the weekend before she was to be married, a knock on the door late at night, followed by a shotgun blast, cuts her life short.

Waldo Lydecker begins the narration, then McPherson picks up where he left off. It is during McPherson's narration we get to see events as they really are, bringing about for the reader an understanding of the detective's thought process and actions so twisted out of context by Lydecker. Caspery's descriptions of the encounters between Lydecker and McPherson are splendid. You can almost feel the breeze in the popular open-air restaurant where they dine and hear the young woman going from table to table singing, Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. Caspary also allows the reader to feel McPherson's frustration with the pretty-boy, Shelby Carpenter. Above all this, however, Caspary paints a picture of Laura that allows us to understand how McPherson has fallen in love with a dead girl, because we have also.

Laura could not have been more different than these people, her inner beauty inspiring loyalty in her working-class maid, Bessie. McPherson soon begins to wonder how a smart girl like Laura managed to surround herself with such morally empty people, their arrogance and gutter ethics only surpassed by their lack of character. But Caspery is smart enough to let us see into a woman's heart as well, and make us understand.

On a rainy night in Laura's swanky 5th Avenue walk-up apartment, while McPherson sits underneath her painting looking through her diary, searching for a clue to her murder, Caspary suddenly turns an already great mystery-romance novel into a classic. We simply can't put it down at this point. It is a fantastic read and stands with a handful of others in the genre as one of the best ever written. It is timeless, as fresh today as it was in 1943. This is one book in the mystery genre you don't want to miss.
… (més)
 
Marcat
Matt_Ransom | Hi ha 24 ressenyes més | Oct 6, 2023 |

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Estadístiques

Obres
34
També de
6
Membres
1,076
Popularitat
#23,896
Valoració
3.9
Ressenyes
38
ISBN
59
Llengües
6
Preferit
3

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