DANA AND THE DEAD 

“Watch a movie once
for the story; watch a
movie a second time
and you begin to notice
how it is put together”
—Carl Rollyson 
Hollywood Enigma:
Dana Andrews
_________________

Laura (1944)
Fallen Angel (1945)
Night of the Demon (1957)
__________

Detective Dana Andrews—
is haunted by the dead

when beautiful Gene Tierney—
supposedly murdered returns

To her apartment where Dana—
sleeps beneath her portrait

Having fallen in love with her—
while investigating her death
__________

Then comes Linda Darnell—
sullen sultry femme fatale 

Plus some occult hocus-pocus—
with Professor Madley’s seance

Played by wily John Carradine—
doing his camp carnie circuit act

Leaving Alice Faye flummoxed—
and lovely Linda Darnell dead
___________

But even more interesting—
when Dana Andrews travels to

England to investigate some—
Paranormal Stonehenge events

Conjured up by Jacques Tourneur—
with an evil runic magician

Whose mad mother Mrs. Karswell—
played by ditsy Athene Seyler reminds
_____________

One very much of mad Marion Lorne—
Bruno Anthony’s schizoid dear mother

The ultimate “Momism” matriarch—
out of Philip Wylie’s scathing book

GENERATION OF VIPERS (1942)—
about American Cold War culture

Around which Hitchcock filmed—
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951)