Do you think she was raped?

Laura did not display the emotional torment of someone who had been raped, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. Perhaps she had been in that situation before and managed to deal easily with the matter as repeated victims can do.

No doubt that Laura was emotionally disturbed. She continued to bar hop and flirt even as her husband was jail and the lawyers were preparing his defense. Perhaps Laura's husband needed to kill her lover to deal with the notion that he had married a tramp.

In any case, I found the story confusing but with excellent character acting.

To answer your question, I think Laura willingly went with Barney to park and make out and Barney got rougher than she wanted so Laura changed her mind. But by this time, Barney was so wound up that he attempted to rape Laura. She fought him and prevented his completion. Thus, there was no forensic evidence of the sex act.

I just saw this movie for the first time the other day and I was pretty blown away by the language and themes discussed in a movie from this period. As far as we've come as a society, this issue is as relevant as ever and the tactics used by the prosecutors are the same still used by many lawyers (where the law allows them to).

Throughout the film she's shown to be a flirt, either by acts we witness directly or hear about second hand. She obviously enjoys male attention and puts herself in some compromising positions for a married woman. I think she enjoyed the attention for the manly-man Barney, but wasn't ready for sex yet. Some aspects of her story match up to her being raped, including the torn panties.

We really can't be certain about anything as the film stays vague on nearly every issue. Was Lt. Manion really suffering from temporary insanity, or was that a ploy he was taking from his lawyer? Did he really confide to that fellow inmate about faking all of this and being happy to get away with murder? Did he really beat his wife?

I will have to agree with a previous poster in stating that regardless of what really happened, that marriage is destined for troubles and eventual divorce.

Yes, she was raped. We know for a fact that she was raped because of two things: 1) She passed her polygraph test and was found to be telling the truth when she said she was raped and 2) The panties were ultimately found at the bottom of a laundry chute that was only used by Barney and his daughter. They were white (the color the victim claimed they were), they were made by a specific shop in a specific town and had a label in them reflecting that (the victim had claimed they were made and purchased in that shop) and most importantly, they were torn - just like the victim claimed he had done. Furthermore, Barney Quill came in after raping her and had a short amount of time to shower, put his clothes back on, ditch the panties and get downstairs, because he knew the husband would be coming to the bar. He DID get his barman to sit by the window to see if the soldier was approaching and he DID get behind the bar where there was a gun stashed, but he did not expect the soldier to walk in, not say a word and fire.

One of the points of her character appearing slutty and inappropriate is that the viewer is supposed to have doubt of Barney Quill's guilt. Because she is an unsympathetic character and her husband is, too, we are never sure what happened in the case until the very end, when the panties are found.

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I don't think she was raped, but that there was an attempted rape. Here's what I believe:

Laura was indeed flirting with Barney and went out to lover's lane with him. He started to get rough, hit her and rip off her panties, but she got away before he had a chance to do anything with her or maybe he even stopped himself.

She comes home in an obvious mess and now has to explain to her husband what she was doing out in the middle of the night. Of course she can't say that she goes out cruising for guys so she claims that she was just minding her own business when Barney pounced out of nowhere and raped her. He beats her up not believing a word she says and then makes her swear on a rosary she's telling the truth.

The reason why I don't believe she was actually raped was the lack of evidence (sorry, not buying the lack of completion argument), the holes in her story and the absurd things she claimed happened. If Barney had kicked the dog out of the car, what were the odds of him bringing the dog back into the car and driving them back again? Or beating her up for a second time trying to attack her again after he had driven her back home? Or Barney saying, "I'm going to rape you?" Or that whole nonsense about the dog guiding her way back to the trailer park with a flashlight?

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Emojis=💩 Emoticons=

The film holds up a mirror to the society of its time -- which could be a few years before 1958 or 1959; the actual event the story was based on took place in 1952 -- to demonstrate how ordinary people regarded allegations of rape and accusations of murder, among other topical issues. It's obvious that neither of the Manions is what anyone would mistake for a model citizen, proof that the 1950s were not only about morally upstanding families like the Cleavers on Leave It to Beaver or the Andersons on Father Knows Best. Viewers form their opinions about Laura's relative guilt or innocence based on the facts presented about her personality. In that regard the film also acts as a time capsule illustrating how the public's attitude toward such actions has changed. In 1959, many may have judged Laura because she dressed comfortably, frequented bars alone, and generally didn't mind the attention men besides her husband paid to her as long as no liberties were taken. Ten or twenty years on, she could be seen as a woman who had liberated herself successfully from society's norms. Gillian Holroyd was a similar free spirit in Richard Quine's Bell, Book and Candle, released the previous year. Gillian belonged to a different social class and ultimately decides to don the high heels, conservative colors, and confining belt that signal her willingness to conform in order to secure stability in her relationships.

The question of whether Laura was actually raped or not lives and dies in the mind of the individual viewer, as does its answer. It's important for the public to know that woman can be raped without the assailant's leaving any damning physical evidence. Wendell Mayes's screenplay suggests that murder victim Barney Quill might have used a condom (though that exact word isn't used in the film). It also affirms that the rapist need not climax to be guilty of sexual assault -- something a lot of viewers probably didn't want to think about in 1959. My thought is that if Laura hadn't actually been raped -- and didn't think an investigation might produce evidence of sexual congress between her and Barney -- she probably would have told her husband a different story, either true or false. In 2014 the character is more likely to be vilified for giving her faithful dog beer to drink than for dressing provocatively. The point of the story is that even the most moral individuals, like defense attorney Paul Biegler, occasionally have completely amoral intentions.

I believe she WAS raped.Barney probably beat her when he couldn't see the act through COMPLETION.Perhaps she ridiculed him due to this fact.

No!