Five for Fonda
The Five for Fonda series featured a selection of films starring or about actor Henry Fonda, in celebration of the 120th anniversary of his birth. All screenings were free and open to the public.
Born in Nebraska in 1905, Fonda became one of the most beloved and respected Hollywood stars of his era. Appearing in more than 80 films between 1935 and 1981, he often projected an idealized image of American masculinity based on integrity, intelligence, and quiet strength. With Five for Fonda, we bring you some of Fonda's most lauded performances, as well as filmmaker Alexander Horwath's recent examination of Fonda's cultural and artistic legacy.
Alexander Horwath's visit was presented with support from the Austrian Foreign Ministry.
Location:
Humanities Quadrangle, Lower Level
320 York Street
New Haven, CT
HENRY FONDA FOR PRESIDENT (Alexander Horwath, 2024, DCP, 184 mins)
4 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 11, 2025
Alexander Horwath in person! Horwath's cinematic essay serves as a meta-biography of both Fonda and America itself. Spanning from 1651 to the Reagan '80s and from Fonda, NY, to Hollywood, this adventuresome documentary is filled with hard-to-find Fonda interviews as well as footage from other films in the Five for Fonda series. DCP from The Film Desk. Co-presented with the Yale Film & Media Studies Program.
YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (John Ford, 1939, 35mm, 100 mins)
7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, 2025
Henry Fonda stars in a portrait of the future president as a young lawyer, defending two brothers on trial for murder in Springfield. "This just might be Fonda's most spellbinding performance" (Dennis Schwartz). The first of seven cinematic collaborations between Fonda and Ford, Young Mr. Lincoln was cited by Sergei Eisenstein as the one American film he most wished he'd made! Introduction by Alexander Howath. 35mm print from the Harvard Film Archive.
FAIL SAFE (Sidney Lumet, 1964, 35mm, 112 mins)
7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025
Henry Fonda is an American presdient in crisis when a computer glitch sends nuclear bombers to attack Moscow. Released the same year as Dr. Strangelove, this other black-and-white Cold War classic is a taut, tense, psychologically-rich political drama that warns against our over-reliance on fallible and destructive technology. "An impressive and disturbing brink-of-doom thriller" (Kim Newman) that "packs a melodramatic wallop" (Bosley Crowther). 35mm print from Sony Pictures.
MY DARLING CLEMENTINE (John Ford, 1946, 35mm, 103 mins)
2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025
"One of the sweetest and most good-hearted of all Westerns" (Roger Ebert), and the favorite of Sam Peckinpah and Hayao Miyazaki. Arguably cinema's finest retelling of the gunfight at the O.K. corral, this beguiling classic was informed by Wyatt Earp's visits to sets when John Ford was still a prop boy on silent films. Starring Henry Fonda as Earp, Victor Mature as Doc Holliday, and Monument Valley as Tombstone, AZ. Introduction by Zoe Portman. 35mm restored "special version" print courtesy of the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Restoration funding provided by The Film Foundation and American Movie Classics.
THE LADY EVE (Preston Sturges, 1941, 35mm, 94 mins)
7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 20, 2025
New print! A savvy swindler (Barbara Stanwyck) sets her sights on a naïve brewery heir (Henry Fonda) in this "frivolous masterpiece" (Pauline Kael) set on an ocean liner and in the mansions of Connecticut. (Watch for local brew Pike's Pale, "the ale that won for Yale".) Stanwyck is "the sexiest con woman ever captured on film" (Joe Morgenstern) while Fonda surprises as "the funniest deadpan comedian since Buster Keaton" (Andrew Sarris). 35mm print from the Yale Fim Archive, special thanks to Universal Studios.
See the full Yale Film Archive screening schedule here.