BIRTHDAY DIRECTORS OTTO PREMINGER & FRITZ LANG

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...

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TAKE A HARD RIDE (1975)

The seventies' Western TAKE A HARD RIDE seemed to have several sub-genres at play, and yet, despite a small yet important role, Dana Andrews is the best representation since it's not a Blaxploitation despite stars Jim Brown (as Dana's friend), Fred Williamson and Jim Kelly, nor a Spaghetti Western with Lee Van Cleef on their trial, but more a modernized version of the kind of classic rough-and-tumble cowboy picture that Dana himself was a veteran of, from CANYON PASSAGE to THREE HOURS TO KILL, and before and beyond, including his last starring roles, TOWN TAMER and JOHNNY RENO.

STATE FAIR (1945)

At the STATE FAIR, two girls pass Dana Andrews and Jeanne Crain, and one, played by Jo-Carroll Dennison, had recognized the handsome reporter, "How you doing, honey?" she says, and he, while eating a candy apple with Crain, replies, " Quiet , you."

FAMILY AFFAIR (1969)

In 1946, Dana Andrews was almost the son-in-law via Susan Hayward of an open-minded Robert Keith, whose equally open-minded son Brian Keith's Bill Davis from a 1969 FAMILY AFFAIR episode THE SINGS OF AN ANGEL let old friend Dana's Harv Mullen into his home... until the kids and Mr. French thumb their noses at an ex-con living under their fancy roof, while Sissy gives Harv a progressive school interview about prison-life, all ultimately driving Dana's character batty enough to leave, that is, before the 11th hour sit-com lecture resolution... and this right before Dana had his own soap opera BRIGHT FUTURE, which he remained on for an entire year of afternoon melodrama.

FEARMAKERS CINEMA OF DANA ANDREWS

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