TCM Schedule for Thursday, August 1, 2019 -- Summer Under the Stars: Henry Fonda

[Staph]

It's that glorious time of year again - time for Summer Under The Stars. TCM is featuring a different star every day, and today's star is Henry Fonda. From TCM's biography:

A beloved, enduring screen star who embodied an idealized yet recognizable vision of the average but nonetheless intelligent and honorable American man, Henry Fonda began his acting career in his native Nebraska with the Omaha Community Playhouse. He worked his way to Broadway in 1929 and arrived in Hollywood in 1934. Fonda's benign, paternal presence landed him roles ranging from conscientious US presidents, in "Young Mr. Lincoln" (1939) and "Fail-Safe" (1964), to the patient juror who saves an innocent man's life in "Twelve Angry Men" (1957). He continued both his stage and screen careers through the 1970s, performing in such fine films as the romantic comedy "The Lady Eve" (1941), the John Ford Westerns "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939), "My Darling Clementine" (1946) and "Fort Apache" (1948), the Sergio Leone "spaghetti" Western "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1969, one of his rare villainous roles) and the political drama "Advise and Consent" (1962).

Amazingly, for years Fonda's only Oscar nomination was for his moving work as itinerant farm worker Tom Joad in Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath" (1940); a year after the Academy granted him an honorary award, though, he won another statuette as best actor Oscar for his swansong performance in "On Golden Pond" (1981). The first of his five marriages was to actress Margaret Sullavan, opposite whom he worked in the romantic comedy "The Moon's Our Home" (1936). Children Jane and Peter Fonda, by second wife Frances Seymour Brokaw, are both actors.

Enjoy!



6:00 AM -- That Certain Woman (1937)
A gangster's widow fights for love despite society's disapproval.
Dir: Edmund Goulding
Cast: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Anita Louise
BW-93 mins

The first film pairing of Bette Davis and Henry Fonda.


7:45 AM -- The Mad Miss Manton (1938)
A daffy socialite gets her friends mixed up in a murder investigation.
Dir: Leigh Jason
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Sam Levene
BW-80 mins, CC

The first of three screen pairings of Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck. All were comedies. The other films being The Lady Eve (1941) and You Belong to Me (1941).


9:15 AM -- Let Us Live (1939)
Two wrongly convicted men are sentenced to death.
Dir: John Brahm
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry Fonda, Ralph Bellamy
BW-68 mins, CC

According to The New York Times review, the title of Joseph F. Dinneen's story was "Murder in Massachusetts," but it was not mentioned in the credits because of a vague threat by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, which did not wish any implication of inefficiency of its police, prosecutor or court system. The story was based on the fact that two taxicab drivers were identified by seven of eight witnesses as two of the three men who murdered a man during a 1934 theater robbery in Lynn, Massachusetts. Their trial was in progress for two weeks when the real killers were captured in New York City and confessed; the taxicab drivers were released and two of the three criminals were eventually executed.


10:30 AM -- Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
The future president considers a political career while practicing law.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver
BW-100 mins, CC

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Lamar Trotti

Henry Fonda originally turned down the role of Lincoln, saying he didn't think he could play such a great man. He changed his mind after John Ford asked him to do a screen test in full makeup. After viewing himself as Lincoln in the test footage, Fonda liked what he saw, and accepted the part. He later told an interviewer, "I felt as if I were portraying Christ himself on film."


12:15 PM -- The Long Night (1947)
A veteran tries to free his former love from a sadistic lover.
Dir: Anatole Litvak
Cast: Henry Fonda, Barbara Bel Geddes, Vincent Price
BW-97 mins, CC

In the scene where Maximillian joins Jo Ann on the bus, a poster advertising "Dr. Pearce's Baking Powder"--the first commercial cream of tartar baking powder--can be seen behind them. Vincent Price's grandfather became very wealthy as the inventor and marketer of that product.


2:00 PM -- The Fugitive (1947)
A revolutionary priest flees a Central American dictatorship.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Pedro Armendariz, J. Carrol Naish
BW-100 mins, CC

Mel Ferrer's first film.


3:45 PM -- Mister Roberts (1955)
A naval officer longing for active duty clashes with his vainglorious captain.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, James Cagney, William Powell
C-121 mins, Letterbox Format, CC

Winner of an Oscar for Best Actor in a Supporting Role -- Jack Lemmon

Nominee for Oscars for Best Sound, Recording -- William A. Mueller (Warner Bros.), and Best Picture

John Ford and Henry Fonda had a falling out that led to Ford's punching Fonda in the mouth. It ended their sixteen year personal friendship and eight film professional relationship, even though Ford apologized to Fonda afterward. Fonda only appeared in one more Ford film after that, How the West Was Won, in a segment not directed by Ford.


6:00 PM -- The Wrong Man (1956)
A musician is mistaken for a vicious thief, with devastating results.
Dir: Alfred Hitchcock
Cast: Henry Fonda, Vera Miles, Anthony Quayle
BW-105 mins, CC

This marked the only time Henry Fonda worked with Director Sir Alfred Hitchcock. Fonda's close friend James Stewart worked with Hitchcock four times.



TCM PRIMETIME - WHAT'S ON TONIGHT: SUMMER UNDER THE STARS: HENRY FONDA



8:00 PM -- The Lady Eve (1941)
A lady cardsharp tries to con an eccentric scientist only to fall for him.
Dir: Preston Sturges
Cast: Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn
BW-94 mins, CC

Nominee for an Oscar for Best Writing, Original Story -- Monckton Hoffe

Barbara Stanwyck and Henry Fonda rarely retired to their dressing rooms between takes. Instead, they hung out with Preston Sturges, listening to his stories and reviewing - and often re-writing - their lines.


10:00 PM -- 12 Angry Men (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Dir: Sidney Lumet
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, Ed Begley
BW-96 mins, CC

Nominee for Oscars for Best Director -- Sidney Lumet, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium -- Reginald Rose, and Best Picture

Because the film failed to make a profit, Henry Fonda never received his deferred salary. Despite this setback, he always regarded this film as one of the three best he ever made. The others being The Grapes of Wrath (1940) and The Ox-Bow Incident (1942).


12:00 AM -- Yours, Mine and Ours (1968)
A widow with eight children marries a widower with ten, then gets pregnant.
Dir: Melville Shavelson
Cast: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson
C-111 mins, Letterbox Format, CC

Henry Fonda and Van Johnson had both co-starred with Lucille Ball once before: Fonda in The Big Street (1942) and Johnson in Easy to Wed (1946).


2:00 AM -- The Grapes of Wrath (1940)
Oklahoma farmers dispossessed during the Depression fight for better lives in California.
Dir: John Ford
Cast: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
BW-129 mins, CC

Winner of Oscars for Best Actress in a Supporting Role -- Jane Darwell, and Best Director -- John Ford

Nominee for Oscars for Best Actor in a Leading Role -- Henry Fonda, Best Writing, Screenplay -- Nunnally Johnson, Best Sound, Recording -- Edmund H. Hansen (20th Century-Fox SSD), Best Film Editing -- Robert L. Simpson, and Best Picture

According to Henry Fonda, John Ford preferred only one take and little or no rehearsal to catch the most spontaneous moment. For the key climactic final scene between Tom and Ma, Ford didn't even watch the rehearsal. When the time came to shoot, Ford led Fonda and Darwell through the silent action of the scene, preventing them from starting their lines until the two actors were completely in the moment. It was done in a single take and Fonda said on screen it was "brilliant."


4:30 AM -- The Rounders (1965)
Two ne'er-do-well cowpokes look for sex and easy money in the modern West.
Dir: Burt Kennedy
Cast: Glenn Ford, Henry Fonda, Sue Ane Langdon
C-84 mins, Letterbox Format, CC

Vince (Edgar Buchanan) asks Howdy (Henry Fonda) how he came to have such a name as Howdy. "Made it up. Why?" "Marion . . . that was my given name. A man can't ride bucking horses with a handle like that so I changed it." This was a poke at fellow actor John Wayne, who became famous playing cowboys and who was born Marion Michael Morrison.