Dana Andrews

  • Elia Kazan – Boomerang! (1947)

    1941-1950CrimeElia KazanFilm NoirUSA
    Boomerang! (1947)
    Boomerang! (1947)

    Quote:
    Boomerang, directed by Elia Kazan, is a chilling film noir, the true story about the murder of a priest, the subsequent arrest and trial of a jobless drifter, and the efforts of young state’s attorney Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews) to uncover the truth. Closely based on the actual 1924 murder of Fr. Hubert Dahme in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the film was directed by the young Elia Kazan in a highly effective, semi-documentary style. Kazan shot most of the film on location, using high-contrast cinematography and an extremely mobile camera to create a palpable sense of urgency. The screenplay, expertly crafted by Richard Murphy received an Academy Award nomination.Read More »

  • John Ford & Gregg Toland – December 7th (1943)

    1941-1950DocumentaryGregg TolandJohn FordUSAWar

    Quote:

    Utilizing stock military footage of Pearl Harbor, December 7th departs from the typical documentary form to present a narrative framing device featuring Walter Huston as a character representing Uncle Sam, Harry Davenport as a folksy representation of “conscience” called Mr. C, and Dana Andrews as the ghost of an American soldier. The story opens on December 6, 1941, the day before the attack, with Uncle Sam and Mr. C carrying on a discussion about the history of Hawaii and the country’s war preparations. One of the approaches taken by co-directors John Ford and Gregg Toland was to paint the Japanese-American citizens of Hawaii (37 percent of the population, according to the film) as potential traitors, fifth-columnists spying on their “American” employers for information to hustle back to the “homeland.” Read More »

  • Mark Robson – I want you (1951)

    Mark Robson1951-1960ClassicsDramaUSA

    The movie seethes with conflict and bad blood – often unspoken. The conflicts arise over deeply felt divisions in social class, in gender and in generation, and result in unspoken accusations of callousness and cowardice, vanity and selfishness.

    In many respects this is a movie of another time – these days, unless a family has a strong military tradition, I can imagine few families now enraged by a son’s expressed wish that a war could be won without his involvement, few families in which an employer would not draft a letter for his decades-long employee’s only child to keep him out of war – and even refuse to write a letter (for which his mother pleads) for his own beloved brother’s draft deferment.Read More »

  • Otto Preminger – Fallen Angel (1945)

    1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsFilm NoirOtto PremingerUSA

    Quote:
    The huge success of Laura may have done more ill than good to Otto Preminger’s career, not only for setting expectations high early in the game, but also for forcing a “noir mystery master” image onto an artist much more interested in asking questions than in answering them. Fallen Angel, the director’s follow-up to his 1944 classic, is often predictably looked down as a lesser genre venture, yet its subtle analysis of shadowy tropes proves both a continuation and a deepening of Preminger’s use of moral ambiguity as a tool of human insight. Linda Darnell, a provocative bombshell caught behind the counter of a small-town California roadside café, is the flame around which the picture’s male moths circle, though the titular fallen angel is later revealed to be tainted drifter Dana Andrews, who comes to town and becomes quickly smitten with her. Read More »

  • John Brahm – Hot Rods to Hell aka 52 Miles to Terror (1967)

    1961-1970CampExploitationJohn BrahmUSA

    This revolutionary masterpiece was, at first, misunderstood as a mere exploitation film. However, the subversive genius shown in its subtext and plot construction was eventually recognized. It now plays quarterly at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, which has instituted a lecture series on the various intellectual facets of the film. While the series is still in its infancy we have already heard Barak Obama speak on, “Hope and Hot Rods,” and Timothy Michael Cardinal Dolan on, “Christian symbolism and family values in Hot Rods of Hell,” to say nothing of the hilarious speech by Tim Curry, “What exactly is a ‘Hot Rod’.” Those interested in perusing the literature on the subject can contact the Hot Rods of Hell Research Department at Columbia University in NYC. However, you should be prepared to show your research credentials.
    @Unkabunk at TIKRead More »

  • Andrew Marton – Crack in the World (1965)

    1961-1970Andrew MartonSci-FiThrillerUSA

    A scientist trying to better mankind nearly destroys the world as we know it in this sci-fi thriller. Dr. Stephen Sorensen (Dana Andrews) is doing research in geo-thermal energy; he’s convinced that if men can find a way to drill through the earth’s outer crust into the molten magma near the center, the heat can be harnessed and used to warm dwellings around the world. His assistant, Ted Rampion (Kieron Moore), is skeptical about this idea and believes that there could be dire consequences, but Sorensen boldly moves ahead with his plan, prodded by his secret knowledge that he suffers from a terminal illness and might not live long enough to undergo a longer testing period. However, Rampion’s fears soon prove well founded when Sorensen’s drilling causes a large crack in the earth which begins to rapidly expand, threatening to split the world in two with disastrous consequences. Crack in the World was praised on initial release for its intelligent approach and solid special effects work.
    — Mark Deming (AllMovie)Read More »

  • Jacques Tourneur – The Fearmakers (1958)

    USA1951-1960ClassicsJacques TourneurThriller

    In this drama, a Korean war veteran, a victim of brainwashing while he was a POW, finally goes back to his home in Washington, DC, where he resumes his job at a public relations-opinion research firm. He soon discovers that his company is being run by communists after his partner mysteriously died. Now pro-communist propaganda seems to be their primary business. To stop them, the vet begins cooperating in a full-scale Senate investigation.Read More »

  • Lewis Milestone – The North Star (1943)

    1941-1950DramaLewis MilestoneUSAWar

    In a peaceful Ukrainian village, the school year is just ending in June 1941. Five young friends set out for a walking trip to Kiev, but their travels are brutally interrupted when they are suddenly attacked by German planes, in the first wave of the Nazi assault on the Soviet Union. When the village itself is attacked and occupied, most of the men flee to the hills to form a guerrilla unit. The others resist the Nazis as well as possible, but soon the village is placed under the command of a Nazi doctor who begins using the town’s children as a source of constant blood transfusions for wounded German soldiers. Meanwhile, the small group of young persons tries desperately to take a supply of firearms to the guerrillas.Read More »

  • Elia Kazan – Boomerang! [+Extras] (1947)

    1941-1950CrimeElia KazanFilm NoirUSA

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    29f7c043f76a2bde437fd0d52a185152

    Quote:
    Boomerang, directed by Elia Kazan, is a chilling film noir, the true story about the murder of a priest, the subsequent arrest and trial of a jobless drifter, and the efforts of young state’s attorney Henry Harvey (Dana Andrews) to uncover the truth. Closely based on the actual 1924 murder of Fr. Hubert Dahme in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the film was directed by the young Elia Kazan in a highly effective, semi-documentary style. Kazan shot most of the film on location, using high-contrast cinematography and an extremely mobile camera to create a palpable sense of urgency. The screenplay, expertly crafted by Richard Murphy received an Academy Award nomination.Read More »

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