I've just watched the 1944 noir LAURA for the first time in years. I thought it was wonderful but am surprised when reading about the film that there are seems people who are unaware that the second have of the film is the cop's dream. To me it was obvious as there are so many signals to the fact.

Anybody agree/disagree?

I've seen the film a number of times and have never thought of it that way, nor has anything I've read about the film in any number of books on film noir ever posited that notion, at least that I noticed. Otto Preminger occasionally dealt with delusion, psychedelia and mental health in his films (BUNNY LAKE IS MISSING, SKIDOO, TELL ME THAT YOU LOVE ME JUNIE MOON), but never, as far as I can recall, with dreams. This doesn't mean you're wrong, of course, just that your notion is highly unlikely. I'm now curious to see the film again to see if there's something to your theory. But count me in the "disagree" column for now.

I'm still mulling this over, but I'll weigh in in a few days (by then this thread should be at least five pages long).

Tierney was smoking in this one.

i've never thought it was a dream...might need to re-watch this over the weekend.

Well, everyone smoked back then.

But seriously, I agree. Fantastically beautiful woman.

Like I needed another reason to buy the upcoming BD, but now I'm wanting to revisit it and see how your theory plays out. I've seen it a couple of times and that never seemed apparent to me; I just figured it was all played straight. I don't recall the second half being particularly "dreamy".

Clifton Webb just rules in this flick

Can you list the details that would back up your view? I've always seen the film as pretty straight-forward.

I've also heard this theory, and there are several visual cues to indicate this, but they are subtle. It's been a couple years since I've seen it, but I remember the biggest indicator is when the detective falls asleep in the chair, the camera pushes in on him, then pulls back in kind of a peculiar, "dreamlike" way.

I remember reading somewhere that the screenplay was more explicit about it being a dream, but Preminger wanted to play it "straight."

Regardless of whether a dream or not, the film is totally amazing. One of the best noirs of all time.

The cop is clearly infatuated with the dead Laura. He is in her apartment and falls asleep. The camera zooms in on his face (I almost expected some wavy lines to appear on the screen at this point to indicate we were going into his dream world but perhaps this would have been too obvious) and then pulls out again and there is Laura, alive. The rest of the film shows the cop and Laura falling in love, which would fit with the dream theory as he is infatuated with her and has just fallen asleep and so is dreaming of a fantasy. There are verbal references to dreams in the last five minutes just to remind us.

We never actually see him wake up.

I hope I've explained it clearly enough!

I never thought of it that way either. I'll have to watch it again as I haven't seen it in about 5 years.

I must confess I am a bit perplexed about the love for this movie. Every time I've seen it I find myself sitting there just waiting for it to end. I dunno why really...I love noir, all the actors are great, it's well shot and very well written but I just can't seem to connect with it.

I've never heard of this film. Now I must search for it and watch it. I love me some Film Noir.

I highly recommend it.

Just to add to this - I've just gone back to watch the ending again to get the quotes. Four minutes before the end of the film, when Mark (the cop) is leaving Laura, he says "get some sleep, forget the whole thing like a bad dream." Then, a couple of minutes later, Laura thinks she is alone (although Waldo is approaching her in her apartment). She is listening to Waldo's recorded radio broadcast, where he quotes this from Ernest Dowson's poem Vitae Summa Brevis

"They are not long, the days of wine and roses:
Out of a misty dream
Our path emerges for a while, then closes
Within a dream."

On their own these lines of dialogue do not convey they idea that the second half of the film is a dream, but with the aforementioned shot of Mark falling asleep at around he halfway point in the film, I think they are clues about what is going on.