Chad Hanna

1940's "Chad Hanna" was a colorful feast for the eyes, but far stronger on atmosphere than incident. We open in New York state, 1841, and the circus is coming to town. B. D. Bisbee (John Carradine) works as the advance agent for the Huguenine Circus, garnering attention wherever he goes, building up the audience to a fever pitch by emphasizing both male AND female acrobats...in tights! In the title role, Henry Fonda performs another expert character study, playing a Canastota stable boy who literally runs away to join the circus to escape a vengeful slave catcher whose daughter Caroline (Linda Darnell) later joins him, also a victim of her father's rage. Chad instantly falls for equestrienne Albany Yates (Dorothy Lamour), the star attraction for this one ring circus, but she soon spurns Huguenine for a rival circus that has an elephant. It's a shame that the filmmakers chose to showcase the dramatically anemic, predictably absurd romantic triangle over the more interesting circus life rarely depicted at that time. Fonda and Carradine are teamed for the fifth and last time, from "Jesse James," "Drums Along the Mohawk," "The Grapes of Wrath," and "The Return of Frank James." Carradine was no stranger to lovely Linda Darnell- "Brigham Young," "Blood and Sand," "Fallen Angel," and the 1958 WAGON TRAIN, "The Dora Gray Story." After such a powerful introduction, Carradine instantly fades into the background, disappearing completely after Chad and Caroline marry 54 minutes in. Sharp eyed viewers can catch canvasman Rondo Hatton at the 34 minute mark, looking quite menacing on the far right, one line of dialogue spoken in his own voice: "all right men, up to the next street!"

Henry Fonda plays an "aw shucks" country boy who falls in love with Albany Yates (Dorothy Lamour) in the circus... before later marrying Caroline (Linda Darnell), who has also joined the circus.

The movie was okay, not great. I've enjoyed Fonda more in other roles (e.g. 12 Angry Men), and I've been appreciating Linda Darnell more as I see more movies that feature her, but here her role was weaker (or it was just a poorly written script). I liked the Technicolor and got a kick out of Jane Darwell's role as a feisty fat lady. In one scene she stands holding a rifle, making a man promise that he won't bother the circus team again. He does. She then hits him over the head with the rifle, knocking him out, then says, "Now I believe him!"

This is basically the price Henry Fonda had to pay to star in "Grapes of Wrath". He had to agree to be a contract player at Fox and he occasionally got stuck with this kind of role in this kind of film. But he did make the most of it like the trooper he was.

"Chad Hanna" is truly the kind of film they don't make any more. A pity!

Chad Hanna (Henry Fonda) is a country farm boy who helps a black slave to escape, and then runs away with a circus together with a slave tracker's daughter (Linda Darnell). Originally dazzled by a seemingly glamorous circus performer (Dorothy Lamour), Chad eventually falls in love with the daughter and marries her, and they both make the circus their way of life. Nothing very enthralling happens, and the charm of the film comes from watching famous people early in their careers.

Linda Darnell is particular is a revelation. She was about seventeen years of age when she made "Chad Hanna", yet already her rapport with the camera is evident. So too is the warmth of her personality and the skill of her underplaying. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see why she became a big star, but what is intriguing is that in "Chad Hanna" Dorothy Lamour, who was already a big star, no longer seems attractive or interesting. It is not obvious why she was so popular at that time. Henry Fonda, of course, was already a movie "natural". He never seems to be acting, but somehow he is always both likable and believable. Fonda really holds this movie together.

20th Century Fox was the first major studio to master colour in movies. In the late 'thirties and early 'forties, most colour in films was garish and gaudy, but several Fox films had really beautiful colour, and "Chad Hanna" is one of them.

"Chad Hanna" is certainly a throw-back to the past, and quite possibly people who judge movies only in terms of their kinetic imagery will find it slow. For those who are not stimulated by violence and synthetic excitement, "Chad Hanna" is well worth watching.

Henry Fonda did his third and last big screen adaption of a Walter Edmonds story about upstate New York with Chad Hanna. The other two were his debut film The Farmer Takes A Wife and the John Ford classic Drums Along The Mohawk. Though Chad Hanna is the least of the three it's still an entertaining film and Fonda could play these rustic characters well, investing in them a sense of dignity and strength.

He's got the title role in Chad Hanna who's a farm boy who gets a yen to join the traveling circus after seeing a poster of Dorothy Lamour as a bareback rider. That's Hank's hormones talking there, but later on another runaway in the person of Linda Darnell and it's the two of them that are fated for each other

The circus business back in the day was one dangerous profession and I'm not just talking about under the big top. Guy Kibbee and Jane Darwell's show is plagued by the much bigger outfit that Ted North runs and he wants them out of business. North even steals Lamour away from Kibbee's show, but that only serves to give Darnell a break and making her the top bareback rider.

Just the names I've mentioned so far indicate that Chad Hanna has a cast of some colorful players and you can add John Carradine to that list as well as Kibbee's advance man. One thing I don't understand is why Kibbee thought Fonda would make a good ringmaster when Kibbee was injured in a fracas with North's show. He promoted the shy Fonda over Carradine who has one of the great voices in the English language. Go figure that one.

Despite that faux pas, Chad Hanna remains a fine film done in nice technicolor and does capture the flavor of rural western New York back in the next to last century.

The great director Henry King comes up with a most charming and unpretentious film about a circus full of generally likable characters soon to be joined by a young Henry Fonda who is completely fascinated by lovely temptress Dorothy Lamour... only to see her depart and join another circus.

That is not all, either: Lamour is in love with another guy, and so it comes to pass that the pendant Fonda wanted to give her lands up with another beautiful female, Linda Darnell. Therein lies an interesting twist in that you feel that Fonda's first love is Lamour, and only living the hardships of live - especially circus life - and Lamour's experience tell him that Darnell owns his heart.

Superb scenes with a lion and an elephant, the circus' entry into town, Darnell learning horseriding with suspender cables, all part of lovely cinematography by Ernest Palmer. Top notch acting across the board, with Jane Darwell and Guy Kibbee a particular standout as the Huguenine couple.

Thoughtful script.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have!