Sadly Over-hyped

Expected more

I really wanted to like this movie. I feel terribly cynical trashing it, and that's why I'm giving it a middling 5. Actually, I'm giving it a 5 because there were some superb performances.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

In ten years Joan Crawford went from being "box office poison" to winning an Oscar for "Mildred Pierce" to almost winning again for "Possessed" - most critics felt she should have won but Loretta Young did for "The Farmer's Daughter". Both director, Otto Preminger, and star, Henry Fonda, wished to forget "Daisy Kenyon" later in their careers and it was a film that opted for mushy romance over psychological drama, elements it had in abundance.Commercial artist Daisy Kenyon (Crawford) is being given the runaround by her married lover Dan (Dana Andrews). Initially he comes across as a brash charmer juggling mistress and family but in reality his wife is a neurotic who takes her frustrations out by abusing younger daughter Marie (Connie Marshall)!!! But Daisy is getting fed up with always coming second and the endless waiting by the telephone, so when she meets Peter (Fonda) who impulsively asks her to marry him she says yes.This movie could have gone in so many directions rather than down the road to romance. There was the child abuse angle - Marie was always a bundle of nerves at the thought of being left with her mother and even turns up at court with a bandaged ear but Dan seems oblivious to everything but his own happiness. At the end he even indicates that both mother and daughter would get used to each other in time but he had to be free!! Again, another sequence shows him accepting a brief (he was a lawyer of course) that dealt with a Japanese man who had won the Purple Heart but returned to find his home had been seized. Dan was told accepting this case would make him feel more worthwhile and not just a society lawyer. He takes the case and loses but you only hear about it, by this time the movie is really the Daisy and Dan story!! Oh, and Peter has some psychological problems stemming from the death of his first wife. He often wakes up at night with horrible nightmares. His problems, too, are miraculously righted and the end of the movie shows the three of them snowed in at a mountain cabin where Peter and Dan, like in a court case, put forward their cases as to why they are the best person for Daisy.Peter Fonda comes off best (probably because he is a better actor than Dana Andrews) but his pacing and demeanor are so dreamlike, it was almost as though he was in a different movie - he probably wished he was!!

The revered Otto Preminger directs three well healed actors, Joan Crawford, Dana Andrews and Henry Fonda. This drama features Crawford as Daisy Kenyon, a Manhattan commercial artist that is being squired by Dan O'Mara(Andrews), a high dollar lawyer, married with kids. Daisy has had O'Mara on the string long enough and she expects hims to divorce his wife Lucille(Ruth Warrick). The attorney pussy foots the idea and just can't bring himself to do it. Meanwhile Daisy is also keeping company with an army sergeant Peter Lapham(Fonda) actually hoping to make Dan jealous. Both men argue over her, but when she nearly kills herself in an auto accident Daisy realizes she truly loves Lapham. By this time Lucille has overheard a phone call made by her husband professing his love for Daisy...divorce proceedings will soon be underway. Two men on a string, but does she even deserve either one? Making cameo appearances at New York's fabled Stork Club are John Garfield, Walter Winchell and Leonard Lyons. Other players include: Roy Roberts, Victoria Horne, Connie Marshall and Martha Stewart. Soap opera on the big screen.

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.

Benign affair with Joan Crawford really being unable to make up her mind who the man for her actually is. Should it be married, successful lawyer Dana Andrews or the rather dull widower Henry Fonda? Crawford chooses the latter, but a phone conversation with Andrews where he professes his love for her,is heard by his vicious wife and some fireworks start but never become blazing.Ruth Warrick is excellent as the wife of Andrews. The daughter of a wealthy man who is Andrews' law partner, she is an embittered woman who leashes her fury out on her younger daughter. I really thought there would be a tragedy there and I was glad that I'm wrong.The ending is predictable because that's the way the film should have ended. Missing here is an excitable Joan Crawford capable of anything. To disagree with other writers, this is certainly not one of Andrews' best films. To me, he will always be endearing as that soldier returning home in "The Best Years of Our Lives."