Chad Hanna (1940) was a Technicolor film produced by Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox and directed by Henry King. It starred Henry Fonda, a studio system star nominated the previous year for his performance as Tom Joad in The Grapes of Wrath.
The director Henry King was a studio stalwart whose career stretched from 1915 and the silent era to 1962 and more than 100 film credits. King was twice nominated for the Best Director Oscar and he directed seven films nominated for Best Picture including The Song of Bernadette, the winner for 1943.
Henry Fonda (1905-1982) first appeared in motion pictures in 1935, and in short order appeared in more than 20 films before Chad Hanna.
During the year 1939, in addition to his Best Actor nomination for Grapes of Wrath, he starred as the 16th President in Young Mr. Lincoln.
His other notable films include Jesse James (1938), The Ox-Bow Incident (1943), My Darling Clementine (1946), Mister Roberts (1955) 12 Angry Men (1957), Fail Safe (1964), and On Golden Pond (1981), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor. It was his final film performance.
With Chad Hanna, Fonda was reunited with Grapes of Wrath actors John Carradine and Jane Darwell, who played “Ma” in the John Steinbeck classic. Another featured actor in the cast is Guy Kibbee, who plays circus owner A.D. Huguenine (Darwell plays his wife). One year earlier, Kibbee portrayed the newspaper editor, Mr. Webb, in the film version of Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town (1939).
Chad Hanna has somewhat of a problem since it has two beautiful women vying for the movie-goers attention: Dorothy Lamour, the circus star trick rider who first mesmerizes Chad, and Linda Darnell, a poor country girl who ultimately wins Chad’s heart. The filmmakers (more or less) split the screen time between the pair, although both were directed to show a surprising amount of “talent” in their respective circus tights.
The story is set in New York state in the year 1841, and it centers around a “one ring” traveling circus that boasts one major act (Ms. Lamour) and an aging lion. The circus struggles against the competition – a larger outfit vows to shut them down – and the unexpected departure of both Ms. Lamour (she gets a better offer) and the lion (he dies of old age).
There is a smattering of historical context involving runaway slaves, but the movie suffers since not much happens in the second half. The major conflict involves Chad’s confusion regarding who he is in love with, despite being already married to Ms. Darnell. Dorothy Lamour has the final word about that: “You’re in love, but not with me. You’re a country boy who fell in love with a circus rider.” Enough said.