Daisy Kenyon (1947)

A woman becomes romantically involved with a married man and an army veteran. Given the talents of the star trio and the director, this one is a disappointment. This seems to be an attempt at another "Mildred Pierce," but falls far short. The main problem is the screenplay, which is little more than a soap opera. Crawford has to choose between rich but married Andrews and decent but dull Fonda. There is no exposition, with Crawford and Andrews having a tiff in the opening scene even before we get to know the characters. The dialog is mostly pedestrian. The goings on are mostly mundane until the latter stages, when it starts to become somewhat interesting. There's not much here beyond star gazing.

This is a well-crafted "love triangle" movie in the visual style of film noir, but without the plot development typical of film noir. No murders, gangsters, or cops. The cinematography is excellent and Preminger shows his mastery as a director, eliciting stellar performances from Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, and Henry Fonda.Crawford in particular shows her star quality with superbly nuanced articulation and facial expressions. Her opening lines are amazing to listen to, her voice quavering nervously to show that she is under tremendous emotional pressure.Dana Andrews gives probably the best performance of his career as the cheating husband who really wants to make things work, but is torn between his neurotic wife, his adorable kids, and his mistress.Henry Fonda gives a brilliantly understated characterization of an eccentric war-torn hero hiding behind a veneer of gentleness and innocence, who cleverly but compassionately manipulates the situation in order to bring about a satisfactory resolution.There a few plot twists and a happy ending. Highly recommended.

I agree with another reviewer that the two male leads have more interesting characters than Joan Crawford. It seem odd today in 2008 that Dana Andrews was billed over Henry Fonda and it would have been interesting if the two had switched roles for this.As for Crawford, in it has been mentioned that she was playing younger than she really was. However, she kept herself in better shape than most of her contemporaries and I do include rival Bette Davis. She still had those straight shoulders and that stride in her walk that spoke of the attractiveness that Joan Crawford had. She knows she's playing the other woman and even knows the cheating husband has two children.Dana Andrews really had the best role as that husband whose actions cause his wife Ruth to beat one of their daughters, sorrowfully played by Peggy Ann Gardner. He loses a case representing a Japanese who lost his home. Today that would have been a slam dunk but then, no. Preminger doesn't even the Japanese in question but he is to be commended that bigotry and child abuse was even in there.Henry Fonda could have played that role but instead played actually a creepy veteran and professes love to Crawford on their first date, then with no explanation stays away. He must have sensed she still has a thing for Dana but even steps aside when the three meet.Hard to believe now, but his and John Ford's MY DARLING CLEMENTINE was not a commercial success when it first came up. Though he does end up with Joan at the end here, his role was somewhat confusing. Thank God, though, that Preminger gave him a nightmare instead of Joan to work out.He and Preminger would work again in actually better films, ADVISE AND CONSENT and IN HARM'S WAY, the later in support but his character in that movie fares a better than Dana Andrews did.And Fonda would return to Fox, but other different rules. The main reason to like this film is that for the only Joan Crawford-Otto Preminger collaboration, this really is not bad.

This is a love triangle but it's not the melodrama of the thirties where the abandoned woman had to die alone ("Back Street") or to become a businesswoman ("Imitation of life" ) or to do both ("Only yesterday").Now the mistress has a good job and she does not want to renege on love.that said,the story is derivative and it is too bad that the Andrews/daughter relationship should only be skimmed over ,and that the part of his wife should be so underwritten.The three leads ,Joan Crawford,Henry Fonda and the always reliable Dana Andrews make the film ,if not a winner, at least something watchable. It is not to be ranked among the great Preminger's works though.