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Star of the Month: Dana Andrews: ‘1960s and 1970s’
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
In the latter years of his career, while making occasional guest appearances on television, famed actor Dana Andrews found his big-screen leading-man opportunities dwindling, and he tended to appear in supporting, sometimes minor, roles in film productions. But he still brought his A acting game, even to projects that may have been B-movies, during this time. Turner Classic Movies’ final evening of this month’s salute to Andrews features eight late-career film appearances from the star. First, he plays an admiral among a large supporting cast in the 1965 World War II epic In Harm’s Way, which was directed by Otto Preminger, with whom Andrews had collaborated on a number of earlier movies. Similarly, Andrews portrays a colonel in the next film, another World War II epic from 1965 with a large ensemble cast: Battle of the Bulge. Then, Andrews leads The Crowded Sky (pictured) (1960), an airplane-in-distress drama similar to his earlier film Zero Hour! Following that are three films from 1965: Brainstorm, a thriller co-starring Jeffrey Hunter and Anne Francis; The Loved One, a comedy with a large ensemble featuring Andrews in a smaller role; and The Satan Bug, director John Sturges’ sci-fi thriller led by George Maharis, Richard Basehart and Francis. After those titles, Andrews plays a bit against type as a villain in the 1966 British horror film The Frozen Dead, which casts the actor as a scientist who resurrects frozen Nazi soldiers as zombies. The lineup then concludes with Andrews in a smaller role, as a brigadier general, in another World War II drama, The Devil’s Brigade (1968).