Daisy Kenyon (1947)

A commercial artist (Joan Crawford) finds herself caught in a romantic triangle with a married man (Dana Andrews) who she cannot have and a war veteran (Henry Fonda) whose love she can't return. Based on the novel by Elizabeth Janeway and directed by Otto Preminger (ANATOMY OF A MURDER). This is one of Crawford's better post MGM melodramas, perhaps because it was made at 20th Century Fox rather than Warners and she had a strong director in Preminger. She's not as hard edged and displays some vulnerability which makes her more appealing than the iron maidens she was playing at Warners. On the downside, we don't get the more realistic ending as 1940s morality ensures she'll do the "right thing". Fonda is his usual stiff self and Andrews' high powered attorney is infinitely more interesting. His character takes on the case of a Japanese American whose property had been been confiscated as he fought in Italy. Indeed, the movie might have been better if it had been written with him as the main character and not Crawford's Daisy. With Ruth Warrick, Peggy Ann Garner, Connie Marshall, Roy Roberts and Martha Stewart.