Daisy Kenyon

1947 ""I DON'T BELONG TO ANY MAN"!"
6.8| 1h39m| en
Details

Daisy Kenyon is a Manhattan commercial artist having an affair with an arrogant and overbearing but successful lawyer named Dan O'Mara. O'Mara is married and has children. Daisy meets a single man, a war veteran named Peter Lapham, and after a brief and hesitant courtship decides to marry him, although she is still in love with Dan.

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Reviews

BootDigest Such a frustrating disappointment
Dotsthavesp I wanted to but couldn't!
Bergorks If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.
Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
mplsrain As another poster mentioned, what happened to Tubby the dog? Tubby was a sheltie - I recognized it right away because I'm a sheltie owner myself. These dogs are hopelessly devoted to their owners and hate to be left alone. They live for the moment when their owner comes home, and follow them from room to room. These dogs will choose to sleep on a cold hard floor, as opposed to a nice soft couch if it means being nearer to their owners. It was somewhat disturbing to me to see that Daisy and Peter moved to the Cape without explaining what happened to Tubby. Perhaps that footage was edited out due to time constraints?Regarding the men in this movie, they are trying to win the love of Daisy and in retrospect it was in fact a chess game. One player (Dan) used his best moves and the other player (Peter) used his as well. Kudos to Peter for being cool, wise and astute restraining his emotions and remaining levelheaded in order to win his wife back. It was just killing him to pretend that he didn't care, but he knew that due to human nature being what it is, it was the best way to play this game. He won in the end and showed us all what he was made of.
robert-temple-1 This film is the latest release in the Fox Film Noir DVD series. Although it is not a noir film at all, but is instead a potent emotional melodrama, this does not matter. We don't complain, do we, when splendid DVDs of classic films are released under any pretext from those perfectly preserved negatives sitting in California archives crying in unison: 'Release me! Release me!' Anything directed by Otto Preminger is welcome. He may have been a nightmare as a person, but his films were terrific. This film is beautifully directed, and the lighting by Ken Shamroy and the sets by art directors George David and Lyle Wheeler all combine to give tremendous atmosphere to a film which could so easily have had none. Shamroy's lighting is not only good because of the shadows, but the subtle ways he picks out the faces and the eyes. Those were the days! Who can do that so well now? The Hollywood stars then knew how to play to their lights in order to deify themselves to still higher celestial orders. In those days, facial surgery took place by lighting methods, and there was no need for the knife. I am far from being a Joan Crawford admirer, but although she was an even worse nightmare than Preminger as a person, she can act with fantastic, mesmeric power when she wants to. And she does so here. The story is about a confused 'independent woman' of the immediate postwar era who is a mistress of a self-absorbed cad and the wife of a perversely self-denying idealist. Which shall she choose? She dithers with all the uncertainty of a woman in love who is not sure with whom. Does she go for the strong and cruel one, or the weak and adoring one? (Animal instinct always urges the former, on the premise that it is a better breeding prospect for the species that the strong, however cruel, should procreate.) Dana Andrews, usually a nice guy in films, here does a very good job of being a real jerk. Henry Fonda always found it easy, with his relaxed, gangly walk of a hillbilly, to be Mr. Nice Guy, since after all, only nice guys walk like that. He doesn't have a lot of acting to do, but what is needed is there. (No need to chew gum or 'baccy' this time.) This love triangle is greatly aided by a spectacular performance in a supporting role by Ruth Warrick as a harridan wife of Dana Andrews, although the fact that she is a child abuser who beats up her own little girl is severely down-played in the film. There are some wonderful small touches: a garrulous taxi driver reciting endless boring statistics about his trade, and a glassy-eyed couple who descend the stairs and do not say hello, the woman surprisingly being former silent film star Mae Marsh! Yes, it is a pity about the Greenwich Theatre being gone, not to mention Pennsylvania Station, of the interior of which we get a glimpse. This is a powerful soap opera story raised to a higher level by the talent involved.
Prof-Hieronymos-Grost Artist Daisy Kenyon (Joan Crawford) has been having an on/off affair with married man, lawyer, Dan O'Mara (Dana Andrews) for many years, she was happy with the state of affairs for the most part but their petty squabbles have taken their toll on their relationship and Daisy decides to bring it to an end. In steps mild mannered soldier and widower, Sgt Peter Lapham (Henry Fonda), home from the war to take his place in Daisy's affections. Lapham a yacht designer by trade knowing he is aiming high offers her marriage with the promise of a relaxed life on the cape. Daisy's affections are muddled, what will she do? Well this is the third of Fox Noir's recent releases and it is again badly labeled as Noir, its pure soap opera, that admittedly has some interesting use of light and shadow, but this alone does not a Film Noir make? I can't really believe how all so very nice and cosy all the main characters are with each other, when there should be arguments and fistfights all we get is some shared tears and a great understanding for the others predicaments. Not terrible by any stretch, but not essential either.
Yxklyx I've seen about a dozen Preminger films and this is my favorite. I wasn't expecting too much once the movie began because it seemed I had seen this all done before but Preminger's characters (as is usually the case) are much more realistic than typical Hollywood movies of this era. The characterization actually compares favorably to foreign films of the time, like for example Quai des Orfèvres from the same year; this movie could easily have been a French production. I'm not much a fan of Crawford or Fonda but this is probably the best I've seen Fonda; and Crawford was just fine. Dana Andrews is superb - probably his best movie! What made this movie for me was that I could relate to all three main characters - in many ways they are more ideas (or philosophies) than actual people but the odd thing is that the line was so blurred that even though I knew this was the case I still enjoyed them as people. What puts this above the other Premingers I've seen is the very tight script, the fast pacing, and three fully realized characters that came across not only as real but as themes in themselves. Add in a memorable supporting cast and everything just blends together to make a perfect concoction.