Dana Andrews

[MikeBSG]

I've never said, "Hey, I gotta watch that movie, it has Dana Andrews in it," but I really appreciate him. He is very good in "A Walk in the Sun" and "The Purple Heart," and he is very good in film noir as well.

On Sunday, I had to take a long drive, and I listened to "If the Dead Could Talk," a Cornell Woolrich story adapted for the CBS radio series "Suspense" in 1949. Andrews played a trapeeze artist struggling with the idea of killing his partner, and it was a gripping half-hour. It interested me that Andrews could play such a bad guy, but yet this fit in with his general tough guy persona.

[knitwit45]

Mike, he's one of the main reasons I love Best Years of Our Lives. His haunted eyes, wry self-depreciation, compassion and fierce defense of Wilbur, and especially his vulnerability as he wakes from his nightmare, all make him stand out among the topflight cast.
This role, and that of the very confused but determined cop in Laura are my favorite Dana Andrews roles.

[movieman1957]

You mentioned two of my favorite movies with Andrews. One I watched recently was "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and he was quite good in that film. I always thought that for no longer than he was in "The Ox-Bow Incident" he had an important part and did well. He carries an emotional load that helps propel the movie through its end.

[MissGoddess]

He had a beautiful voice, one of my favorites to just listen to. Very deep and mellow. He's quite good in Britannia Mews, playing a double role. It's an odd little movie that turns up on the Fox Movie Channel now and then. He could do both tough and ambivalent rather well.

I forgot to add that Daisy Kenyon featured one of my favorite of all his performances.

Honey bunch.

[mongoII]

Other than "The Best Years of Our Lives", I enjoy watching Dana Andrews in "Swamp Water", "Laura", "Fallen Angel", "Boomerang!" and "Night Song".

[moira finnie]

Dana Andrews in Tobacco Road (1941).

My appreciation for this guy's acting has grown enormously in the last few years, as I've had a chance to see him in Fallen Angel, Where the Sidewalk Ends, Boomerang!, The Forbidden Street (aka Britannia Mews) and just recently in one of his earlier roles in The Ox-Bow Incident as well as repeated viewings of Best Years of Our Lives. He's not a showy actor, but the man never really overacted, but was so real when he was at his best in those films in the '40s.

I'm glad that his voice was mentioned here. He had an interesting way of speaking. I wonder if it was influenced by his Southern roots and training as a singer? When he was portraying characters at the end of their tether or simply exhausted, he had a way of allowing his words to fall away that seemed quite real and touching.
Dana Andrews, the king of the thousand yard stare, in Ox-Bow, BYOL, & Where the Sidewalk Ends.

I've often wondered if his own impoverished background and real struggles informed his ability to create such believable characters--the kinds of guys who knew what it felt like to get thrown off a bus, cadge work any way they could, and experience loss?

An impossibly young Dana Andrews in Swamp Water (1941)

Has anyone ever seen Jean Renoir's Swamp Water (1941) with Andrews in an early role or in John Ford's Tobacco Road (1941)? I'd love to hear opinions on these movies. He seems to have been underrated since his initial success in the '40s, though this recent piece in Bright Lights Film Journal last Fall seems to indicate that may be changing.

Thanks for posting this, MikeBSG!

[Ollie]

His radio program I WAS A COMMUNIST FOR THE F.B.I. is almost a total hoot. Of course, it was produced with more serious intent, but I'm really impressed with his voice-acting in it .

[ChiO]

Dana Andrews is one of the handful of actors that will cause me to watch a movie just because he's in it. I especially enjoy his work with Tourneur (CANYON PASSAGE and CURSE OF THE DEMON) and Lang (WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS and BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT).

[MissGoddess]

I regret to say I never have seen SWAMP WATER---Joe, you say you have---is it good?

I have seen Tobacco Road a couple of times, it's one of my least favorite Ford movies. Dana
is in it only very briefly and that is too bad since he's a welcome bit of "normal" in a movie crowded
with very quirky characters. The film is approached as a farce so the acting is quiet broad, but
the cinematography is suprisingly poetic and orchestrated with extreme care as a counterpoint.

So is the overall approach to the central characters, the elderly Charley Grapewin and his wife, played by
Elizabeth Patterson. Ford is rather tender toward them, as he generally is toward his elders in films,
something not lost on me though rarely commented upon by critics.

Anyway, you either love it or hate it, it's too idiosycratic to easily be ambivalent toward. And I wouldn't
look upon it as a "Dana Andrews" picture, as I said, he has only the briefest of roles.

[Garbomaniac]

I really like Dana Andrews. He is one of those familiar, comfortable actors. As has been stated, I don't necessarily watch the movie for him, but it is ALWAYS great that he is in it. I liked him in Laura. I thought he played very well off of everyone. He was excellent in Oxbow Incident, but I can't watch that movie anymore. It is too depressing. And, I haven't seen Tobacco Road. I never wanted to. It looks depressing and dirty. I'm sure Gene gave a knockout performance, but I would much rather see her as Poppy in Shanghai Gesture. I liked him in Daisy Kenyon, Ball of Fire, and State Fair, too. It is always good to see him.

[TikiSoo]

A half sheet version of this hangs in my living room:


I love Andrews in everything he's done, but especially enjoy him when he's "sensitive" or "troubled" like in Best Years of Our Lives. He has an unusual quality of looking completely different in profile and full face. Sexy voice too!