My friend had been trying to turn me into in a Henry Fonda fan, so we watched My Darling Clementine and Fort Apache. I enjoyed both movies, but I was not blown away by the movies or Fonda. However, I caught this film on TCM, and immediately called and apologized to my friend for doubting Fonda. I liked this movie much better than to the two classic Fonda films I watched.
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in the rain."
-Roy Batty
One Fonda movie you've got to watch is Once Upon a Time in the West if you're going for how good an actor Fonda can be. It's a performance like any you've seen of his.
"Congratulations, Major. It appears that at last you have found yourself a real war." Ben Tyreen
Don't forget "My Name Is Nobody" with Terence Hill.
Any film with Henry Fonda is worth watching.
I'd like to see "Il Serpente" with Yul Brenner.
I liked seeing Anthony Perkins play someone normal for a change. It was too bad he was typecast later on. The scene when all the "good people" of the town abandon Perkins when he needs help defending the jail you see Fonda's "I told you so look." The next to final scene when Perkins handles the mob by singling out Bogardus and Perkins sees a mob for what it really is. The next to final scene when Bogardus moves to shoot it out with the Sherriff, you see the Sherrif takes Fonda's advice again and keeps his cool and waits to see what the man is going to do -- will he back off or go for his gun? When Bogardus draws, you see Perkins take Fonda's advice about gun fighting and he took the extra moment to aim "it isn't all about being the fastest." Perkins clearly drew just as fast as Bogardus but he shot second in order to aim. They are all small points but I'm glad they worked them all into the movie. But it didn't seem like a Western in a lot of ways but lessons on human nature of both the good and the bad of the town with a small statement against bigotry thrown in. It seems to be under-rated, I'd never seen it before.
shareI liked seeing Anthony Perkins play someone normal for a change.
Agreed, although I love the Psycho movies. And admittedly, I stumbled across "The Tin Star" accidentally ... after watching "Pretty Poison" (another Perkins-as-nutcase movie, and worth seeing) I did a search on my DVR for other Perkins movies and found this one.
When Bogardus draws, you see Perkins take Fonda's advice about gun fighting and he took the extra moment to aim "it isn't all about being the fastest."
I didn't catch that particular detail, but I did notice something else. By the time Owens (Perkins) walked off the porch to face down Bogardus (Brand), Hickman (Fonda) had already walked out of the office onto the porch, wearing the star. And when Owens walked toward Bogardus, he didn't move in a straight line, but instead curved out to one side -- presumably to give Hickman a clear line of fire at Bogardus if he needed to take it. I don't know if that was intentional or not -- Owens and Hickman didn't discuss that particular detail of gunplay onscreen, but I think it's safe to assume that they talked about a lot of things other than what we actually saw. But it did strike me as being in sharp contrast to the first Owens/Bogardus confrontation, in which Owens nearly got himself killed by falling for the "hat trick" (which any three year old should have seen through).
Re Fonda movies -- Fail Safe is also worth seeing; made in the early 1960s, about a modern era US/USSR nuclear confrontation.
Henry Fonda is great!
You should check out "12 angry men" and "Fail Safe".
Thoughs have very iconic performances by Mr Fonda.
"That's entertainment!!"
Don't miss Young Mr. Lincoln or The Lady Eve.
Henry Fonda made so many great films, and he was one of cinema's finest actors.
"Watch me run a 50-yard dash with my legs cut off!"
so did I
I also saw it on TCMWhen there's no more room in hell, The dead will walk the earth...
Agreed, I don't think he was a great Wyatt Earp and his character in Fort Apache is unappealing. I've read that "Fort Apache" and "Once Upon A Time in The West" were the only two movies he made where he was not a sympathetic character.
His "Tin Star" role is juicy as a retired all-knowing “super-sheriff” who has turned bitter bounty hunter after losing a wife and child in the line of duty.
Randolph Scott played a very similar character in Budd Boetticher’s “Ride Lonesome” a couple of years later. Lee Van Cleef also played the heavy in that film.
Check out my full user reviews of these films.