Dana Andrews makes small shifts of attention worth watching. We rate his quiet authority highly, especially in Laura, though a manner this restrained needs the right part to avoid looking merely unresponsive.
Fi1m perspective
Watch Dana Andrews pay attention in Laura (1944): the smallest change matters because he has given us so little fuss to begin with. As Det. Lt. Mark McPherson, he gives Otto Preminger’s romantic mystery a steady centre, particularly beside Clifton Webb’s threatening admiration. We were quietly gripped by Andrews here, because those small changes in his attention kept us watching without any obvious appeal for sympathy. The detective plotting can feel overarranged, but we never feel him straining to make it convincing. He gives us someone to follow when the workings of the mystery become too conspicuous.
His early supporting parts gave way to leading roles in the mid-1940s, including noir and war dramas. The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), in which he plays Donald Martin, a man facing a lynch mob, comes before that breakthrough. The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) gives him Fred Derry, a returning veteran struggling to readjust. His resonant voice and minimal expression suit men who have difficulty saying what is wrong. He can suggest that difficulty without making every pause a request for our concern.
Preminger gets particularly good use from that matter-of-fact delivery in Laura, where Andrews has no need to compete with the more demonstrative people around him. Gene Tierney, as Laura Hunt, is composed too, and the film benefits from having two performers who leave us something to work out. We want to know how much to believe about her, and Andrews’s solidity helps keep that curiosity alive. The partnership with Preminger continues into Where the Sidewalk Ends (1950), with Andrews playing another detective, Det. Sgt. Mark Dixon. Such parts give us a reason to study his reserve rather than simply wait for him to speak.
Some critics have found his performances wooden or monochromatic, and the danger is plain enough. We would not pretend that doing little is sufficient by itself: a part must give those small changes some importance, as McPherson does. His work extended into Westerns and character parts through the 1950s and 1960s, with fewer strong leading roles. There was still Night of the Demon (1957), with Andrews as the sceptical investigator Dr. John Holden. Start with Laura, and do not let the more demonstrative performers take all your attention.
Biography
Dana Andrews was an American actor. Born Carver Dana Andrews on 1 January 1909 in Collins, Mississippi, he died on 17 December 1992 in Los Alamitos, California.
He trained at the Pasadena Community Playhouse before making his film debut. Andrews became a leading man in the 1940s, appearing as Det. Lt. Mark McPherson in Laura (1944) and as Fred Derry in The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). His other notable films include The Ox-Bow Incident (1943) and Night of the Demon (1957). He later took character roles and served as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1963 to 1965.
