‘Stranger on the Run,’ Henry Fonda’s most obscure western

The face that embodied tortured conscience for nearly 50 years: Henry Fonda, as alcoholic drifter and one-time prisoner Ben Chamberlain, casts a distinctive right side profile in director Don Siegel’s little-seen western “Stranger on the Run,” distributed as part of NBC’s “Tuesday Night at the Movies” on October 31, 1967, and later shown in theaters internationally. Image Credit: Universal Television / Profiles in History [auction house]

It’s curiosity-piquing unraveling why Stranger on the Run, a made-for-TV western starring Henry Fonda, was mired in oblivion for over five decades despite the winning efforts of future Dirty Harry collaborators Don Siegel and Dean Riesner. Corralling a revered pedigree of Tinseltown veterans — Michael Parks, Sal Mineo, Dan Duryea, Anne Baxter, and sole surviving primary cast alum Michael…