Lovers of 1940s Hollywood – and of course movie-lovers in general – should savour every last drop of this rerelease, directed by Otto Preminger, made in 1944 and coming complete with an ad for US war bonds in the closing credits. It's a fascinating whodunnit-noir with a superb coup de cinéma halfway through. Dana Andrews is the rugged Detective Mark McPherson; on account of heroic gunshot wounds in the leg, the press have dubbed him "Detective with the silver shinbone". (Something, perhaps, to set aside Preminger's 1955 movie The Man With the Golden Arm.) McPherson is investigating the gruesome murder of Laura Hunt, played by the exquisitely beautiful Gene Tierney. In flashbacks, we see how she was swept up into fashionable cafe society by her infatuated but platonic bachelor admirer, the waspish newspaper columnist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) – the equal, surely, of George Sanders's elegant Addison DeWitt in All About Eve. Which of Laura's wide circle of acquaintance holds the key to the mystery? And how will McPherson's growing obsession with Laura's memory affect his handling of the case? Laura is still every bit as gripping in 2012.