JohnHowardReid SYNOPSIS: A circus picture from the pen of Walter D. Edmonds (Drums Along the Mohawk), Chad Hanna turns out to be the name of the title character, a small town, small-time American rustic. (Unfortunately, Henry Fonda transforms this lovable loon into a melodramatically overblown figure of unrequited love). COMMENT: Alas, Chad Hanna is at its best when Hanna himself is not on the screen. It's a role requiring a light, amiable touch, but Fonda gives his Hanna a brooding, pseudo-tragic intensity quite out of keeping with the overall tone of the picture. In other respects, the movie emerges as a colorful slice of mid-19th century Americana. Most of the scenes with Guy Kibbee are flavorsome as circus candy. Kibbee gets great support from people like Roscoe Ates and Linda Darnell. There's a marvelous sequence in which Linda receives training as a bareback rider, half of it filmed in one long, dizzying take. Superbly photographed in color by Technicolor, sequences like the circus parade come across like midnight joy. Miss Darnell also looks very attractive indeed. On the other hand, Dorothy Lamour is not favored at all. Nor does her insipid performance impress.Producer/writer Nunnally Johnson belatedly realized that the picture needed more accent on circus lore and less on the title character. Chad Hanna finishes up not with a close-up of nominal star Henry Fonda (and/or Dorothy Lamour) but with a shot of Guy Kibbee realizing his lifelong dream of owning "a circus with a elephant." Wonderful!

utgard14 Boring story about a country bumpkin (Henry Fonda) and the girl (Linda Darnell) who loves him running off with a circus. Fonda's infatuated with bareback rider Dorothy Lamour but eventually realizes he was meant for the country girl. Darnell and Lamour look beautiful, especially in Technicolor. Really, the whole picture looks good. The problem is the story is dull and some of the acting is sub-par. Considering this cast, I expected better. Darnell's often spotty so I wasn't phased by her weak performance. But I was disappointed in Henry Fonda, whose rube routine was annoying. He reunites with his Grapes of Wrath costars John Carradine and Jane Darwell, both of whom are fine in this. Dorothy Lamour stands out the most. I wish I could recommend it but unless you're a Fonda, Lamour, or Darnell completist I wouldn't waste my time on it. Watchable but dull.

bkoganbing Henry Fonda did his third and last big screen adaption of a Walter Edmonds story about upstate New York with Chad Hanna. The other two were his debut film The Farmer Takes A Wife and the John Ford classic Drums Along The Mohawk. Though Chad Hanna is the least of the three it's still an entertaining film and Fonda could play these rustic characters well, investing in them a sense of dignity and strength.He's got the title role in Chad Hanna who's a farm boy who gets a yen to join the traveling circus after seeing a poster of Dorothy Lamour as a bareback rider. That's Hank's hormones talking there, but later on another runaway in the person of Linda Darnell and it's the two of them that are fated for each otherThe circus business back in the day was one dangerous profession and I'm not just talking about under the big top. Guy Kibbee and Jane Darwell's show is plagued by the much bigger outfit that Ted North runs and he wants them out of business. North even steals Lamour away from Kibbee's show, but that only serves to give Darnell a break and making her the top bareback rider.Just the names I've mentioned so far indicate that Chad Hanna has a cast of some colorful players and you can add John Carradine to that list as well as Kibbee's advance man. One thing I don't understand is why Kibbee thought Fonda would make a good ringmaster when Kibbee was injured in a fracas with North's show. He promoted the shy Fonda over Carradine who has one of the great voices in the English language. Go figure that one. Despite that faux pas, Chad Hanna remains a fine film done in nice technicolor and does capture the flavor of rural western New York back in the next to last century.

Robin Moss "Chad Hanna" is truly the kind of film they don't make any more. A pity! Chad Hanna (Henry Fonda) is a country farm boy who helps a black slave to escape, and then runs away with a circus together with a slave tracker's daughter (Linda Darnell). Originally dazzled by a seemingly glamorous circus performer (Dorothy Lamour), Chad eventually falls in love with the daughter and marries her, and they both make the circus their way of life. Nothing very enthralling happens, and the charm of the film comes from watching famous people early in their careers.Linda Darnell is particular is a revelation. She was about seventeen years of age when she made "Chad Hanna", yet already her rapport with the camera is evident. So too is the warmth of her personality and the skill of her underplaying. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see why she became a big star, but what is intriguing is that in "Chad Hanna" Dorothy Lamour, who was already a big star, no longer seems attractive or interesting. It is not obvious why she was so popular at that time. Henry Fonda, of course, was already a movie "natural". He never seems to be acting, but somehow he is always both likable and believable. Fonda really holds this movie together.20th Century Fox was the first major studio to master colour in movies. In the late 'thirties and early 'forties, most colour in films was garish and gaudy, but several Fox films had really beautiful colour, and "Chad Hanna" is one of them."Chad Hanna" is certainly a throw-back to the past, and quite possibly people who judge movies only in terms of their kinetic imagery will find it slow. For those who are not stimulated by violence and synthetic excitement, "Chad Hanna" is well worth watching.