I knew that Henry Fonda had once starred in a big budget adaptation of War & Peace but had never seen any of it. However, it was showing last night on TCM as part of their day of Audrey Hepburn movies (in August, the channel spends each day showing films of one star, which is kind of neat). Flipping around, I saw a bit of it, and was must aghast.
In the scene I watched, Fonda, playing Frenchman (!!) Pierre Bezukov, is walking down a street with (I think) Mel Ferrer. Fonda is wearing old-timey Euro garb, and none too convincingly, but it’s when he opens his mouth and delivers Tolstoy with his broad Nebraska twang and trademark drawling cadence that my mouth just fell open. He was worse than Kevin Costner playing an Englishman in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves.
This scene doesn’t quite spotlight his inappropriateness, since it’s contained and the close-ups mitigate the setting. (They don’t allow this video to be embedded, so follow the link.) Still, it gives you a taste.
Very strange.
