FEARMAKERS CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

Birthday of two important directors for Dana Andrews: first and foremost being OTTO PREMINGER, and both shared a game-changing noir as directed instead of just producing the film noir LAURA while making Dana's cop character more tough and classy than the usual grungy gumshoe sleazeball; later he'd direct LAURA stars Dana and Gene Tierney in an edgier noir of the "bad cop" nature, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS and between is their best, FALLEN ANGEL followed by DAISY KENYON...  Otto's film noirs covered 1944 to 1950 when another European director, Fritz Lang, during the late 1950's piloted a few starring Dana; the news-desk/serial-killer-thriller WHILE THE CITY SLEEPS and the courtroom drama BEYOND A REASONABLE DOUBT... 

Dana Andrews's second year playing a mad scientist after CRACK IN THE WORLD where he was more an impatient scientist; here in THE FROZEN DEAD he's a German scientist who separates his beloved niece's friend's noggin... and poor Katherine Breck has very little to say about it.

Miscast partners Dana Andrews and Don Dubbins in the limp adventure ENCHANTED ISLAND that did have nice colors to it.

The third and final Dana Andrews and director Jacques Tourneur collaboration, and for which this blog got its title, THE FEARMAKERS, a cold-war, desk-set noir thriller from 1958, is finally out on Blu Ray...

Birthday Ruth Donnelly, who plays the spunky and experienced owner (or perhaps just managing waitress) of the Italian restaurant that Dana's edgy cop frequents in WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS. 

Dana Andrews in WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, after killing future PETER GUNN Craig Stevens, standing in front of an awesome dog... or rather, dogs... picture... that in a nicer hotel they'd be jumping over something, or something. 

Dana Andrews as a strangely-named priest, Roth... Father Roth... in Mark Robson's Catholic Noir EDGE OF DOOM the same year he'd play a tough cop in WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS. Now THAT is versatile.