It is no longer a secret that the famous Western director John Ford (The Black Falcon) was often an unbearable tyrant on the set. While he made genre legend John Wayne cry, he ended the friendship with another star by drunken physical violence. The actor in question wrote about this in his autobiography.
John Ford punched Henry Fonda in the face during war filming
Collider has picked up the story in which Henry Fonda (Once Upon a Time in the West) wrote in his book My Life about the shooting of Ford’s war drama No Time for Heroism. At the time of production, the director is said to have already heavily dependent on alcohol and his mood on set was correspondingly aggressive.
One day, after a difficult shoot, Fonda went to Ford’s office to tell him that he understood that the director was not happy with the work. After Fonda explained that he himself was not happy, the director jumped out of his chair, walked up to him and punched him right in the face. Fonda ducked and was hit by the arm, whereupon he fell back and stumbled against a water coolerwhich was broken as a result.
Watch a trailer for No Time for Heroes here:
No Time for Heroism – Trailer (English)
The director’s subsequent apology apparently no longer interested Fonda. The long-standing friendship between the two men, who had previously made films together such as Law of the Plains and The Last Man Standing, was destroyed. Ford even had to be replaced as director during the production of No Time for Heroes because he was barely able to work due to his excessive alcohol consumption.
This is what the war drama No Time for Heroism is about
The film’s plot takes place shortly before the end of World War II. The crew of a US naval freighter suffers from the daily harassment of the bad-tempered captain, while the first officer, Lieutenant Roberts (Fonda), longs for a front-line deployment. When he gets his crew to go ashore, he is transferred to a guided missile destroyer.
No Time for Heroism is not currently streaming anywhere on a flat screen. If you want to watch the war drama, you can rent or buy the film on Amazon Prime, for example.