John Ford's "My Darling Clementine" and Sidney Lumet's "Fail Safe", along with "12 Angry Men" and "The Grapes of Wrath", would complete my Henry Fonda quartet.
you beat me to it im shocked that he didnt list it he didnt get to play a villain that often, because it was so against type he had to enjoy playing that role
I had the pleasure of seeing Henry Fonda live on stage twice: GENERATION, 1965 and SHOOTOUT AT THE ADOBE MOTEL, 1981 (possibly his last stage appearance). One of my favorite actors and a great stage actor.
'You can just smell the lilacs in the air!!!' / 'That's me. Barber.' The best John Ford western. Lean, tight, flavorful, and the shootout at OK corral is still exciting in its darkly gray violent bursts amidst the stillness.
His Tom Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath" is my favorite performance. The final scene he has with Jane Darwell just tears my heart out. Actors today aren't fit to shine his shoes.
@@kamuelalee I still say to this day that "The Grapes of Wrath" was robbed of the Best Picture Oscar in 1940. No film better described the Great Depression than that film. It was far superior to "Rebecca."
If you watch "Advice and Consent," "The Best Man," and "Fail-Safe" back to back, and imagine that Fonda is playing the same character on the road to the Presidency, it's a fascinating trilogy and be careful what you wish for, as President "Fonda" discovered in "Fail-Safe."
Though Fonda panned Mr. Roberts, that has always been a favorite of mine for a number of reasons. Though it starred Fonda, the rest of the cast was tremendous in it. I have shown it to several younger friends who were totally unfamiliar with it, but who had served in the Navy aboard ships. They all told me it was one of the few films that very accurately captured the essence of Navy shipboard life. That aspect of the film was something I was not aware of.
@@francispoldiak2139 I agree with his Johnny Carson version. I do take his point about the film possibly not being as good as the stage production, though. In a real sense two different mediums.
@@JudgeJulieLit Noted critic Richard Schickel picked Henry Fonda as his favourite screen actor of the golden age...so many to choose from but you can see his point...
Once Upon A Time In The West is one of my favorite films of all time. First time I saw it I was 13, and when I saw the reveal of Fonda for the first time as a heartless killer, it floored me. Brilliant casting by Leone.
@@readlots9983 Yes, Ford is often accused of inebriated romanticism in his movies but in Fort Apache & The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance he his examining unpalatable truths beneath sham public accounts...
@@philiphalpenny3783 Liberty Valance was a black, white and grey Western spectacular, a trio of great acting by John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Lee Marvin, and great Ford direction.
I first became aware of Henry Fonda when he starred in a one-year and off TV show called "The Smith Family" which co-starred Ron Howard. 1971 I think. Loved it.
@@leonarddonald2093 Actually, "The Grapes of Wrath." The song was the main theme of the film. It played over the credits, later in an accordian solo by Danny Borzage as Jane Darwell goes over her mementoes before leaving Oklahoma and finally when Henry Fonda sings the song to Darwell as he dances with her.
Since Fonda only named two of his films, I would add " Once upon...West. " His character of Frank was the quintessential bad man of westerns. And " Fail Safe, " as the President. Of course, his last Oscar- winning movie was " On Golden Pond, " a fitting finale to a career.
Absolutely! His very best role IMO, simply because it is so against type. He was so consistently good across his career that it’s hard to pick out any one role aside from that one.
Once Upon A Time is also one of my favorite films of all time. First time I saw it I was 13, and when I saw the reveal of Fonda for the first time it floored me. Brilliant casting by Leone.
6'2" and he towered over the others. Interesting how he did a very quick handshake with Cavett as he slipped by to speak to the others. Sandy Duncan was so cute and young. Got her start on a TV commercial for an east coast cleansing powder. Fonda joined the US Navy for WWII, and was in a combat area in the western Pacific doing combat intelligence.
His four greatest films, for me, would be Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men, The Lady Eve, and On Golden Pond. Honorable Mention: My Darling Clementine, Once upon a Time in the West, The Wrong Man, Ox-Bow Incident
@@lynnturman8157 I am surprized that 'Hank' struggled to name four of his favourite films to be preserved in a time capsule. Each of the films you listed are cherished by film buffs. Do you share Fonda's disappointment with the film version of Mr. Roberts which sullied his relationship with Ford?
It seemed odd that Cavett wasn't even aware of "Once Upon a Time in the West", and after Fonda described his opening scene, neither of them actually spit out the name "Once Upon a Time in the West". Cavett: "Did it get made?"
Paramount destroyed Leone's cut, I believe. Despite that it did well in Europe, but did lukewarm in the US. I only knew about it because I was a movie nut (I was born in Hollywood!) and went on to study moviemaking as well as critical studies. Without that, I might not have know about it either.
The theme of social justice persists throughout Fonda's career. The Wrong Man, Ox-Bow incident & The Grapes Of Wrath cover these tragedies as well as Twelve Angry Men...
@@readlots9983 Yes, it is brutally devoid of the usual Hitchcockian artifice...much more Kafkaesque. Fonda is one of the few Hollywood leading men who can portray an intellectual...he has that haunted, cracked with anxiety look about him which perfectly served The Wrong Man. Bogart, with his basset hound dog-like eyes, likewise, can convey something much more troubling than the script is giving him...
Caveatt is the rudest host ever! 🥶🥶🥶🥶 He constantly talks over the guest, and regularly throws out what he thinks are cute /interesting side topics which the guest either has no knowledge of or doesn't want to discuss. Always surprised me that he had such high quality guests!🤔🤔🤔🤔
I kind of get the feeling that was his attitude toward television talk shows in general. I don't think he liked talking about himself and he did them grudgingly.
On Golden Pond is one of the best movies ever made. It makes me emotional to think about the story because I used to watch it with my late grandparents. Henry Fonda was a brilliant actor. His films have stood the test of time. RIP Mr. Fonda
that movie was depressing AF, my grandmother was a huge Charles Bronson fan, she was in the Armed forces, same with granddad...that's how we bonded, over action movies.
This Man was a Titan of Acting and a member of a small group who includes Tracy, Guinness, Olivier, Gabin, and, one Generation younger, Burton and Brando.
Here’s a somewhat off topic comment about the film, Sometimes a Great Notion. I met Ken Kesey at a book signing event in Eugene, Oregon in the ‘90s. Kesey took his sweet time with each person waiting in line. When it was my turn, I realized why. He had brought his own set of rubber stamps and colored ink pads and was happily adding his art the to the title pages. Inside Sometimes a Great Notion he filled my copy with multicolored rain and a wild signature personalized for me. He asked me questions and listened attentively with direct and pleasant eye contact, making me feel like I was the only one he cared about that afternoon. I’m sure each person in line got the same treatment. He did say that Sometimes a Great Notion was his best book.
he really seemed intent on snubbing Cavett when he walked in. He breezed past him and barely touched Cavett's outstretched hand, leaving Cavett kind of laughing in embarrassment, then when first sitting he started talking to the other guest, and then sat leaning away from Cavett. during the interview he was respectful, but at the beginning you would have thought he detested Cavett
I don't think Fonda was the friendliest of people, he was really distant and cold with both Jane and Peter. Burt Lancaster was the same , they needed to know you very very well before relaxing with you. Fonda seems very uneasy here. I wonder why he did the show.
As many people I will say The Grapes of Wrath, 12 Angry Men, Once upon a time in the West, The Ox Bow Incident, The Lady Eve, You only live once, On Golden Pond, Fort Apache, My Darling Clementine. A special personal mention for Warlock, Fail-Safe, The Best Man, The Spencer's Mountain and my guilty pleasure, The Cheyenne Social Club.
Six essentials: Young Mr. Lincoln Grapes of Wrath Mister Roberts (yeah, I know he hated it, but still...) 12 Angry Men Fail-Safe Once Upon a Time in the West
It's also amazing that he was rightly considered acting royalty, but he only had 3 Oscar nominations over his career, and none between 1940 and 1981. The performances in Mister Roberts, Fail-Safe, 12 Angry Men, and Once Upon a Time in the West weren't nominated for Oscars.
Same with the exceptional James Cagney, a paltry 3 nominations! The marvellous character actor Edward G. Robinson wasn't nominated at all in his 50 plus year career... the arbitrary idiocy of these awards have been exposed endlessly! Glad that the A.F.I. honoured many of the great ones for a sustained body of work including Hank...
On the one hand, it’s a travesty. On the other hand, it’s one about 10,000 examples that illustrate how little the Academy Awards have to do with anything like artistic merit. The Academy Awards carry the imprimatur of a serious, sober reflection on the art of cinema. They’re not. It’s merely a form of clever marketing. More “showbiz”, if you will.
Correct. Opposite goes with actors like Peter o`Toole, Laurence Olivier, Paul Newman and now denzel washington. The Academy gives them oscars nods for wathever sh...it they do.
"Once Upon A Time..." is also my favorite, but I want to give a shout out to his role with Lauren, Tony and Natalie in "Sex and the Single Girl". Stupid silliness but fun as heck!
12 Angry Men is easily the pick for me. Fonda's a bit prickly here, he doesn't seem to like Cavett very much. He's certainly not giving him much to work with.
Once Upon a Time in the West is his best movie. His performance was fine in that one although I did like him in 12 Angry Men as well. If you haven't seen Once Upon a Time......, check it out. That one is in my top 10.
I was looking through his movie list and he did both Jesse James and The Return of Frank James. My favorite is Grapes of Wrath but a film I like a lot also is Yours, Mine and Ours. He and Lucille Ball were really good in that one. And of course the wonderful Cheyenne Social Club with his friend Jimmy Stewart.
What a giant star he was. Of course now you ask a young adult if they know who he is and they have no idea. If you then mention that his daughter is Jane Fonda, they might then dimly remember that there's some old lady by that name.
I had to go back to Henry Fondas list of movies to give a good answer about the movies of his I've seen. Here it is: The Grapes of Wrath (1940) My Darling Clementine (1946) Fort Apache (1948) 12 Angry Men (1957) How the West Was Won (1962) The Boston Strangler (1968) Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) Sometimes a Great Notion (1971) My Name Is Nobody (1973) Midway (1976) The only one I didn't care for much at all was "Midway (1976)". Not because of Fonda but it is just a sort of war-movie that don't appeal to me. My four picks at this point would be: 12 Angry Men (1957): Great movie to show a classroom of older students and make some homework about it. Once Upon a Time in the West (1968): The most beautiful western ever made? Sometimes a Great Notion (1971): Paul Newmans first movie as a director and a strong debut at that! My Name Is Nobody (1973): Comedic actor Terence Hill in one of his, slighty more, serious films. Also a suprise how good it was as a "real" movie.
I have got movie DVDS of the late Henry Fonda Charles Bronson and Jason Robards in Once Upon A Time In The West and with Charles Bronson again with Robert Ryan Telly Savalas Robert Shaw as a German Officer in The Battle Of The Bulge and with Anthony Quinn and Richard Widmark in Warlocks and I am dedicating these movie DVDS to my old school friends who are both sisters as I hope to see them both again very soon to Chris and Hester from Billyxxxxx 🔑🏠
Young Mr Lincoln 💯 My Darling Clementine Mister Roberts Once Upon A Time In The West On Golden Pond The Tin Star 12 Angry Men The Grapes of Wrath The Lady Eve
Grapes of Wrath! Wow what a film! My husband , daughter & I bought the film on cassette and could not get enough of the cast’s performance - A true 1ton heavyweight film. Loved Henry Fonda’s long hate strides, and the dialogue at he had with the lorry driver who gave him a lift, ‘Henry Fonda’s character (Tommy) was sensational. Additionally, this is about as nervous as I’ve ever seen Dick Cavett and no wonder; Henry Fonda always looked like a man of incredible presence. Thanks for the clip. JaneR
I thought Fonda was going to say something about Ford while shooting "Mr. Roberts." I have to revisit that movie and see what Hank was talking about. "Taking liberties with the play" is not necessarily a bad thing, and is pretty much standard operating procedure when adapting plays for the big screen. It's actually kinda irrelevant to the quality of a film, to be frank.
This is a good comment. Theater and film are two different mediums. Ford put a lot of humor in it and had actors overlap their lines. I've read that the playwright watched Ford's footage and was delighted with it.
@@MajorDenisBloodnok No, Ford was a consummate professional. He would never drink during the filming, only afterwards. The drinking happened after his fight. Fonda argued with Ford about how to direct it and this is a no-no. You don't argue with the director, especially with Ford.
@@readlots9983 Fonda didn't argue about how to direct the movie but about how Ford wanted to change the spirit of the original play. But drunk or not drunk, Ford hit Fonda which ended their friendship, so, no, Mr Roberts was not a very good memory for Fonda and he never liked the movie (and I agree with him, the movie is nice to watch but not very good).
Is it me or am I just imagining it, but did Fonda walk out and give Cavett the cold shoulder? Along with that, I scened a bit of friction coming from Fonda towards Cavett during this interview.
A lady never gets up when a gentleman walks in. That is why Fonda went to her and kissed her while she remained seated (Information for this culture less Generation X, Y and Z)
@@philiphalpenny3783 oh yes. Just watched The Fighting 69th. Angels With Dirty Faces is Cagneys best. No disrespect to Yankee Doodle Dandy or Public Enemy. It's like who is your favorite child
@@leonarddonald2093 I love the pathos Cagney exudes as his empire crumbles in The Roaring Twenties. Interesting to hear Fonda say here that he hated the movie version of Mr. Roberts...unhappy shoot. I agree that the slapstick does seem a bit strained...many though, still love that picture...
. I’m sorry, but that’s simply a ridiculous things to say. Too many greats to mention. He’s up there, yes, but certainly not “so far above any of the greats ...”
