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Daisy Kenyon (Fox Film Noir)

Joan Crawford (Actor), Dana Andrews (Actor), Otto Preminger (Director, Producer) Rated:

Unrated

Format: DVD

265 ratings

IMDb6.8/10.0

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Genre	Drama
Format	Multiple Formats, Black & White, Full Screen, Subtitled, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Contributor	Martha Stewart, Otto Preminger, Louis R. Loeffler, David Hertz, Don Avalier, Monya Andre, Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Peggy Ann Garner, Nicholas Joy, Elizabeth Janeway, Henry Fonda, Jimmy Ames, Connie Marshall, Leon Shamroy, Ruth Warrick, Art Baker See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 39 minutes

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Product Description

A fashion artist juggles romances with a naval architect and a married New York lawyer. Directed by Otto Preminger.

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Otto Preminger's Daisy Kenyon is an unsung beauty from Hollywood's golden age, a remarkably good and intelligent movie that's all the more gratifying because it could so easily have come out formulaic and sappy. In 1947 it was regarded (and implicitly shrugged off) as a "women's picture" or, more specifically, a "Joan Crawford picture." But there's more going on here. This was shortly after the Oscar for Mildred Pierce revived the actress's career, and the nature of a Crawford picture was changing since she had entered her (gasp) 40s. New York careerwoman Daisy (a magazine illustrator) is trying to break off her longtime affair with a high-profile lawyer and family man (Dana Andrews), and tentatively beginning a relationship with an attractive WWII veteran and widower (Henry Fonda). The men's roles are as important as Crawford's, and neither man is entirely what he first seems--Andrews a self-centered manipulator in all arenas, Fonda a poetic New Englander who used to design boats. Enough ambivalence, wounded psyches, and intimate violence surface to make the movie a kissing cousin to film noir... albeit a variation of noir in which no gun is pulled. Noir also leaks in through the gorgeous Fox craftsmanship. Leon Shamroy's lustrous lighting paints the characters and their studio-made, persuasively three-dimensional environs with insinuating shadow, while still serving director Preminger's penchant for fluid camerawork and mise-en-scène that doesn't dictate our attitudes toward the characters. The production is a model of Hollywood professionalism at every level, and the three star performances are each atypical and complex, with Crawford more restrained and thoughtful than we're accustomed to seeing her. And speaking of model performances, plan to rewatch the film while listening to the commentary by Foster Hirsch, author of the excellent critical biography, Otto Preminger: The Man Who Would Be King; Hirsch is especially sharp on Preminger's stylistic choices and the underappreciated Dana Andrews. --Richard T. Jameson

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ Unrated (Not Rated)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.72 Ounces
Item model number ‏ : ‎ FOXS2244664DVD
Director ‏ : ‎ Otto Preminger
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Black & White, Full Screen, Subtitled, Closed-captioned, NTSC
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 39 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ March 11, 2008
Actors ‏ : ‎ Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda, Ruth Warrick, Martha Stewart
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish, French
Producers ‏ : ‎ Otto Preminger
Language ‏ : ‎ English (Dolby Digital 1.0), Unqualified
Studio ‏ : ‎ 20th Century Fox
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0010KHOSK
Writers ‏ : ‎ David Hertz, Elizabeth Janeway
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #102,346 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #5,962 in Romance (Movies & TV)
- #20,729 in Drama DVDs

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Movies R Us

INTELLIGENT DIALOGUE, GREAT CASTING & ACTING

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 21, 2022

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In the context of 1947, the male/female dynamic is similar to Cary Grant & Rosalind Russel or Spencer Tracy & Kathryn Hepburn.
This movie is more than a romantic duo, or a triad, or a quad it is a 5 way dilemma including a father's relationship and responsibility to his children. A storytelling blend of the simple and complex.
Crawford and Fonda didn't seem like an equal match as much as she and Andrews, but it worked.
The script lays out character studies. Dana Andrews brings his quiet strength to a solid performance of a capable man who is on unsteady ground at his core then faces a professional setback. Fonda's character is simpler, more grounded. Crawford's character is losing her grip on the one steady thing in her life--her work, until she comes to grip with what she has been ignoring all along--her personal life.

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ChicGeek

MOVIE: 4.1 • VIDEO: 4.3 • AUDIO: 2.5

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 1, 2017

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FORMAT: DVD
UPC: 0-24543-44664-4
RELEASED: 2008-03-11

TITLE: Daisy Kenyon (1947) • NR • 1:39:07
Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews, Henry Fonda, Ruth Warrick
Otto Preminger (Director)

While this movie is part of Fox Home Video's "Fox Film Noir" series, it, to my mind, is NOT a true example of film noir. Yes, its lighting, camera angles and visual composition (along with, the bordering on cliché, in-over-his-head-but-doesn't-know-it, semi-"tough guy" male character of Dana Andrews) are evocative of film noir — but, its story is more melodramatic than noiristic, in my opinion. (I know, I know. A case could be made that ALL examples of film noir are MELODRAMATIC — but, this film is far MORE melodramatic than most!) Now, don't get me wrong: yes, it is a melodrama — but, it is still a VERY GOOD melodrama. Granted most modern audiences wont see what the big deal is when it comes to many (maybe, ALL) of the concerns regarding divorce in this movie — however, to the VAST majority of people at the time of its release in 1947 (and to a significant number of people today), they were (are) a VERY big deal (particularly, with regards to the well-being and mental-health of the children)!

I also found the film's treatment of marital fidelity very interesting (shocking, even — especially since we are talking about 1940s America here [and Americans, as everyone knows, have ALWAYS liked to pretend to be more moral than they ACTUALLY are]) — as the fact that the two main characters (Joan Crawford's "Daisy Kenyon" and Dana Andrews' "Dan O'Mara") exhibit what can only be called a blatant disregard for the "sanctity of marriage" (and, the fact that neither of them dies [which was the usual fate of adulterers in very NEARLY all mainstream Hollywood movies — starting from the early 1930s and continuing on up through the early 1960s] is REALLY amazing). Oh, well. Leave it to Otto Preminger to push the envelope when it came to social conventions. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

NOTE: As mentioned before, this movie is one of the films from Fox Home Video's exemplary "Fox Film Noir" series of DVDs (and, in some cases, blu-rays). Every one of the DVDs from this series that I have purchased (e.g.—this movie, Fallen Angel (1945) , I Wake Up Screaming (1941) , Boomerang! (1947) , Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950) , etc.) has featured a VERY high average bit-rate, along with an EXCELLENT picture (for a DVD) and, at a minimum, good to better-than-good sound.

See the other reviews for more detail and/or other opinions regarding the plot of the movie.

VIDEO: 1.33:1 • B&W • 480p • MPEG-2 (5.9 Mbps)

Within the confines of the DVD format, this film exhibits VERY good picture quality — due, in part, I'm sure, to a slightly higher than average bit-rate than is normally used for a 4:3 (1.33:1) B&W catalogue title. Also, Fox Home Video doesn't state on the box that this movie has been restored or remastered, but it surely looks like it — because, most artifacts, such as black specks or white dots, are nearly non-existent; and, I saw very few hair-lines (though starting at approximately 10 minutes into the movie [and lasting for a few seconds with each appearance] there is a thin black line — which was centered in the middle of the frame horizontally, and running from its very top to its very bottom — that came back sporadically throughout the remainder of the movie), nor do I recall seeing any dropped frames. In addition, sharpness and detail (for a DVD) were usually very good — with the textures and patterns of most hair-styles, clothing and furnishings being easily discernible. Lastly, contrast, gray scale and shadow-detail (again, for a DVD) are pretty good overall, and in many scenes, even very good. Overall, this movie's presentation on DVD has very good picture quality, and should satisfy all but the pickiest viewers.

AUDIO: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Dual-Mono, 192 Kbps)

Fox Home Video has apparently also done some clean-up work on the film's soundtrack, because there are no loud bumps nor objectionably high levels of hiss. Also, dialog is very clear and all voices are easily understood (I wish modern actors would learn to enunciate as clearly as actors do in "old" movies). However, dynamic range is very limited, and there is not much bottom-end nor any top-end to speak of (which makes the musical score and the Foley work all sound a little 'thin', and somewhat less than realistic). Otherwise, considering the age of the source elements and the fact that this is a monophonic, dialog-driven movie from the late-1940s, its audio presentation has more than acceptable sound quality.

EXTRAS: Commentary by film noir historian Foster Hirsch
From Journeyman to Artist: Otto Preminger at Twentieth Century Fox
Life in the Shadows: The Making of Daisy Kenyon
Interactive Pressbook
Still Galleries
Original Theatrical Trailer

None of the extras were reviewed.

7 people found this helpful

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Muzzlehatch

Brilliant adult melodrama might be Preminger's finest, and one of the best adult relationship films of the 40s

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 14, 2009

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Daisy Kenyon (Joan Crawford) is a successful, single commercial artist living in Manhattan with a roommate, Mary (Martha Stewart), and carrying on an affair with married bigshot lawyer Dan O'Meara (Dana Andrews) while also being romanced by traumatized war veteran Peter Lapham (Henry Fonda). When Dan early on can't commit to calling off his marriage to his unhappy wife Lucille (Ruth Warrick), Daisy in frustration decides to marry Peter, though both she and Peter realize that she's not really in love with him. They move out to Cape Cod, but Dan is having problems at home - Lucille finds out and wants to divorce him, but she's also taking out her frustrations on their teenage daughters, which frightens and saddens Dan, and he's in the midst of a difficult case. Meanwhile Peter seems ready to just give Daisy up, should she give the word...

Otto Preminger's 1947 black-and-white, shadowy and sharp-angled picture is shot like a film noir, at times feels like it's heading into noir territory - we wonder at first if Fonda's unstable, obsessive character will take the road of violence in his passion, and Lucille O'Mara is also struggling with some mental issues and seems capable of taking the dark path - but interestingly, and refreshingly, the film never does more than strongly hint of these possibilities, instead at every point taking on the difficult and adult challenges posed by these complex human interactions. All of the characters come off as believable and sympathetic - even the abusive Lucille clearly is taking out her frustrations the only way she feels she can, and apparent heel Dan turns out to be much more vulnerable and torn apart than his buddy-buddy joking (he calls everybody "sugarplum" or "honeybunch") would at first indicate. Peter shows unexpected strengths, and Daisy throughout struggles not so much between the two men, as between either man and "freedom". But what kind of freedom? The film doesn't choose to make an overtly feminist statement and have her tell both men to get lost in the end; at first I hoped it would - instead it takes an arguably more difficult tack in showing us subtly a very different way in which one of the men can win her heart...

I have to say I was completely blown away by this - it's easily my favorite Preminger film to this point, and all three stars are as good as I've seen them. Fonda has the showiest role in some ways but he neither over- or under-plays it, there's an edge of danger and madness but throughout we see a man struggling for control - and nearly always maintaining it. Andrews and Crawford are playing roles more typical for them but both seem totally committed and seem to get that this is much closer to a real slice of life than the more melodramatic noir roles that they were associated with for the most part at the time. I don't know that Crawford is any better here than in "Mildred Pierce" but the film is pitched at a lower volume and she has more of a chance to be "normal". As much as the acting and Preminger's careful and subtle direction - relatively swift pacing within the scenes and a lot of noirish angles and lighting that keep the viewer on his toes throughout, building a suspense that is, in the end, nothing more or less than "real life" suspense - the screenplay by David Hertz (based on a recent bestselling novel by Elizabeth Janeway) doesn't have a lot of flaws either. Even some of the "noirish" bits of dialogue, like Dan's pet names for everybody and Peter's sometimes abrupt and cold, sarcastic cuttting comment, seem to come entirely out of the characters and never ring false.

I can think of few other competitors from this period that "Daisy Kenyon" has, as a mature and serious treatment of marriage and infedility in the American cinema; Ida Lupino's "The Bigamist" is one, but it is marred by a rather gutless and moralizing ending - no such problem exists for this masterpiece. Whether one wants to call it "noir" or not (I wouldn't, in the final analysis), it's certainly one of the great American films of the immediate postwar years and shocklingly underseen and undervalued in my opinion.

This Fox disc is as nicely put together as the other examples I've seen in this series, with a couple of brief docs on Preminger and on the making of this film - no surprise that they go on a bit about Crawford's age though if anything Fonda is the actor who can most readily be seen as "too old" for his part. Anyway it's hard to imagine anybody but Andrews in his role, and Crawford could have MAYBE been replaced by Susan Hayward, but probably no one else. I haven't listened to the commentary track yet.

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15 people found this helpful

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J. McDonald

Daisy Kenyon.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 12, 2020

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A melodrama starring Joan Crawford; this is a fine film, but is certainly not a Film Noir.
It's a study of a love triangle with a number of issues touched on in the storyline that were considered rather edgy for it's time; the “Noir” tag probably comes from the lighting employed throughout the film, though Henry Fonda`s troubled war veteran has some characteristics familiar to the genre.
It's interesting to pay attention to the lighting and the camera focusing in each scene – Crawford was rather too old for the part and the camera work is always favourable to her – hence the noirish shadow-play employed. This was made at a time she was enjoying box office success however, and she gives a good central performance, ably assisted by her co-stars and director Otto Preminger who always ensures an adult, realistic and intelligent treatment of whatever film he worked on.
This US region 1 import DVD will only play on a region-free or hacked player; it offers a very decent print of the film; extras include a 21 minute featurette on Preminger and a 16 minute “making of” featurette; there's an audio commentary and some stills and press galleries.
English subtitles are available.

One person found this helpful

Darth Maciek

Film which shows that love is a study in non-Euclidean geometry - indeed, it twists all possible figures in impossible ones...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 14, 2014

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This 1947 black and white movie is a very good, very pleasant to watch drama/romance and I really liked it - but IT IS DEFINITELY NOT FILM NOIR! Below, more of my impressions, with some limited SPOILERS.

Daisy Kenyon (Joan Crawford) is a proud, independent artist who for years now had an affair with rich, successful lawyer named Dan O'Mara (Dana Andrews) - a man married, with children. Then one day she meets a slightly weird but strangely appealing war veteran named Peter Lapham (Henry Fonda) - and what was an uncomfortable love triangle becomes a really messy square...

This is a very good film, with some twists and a really, REALLY great ending. All the three main actors give a great show, with Dana Andrews actually managing to steal the show in what was definitely one of his greatest roles... BUT one thing must be stated here loud and clear - contrary to what is written on the DVD box, this is NOT A FILM NOIR. A drama, a romance, even a tinsy little bit of romantic comedy (but only in some scenes), yes - but film noir, NO!

I cannot be much more specific to avoid crippling spoilers, but I will just say that you should not expect here any gangsters, private detectives or police officers. On another hand, as the cover of the DVD box suggests, dramatic phone conversations play a great role here and Otto Preminger managed actually to show in one scene an otherwise innocently looking phone as a tool of excruciating torture - but with just one heart-breaking exception that is mostly as far as the violence in this film goes.

Some reviewers considered Joan Crawford, who was at that time 43, as a little bit too old for this role, but I disagree. She looks here as a woman between 35 and 40 and that is exactly as it should be. Both male characters already lived a lot in their lives and if Peter is maybe 35, Dan him is rather around 45 years old. It wouldn't do this film any good if Daisy Kenyon was a young girl - it actually makes a lot of sense, that she is a grown, adult woman. And Joan Crawford played here just perfectly.

It is an excellent film about life, love and people in general, with great dialogs, some heart-warming moments, some heart-breaking ones and with a brilliant performance by three great actors. ENJOY!

3 people found this helpful

I. R. Munday

Otto Preminger directs Joan Crawfod

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 15, 2014

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DAISY KENYON Otto Preminger **/*** 1947 An interesting almost modern film in the issues
it hints at. ( A remake would be interesting in that you wouldn’t have to hint at the issues, you could give then full focus and not wrap them in the values of 40s/50s middle-class America where everyone is rich, men dress in double-breasted suits and woman wear “gowns”). The issues are triangular love (actually 4 sided love), plus adultery, bad parenting, woman’s dependence/independance, attempted rape and child abuse.
Dan O’ Mara ( Dana Andrews) is in a sterile loveless marriage with Lucille (Ruth Warwick) his spoilt, immature, and fairly horrible wife. Lucille has no nobility and takes her frustrations out on their two daughters by hitting them. But Dan is partly in the marriage because he is in legal partnership with his father-in-law. Dan, though indulgent to his kids, is just as bad a father through what he doesn’t do as much as what he does. He is a philanderer, never at home, and he is after Joan Crawford (presumably having an affair before the film starts with her though you never see more than a kiss).
Also before the film starts, Crawford has previously met (off screen) a WWII soldier suffering from PTSS, he is Henry Fonda. Fonda is recovering from the war and from the bereavement of his wife's death. He falls very rapidly in love with Crawford. She is on her side is caught out by his interest in her, and his love for her, rather than loving him back. However she does marry him much to Dan’s chagrin. But the three are all very civilised about it, and actually meet for 3-way debates several times. Then Dan takes a case to defend a Japanese American and loses the case (all this happens off screen) and is then distraught. This brings his feelings for the now married Crawford to a head and he pushes his way into her apartment and forcibly kisses her (this nowadays would be the attempted rape). Even so it is handled sensitively and with gravitas and both characters are shaken by it. This is the point when the pathetic wife finds out about the affair and sues for divorce. She will only keep Crawford’s name out of it if she can have sole custodyof the children. But everyone, including the children, know she is a bad, abusive mother. Crawford agrees to stand up in court and be counted but Dan is so troubled by her distress that he stops the case and agrees to the wife’s conditions. So he is sacrificing his children to save the woman he loves from distress and shame. By this time Crawford is sick of the whole situation, and needs to get on with her work (yes she has a career which is as important to her as the men are) and so she escapes to the country to work. But both men follow her. What appears to follow is that Crawford says no to both of them… but then as Dan drives off Fonda stays behind and Crawford seems to want that. What would have been brilliant would have been if she told both of them to piss off. There is also another character, a female friend of Crawford’s, who becomes the flat mate, though she may just be there as a device for the courtroom scene.
As good as Preminger’s direction is, I feel the film is seriously undermined by the musical score of David Raskin and something more modern and cutting edge might have given us an entirely different and better film.
Crawford is actually too old for the film but she has such gravitas that she completely carries it. She is someone men would fall hopelessly in love with.
This film is apparently the one where Crawford gave Fonda a rhinestone encrusted jock-strap banging home the point that she “wanted” him sexually.
The movie features cameo appearances by Walter Winchell, Leonard Lyons, John Garfield and Damon Runyon
The DVD edition is excellent with a short biography of Preminger and an analysis of the noir elements of the film though film noir it is not since it has no murder, no real femme fatale and does not show you the underbelly of American society as noir should .

3 people found this helpful

H. Dumpty

"Anything logical makes me want to fight, for some reason"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on November 23, 2009

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Daisy Kenyon was conceived by Daryll Zanuck and 20th Century Fox as a 'woman's picture' in the film noir manner. Oscar Preminger, a Fox staff director at this time, was assigned to direct it, Joan Crawford hired to star and she in turn pressed for Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda to co-star.

The film has Andrews (an unhappily married lawyer) and Fonda (damaged by his tough war experiences) locked in a love triangle as the two men compete for the Crawford's affections. Both have emotional problems to cope with while desperate to overcome their rival, and one of the intelligent features of the movie is that they conduct this rivalry by Queensberry rules, eschewing the trite punch-up and barrack-room brawling in favour of debate. Andrews' and Fonda's characters are more interesting that Crawford in that they have a capacity for explained change whereas she remains at the end essentially the same as she was at the start.

The two male stars also have low-key, very effective acting styles here (as usually elsewhere, too) that contrast with Crawford's tendency to telegraph her emotions, even though Oscar Preminger keeps her tendency to emote well in check. She's also too old for the part and never interesting enough in what she says or how she looks to explain why these two men chase persistently after her - this is substantially a drawback of the script and leaves a bit of a blank at the centre of the picture. But Preminger's careful direction has energy and style in a way that's now right out of fashion - few close-ups and little rapid cutting, and the set design is a delight.

This is no. 23 in the R1 Fox Film Noir series, and the best special feature is a commentary by film historian Foster Hirsch - well-informed, insightful and never wordy.

ps we are told that Joan Crawford''s contract stipulated that the set be kept in the low 50s Fahrenheit, a temperature that Henry Fonda and Dana Andrews found too cold, so Crawford bought both of them long underwear!

5 people found this helpful

David R. Bishop

Easy to Overlook

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on September 9, 2008

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This is an easy to overlook movie from Joan Crawford's noir lead renaissance in the late 40s.

Most of them were made by her home studio Warner Brothers, but for this one, she was loaned out to 20th Century Fox. It is not as well known, or readily available as her WB films.

The style of this movie is clearly noir, but the subject matter is a love triangle. Where is the murder, or the serious mental illness, or the organised crime syndicate? The subject matter seems a bit at odds with the style. That is not to say that it makes it a bad movie, but it can be heavy going for a relatively simple and benign plot.

Joan is well at home in the genre, and wrings every emotion from her lines. Here she looks and acts most like 'Mildred Pierce' of all her other movies. Dana Andrews and especially Henry Fonda provide excellent foils for her.

The disc has a good 'making of' featurette, and another about producer Otto Preminger.

If you are a fan of Joan Crawford you will love it.

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