GRGR(20) 1904 revisited

[Paul Mackin]

Henry made Westerns both before and after WWII but no one would ever have
typed him as a cowboy or Western actor unless possibly they were of a 
mind to think of anyone working in California or even any American actor 
as some kind of cowboy. Who knows what Achtfaden's problem was. He
certainly wouldn't be expected to be an adept in the American idiom.
I wasn't implying anyone had made a "mistake." Just pointing out an
obvious (well maybe not so obvious) clue as to the general weirdness in
the air. Anyway, at the time of WWII Fonda was mainly known for New York
stage roles as in "The Farmer Takes A Wife," Hollywood romantic comedies
such as "The Lady Eve," firm dramas such as "Jezibel" with Bette Davis,
and historic dramas such as Alexander Graham Bell's assistant, Abe
Lincoln, Frank James. By a stretch you might call the two
James Brothers movies Westerns but it would be a terrible stretch. You'd
then have to call Tyrone Power a cowboy actor as well. Actually Ty (Jesse
James) was only in the first of the two having been shot dead by John
Carradine in the first. Do I remember rightly that Carradine had been a
Shakespearean actor. He of course played in a lot of Westerns including
Stage Coach I think with John Wayne who truly could be called a cowboy
actor. As could Hopalong Cassidy and Gabby Hayes.

Sorry, I got carried away.


		P.

On Mon, 6 Mar 2000, Mark Wright AIA wrote:

> Howdee!
> I'm sure Henry made his share of westerns... Check out his black-hat
> bad-guy in the great "Once Upon A Time In The West" (Sergio Leone). 
> Only rent it in WIDE screen format, though.  Entire sequences make no
> sense whatsoever without the whole image.
> 
> I'd lie and call the film "Pynchonian" if I thought it would get anyone
> to see the thing.  But Rocketman is above all that shit...
> 
> Yippy Yi Yo Tie Yaaaay
> Mark
> 
> --- Paul Mackin <pmackin at clark.net> wrote:
> (...)we are in the mind of a pretty bombed out narrator (or
> > narrators) when, for example, we hear Henry Fonda referred to as an
> > American cowboy actor, which no one with even a particle of knowledge
> > of
> > American movies would ever have done.
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