TCM Schedule for Sunday, August 24 -- ESSENTIALS, JR. : HENRY FONDA

[Longhorn]

4:30am Air Raid Wardens (1943)
A pair of bumblers stumble upon Nazi spies on the home front.
Cast: Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, Edgar Kennedy. Dir: Edward Sedgwick. BW-67 mins, TV-G

5:38am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Knockout, The (1932)
A Hal Roach short featuring MIckey Daniels as a college freshman who injures the school's star boxer and must take his place in the tournament.
Cast: Mickey Daniels, Jacqueline Wells Dir: Anthony Mack, Lloyd French BW-21 mins

6:00am Slim (1937)
Electric linemen compete on the job and in love.
Cast: Pat O'Brien, Margaret Lindsay, Henry Fonda. Dir: Ray Enright. BW-86 mins, TV-PG

7:30am Let Us Live (1939)
Two wrongly convicted men are sentenced to death.
Cast: Maureen O'Sullivan, Henry Fonda, Ralph Bellamy. Dir: John Brahm. BW-68 mins, TV-PG

8:40am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Call Her Sausage (1933)
In this Taxi Boys short, Billy hopes to open a new delicatessen despite Ben's incompetence.
Cast: Ben Blue, Billy Gilbert Dir: Gus Meins BW-18 mins

9:00am I Dream Too Much (1935)
A composer sets the stage for discord when he pushes his wife into a singing career.
Cast: Lily Pons, Henry Fonda, Lucille Ball. Dir: John Cromwell. BW-97 mins, TV-G

10:38am Short Film: One Reel Wonders: Another Wild Idea (1934)
A man invents a ray machine to fulfill all of his wishes and tries to use it to get rid of his daughter's boyfriend.
Cast: Charley Chase, Betty Mack Dir: Eddie Dunn BW-19 mins

11:00am Male Animal, The (1942)
A college professor fights censorship and an amorous football player who's after his wife.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Olivia de Havilland, Jack Carson. Dir: Elliott Nugent. BW-101 mins, TV-G

12:45pm Jezebel (1938)
A tempestuous Southern belle's willfulness threatens to destroy all who care for her.
Cast: Bette Davis, Henry Fonda, Fay Bainter. Dir: William Wyler. BW-104 mins, TV-PG

2:33pm Short Film: From The Vaults: Present With A Future: Bette Davis Christmas War Bonds Trailer (1943)
BW-2 mins

2:45pm Tin Star, The (1957)
An experienced bounty hunter helps a young sheriff learn the meaning of his badge.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Anthony Perkins, Betsy Palmer. Dir: Anthony Mann. BW-93 mins, TV-PG

4:30pm Stage Struck (1958)
A young actress makes all the wrong moves trying to break in on Broadway.
Cast: Susan Strasberg, Henry Fonda, Christopher Plummer. Dir: Sidney Lumet. C-95 mins, TV-PG

6:15pm 12 Angry Men (1957)
A jury holdout tries to convince his colleagues to vote not guilty.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Lee J. Cobb, E.G. Marshall. Dir: Sidney Lumet. BW-96 mins, TV-PG

What's On Tonight: ESSENTIALS, JR. : HENRY FONDA

8:00pm Yours, Mine And Ours (1968)
A widow with eight children marries a widower with ten, then gets pregnant.
Cast: Lucille Ball, Henry Fonda, Van Johnson. Dir: Melville Shavelson. C-111 mins, TV-PG

10:00pm Fugitive, The (1947)
A revolutionary priest flees a Central American dictatorship.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Dolores Del Rio, Pedro Armendariz. Dir: John Ford. BW-100 mins, TV-PG

11:50pm Short Film: One Reel Wonders: How To Vote (1936)
Robert Benchley, campaign assistant, is called upon to give a speech on his candidate's behalf. Slowly everyone realizes he is less than qualified to speak in public much less assist a public servant.
Cast: Robert Benchley BW-10 mins

12:00am Best Man, The (1964)
Two presidential hopefuls get caught up in the dirty side of politics.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Cliff Robertson, Lee Tracy. Dir: Franklin J. Schaffner. BW-102 mins, TV-PG

2:00am Welcome To Hard Times (1967)
A broken-down sheriff tries to help his town stand against a mysterious outlaw.
Cast: Henry Fonda, Janice Rule, Keenan Wynn. Dir: Burt Kennedy. C-103 mins, TV-PG

4:00am Wanda Nevada (1979)
A drifter wins an orphaned girl in a poker game.
Cast: Peter Fonda, Brooke Shields, Fiona Lewis. Dir: Peter Fonda. C-107 mins, TV-PG

[Longhorn]

1. Tin Star, The (1957)

Veteran bounty-hunter Morg Hickman (Henry Fonda) is bringing a dead outlaw into a town where the sheriff has recently been killed. A young, inexperienced Ben Owens (Anthony Perkins) is the temporary replacement, but he lacks the confidence that can only come from experience as a seasoned lawman. Once Owens realizes that Hickman was once a sheriff, he views him as a mentor and asks his help in acquiring the skills needed to maintain his new position. Hickman tells him that being a sheriff is a foolish and dangerous quest, but agrees to instruct the fledgling lawman in handling people - in his view, a much more important skill than handling a gun.

Based on the story The Tin Badge by Barney Slater and Joel Kane, aging screenwriter Dudley Nichols fashioned The Tin Star (1957), a straightforward Western of an older man trying to impart some hard-won wisdom to a young greenhorn who’s trying to do right in a world often gone wrong. Director Anthony Mann made his distinctive mark with a film that addresses the emotional damage done to heroes of high ideals by those who have none, a frequent theme in Mann’s films (The Man from Laramie <1955>, Winchester '73 <1950>).

The Tin Star is also concerned with the merits and potential pitfalls of “going it alone,” of standing up for right and wrong, even if you have to do it by yourself. This was a theme that Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon (1952) tackled within the context of McCarthyism, a virulent presence still felt in Hollywood in the late 1950s when The Tin Star was made. Fonda, an ardent opponent of McCarthyism and its ilk, brings a world-weary wisdom to his role, while Perkins is earnest yet believable as the idealistic young man not yet touched by the evil that other men do.

To prepare for his role as an unready, but willing, Western sheriff, Anthony Perkins received a little help. Rodd Redwing, a fifty-year-old Chickasaw Indian who had been in films since 1922, was hired to coach Perkins in the proper drawing and firing of six-gun pistols. Perkins supposedly only got the rhythm right by practicing to a jazz recording of “Shine On, Harvest Moon.” Meanwhile, Mickey Finn, an ex-L.A. cop turned professional stuntman, taught Perkins the ins-and-outs of fighting in front of the camera. Perkins was an apt pupil, disappearing between takes to concentrate on every upcoming shot.

The reviews of The Tin Star were mostly positive. The New York Post said, “The Tin Star is mighty satisfactory frontier drama. Anthony Perkins helps Henry Fonda make it so; the two performances are simpatico, with Perkins looking to the veteran Fonda for leadership. And Fonda gives, but comes out star anyway with his quiet, sure, graceful underplaying.”

Producers: William Perlberg and George Seaton
Director: Anthony Mann
Screenplay: Dudley Nichols, Joel Kane and Barney Slater (story)
Cinematography: Loyal Griggs
Art Direction: J. MacMillan Johnson, Hal Pereira
Music: Elmer Bernstein
Film Editing: Alma Macrorie
Cast: Henry Fonda (Morg Hickman), Anthony Perkins (Sheriff Ben Owens), Betsy Palmer (Nona Mayfield), Michel Ray (Kip Mayfield), Neville Brand (Bart Bogardus).
BW-93m.

by Scott McGee

SOURCES:
The Fondas: The Films and Careers of Henry, Jane & Peter Fonda by John Springer
Fonda: My Life by Henry Fonda
Split Image: The Life of Anthony Perkins by Charles Winecoff