The Theater: New Play in Manhattan, Jul. 7, 1947

Laura (by Vera Caspary & George Sklar; produced by H. Clay Blaney in association with S. P. & Roy P. Steckler), like Rebecca, flouted tradition by backing into Broadway from Hollywood. Like Rebecca’s, its Broadway sojourn is apt to be brief. The main trouble is that people may not care to see on the stage what they’ve already seen on the screen, done much better and at a quarter the price.

The all-too-well-known yarn of beautiful, mysteriously murdered Laura Hunt still has its tingling moments. One of them is when Laura walks into her apartment, big as life, at a tense moment of the search for her slayer. But in general, the problem of who killed the blonde who was mistaken for Laura is much less tense than talky. What’s more, the characters are all fairly dull, particularly those who are meant to be most fascinating. As the magnetic Laura, K. T. Stevens proves a washout in everything but looks; and, though Otto Kruger acts the decadent, supposedly brilliant Lydecker skillfully, the authors of the play make him a bore.