In ten years Joan Crawford went from being "box office poison" to winning an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" to almost winning again for "Possessed" - most critics felt she should have won but Loretta Young did for "The Farmer's Daughter". Both director, Otto Preminger, and star, Henry Fonda, wished to forget "Daisy Kenyon" later in their careers and it was a film that opted for mushy romance over psychological drama, elements it had in abundance.Commercial artist Daisy Kenyon (Crawford) is being given the runaround by her married lover Dan (Dana Andrews). Initially he comes across as a brash charmer juggling mistress and family but in reality his wife is a neurotic who takes her frustrations out by abusing younger daughter Marie (Connie Marshall)!!! But Daisy is getting fed up with always coming second and the endless waiting by the telephone, so when she meets Peter (Fonda) who impulsively asks her to marry him she says yes.This movie could have gone in so many directions rather than down the road to romance. There was the child abuse angle - Marie was always a bundle of nerves at the thought of being left with her mother and even turns up at court with a bandaged ear but Dan seems oblivious to everything but his own happiness. At the end he even indicates that both mother and daughter would get used to each other in time but he had to be free!! Again, another sequence shows him accepting a brief (he was a lawyer of course) that dealt with a Japanese man who had won the Purple Heart but returned to find his home had been seized. Dan was told accepting this case would make him feel more worthwhile and not just a society lawyer. He takes the case and loses but you only hear about it, by this time the movie is really the Daisy and Dan story!! Oh, and Peter has some psychological problems stemming from the death of his first wife. He often wakes up at night with horrible nightmares. His problems, too, are miraculously righted and the end of the movie shows the three of them snowed in at a mountain cabin where Peter and Dan, like in a court case, put forward their cases as to why they are the best person for Daisy.Peter Fonda comes off best (probably because he is a better actor than Dana Andrews) but his pacing and demeanor are so dreamlike, it was almost as though he was in a different movie - he probably wished he was!!

Joan Crawford is "Daisy Kenyon" in this 1947 film about a woman torn between two men - one, a married, successful man (Dana Andrews), and the other, a returning soldier and widower (Henry Fonda). Directed by Otto Preminger, it's a good noir, better than "Dark Angel" but nowhere near "Laura." Andrews is married to Ruth Warrick and has two daughters who need him, as their mother, when unhappy, tends to be abusive. He has a long-time relationship with Daisy, who is a successful commercial artist. The situation isn't ideal for her, but she's in love. One night she meets a soldier who wants to build a life with her. Can she break from Andrews - and will he let her? There are several striking things about this film. One is the casting. In order to play the lead in "Grapes of Wrath" in 1940, Darryl Zanuck forced Henry Fonda to sign a 7-year-contract, for which Fonda never forgave him. One can see an example of why here. In this film, he has to share leading man duties with Dana Andrews in what is, in fact, a Joan Crawford movie. To me, Fonda's role in this seems very inauspicious and one where a lesser star could have been cast. Just an opinion. He's excellent as a lonely, unhappy man who falls for Daisy - Fonda at this point still had some traces of boyishness.The second striking thing for me was the subtlety of the acting. There is a scene in which Dana Andrews, returning from an 18-day-trip, can't get the usually reliable Daisy on the phone, so he goes to see her. It's a scene that should be shown in acting schools - full of atmosphere and subtext, so little is said in dialogue; so much is what lies beneath the surface. Both Crawford and Andrews give wonderful performances.The third striking thing is the Greenwich Theater, which I had no idea was torn down until now. There was indeed a restaurant across from it, too. That's also my old neighborhood, and it was a delight to see. I believe I went to the opening day of "Fargo" there.Throughout the film, the symbolism of a New York cab is used: if you were staying where you were, you let the cab go; if not, you asked it to wait. The theme reinforces the ending of "Daisy Kenyon" very well. A good movie.

Some movies age well, some don't. This movie has not aged well. Joan Crawford's acting is stagy, the story contrived, the story's mood gloomy and the film-noir style bleak and stark. Ms. Crawford was too old for the role. Daisy Kenyon is a young career woman, not a middle aged lady set in her ways. Also, the movie features two leading men, Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda which further weakens the story as Ms. Kenyon goes from one man, to the other, sometimes to both, then back to the other, etc. Real Hollywood pulp lacking substance, utterly vacuous, and above all dated. The movie is slow-paced and obviously filmed in a studio. Maybe this movie was popular in 1947 but in 2008 it's just another Hollywood curio that belongs on the shelf.

This film is the latest release in the Fox Film Noir DVD series. Although it is not a noir film at all, but is instead a potent emotional melodrama, this does not matter. We don't complain, do we, when splendid DVDs of classic films are released under any pretext from those perfectly preserved negatives sitting in California archives crying in unison: 'Release me! Release me!' Anything directed by Otto Preminger is welcome. He may have been a nightmare as a person, but his films were terrific. This film is beautifully directed, and the lighting by Ken Shamroy and the sets by art directors George David and Lyle Wheeler all combine to give tremendous atmosphere to a film which could so easily have had none. Shamroy's lighting is not only good because of the shadows, but the subtle ways he picks out the faces and the eyes. Those were the days! Who can do that so well now? The Hollywood stars then knew how to play to their lights in order to deify themselves to still higher celestial orders. In those days, facial surgery took place by lighting methods, and there was no need for the knife. I am far from being a Joan Crawford admirer, but although she was an even worse nightmare than Preminger as a person, she can act with fantastic, mesmeric power when she wants to. And she does so here. The story is about a confused 'independent woman' of the immediate postwar era who is a mistress of a self-absorbed cad and the wife of a perversely self-denying idealist. Which shall she choose? She dithers with all the uncertainty of a woman in love who is not sure with whom. Does she go for the strong and cruel one, or the weak and adoring one? (Animal instinct always urges the former, on the premise that it is a better breeding prospect for the species that the strong, however cruel, should procreate.) Dana Andrews, usually a nice guy in films, here does a very good job of being a real jerk. Henry Fonda always found it easy, with his relaxed, gangly walk of a hillbilly, to be Mr. Nice Guy, since after all, only nice guys walk like that. He doesn't have a lot of acting to do, but what is needed is there. (No need to chew gum or 'baccy' this time.) This love triangle is greatly aided by a spectacular performance in a supporting role by Ruth Warrick as a harridan wife of Dana Andrews, although the fact that she is a child abuser who beats up her own little girl is severely down-played in the film. There are some wonderful small touches: a garrulous taxi driver reciting endless boring statistics about his trade, and a glassy-eyed couple who descend the stairs and do not say hello, the woman surprisingly being former silent film star Mae Marsh! Yes, it is a pity about the Greenwich Theatre being gone, not to mention Pennsylvania Station, of the interior of which we get a glimpse. This is a powerful soap opera story raised to a higher level by the talent involved.