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Friday, Jan 28, 2005
7:00pm
Daisy Kenyon
One pleasure of a series like this is asking, “Did you ever see Men in War…or Daisy Kenyon?” Daisy is, I suppose, a women's picture, and a Joan Crawford vehicle. But accepting those descriptions means that you have to realize how complex the lead guys are here (Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda), while ridding yourself of the calumny that Joan Crawford was just “coathanger time” and a bug-eyed loonie. Instead, she was one of Hollywood's most vulnerable stars, torn between beauty and strength, just as her characters long to be respected. But Daisy Kenyon is also Otto Preminger, a little-known name now, but a filmmaker as rooted in clear-eyed doubt as Jean Renoir or Max Ophuls. Just take a chance on Daisy Kenyon, and notice that it's no less than a searching novel on feelings and reliability.
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