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This rare taping of Henry Fonda's 1974 one-man Broadway show is an entertaining, living memoir of legendary attorney Clarence Darrow. The play, directed by John Houseman and adapted from Irving Stone's biography, was taped before a live audience and broadcast on TV in the 1970s. Efficient and spirited, the play blends many of Darrow's courtroom speeches with his recollections. His caseload included many towering landmark cases: the Pullman strike, the
LA Times bombing, Leopold and Loeb, and the Scopes monkey trial. He played to his passions: prolabor and antideath penalty.
Fonda is a perfect choice for playing Darrow, an astute and silver-tongued man was not partial to heavy dramatics. Fonda, at age 69, gracefully paces the stage only giving in to the occasional tug of his suspender for effect. This role, in which he was nominated for the Tony, is an essential view of the actor in late in his career. There's nary a better performance in his last 20 films made after this Broadway show including his final Oscar-winning work in On Golden Pond (made seven years later). --Doug Thomas
