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That was an excellent one.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Boring story about a country bumpkin (Henry Fonda) and the girl (Linda Darnell) who loves him running off with a circus. Fonda's infatuated with bareback rider Dorothy Lamour but eventually realizes he was meant for the country girl. Darnell and Lamour look beautiful, especially in Technicolor. Really, the whole picture looks good. The problem is the story is dull and some of the acting is sub-par. Considering this cast, I expected better. Darnell's often spotty so I wasn't phased by her weak performance. But I was disappointed in Henry Fonda, whose rube routine was annoying. He reunites with his Grapes of Wrath costars John Carradine and Jane Darwell, both of whom are fine in this. Dorothy Lamour stands out the most. I wish I could recommend it but unless you're a Fonda, Lamour, or Darnell completist I wouldn't waste my time on it. Watchable but dull.

I just loved that part of the movie when Chad Hanna, all resplendent in his ringmaster's uniform, is seeking to imitate A.D's confidant introduction. Circus movies have always been my guilty secret - I just love them and could definitely remember the name "Chad Hanna" from my childhood (watching it on TV). It was a lovely, rambling, watch it on a rainy afternoon story about the trials and tribulations of a small time circus that toured the American countryside in the 1840s. 20th Century Fox was one of the first studios to fully explore the possibilities of Technicolor and it gave this movie a richness and the magnificent beauty of Linda Darnell was greatly enhanced by it. This was at the beginning of her career when her fresh naturalness was just breath taking. Walter D. Edmond's books - "The Farmer Takes a Wife" (1935) and "Drums Along the Mohawk" (1939) had already been filmed and had found a perfect actor to portray their strong and honorable heroes in Henry Fonda.In "Chad Hanna" he was absolutely splendid as the title character, a dreamy farm boy whose determination to help a runaway slave and to see "the most beautiful lady I've ever laid eyes on" - bareback rider Albany Yates (Dorothy Lamour) perform at the circus, has both him and Caroline (Linda Darnell) running for their lives. She has been beaten by her father, who is also after Chad, so they both run away with the circus. The supporting cast is like a "Who's Who" of the best players in Hollywood - Guy Kibbee as harassed circus owner A.D., Jane Darwell as his wife, John Carradine and Roscoe Ates. Even though beautiful Caroline silently loves him, Chad has only eyes for the proud Albany, who soon shows her true colors by being easily lured over to the rival circus and leaving them now without a star attraction. A.D has always bemoaned the fact that the one addition that would put them in the big time is an elephant and now they have to train up Caroline to take Albany's place. I agree with the other reviewer, for all her regalness, Dorothy Lamour seems to be only going through the motions and then half way through she is gone!! Although the new up and coming glamour girl on the Fox lot was Linda Darnell - Lamour was a Paramount player - so it stands to reason which one was going to have the bigger, more sympathetic part.A.D's circus is always in danger of being run out of business by their bigger, flashier rival - Shepley's Circus. Shepley's even employ their own "goons", always at the ready , armed with poles to prevent A.D's from participating in the street parade and, in the most exciting scene in the movie, threatening to burn down A.D's circus. After that riot A.D ends up in hospital and hands over the Ring Master's mantle to Chad (in my opinion John Carradine would have been the best choice - he even looked and sounded like a Ring Master) but the death of their lion - their main attraction has Chad sent from the circus in disgrace. Sure, not a great deal happens in the movie, but how Chad returns with a circus act that A.D. never dreamed they would ever have is quite exciting stuff. It also looks suspiciously like Rondo Hatton as a circus workman.Highly Recommended.

Henry Fonda did his third and last big screen adaption of a Walter Edmonds story about upstate New York with Chad Hanna. The other two were his debut film The Farmer Takes A Wife and the John Ford classic Drums Along The Mohawk. Though Chad Hanna is the least of the three it's still an entertaining film and Fonda could play these rustic characters well, investing in them a sense of dignity and strength.He's got the title role in Chad Hanna who's a farm boy who gets a yen to join the traveling circus after seeing a poster of Dorothy Lamour as a bareback rider. That's Hank's hormones talking there, but later on another runaway in the person of Linda Darnell and it's the two of them that are fated for each otherThe circus business back in the day was one dangerous profession and I'm not just talking about under the big top. Guy Kibbee and Jane Darwell's show is plagued by the much bigger outfit that Ted North runs and he wants them out of business. North even steals Lamour away from Kibbee's show, but that only serves to give Darnell a break and making her the top bareback rider.Just the names I've mentioned so far indicate that Chad Hanna has a cast of some colorful players and you can add John Carradine to that list as well as Kibbee's advance man. One thing I don't understand is why Kibbee thought Fonda would make a good ringmaster when Kibbee was injured in a fracas with North's show. He promoted the shy Fonda over Carradine who has one of the great voices in the English language. Go figure that one. Despite that faux pas, Chad Hanna remains a fine film done in nice technicolor and does capture the flavor of rural western New York back in the next to last century.

"Chad Hanna" is truly the kind of film they don't make any more. A pity! Chad Hanna (Henry Fonda) is a country farm boy who helps a black slave to escape, and then runs away with a circus together with a slave tracker's daughter (Linda Darnell). Originally dazzled by a seemingly glamorous circus performer (Dorothy Lamour), Chad eventually falls in love with the daughter and marries her, and they both make the circus their way of life. Nothing very enthralling happens, and the charm of the film comes from watching famous people early in their careers.Linda Darnell is particular is a revelation. She was about seventeen years of age when she made "Chad Hanna", yet already her rapport with the camera is evident. So too is the warmth of her personality and the skill of her underplaying. With the benefit of hindsight, it is easy to see why she became a big star, but what is intriguing is that in "Chad Hanna" Dorothy Lamour, who was already a big star, no longer seems attractive or interesting. It is not obvious why she was so popular at that time. Henry Fonda, of course, was already a movie "natural". He never seems to be acting, but somehow he is always both likable and believable. Fonda really holds this movie together.20th Century Fox was the first major studio to master colour in movies. In the late 'thirties and early 'forties, most colour in films was garish and gaudy, but several Fox films had really beautiful colour, and "Chad Hanna" is one of them."Chad Hanna" is certainly a throw-back to the past, and quite possibly people who judge movies only in terms of their kinetic imagery will find it slow. For those who are not stimulated by violence and synthetic excitement, "Chad Hanna" is well worth watching.