#112: Daisy Kenyon
Part of the Top 150 Films series
In Daisy Kenyon, Joan Crawford plays a commercial artist having an affair with a married lawyer played by Dana Andrews. Over the course of the film, she meets a war vet played by Henry Fonda and, after a brief courtship, decides to marry him, although she is still in love with Andrews’ lawyer. On the surface, there’s not a lot that sets this apart from any other melodrama of the era. Scratch that surface, however, and you uncover one of the most acidic, complicated and subversive noir/melodrama hybrids to emerge from the bowels of the studio system. Everything is subtly heightened — the camerawork! the performances! the set decoration! — to create this intensely emotional experience whilst still complying with the conventions of the era. Just like in life, everyone is nuanced, no one is exactly who they say they are; Daisy Kenyon understands this better than any film I’ve seen.
