Daisy Kenyon

[Penelope]

Thanks, Damien! I just finished a quick read-through and found it fascinating, and will need to take another look at it (just as I watched the film again this afternoon). Two comments immediately leapt out at me:

One concerned the use of the telephone, and specifically how people "hang up" on the other--this occurs several times in the film: Peter hangs up on Daisy, Daisy hangs up on Dan when Lucille interrupts, Angelus hangs up on Dan at Daisy's request, Daisy hangs up on Dan and Peter when they arrive at the cape. It's as if, for all their yearning and desire to connect with each other, they then turn around cut themselves off--a need for connection, but a fear of it too.

The other is the notion of horror. I've often found the most effective horror films to be those that are based within a reality, and are underscored by emotional depth (this, for example, is why I love Cujo, where it's entirely believable that a woman and her son could be trapped in a stalled Pinto by a rabid dog for several days, and because of the complexity of the Dee Wallace character, a not-very-good mother but one who still has a maternal instinct and is desperate to proctect her child).

In Daisy Kenyon, by seemingly treating a melodrama, a "women's picture" as a film noir--and here, Leon Shamroy's dark, brooding cinematography is vital--the film is almost a thriller--it wasn't mentioned in your articles, but the film has an undercurrent where, at any moment, you think something horrific is going to happen. And, in fact, there IS horror: Ruth Warrick's Lucille physically beats her children, while Dana Andrews' Dan practically looks the other way and later attempts to rape Daisy (it's magnificent that Preminger, Hertz, Warrick and Andrews still manage to make these monstrous characters sympathetic). The horror, the violence, isn't necessarily physical, however (the child abuse occurs off-camera, the rape is interrupted); it's more in the dialogue, and the reactions of the other characters, how they discover deeply disturbing truths about each other--the scene where Marie overhears her father threaten her mother is both chilling and jaw-dropping (indeed, the whole scene--from the moment Dan walks into the apartment--is just astonishing).

[Damien]

Here is the first installment of our Daisy Kenyon discussion ("The Daisy Chain") with links to the other six parts.


http://www.24fpsmagazine.com/Daisy1.html

[Big Magilla]

It's apparently not very well known, I guess having been dismissed by critics at the time and, in later years, even by the people involved: Preminger said he didn't even remember making the film!

Actually it's quite well known - it was one of Fox's most eagerly awaited titles prior to its release. Only Booomerang!, in which Dana Andrews gives an even better 1947 performance, has been on Fox's most wanted list longer. As I write in last week's DVD report, if you can find a copy grab it up as it has been withdrawn by Fox for the second time and while some stores are selling it for under $10, it's practically impossible to find on line for less than a small fortune.

Daisy Kenyon is one of those films that used to turn up on TV all the time in the "old" days. I personally preferred Crawford in 1947's Possessed but both Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda are quite good and Preminger's direction quite strong but as with Andrews and Crawford I prefer another of Preminger's same era works, his truly forgotten 1949 version of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windemere's Fan, called simply The Fan, with terrific performances by Madeleine Carroll and George Sanders. Alas, it's only available on DVD in Region 2.

[Damien]

Daisy Kenyon is an amazing masterpiece. Zach (Johnny Guitar) thinks so too. In the very great year of 1947, it's my second favorite film after Roberto Rossellini's Germany Year Zero (and just above Vincent Sherman's not dis-similar and wonderful Nora Prentiss).

On a now-defunct film site he used to co-run, Zach and I and another cinephile (Dan Sallit) had a three way conversation about the brillaince of this film and all of its nuances -- I'll try to see if I have a copy of our discussion and I'll post it.

[Penelope]

I just watched Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon (1947); I've posted a review on my blog, but I just have to get some feedback from others here who have seen it (and urge those who haven't to check it out).

It's apparently not very well known, I guess having been dismissed by critics at the time and, in later years, even by the people involved: Preminger said he didn't even remember making the film! But it's simply astonishing, a brilliantly filmed and acted combination of film noir and women's melodrama, and the depth and complexity of the characters--especially those played by Dana Andrews and Ruth Warrick--are staggering considering what else was on display at the time.

Andrews, especially, is just incredible; he's admittedly one of my favorites, thanks to terrific turns in Laura, The Best Years of Our Lives, etc., but here he gives what I think is one of the most lived-in and genuinely complex male characters I've seen from that era--I bet I could've actually run into such a character in New York in the late 40s. I know that his career took a downturn in the 50s--due, I believe, to an alcoholic problem--but why has he never been given his due? He's an actor of subtle, hidden brilliances, and it frustrates me that he's not as well known today--though the fact that so many of his films are available on DVD--more, in fact, than some other big stars from his era--gives me hope that he is being rediscovered.



Edited By Penelope on 1220851012