Laura is an American film noir released in 1944. It was directed by Otto Preminger and stars Gene Tierney as Laura, Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson.

The movie was based on Vera Caspary's Laura, a popular 1943 detective novel, and it was adapted for the screen by Jay Dratler, Samuel Hoffenstein, Elizabeth Reinhardt and Ring Lardner Jr. (uncredited). The film's first director, Rouben Mamoulian, was fired early in the film's shooting due to creative differences.

Detective Mark McPherson investigates the killing of Laura, found dead on her apartment floor before the movie starts. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from the suspects whom he interviews. He is helped by the striking painting of the late lamented Laura hanging on her apartment wall. But who would have wanted to kill a girl with whom every man she met seemed to fall in love? To make matters worse, McPherson finds himself falling under her spell too. Then one night, halfway through his investigations, something seriously bizarre happens to make him re-think the whole case. Written by Steve Hosgood

When the famous advertising executive Laura Hunt (Gene Tierney) is found dead in her apartment killed by a shotgun on a Friday night, Detective Lieutenant Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) is in charge of the investigation. He interviews the prime suspects and friends of Laura: the snob and arrogant journalist Waldo Lydecker (Clifton Webb) who promoted Laura at the beginning of her career and fell in love with her; and her fiancé, the playboy Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). While investigating Laura's past through her diary and personal letters, Det. McPherson falls in love with her. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

George Sanders (I) and Robert Stack had appeared years earlier in another television adaptation of "Laura", broadcast on the anthology series "The 20th Century Fox Hour", playing the same roles they did in the 1968 TV version. That 1950s version, which runs only an hour, is sometimes rebroadcast on the Fox Movie Channel as part of their series "Hour of Stars".

The videotape on which the film was originally recorded has reputedly been erased, making this presentation a distant television memory, most likely never to be seen again. The erasure of these videotapes was at the time a fairly common practice by TV networks, and a great deal of television history has undoubtedly been lost forever.