Henry Fonda

[Ollie]

I like SOMETIMES very very much. I adore the book and the few others that Kesey did. I abhor the monstrosity that is cuckolded from his most famous book, by the way. I am nothing but incendiary about that other film. But those two books are top-notch. The differences in SOMETIMES seems entirely reasonable and well-done.

This is also Paul Newman's first-ever directed film.

It's lack of regard Stateside must be part of the Michael Sarrazin Curse, because he's in several favorite films, none of which made it past a brief VHS run. FLIM FLAM MAN with that unknown George C Something guy. HARRY IN YOUR POCKET with that Whats-hiz-name Coburn fella. No wonder these films never made it to American DVD production - who ever heard of Newman and Fonda, after all? Just not enough 'big name clout'.

OR it's because of the Michael Sarrazin Curse!

[movieman1957]

It's on TV now and then. I've never seen it all but I seem to recall a rather troubling drowning scene.

[Ollie]

Yes. Think "Captains Couragous" and that scene with the appropriate aftermath might come back into memory. I'm not certain how TV handles the, uh, 'aftermath scene' since I don't remember seeing it there.

[klondike]

That scene does stand out, for everyone, I think, because although it dovetails logically with the scripted plotline, it runs on about 30% too long, and, frankly, is just a little too close-in graphic about Jaeckel's demise.
(The mechanics of his character's drowning are also disturbingly Murphyish: his legs are trapped under a cumbersome log that drags him under due to its rotation by the rising water.)

[movieman1957]

On his name alone I rented the first DVD of the series "The Deputy." If the first three episodes are any indication - don't bother. Henry Fonda may be the top billed but he plays a variation on "I have to take a prisoner to Contention" theme so that he is nothing more than a cameo.

The show is not at all about him but a young man who runs a store with his sister who occasionally is called upon to help out town sheriff Wallace Ford. Allen Case, never heard of him, plays the real lead and he's okay but he's not lighting anything up.

The picture quality is dreadful and apologies precede the episodes. I also found the music really annoying. The early 60's pop/jazz stuff sounds better suited for Patty Duke than a western drama. The music can be dramatic but the lean electric guitar and odd combination of other such instruments just rubbed me the wrong way. Everything looks cheap too. Real disappointed.

Seems hard to believe it lasted 76 episodes.

[moira finnie]

Thanks for the heads up about The Deputy, Chris. Henry tried television again some years later in the early '70s, I think, with another dog of a show called The Smith Family. It also suffered badly from the faux hipness of some of the stories and the strange, "Pleasantville" air of the family unit it portrayed in the program. Isn't it odd that neither Fonda nor James Stewart could transfer their presence to the small screen with much success?

[movieman1957]

It is strange but maybe Fonda and Stewart were too big for TV.

[Gary J.]

Fonda's biggest splash in television seems to had been when he signed on as a spokesperson for GAF products. I remember that there was a big flap at the time that a Hollywood legend would openly endorse a product with a series of commercials - not just one. Fonda shrugged and said, "I'm an actor. I act. Commercials help me pay the way so I can work in other projects that appeal to me." His blase attitude helped open the floodgates for celebrities to pick up easy money from Madison Ave. which continues on today tenfold.

Now I've come into this thread about two years late but all of this 'wuss' talk about Hank Fonda I find baffling. For one thing, he never set out to be John Wayne, Robert Mitchum or Clark Gable. His personae was the earnest common man with a built-in quiet intensity - pretty much along the same lines as his buddy, Jimmy Stewart. His characters would rarely start a fight but once challenged they would also rarely back down - unless the script called for it. And so for those who don't like Fonda in THE LADY EVE what you really don't like is Preston Sturges because he made the movie and he made Fonda behave that way. And it's the whole point of the film. Stanwyck plays such a harden, cynical, sharpie that for her to slowly fall for the world's most naive, gullible sap is the entire comic joke in the eyes of Sturges. And Fonda plays the role pitch perfect. It's a Sturges fairy tale as only he could conceive. The same goes for THE BIG STREET, another Damon Runyon fairy tale (did he ever write anything but?) in which a minor, insignificant busboy goes through hell and high water in order to provide for the girl of his dream - the kicker being that she really isn't worth all of the trouble (until the end, that is). As Pinks attempts to provide for 'Her Highness' on his meager busboy salary he finagles, steals and stands up to mobsters - all rather manly I would say. It also concludes with one of the most emotionally satisfying endings of any Hollywood film.

I have always loved everything that Fonda has ever done. He had a quiet intensity about him that always draws the viewer to him. Watch him support Tyrone Powers in JESSE JAMES, playing his brother Frank James, and as the camera continually places Powers center stage our attention keeps drifting over to the left as Fonda sits in his horse quietly observing. I always felt that he knew something was about to happen and I wanted to be in on it. Fonda's greatest attribute would have to be his stage trained but natural speaking voice - with that Midwestern drawl of his. Notice how often Fonda's films end with his characters being given a monlogue or speech or some sort of lecture or talk that sums up the entire movie - from his first film THE FARMER TAKES A WIFE through BLOCKADE, YOUNG MR. LINCOLN, GRAPES OF WRATH, THE MALE ANIMAL, THE OXBOW INCIDENT, to 12 ANGRY MEN, THE BEST MAN and even in YOURS, MINE AND OURS as Lucy's water breaks and Fonda gives a lovely talk about the birds and the bees to his teenage kids as they are heading to the hospital.

I have always been a great fan of this most natural of screen actors.

[MissGoddess]

Good evening, Gary J.,

Now I've come into this thread about two years late but all of this 'wuss' talk about Hank Fonda I find baffling. For one thing, he never set out to be John Wayne, Robert Mitchum or Clark Gable. His personae was the earnest common man with a built-in quiet intensity - pretty much along the same lines as his buddy, Jimmy Stewart. His characters would rarely start a fight but once challenged they would also rarely back down - unless the script called for it. And so for those who don't like Fonda in THE LADY EVE what you really don't like is Preston Sturges because he made the movie and he made Fonda behave that way.

If you are referring to my post, you might be less baffled if you re-read what I wrote: "Let me add that I only thought he occasionally played a weak character---as written and directed---and that I just don't like those characters". You repeated---much better I might add---what I tried to clarify in my poor attemp, only one of many posts that singled out Mr. Fonda as an actor I do admire.

That doesn't mean I have to like the "point" of his characters in The Lady Eve or The Big Street and this is where I certainly agree with you that I am baffling, indeed. For the record, Gary Cooper is my very favorite actor and I can't stand him as Bertram Potts (Ball of Fire) or similar characters either...so I hope that crystalizes my very minority opinion about certain characters, no matter who plays them and that I really do like Hank!

[Gary J.]

Well Miss G, I did not have any one poster in mind when I wrote my retort, mostly because I
can never keep everyone's aliases straight but, BOY! I have to say that I find BALL OF FIRE to
be one of the great comedies of all time and Cooper is hilarious in it.

We definitely do not share the same mind-sets in movies.

[charliechaplinfan]

I never knew we had this thread. Henry Fonda belongs in the category of actor that I discovered a liking for whilst I've been watching more classic movies. He was never an actor I would search out films by yet I've loved everything he's ever done. I love him in The Lady Eve, he's endearing although dopey, he plays similar in Tales of Manhattan yet it's in the straight dramas that he really hit's his mark. His Tom Joad could have been lifted directly from the book, then I discovered a slew of other performances, usually in the quiet quite tortured way of his, The Ox Bow Incident, The Long Night, The Wrong Man. The only time I'm not over keen on him is when the material is below his talents, when he's in support of the leading lady, even then his performance is always good. He's great in the Fort Apache, My Darling Clementine and On Golden Pond.

For me he's an actor who gives his best performance whatever kind of film he's cast in and you can't say that about everyone.