Henry Fonda's Clarence Darrow

I've seen CLarence Darrow's life and/or courtroom experiences in several other venues. Henry Fondadoes an especially accurate rendition.. He has the Feel for what Darrow was all about. His selection ofthe important cases that Darrow supported and the ideals he stood for are very important to the socialhistory of America. In fact after seeing this DVD, I think Henry Fonda should have played the role ofAtticus in "To KIll A Mocking Bird". I feel that Henry Fonda's mindset and intellect are more in linewith that role than anyone else's.Its unfortunate that polyester suits were popular at the time Henry Fonda acted this role becauseClarence Darrow wore rumpled clothing as they had only natural fibers during his lifetime..

Henry Fonda was at the top of his game when he did these one man shows in the 1970s & Clarence Darrow became a personal hero of mine when I read Irving Stone's CLARENCE DARROW FOR THE DEFENSE when I was 11 or 12. I was fortunate to see two performances, one in Los Angeles and the other in Chicago. I marveled at how precise Fonda was from performance to performance, a true artist at the height of his career. HERE we are lucky enough to be able to re experience this treasure over and over.Clarence Darrow came to Chicago from a tiny town in Ohio from two very unusual parents. His father was constantly CLARENCE DARROW For The DEFENSE  busy with the underground railroad and would take young Clarence along as much as he could. Clarence's mother was a free thinker who was an early advocate for birth control and women' rights (WE'RE TALKING 1840s-1860!!).Clarence started off in Chicago representing big business, but before he knew it , he became a labor lawyer, always taking the impossible cases and as he got older his choices towards more notorious cases such as "The Scopes Monkey Trial" in which he defended the teaching of evolution and "The trial of Leopold & Loeb" who killed little Bobby Franks for the thrill of it, Darrow tried to a judge to try to spare their lives.The junction of two lives, Fonda whose greatest roles were Tom Joad, Young Abe Lincoln, Mister Roberts, the president in FAIL SAFE, the head juror in 12 ANGRY MEN and Clarence Darrow who always took on the hardst fight is a match worth seeing and adding to your DVD collection. Henry Fonda's Clarence DarrowHenry Fonda's Clarence Darrow

It's a bit creakily written and staged, but of its time.

Geez, i don't know. Henry Fonda, Lady Gaga. Which individual of the two is better? An unfair sampling of talent is obvious but the truth is with very few exceptions, Fonda was always a dynamo when it came time to ante up in the thespian game. A natural. It's hard to say whether the people who pick our stars got bad at what they do or the level of acting expertise has fallen. This piece was on P.B.S. the first time i saw it. Purchased it in v.h.s. when it became available and now in d.v.d. Darrow, whether portrayed by Spencer Tracy or Fonda was an American "one off." John Houseman did a really good job in direction of this play. How much of the story line is hyperbole and how much reality i do not know but it is fun to watch. Kinda fun like watching Lee Marvin in "Paint your wagon." There is another American icon but enough of that. Suffice to say that we have passed through the twentieth century thinking that great actors would be available any time we cared to see greatness. That is not so. Hopefully, we can return to a time when the art of the past will again be the normative and not a sporadic incident.

I was expecting court room scenes, but I think Fonda did fine.It was a bit of a letdown upon realizing no courtroom drama. There was some ofthat when Fonda did a young Lincoln. THAT was a great film.

Not as perfect as the dramatic Kevin Spacey one, which shows Darrow as victim and temporary fool and depressed, though skips the Scope's Trial which is best seen as the movie INHERIT THE WIND, which itself is mistaken around the question of WHY a town council would want Big Publicity. They did and got it in spades. Fonda is amazing and this one-man performance is perfect. Well, I guess if his daughter Jane was there... no...not there... no need for distractions. An acting tour de force ? Did I spell that right?

I once saw a telecast of Henry Fonda's one man show on the great criminal lawyer, Clarence Darrow--and I was quite impressed. On stage rather than on film, Fonda was a force of nature and one could now see that the stage was his venue---not the movies. Although he gave some brilliant performances on film such as "The Grapes of Wrath", "On Golden Pond", "Once Upon A Time in the West" and "12 Angry Men", Fonda shined even brighter on a stage---he even remarked that the stage version of his "Mister Roberts" was superior to the film version. This brilliant stage play is ample proof of this great actor's genius.

This is one of Henry Fonda's better performances. He does a great mid-western take on one of this nation's greatest trial lawyers. Like or dislike Clarence Darrow, Fonda catches the man.

Clarence Darrow was one of America's most famous defence-lawyers. He took on many spectacular cases, the most famous to-day probably was the so-called "Monkey Trial", in which a scool-teacher had taught his students about Darwin's theories on evolution. He was accused of breaking the local religious laws, and a terrible fight between the evolusionists versus creationists broke out. Darrow succeeded in almost winning the trial, so that the teacher could leave the prison with paying only a symbolic fine. Read the play INHERIT THE WIND based on this case, or see the movie with Spencer Tracy playing Clarence Darrow. Kevin Spacey also had a go on the life of Mr.Darrow worth while seeing, but Henry Fonda's one-man show on Clarence Darrow is superb - highly recommended indeed.Berit.