The Man Who Understood Women

One of the strangest roles Henry Fonda ever took on, far from his usual role - the decent guy from the American heartland – was Willie Bauche, in writer-director Nunnally Johnson's The Man Who Understood Women (1959). Fonda plays a Hollywood producer so obsessed with turning his wife, Ann Garantier, into a major star and sex symbol that he neglects her romantically and sexually, driving her back to her native France in frustration and into the arms of a charming military man. Willie's inconsistent efforts to be a better husband and the desperate acts he's driven to out of jealousy form the basis of the plot of this sometimes confused mixture of wacky comedy, inside-Hollywood satire, and romantic melodrama. According to a 1958 news item in the Hollywood Reporter, the role of Willie was originally offered to Glenn Ford and Anthony Franciosa, who turned it down. The role required Fonda to play a parody of a driven filmmaker, purportedly based on Orson Welles, although it has been remarked that the character also bears some resemblance to writer-producer-director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, his screenwriter brother Herman, and even to Johnson himself. In the book on which the film is based, the 1952 French novel Les couleurs du jour (The Colors of the Day) by Romain Gary, the character is much more clearly like Welles (who was once married to sex symbol Rita Hayworth), and Johnson reportedly considered Welles himself for the part. In any case, Fonda landed it, and the story has him cavorting about at various points in, among other oddities, a goatee, mandarin robes, a gaucho costume, and a clown suit and heavy make-up. According to the Time magazine review on October 19, 1959, a woman at a sneak preview of the film in Manhattan was heard to cry out, "Good heavens, how could Hank have accepted such a role?" Most reviews were not much kinder to either Fonda or the picture, although it was voted one of the year's ten best films by the National Board of Review. The role of Ann is played by Leslie Caron, still riding the wave of success that began with her sudden rise to stardom in An American in Paris (1951), her debut film, continuing through the title role in Gigi (1958), which had won nine Academy Awards a few months before this film's release. It was the only time she would appear with Fonda. Gary's novel was more centrally focused on the character of the soldier, Marco, played here by Italian actor Cesare Danova in one of his first American movies. A number of Gary's books and stories have been turned into films, notably The Roots of Heaven, adapted by John Huston in 1958, and Lady L, which became a 1965 screen comedy starring Paul Newman and Sophia Loren and was allegedly based on Gary's first wife. A decorated war hero, Gary began writing right after World War II (when he also went into diplomatic service), eventually winning France's highest literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, twice, although one of those was under a pseudonym (no one is allowed to win the prize more than once). He directed two films, Birds in Peru (1968) and Kill! (1971), both of which starred his wife at the time, American actress Jean Seberg. The two were divorced in 1970 after eight years of a marriage marked by numerous difficulties, some of which have been blamed on Gary's domineering, Svengali-like hold on her (echoing the relationship of Willie and Ann in this movie). After repeated suicide attempts, she finally succeeded and was found dead in the trunk of her car in a Paris suburb in 1979. Gary, also prone to depression, ended his life with a shotgun blast in 1980, some have said in part because of Seberg's death, although his suicide note insisted there was no connection. In the book on which The Man Who Understood Women was based, Willie dies trying to save Ann's life after he has hired thugs to kill her. The movie, of course, has a far happier ending. Studio publicity states that location shooting for The Man Who Understood Women took place in Bel Air, Torrey Pines State Park in California and on the Riviera. Most critics agreed that whatever flaws there were in story and characterization, The Man Who Understood Women was certainly beautiful to look at, particularly the scenes set in France. Cinematographer Milton Krasner was certainly no stranger to filming gorgeous European locales, having won an Academy Award for his work on the Italy-set Three Coins in the Fountain (1954). Krasner was also the director of photography on Joseph Mankiewicz's award-winning All About Eve (1950), which netted Krasner one of his seven nominations. The New York Times review of the movie noted some "deliciously wry dialogue" and "wonderfully deft little vignettes," and noted that Caron was "so warm and lovely throughout that Mr. Fonda's frenzied blindness seems ridiculous." Director: Nunnally Johnson Producer: Nunnally Johnson Screenplay: Nunnally Johnson, based on the novel Les couleurs du jour by Romain Gary Cinematography: Milton R. Krasner Editing: Marjorie Fowler Art Direction: Maurice Ransford, Lyle R. Wheeler Original Music: Robert Emmett Dolan Cast: Henry Fonda (Willie Bauche), Leslie Caron (Ann Garantier), Cesare Danova (Marco), Myron McCormick (Preacher), Marcel Dalio (Le Marne), Conrad Nagel (G.K. Brody). C-135m. by Rob Nixon