Trench coats: The film noir fashion essential in Laura (1944)
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The role of trench coats in 1940s film noir, and trenchcoats in the 1946 film noir Laura
The trench coat’s role in 1940’s film noirs
Did you know that the fashion essential trench-coat actually became popular during WWI as a military jacket? They again rose in popularity during the second World War for, again, the military.
It was also films during this period (the 1940’s) that helped cement their popularity. Film noirs with tough detectives and sultry femme fatales brought us not only incredible movies, but incredible style as well.
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“At the same time, the trench coat got another boost – this time from the golden age of Hollywood. ‘A key element to its continued success has to do with its appearance as costume in various films,’”
Laura (1944) starring Gene Tierney and Dana Andrews, is exactly one of those films.
It’s a film noir filled with all the expected goodies—tough detective falls for the gorgeous femme fatale while they both look incredibly stylish in dramatic lighting.
For the plot twist in Laura (1944) all the main characters wear trench coats
Laura is a film noir about a tough cop that has to investigate a woman’s murder, beginning with interrogating all her close friends. As the story unfolds, he begins to fall in love with everyone’s portrayal of her… It doesn’t hurt of course that she has a gorgeous life size portrait of herself at eye level. It turns out—spoiler alert!—-that she wasn’t dead after all!
In a classic film-noir-style plot twist, it’s a rainy night when she come back from the dead as if it were….hence all the main characters in the film get to have a trench coat fashion moment.
Gene Tierney puts on her trench coat before going away for the weekend, when another girl gets murdered in her apartment, hence the whole “thought you were dead” thing.
And now… wait for the plot twist with all characters wearing trench coats!
Dana Andrews as detective Mark McPherson shows us how stylish a men’s trench coat can be (cigarette not recommended)
First, Dana Andrews arrives in Gene Tierney’s apartment wearing a trench coat and fedora, smoking a cigarette.
He has just gotten settled, hence the ‘casual’ white button down when Clifton Web rings the doorbell.
When Dana Andrews opens it, Clifton Web is wearing a trench coat of his own!
Told you it was a rainy night!
Dana Andrews finally falls asleep—probably from all the smoke and booze—when the door opens again and Gene Tierney (the woman who’s murder he’s investigating) arrives, again dressed in her trench coat that she went away for the weekend in.
Gene Tierney demonstrates how to make a dramatic entrance with a trench coat.
Gene Tierney hasn’t yet taken off her trench coat as she reads the article mistaking her murder
Looking pretty dashing for someone who has just had too much to drink, then fallen asleep, then woke up to find that their murder victim is alive, Dana Andrews confronts Gene Tierney with the mistaken newspaper article of her murder.
And, we have one more character that still needs to show us his trench coat. Again, same night, Dana Andrews then follows Gene Tierney’s boyfriend Vincent Price to her vacation home where he is suspiciously checking out a shotgun. Of course, Vincent Price is wearing his trench coat, and not to be outdone, Dana Andrews put his back on too.
Vincent price keeps his cool with his trench coat draped over his shoulders
Dana Andrews shows he’s in charge by keeping his trench coat buttoned up
Sadly, that’s the end of the trench coat scene…
We were also hoping that at least one more character could’ve showed up in a trench coat—Gene Tierney’s aunt Judith Anderson for example…she would’ve looked great in a trench coat.
Judith Anderson (right) is one of the only character we didn’t get to see in a trench coat
This post was all about Trench coats: the film noir fashion essential in Laura.
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Have you seen Laura?
What did you think of all the trench coats in Laura? Who do you think wore it best?
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Last updated: Sep 07, 2024
