Fonda rating the movie

[titoli]

Everybody here knows Parkinson's interview so I won't bother with it. But this show from 1972  has just been posted:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ew6QmFwZW4g

and OUTW doesn't make it in his favourite two.

[titoli]

But here, in the rest of the show, he retells the story everybody here knows from the Parkinson's show, completing the description of the scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AChcvMFT0ao

What could be notable is that Cavett himself had no clue whatever about the movie. Which says a lot about its distribution.

[dave jenkins]

In my dream I was at a Hollywood party. I was there because my cousins, who were mob enforcers (in the dream, not in reality), were providing security. Actually, that doesn't explain why I was there, but my cousins definitely were doing the security. I was there I think because in an earlier part of the dream I was following a girl . . . that part is hazy, mostly lost to me now.

Henry Fonda and his wife were at the party. It was a formal affair and Mr. Fonda was wearing a tux. He wasn't feeling too good at the moment, though. The room was, for some reason, cluttered with Roman-style couches (think Quo Vadis), and Henry was face down on one, deep in his own vomit. Yes, he'd been drinking. Mrs. Fonda had wandered away somewhere, and nobody was looking after Henry. I began worrying he might choke on his puke and ran over to him.

"How's it going, Hank?" I asked, turning him over to make sure he could breathe. The smell wasn't bad (there are never any smells in my dreams), but Henry looked a sight. I got some cocktail napkins and tried to brush the filth off his face and from around his collar. Fonda stared at me uncomprehendingly. He was really out of it.

Now that I knew Henry was safe I began fading into the background, but then I saw his wife coming so stayed to hear what she'd say. Henry was feeling better now and recognized Mrs. Fonda.

Mrs. Fonda really let Hank have it, blasting him for being so drunk. Henry took his scolding meekly, then tried to alibi himself by blaming a companion they'd had dinner with earlier. I didn't catch the name.

"He always makes me drink. Next time we go out to dinner, we won't bring him along."

Mrs. Fonda said, "I'm not eating!" I think she was making it known that she was still on a diet. But I saw my opportunity and stepped forward.

"Excuse me, Mrs. Fonda. If you're not eating, then Mr. Fonda, out of politeness, won't be eating either. And if he's not eating, he's drinking." I let that sink in. "Better to eat a little, drink a little. All things in moderation, eh?" And I gave Henry a wink.

He was smiling at me, glad to have me taking his side. Mrs. Fonda floated away again, and I was alone with Hank. He had no idea who I was, but, apparently, had decided to award my loyalty with an interview.

I started to tell him what a big fan I was and called him "Frank." He didn't seem to notice, but I noticed, and felt I had to immediately apologize. I said, "The reason I called you Frank . . . you are just so good in Once Upon a Time in the West."

I could see he appreciated the praise but was also a bit embarrassed by it. He tried to deflect my comments by complaining about the film's lack of financial success. I assumed he was talking about the U.S. box office.

"No," I said, "it didn't do well on its first run here in America. It developed a following later. At the time, Paramount didn't bother to promote it, they just dumped it on the market."

Fonda seemed to agree with my assessment. He nodded and said, "Those bastards."

He was warming to me. We were really getting along, chatting like old friends. I felt Henry Fonda was going to be my pal for life. It was a very intense Hollywood moment.

Then I woke up.

UPDATE: Anticipating noodlesRR's question: No, my sheets were dry.

[titoli]

In his autobiography (Fonda: My Life) he retells the story getting a bit deeper in the particulars but also showing he remembers little of the movie itself, which he may also never have seen if not in the dailies:

"I was the meanest man you ever saw in a spaghetti western called OUTITW. A spaghetti western is an American cowboy picture shot in Italy or Spain. The script wasn't much as far as I could tell. It was written in Italian and then someone made a literal English translation. It was awkward. I didn't dig it, and I turned it down. I told the fellas I was lunching with that some Italian producer was flying in to try to talk me into doing it. "Who?" they asked.
"Sergio somebody."
"Sergio Leone?"
"I said yes, and they all fell down. Seems Sergio Leone had made the three biggest box-office pictures to come out of Italy. Next to Clint Eastwood's father, he personally had done more for Clint Eastwood than anyone else.
"Well, I went home and called an old, valued friend, Eli Wallach. He'd been in 'Mister Roberts' with me and he'd done one or two of those spaghetti westerns. I told him I wasn't wild about the script."
"'Pay no attention to the script,"Eli told me enthusiastically. "Just go. You'll fall in love with Sergio. You'll have a wonderful time. Believe me!'"
On the strenght of Wallach's recommendation, Fonda and Shirlee went to Italy where he learned that Claudia Cardinale and Charles Bronson were to appear in the film with him.
There follows the description of how he grew the mustache, the goat beard and put on the lenses.
"...the first word in English I heard was 'Shave!'. And the next thing was'Throw away the brown eyes. Where are the big blues? That's what I bought.'
"I did what he asked, and in the first scene in the picture, not the first scene we shot but the first scene the audience sees, there's this happy rancher and his family.... a shot rings out....The mother screams and she's blown away..."
Then we go with the description of his entry, quite precise and finally:
"Very slowly the camera comes around and that's what Sergio was going for all the time. The main heavy, Jesus Christ, it's Henry Fonda!
"We finally stop in front of this frightened little boy
"'What'll we do with this one, Frank?' Jack Elam, one of my henchmen, asks."...
It ends up with a list of the commercial success of the movie outside USA and finally:"The film may be seen on late-night television in the United States, but just as Fonda draws his gun, stations all over the country cut to commercials. Shooting Stewart, not fatally, but shooting Stewart, was bad enough, but Fonda killing a child is totally unacceptable to American audiences."

[titoli]

Of course, the guy who collected Fonda's memories for this autobiography, hasn't watched the movie too. So much so that, apparently, neither he nor Fonda himself seem to remember the other italian venture with Leone or even the french one. This book was published in 1981.

[Cusser]

...wrote that Maureen McBain was the wife instead of the daughter??

...wrote that Jack Elam was one of his henchmen at the McBain massacre?  Yeah, Elam worked for Frank, but had been killed already at Cattle Corner.

[titoli]

...wrote that Maureen McBain was the wife instead of the daughter??

...wrote that Jack Elam was one of his henchmen at the McBain massacre?  Yeah, Elam worked for Frank, but had been killed already at Cattle Corner.

And the massacre being the first scene the audience sees. That is odd. And makes me wonder whether the scene at the station was shot after Fonda shot the scene with Elam, who was later moved to the station. I find acceptable Fonda may have called the daughter the mother (let alone assuming it was a slip of tongue by the one interviewing him), even though that means he forgot Cardinale's role. But that he could have imagined Elam beside him (at his left, actually), that is quite hard to believe. So we could also assume that Elam was first  put in this scene because they thought Eastwood was gonna play that role at the station. It's true, though, that the shot (one, actually) where Fonda and his gang are shown face to the camera  there's no sign of Elam. And if the scene was re-shot Fonda should have remembered it. But who knows?

[Dust Devil]

The first time I watched it as a kid I thought the daughter indeed was the wife.

[Cusser]

The first time I watched it as a kid I thought the daughter indeed was the wife.

No, the film was not set in Kentucky !!!

I think in the scene with Maureen questioning the thickness of the bread slices, Maureen calls McBain "Pa".  You folks can dig out your DV Ds to confirm or show me wrong...

[Dust Devil]

No, the film was not set in Kentucky !!!

I think in the scene with Maureen questioning the thickness of the bread slices, Maureen calls McBain "Pa".  You folks can dig out your DV Ds to confirm or show me wrong...

 

I meant the first how many minutes, until it became clear she's McBain's daughter.