cult film freak: JACQUES TOURNEUR DIRECTS DANA ANDREWS IN 'THE FEARMAKERS'

Title: The Fearmakers Year: 1958 Rating: ****

THE FEARMAKERS is Dana Andrews' peak as a dramatic lead, and, circa 1958, is one of the last genuine (albeit disputed) Film Noirs that's more of an early Cold War Political Thriller, directed by his CANYON PASSAGE and the previous years' CURSE OF THE DEMON auteur Jacques Tourneur: a suspenseful programmer where the plot's spelled out quick, economically...

Having been a tortured POW in Communist North Korea, and suffering sporadic fainting spells, Dana's Alan Eaton returns to Washington D.C. where his business partner has died, somewhat suspiciously, and their business is taken over by some "pretty big fish with a bad smell" according to his senator friend, so Dana has to investigate, completely from the inside...

Basically providing Tourneur low budget office setting, not counting a few restaurants and a memorable B&B scene, owned by mouthy/muscular thug Kelly Thordsen with a sultry fatale-like wife Veda Ann Borg: And eventually everything falls into b movie place with young and naive, sympathetic love interest Marilee Earle, secretary of main boss Dick Foran, shady and sophisticated, the perfect rival to Dana's completely honest businessman, who had professionally and proficiently ran this same Statistic-Research firm that's since become a hot-bed for political corruption...

Which isn't entirely clear as the underlying theme is non-political, equally catered to both patriots and those fearing Washington's backroom wheeling/dealing; teased just enough for the plot-line, all part of an efficient Late Noir where Andrews, after basically skating through (while literally drinking through) two Fritz Lang media-centered Noirs, might not look so great physically...

Yet Dana's 1950's tense yet understated presence ala LAURA and FALLEN ANGEL is back in gear, tight and calculating as ever, but the real surprise is musician icon Mel Torme as the most ambiguous, perhaps even the most ambitious character: A nerdy, awkward numbers-guy doing "drone" work for the villain, he's smitten with the secretary hence extremely jealous of our hero: caught perfectly in-between as a sublime scene-stealer.