Plot summary
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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.
| | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (March 2023) |
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]
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]
Laura is a 1944 American film noir produced and directed by Otto Preminger. It stars Gene Tierney, Dana Andrews, and Clifton Webb along with Vincent Price and Judith Anderson. The screenplay by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, and Betty Reinhardt is based on the 1943 novel Laura by Vera Caspary. Laura received five nominations for the Academy Awards, including for Best Director, winning for Best Black and White Cinematography.
Truman Garcia Capote was an American novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a "non-fiction novel". His works have been adapted into more than 20 films and television dramas.
Nelle Harper Lee was an American novelist who wrote the 1960 novel To Kill a Mockingbird that won the 1961 Pulitzer Prize and became a classic of modern American literature. She assisted her close friend Truman Capote in his research for the book In Cold Blood (1966). Her second novel, Go Set a Watchman, has been confirmed to be an earlier draft of Mockingbird but was published in July 2015 as a sequel.
Robert Stack was an American actor and television host. Known for his deep voice and commanding presence, he appeared in over forty feature films. He starred in the ABC television series The Untouchables (1959–1963), for which he won the 1960 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Series, and later hosted/narrated the true-crime series Unsolved Mysteries (1987–2002). He was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role in the film Written on the Wind (1956). Later in his career, Stack was known for his deadpan comedy roles that lampooned his dramatic on-screen persona, most notably as Captain Rex Kramer in Airplane! (1980).
Caroline Lee Bouvier, later Canfield, Radziwiłł, and Ross, was an American socialite, public relations executive, and interior decorator. She was the younger sister of Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and sister-in-law of President John F. Kennedy. Radziwill was married three times, each marriage ending in divorce.
What a Way to Go! is a 1964 American black comedy film directed by J. Lee Thompson and starring Shirley MacLaine, Paul Newman, Robert Mitchum, Dean Martin, Gene Kelly, Bob Cummings and Dick Van Dyke.
Susan Elizabeth Strasberg was an American stage, film, and television actress. Thought to be the next Hepburn-type ingenue, she was nominated for a Tony Award at age 18, playing the title role in The Diary of Anne Frank. She appeared on the covers of LIFE and Newsweek in 1955. A close friend of Marilyn Monroe and Richard Burton, she wrote two best-selling tell-all books. Her later career primarily consisted of slasher and horror films, followed by TV roles, by the 1980s.
Slouching Towards Bethlehem is a 1968 collection of essays by Joan Didion that mainly describes her experiences in California during the 1960s. It takes its title from the poem "The Second Coming" by W. B. Yeats. The contents of this book are reprinted in Didion's We Tell Ourselves Stories in Order to Live: Collected Nonfiction (2006).
Mark Rydell is an American film director, producer, and actor. He has directed several Academy Award-nominated films including The Fox (1967), The Reivers (1969), Cinderella Liberty (1973), The Rose (1979), and The River (1984). He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Director for On Golden Pond (1981).
Infamous is a 2006 American drama film written and directed by Douglas McGrath. It is based on George Plimpton's 1997 book, Truman Capote: In Which Various Friends, Enemies, Acquaintances, and Detractors Recall His Turbulent Career and covers the period from the late 1950s through the mid-1960s, during which Truman Capote researched and wrote his bestseller In Cold Blood (1965).
Capote is a 2005 biographical drama film about American novelist Truman Capote directed by Bennett Miller, and starring Philip Seymour Hoffman in the title role. The film primarily follows the events during the writing of Capote's 1965 nonfiction book In Cold Blood. The film was based on Gerald Clarke's 1988 biography Capote. It was released September 30, 2005, coinciding with Capote's birthday.
Sam Whiskey is a 1969 American Western comedy film directed in DeLuxe Color by Arnold Laven and starring Burt Reynolds, Angie Dickinson, Clint Walker and Ossie Davis. "Way ahead of its time," said Reynolds of the film. "I was playing light comedy and nobody cared."
Bella Darvi was a Polish film actress and stage performer who was active in France and the United States.
The Family Way is a 1966 British comedy-drama film about the marital difficulties of a young newlywed couple living in a crowded house with the husband's family. Based on Bill Naughton's play All in Good Time (1963), the film began life in 1961 as the television play Honeymoon Postponed.
Breakfast at Tiffany's is a novella by Truman Capote published in 1958. In it, a contemporary writer recalls his early days in New York City, when he makes the acquaintance of his remarkable neighbor, Holly Golightly, who is one of Capote's best-known creations.
Getting Straight is a 1970 American comedy film motion picture directed by Richard Rush, released by Columbia Pictures.
The Game Is Over is a 1966 French-Italian French language drama film directed by Roger Vadim and starring Jane Fonda, Michel Piccoli and Peter McEnery. The film is a modern-day adaptation of the 1871-72 novel La Curée by Émile Zola.
Laura is a 1955 American TV film for The 20th Century-Fox Hour. It was a remake of the 1944 film of the same name.
Medea is a 1959 American TV play. It is based on the adaptation of the play by Euripides. Judith Anderson plays the title role, which she had great success performing on stage ever since 1948.
The Power and the Glory is a 1961 American TV film based on the 1940 novel The Power and the Glory by Graham Greene. It was produced by David Susskind for Talent Associates-Paramount. The production was shot for American TV but also distributed theatrically overseas.