The day John Ford ended an old friendship… by punching Henry Fonda in the face!

A prolific director with more than a hundred films to his credit, an absolute totem of American cinema and cinema in general, still revered by many filmmakers (including Martin Scorsese, of course, or Steven Spielberg), John Ford is rightfully considered. To be one of the most influential filmmakers in the history of cinema.

He was the epitome of a certain America, changed the founding myths of the United States, and his pioneering figures, especially in his Westerns, deeply imprinted themselves on the collective memory of Americans.

As well-respected a filmmaker as he is, Ford was notoriously difficult, not to mention tyrannical, on set, not holding back from abusing and verbally assaulting actors. If his collaboration with John Wayne is largely passed down to posterity, there is another one who counted a lot in his career: Henry Fonda.

Fonda and Ford worked together on no fewer than nine films; And the actor believed that the director did a lot to put his career in orbit. This collaboration also produced masterpieces: I Did Not Kill Lincoln, The Extraordinary Infernal Pursuit, an amazing adaptation of John Steinbeck’s work, The Grapes of Wrath, where Fonda finds one of the most important roles of her career…

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In 1948, the relationship between them became very strained during the filming of the massacre at Fort Apache, in which John Wayne was the main character. If Fonda wanted to discuss a scene with Ford, the director would change the subject altogether or tell her to shut up. The abuse and bullying of the film director weighed heavily, Even to the actor crying…

The break between the two would end, but years later, in 1954, on the set of the war film Permit Before Dawn. It was originally a play written by Thomas Hagen and performed on Broadway, starring Henry Fonda.

Warner Studios was initially hesitant to greenlight Fonda’s commitment, but Ford insisted to the studio that the actress would actually play the part, a very solid filler in the midst of a cast that included James Cagney, Jack Lemmon and William Powell. Although she accepted the role, Fonda did not like the script commissioned by Ford, which she felt was not as funny and, above all, nuanced as the play.

“I understand you’re not happy with the job…”

The incident took place in September 1954, after the canning of a scene filmed at the American naval base at Midway. The atmosphere on the set that day was electric, especially because of the tension between Ford and William Powell. After filming, Fonda decided to come to the director’s office. As he crossed the threshold, the film director called to him: “I understand that you are not satisfied with the work”. Ford turned his thoughts to her as he held a glass of alcohol in his hand.

When Fonda tried to explain to him why she wasn’t happy about filming with Powell that day, Ford didn’t even give her time to finish the sentence. He jumped out of his chair and ran towards him to punch the actor in the face. We never knew why Fonda was a filmmaker. Logically stunned, Fonda left the room in deafening silence.

15 minutes later, Ford knocked on the actor’s dressing room door in tears to apologize. But nothing happened. After this film, which was a huge success at the box office, Fonda did not work with the director again. Their old friendship, which certainly had its share of vicissitudes due to the director’s angry and even cruel temperament, ended with this incident.

Ford’s already notorious alcoholism worsened during filming, to the point where he was hospitalized with kidney problems that required emergency surgery. Unable to control the film, it is Mervyn Leroy, a veteran director in which Warner Bros. He had full confidence who completed the film.