Editing Dana Andrews (section)

=== Critical success and noir ===
[[File:Dana Andrews in Laura trailer.jpg|thumb|Andrews in the trailer for ''[[Laura (1944 film)|Laura]]'' (1944)]]
[[File:Best Years of Our Lives.jpg|thumb|[[Hoagy Carmichael]], [[Fredric March]], [[Myrna Loy]], Andrews and [[Theresa Wright]] in ''[[The Best Years of Our Lives]]'' (1946)]]
One of his roles was as a detective infatuated with a presumed murder victim, played by [[Gene Tierney]], in ''[[Laura (1944 film)|Laura]]'' (1944), produced at Fox and directed by [[Otto Preminger]]. He co-starred with [[Jeanne Crain]] in the movie musical ''[[State Fair (1945 film)|State Fair]]'' (1945), a huge hit, and was reunited with Preminger for the film noir ''[[Fallen Angel (1945 film)|Fallen Angel]]'' (1945). Andrews made another war movie with Milestone, ''[[A Walk in the Sun (1945 film)|A Walk in the Sun]]'' (1945), then was loaned to [[Walter Wanger]] for a western, ''[[Canyon Passage]]'' (1946), directed by [[Jacques Tourneur]] and co-featuring [[Susan Hayward]].

Andrews' second film with William Wyler, also for Goldwyn, became his best known: ''[[The Best Years of Our Lives]]'' (1946). It was both a popular and critical success. Upon release, the topical film about American society's problems in re-integrating military veterans after World War II outgrossed the longstanding box office success of ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]'' (1939) in the U.S. and Britain.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Easton|first=Carol|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AfkaBwAAQBAJ&q=dana+andrews|title=The Search for Sam Goldwyn|year=2014|publisher=Univ. Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-62674-132-4|language=en}}</ref> In 2007, the film ranked number 37th on [[AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies|AFI's Top 100 Years...100 Movies]].

Andrews appeared in ''[[Boomerang (1947 film)|Boomerang!]]'' (1947), directed by [[Elia Kazan]]; ''[[Night Song (1948 film)|Night Song]]'' (1947), at RKO; and ''[[Daisy Kenyon]]'' (1947) for Preminger. In 1947, he was voted the 23rd most popular actor in the U.S.<ref>{{cite news| first=Richard L.| last=Coe| title=Bing's Lucky Number: Pa Crosby Dons 4th B.O. Crown| url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/152120037| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]| date=January 3, 1948| access-date=November 2, 2015| url-access=subscription| archive-date=November 27, 2016| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161127024707/http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/doc/152120037.html?FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&type=historic&date=Jan+3%2C+1948&author=By+Richard+L.+Coe&desc=Bing%27s+Lucky+Number| id={{ProQuest|152120037}}| url-status=live}}</ref>

Andrews starred in the anti-communist ''[[The Iron Curtain (film)|The Iron Curtain]]'' (1948), reuniting him with [[Gene Tierney]], then ''[[Deep Waters (1948 film)|Deep Waters]]'' (1948). He made a comedy for Lewis Milestone at Enterprise Pictures, ''[[No Minor Vices]]'' (1948), then traveled to England for ''[[The Forbidden Street|Britannia Mews]]'' (1949). Andrews was in ''[[Sword in the Desert]]'' (1949), then Goldwyn cast him in ''[[My Foolish Heart (1949 film)|My Foolish Heart]]'' (1949) with [[Susan Hayward]]. He played a fast-fisted police officer in the film noir ''[[Where the Sidewalk Ends (film)|Where the Sidewalk Ends]]'' (1950), also with Tierney and Preminger. Around this time, [[alcoholism]] began to damage Andrews's career, and on two occasions it nearly cost him his life behind the wheel.{{Citation needed |date=September 2023}}

''[[Edge of Doom]]'' (1950), another film noir for Goldwyn, was a flop. Andrews was then loaned to RKO to make ''[[Sealed Cargo]]'' (1951), in which his brother Steve Forrest has an uncredited role. (In a "Word of Mouth" commentary for [[Turner Classic Movies]], Forrest stated, "I'd have given my eye teeth to have worked with him.") Back at Fox, Andrews was in ''[[The Frogmen]]'' (1951), then Goldwyn cast him in ''[[I Want You (1951 film)|I Want You]]'' (1951), an overwrought attempt to repeat the success of ''The Best Years of Our Lives'', during the [[Cold War]] era [[Korean War]]''.''<ref>{{Cite news|last=Crowther|first=Bosley|date=December 24, 1951|title=The Screen in Review; Samuel Goldwyn's 'I Want You' Opens Run at Criterion – Script by Irwin Shaw (Published 1951)|language=en-US|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1951/12/24/archives/the-screen-in-review-samuel-goldwyns-i-want-you-opens-run-at.html|access-date=October 8, 2020|issn=0362-4331}}</ref>

From 1952 to 1954, Andrews was featured in the radio series ''[[I Was a Communist for the FBI]]'', about the experiences of [[Matt Cvetic]], an [[FBI]] informant who infiltrated the [[CPUSA|Communist Party of the United States of America]].