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Star of the Month: Dana Andrews: ‘Dana in the ’40s’
TCM, Beginning at 7 p.m.
Carver Dana Andrews — better known simply as Dana Andrews — is Turner Classic Movies’ Star of the Month for July. Each Tuesday night (and extending well into the following day) is dedicated to the actor’s films, with titles ranging from his leading-man heyday in dramas and films noir of the 1940s and early ’50s to his later transition into more supporting roles. The initial lineup of movies, beginning tonight and continuing into tomorrow morning, focuses on some highlights from Andrews’ early 1940s career, beginning with one of his first feature-film appearances, a minor
role in William Wyler’s Oscar-winning The Westerner (1940), led by Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan. After that is the film that helped solidify Andrews’ fame as a leading man: 1944’s Laura (pictured), Best Director Oscar nominee Otto Preminger’s film noir classic with the actor portraying a detective obsessed with the titular presumed murder victim, played by Gene Tierney. Andrews followed up Laura with an even bigger hit, co-starring with Jeanne Crain in tonight’s next film, the Oscar-winning State Fair (1945). The film was the only Rodgers and Hammerstein musical written directly
for the screen and introduced popular tunes like the Oscar-winning “It Might as Well Be
Spring” and “It’s a Grand Night for Singing” (Andrews is part of the latter musical
number, with his singing voice dubbed by Ben Gage). Following that is Howard Hawks’
Oscar-nominated 1941 screwball comedy Ball of Fire, which re-teams Andrews with Cooper and also stars Best Actress Oscar nominee Barbara Stanwyck. Finishing up this initial lineup of films featuring Andrews are: John Ford’s 1941 drama the U.S. Navy-produced 1943 propaganda documentary December 7th, about the Pearl Harbor attack; The North Star (1943), an Oscar-nominated war drama about the Ukrainian fight against Nazi invasion; and Up in Arms (1944), an Oscar-nominated
musical led by Danny Kaye and Dinah Shore.