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226 C H a p t e r 1 6 Period of Adjustment 1950–53 dana’s roles in the early 1950s provided him with little opportunity to utilize the nuances he had perfected in his best work, although two pictures from this period trade on the ennobling courage that made him one of the silver screen’s most decent and desirable leading men. In Sword฀in฀the฀Desert฀(released October 3, 1949), he appears as a cynical ship’s captain who comes to adopt the cause of Jewish refugees on the way to Palestine. Appearing as another ship’s captain in Sealed฀Cargo฀ (released May 19, 1951), Dana played opposite Claude Rains, playing a villainous Nazi agent whose nefarious plot Dana’s character exposes and thwarts. Otto Preminger’s Fox production of Where฀the฀Sidewalk฀Ends฀(released July 7, 1950) broke Dana’s string of mediocre pictures. His role as detective Mark Dixon invites an obvious comparison with Mark McPherson, especially since Dana is again cast with Gene Tierney as his love interest. Indeed, Dixon seems like a McPherson who has met his Laura when it is almost too late. Dixon is McPherson five years later, brutalized by his job. He is getting a reputation in the department for roughing up perps. When he accidentally kills a suspect who has attacked him, he panics and attempts to conceal the deed, using his expert knowledge of criminal behavior . Although Where฀the฀Sidewalk฀Ends฀lacks฀Laura’s gloss, Dana’s gritty performance is mesmerizing. His character’s inhibitions become the focus of the picture, as he attempts to open up under Tiernery’s wide-eyed gaze. Imogen Sara Smith calls his acting a “tour-de-force of slow-burning pain and agonized intelligence,” his best performance. Other critics have lauded Dana’s convincing portrayal of a ruthless but vulnerable character . Like McPherson, Dixon is hard to read, an impassive, taciturn, and fascinating study in the enigma of human identity. p e r i o d o F a d J u s t m e n t ( 1 9 5 0 – 5 3 ) 227 ฀ The฀Frogmen (released September 8, 1951), marks Dana’s slide back into the position of second-lead. He plays the reasonable, duty-bound hero opposite by-the-book commander Richard Widmark, playing a role remarkably similar to Don Ameche’s dour officer-in-charge part in Wing฀ and฀a฀Prayer. Dana did well in semi-documentaries (this one was an adventure story about a navy team of underwater demolition experts) but both his performance and the picture lack the power of The฀Purple฀Heart. In this Cold War period, the risks and dangers were real enough, and yet The฀Frogmen lacked the kind of urgency and sense of camaraderie that had Lewis Milestone so deftly created earlier. From Norfolk, Virginia, where the picture was filmed, Dana sent a reassuring letter to Mary on December 18, 1950, saying the Navy brass did not seem all that thrilled to meet movie stars, “but the wives are just a little batty. I drank eight or ten coca colas and stood up for three hours without a rest. When they all began to get loaded (including our Mr. Bacon) I pulled out as gracefully as possible, went to a show by myself, then called you.” Drinking cokes did not last. By September 1951, Dana was in Hartford, Connecticut, undergoing treatment for alcoholism at the Institute of Living. Established in 1922 as one of the first mental health centers in the United States, the institute is situated on thirty-five acres designed by the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead , and is now part of Hartford Hospital, specializing in the treatment and research of behavioral, psychiatric, and addictive disorders. Dana first wrote to Mary from the institute on September 11: Darling: It was so nice to talk to you last night—it always is. And I always get a kick out of the kids. Sue—Sue was really trying to find out why I hadn’t kept my promise to come home in “a little while”—or was it, “pretty soon”? I guess it’s hard for her to understand why I stay away. It makes me feel good to know that they want me back, anyway. Dana was not an abusive alcoholic. A few drinks relaxed him, but he could not stop at a few drinks. He just got happier and wobblier—and, at times, tiresome. He was a hard man...

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