Movie Genres: War Films–Stars Associated with: Henry Fonda, James Stewart, John Wayne
Research in progress, Feb 24, 2025
Henry Fonda
Henry Fonda made only several war films; it was not one of his typica genres. In many of them, he just played a small or cameo role.
Blockade, 1937: Spanish Civil War
Drums Along Mohawk, 1939, Civil War
Immortal Sergeant, The, 1943, Fox
Mister Roberts, 1955, WWII
Longest Day, The, 1962, Fox, cameo
In Harm’s Way, 1965, WWII, Paramount, cameo
Battle of the Bulge, 1965, WWII
Dirty Game, The, 1966, US intelligence, espionage
The Late the Hero, 1970, Cinerama, cameo
Roles
The Longest Day, 1962: Fonda played Brigadier General Theodor Roosevelt
In Harm’s Way, 1965: Fonda played admiral
Battle of the Bulge, 1965, WWII epic, in which Finda played small role of Lieutenant Colonel, a determined, individualistic a military impatient with short-sighted authority.
James Stewart
Stewart made less war films than other stars, such as Joh Wayne. Perhaps he did not have to, as, unlike Gary Cooper or John Wayne, he actually enlisted for active military service.
Sewart made several romantic melodramas that were set against the context of the war: Seventh Heaven in 1937, The Shopworn Girl in 1938, and The Mortal Sorm in 1940.
Come Leave With Me, 1941, was a war comedy, in which he played an American who’s aspiring author,
In Malaya, 1950, a film about smuggling rubber out of Malaya, occupied by the Japanese, Stewart played a newspaper reporter, chosen for the task due to his knowledge of the island. He gets killed by the Japs in an ambush, nut only after managing to get the cargo i to U.S. ships.
In Strategic Air Command, 1955, Stewart was a baseman in the Air Force, forcing a conflict between his career and family.
His last war film was The Mountain Road, 1960, in which he played a US Army Major circa 1944, who gets rom antically involved with a Chinese woman.
