Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

“Mr. John Palmer Cass. Well, I guess I'll just call you ‘Jack Cass‘”. Abe Lincoln

John Ford directs and Henry Fonda stars as the future president in his early years as a practicing lawyer in Illinois.

1939 was THE big year in movies, with too many greats to mention, but Ford alone made Stagecoach, Drums Along the Mohawk - again using Fonda, and this movie, so both director and actor were busy. Fonda also did a great turn as Frank James in 1939’s Jesse James with Tyrone Power, another unsung film, beautifully shot in Technicolor that deserves more viewers.

Although he shot lots of “historical” movies, John Ford wasn’t much on history, per se. He was more interested in getting the look and feel of the times that he felt would make a good film than presenting a history lesson. Look at My Darling Clementine for another view of Ford and Fonda making a hash of history but a bang-up good movie, for an example. Ford even began to parody himself in the later years, inserting a line I feel sure he felt, with an Irish twinkle in his eyes, was a part of his curriculum vitae -

“When the facts and legends conflict, print the legend” in his latter day western masterpiece The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.

Young Mr. Lincoln is no different. It’s long on mythology and short on history, but that doesn’t make it a bad movie. Henry Fonda tried to turn down the role, but Ford insisted he play a jackleg prairie lawyer, not the man who was the president during America’s greatest trial. So, wearing elevator shoes and a false nose, that’s what Henry Fonda did, and made a pretty convincing job of it, I might add.

The movie covers Lincoln’s early years, his loss of his great love Ann Rutledge to typhoid, his depression, his courtship of Mary Todd. His poor dancing is noted by Miss Todd. “You said you wanted to dance with me in the worst way, and I must say you’ve kept your word.”

The film moves on to show the greatest court case of young Lincoln’s career. A murder trial of two young men whose parents had befriended Lincoln years before; they had given him the law books that allowed him to teach himself law. Lincoln defends the two against prosecutor Donald Meek (Stagecoach), using an approach that combines humor and serious oratory that prefigures his later role as The Great Emancipator. It is interesting to note Fonda’s ease with humor and wonder how he would have developed had he taken more humorous roles. You'll get a kick out of how well he does humor.

Shot in black and white, with Ford’s careful attention to detail, and with a cast including many of Ford’s repertory company, including Donald Meek and Ward Bond, Young Mr. Lincoln is a slice of prairie life that shows the development of Abraham Lincoln’s character.

Available on Criterion DVD or 20th Century Fox VHS, Young Mr. Lincoln runs 100 minutes, in black and white, and is in 1.33:1 theatrical format. It is a film that more people should see as it gives a good portrait of Lincoln and is by turns gripping and humorous.

Another portrait of Lincoln I enjoyed is Abraham Lincoln, starring the great Walter Huston.

Thank you for reading!

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV