Today’s Post by Joe Farace
“I must have had faith that day. When I went out, I was Henry Fonda again. An unemployed actor but a man.”—Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda (1905–1982) was one of my favorite actors during the Golden Era of Hollywood films. If Fonda ever made a bad movie I can’t think of what it was; if you can, please enlighten me. Recently I had the chance, quite by accident, of viewing back-to-back over two days, two of his films. One was from the beginning of his career, the other from near the end. Here are my takes on the movie and Fonda’s participation in them.
The Lady Eve (1941)
Henry Fonda doesn’t even get top billing in this Preston Sturges comedy, instead that goes to Barbara Stanwyck, who’s is absolutely luminous in the film. She’s lovely, enchanting, sexy and subtle in the role of con women who, along with her father portrayed by Charles Coburn, are out to steal Fonda’s fortune, which stems from his father’s successful brewery. Fonda was 36 years old when making The Lady Eve but looks younger. A year before he was electrifying in his performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath. He was nominated for an Oscar for that role, which is surely one of filmdom’s iconic roles but didn’t win one until his final film On Golden Pond, which seems like more like an outstanding career award more than for his performance in that particular movie.
Fonda’s typically not the romantic leading man type in most of his films but here he puts his best foot forward as a geeky, clumsy and utterly charming Charles Pike aka “Hopsie.” There is one scene where Stanwyck and Fonda are cheek-to-cheek, tossing back-and-forth Sturges’ witty dialog where you will witness screen magic combining flirting and humor in a way that none, and I mean none, of today’s rom-coms can match. And it’s all done in one take,—no cutting back-and-forth to close-ups of each actor’s faces to ruin the mood. This is great film and laugh-out-loud funny as many Sturges comedy can be and its filled with his company of character actors including Eugene Pallette as Pike Senior. I watched an older Criterion Collection DVD of the movie and found the quality of the transfer to be marginal, sooty-looking and contrasty and well below the quality of their My Man Godfrey DVD. There is a newer Blu-ray release of the film and I’ve included the link for it. If you are also a fan of Henry Fonda, this film should be in your library.
My Name is Nobody (1973)
Fonda was 68 years old when making this film. I’ve always thought that he was cast in this movie, that was written in part by Sergio Leone, as a kiss-and-make-up gift from Leone, for casting him as a cold-blooded killer in Once Upon a Time in the West.
In My Name is Nobody, Fonda portrays a dignified but weary gunfighter who wants to catch a boat to Europe and retire. Along the way, he meets up with Terrence Hill (aka Mario Girotti) who provides comedy relief as only he can. Make no mistake this is more like one of Hill’s Trinity series westerns and not one of Fonda’s best westerns such as The Oxbow Incident. (The “Oxbow” Blu-ray is overpriced; the DVD less so, but still worth a purchase for this remarkable film.) Fonda gets top billing in My Name is Nobody but it’s Hill who’s really the star but you don’t care because the movie is just a lot on not-so-mindless cowboy fun that’s enhanced by a score by Ennio Morricone. When Fonda is on the screen, you can’t take your eyes off him and his scenes with Hill are memorable with the interplay of two actors from different eras and different continents. At the end of the film there are two clever endings that deliver a humorous coda along with a most satisfying conclusion for Fonda’s character.
Is this movie Fonda’s best western? I don’t think so. He made so many good ones, including Anthony Mann’s The Tin Star. If you’re wiling to take a chance and poke around on eBay, look for a copy of Warlock, that reunited Fonda with Anthony Quinn from The Oxbow Incident and features a great turn for Richard Widmark as a cowpoke who has courage thrust upon him. It’s a failed masterpiece but still worth a look.