In The Lady Eve (1941), Henry Fonda played Charles Pike, a shy, wealthy snake expert returning from the Amazon who falls for con artist Jean Harrington, played by Barbara Stanwyck. Directed by Preston Sturges, the screwball comedy turns on Pike’s innocence and Jean’s wit.
Fonda’s Pike is earnest, awkward and completely out of his depth, and he played the comedy with a straight-faced charm that made Jean’s schemes all the funnier. His scenes on the ocean liner, and later as Jean returns in disguise, show Fonda’s gift for light comedy.
The Lady Eve is a classic American comedy, and Fonda’s Charles Pike is one of its great comic creations — the decent man at the centre of a brilliant con.