A happy accident because many of the people involved in this tried to repeat the success and could never quite do it. There was a strong source novel, true, but a lot of work was done on the script - this version for instance that I read was full of "additional scenes" and "replacement pages".
The script has three aces - the character of Waldo Lydecker (brilliantly scripted and later realised by Clifton Webb - better than Laird Cregar would have been because he was more spartan, severe), the fact that Mark the detective falls for dead Laura (the character is more interesting on the page than Dana Andrews could realise), and the fact that Laura is still alive.
It's a very well thought out mystery, with Waldo, Shelby and Ann being key suspects with Diane Redfern being the joker in the pack.
Interesting psychologically too - Waldo seemingly gay (or impotent?) obsessed with Laura, Laura liking them dumb and hot (Vincent Price probably gave the wrong impression), Laura a proto feminist who wants to work. All the improvements/new pages improve things - though the detective is quite casual about interrogating suspects in front of each other! (Does make for better drama).
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