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1939 is universally accepted as the greatest year in Hollywood history, with more classic films released than in any other, and John Ford directed three of the best, "Stagecoach", "Drums Along the Mohawk", and this beautiful homage to frontier days and a young backwoods lawyer destined to eventually save the Union, "Young Mr. Lincoln".

With the world plunging into a war that America dreaded, but knew it would be drawn into, Abraham Lincoln was much on people's minds, in 1939, as someone who had faced the same dilemma in his own life, and had triumphed. On Broadway, Robert E. Sherwood's award-winning "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", with Raymond Massey's physically dead-on portrayal, was playing to packed houses (it would be filmed in 1940). Carl Sandburg's continuation of his epic biography, "Abraham Lincoln: The War Years", was published, and quickly became a best seller. President Roosevelt frequently referred to Lincoln in speeches, and the Lincoln Memorial, in Washington, D.C., became the most popular landmark in town (a fact that Frank Capra made good use of, in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington").

All this was not lost on Darryl F. Zanuck, at 20th Century Fox; as soon as he read Lamar Trotti's screenplay of Lincoln's early days as a lawyer, he designated it a 'prestige' production, and assigned John Ford to direct, and Henry Fonda, to star.

Fonda did NOT want to play Lincoln; he felt he couldn't do justice to the 'Great Emancipator', and feared a bad performance would damage his career. Even a filmed make-up test, in which he was stunned by how much he would resemble Lincoln, wouldn't change his mind. According to Fonda, John Ford, whom he'd never worked with, cussed him out royally, at their first meeting, and explained he wasn't portraying the Lincoln of Legend, but a young "jackanape" country lawyer facing his first murder trial. Humbled, Fonda took the role. (John Ford offered a different scenario of the events, but the outcome was the same!) Obviously, they found a chemistry together that worked, as nearly all of their pairings would produce 'classics'.

Unlike the introverted, melancholia-racked Lincoln of "Abe Lincoln in Illinois", Ford's vision was that of a shy but likable young attorney, who made friends easily, and misses the mother he lost, too young (resulting in a bond with a pioneer mother that becomes a vital part of the story). Injustice riles him, and he speaks 'common sense' to quell violence, interlaced with doses of humor. Both productions play on Lincoln's (undocumented) relationship with Ann Rutledge; in Ford's version, the pair are truly in love, and committed to each other. After her death, Lincoln would frequently visit her grave, to share his life with her 'spirit' (a theme Ford would continue in "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon").

A murder trial is the centerpiece of the film, and shows the prodigious talents of the star and director. Fonda deftly portrays Lincoln's inexperience, yet earnest belief in justice tempered with mercy, and Ford emphasizes the gulf between the big-city 'intellectuals' (represented by pompous D.A. Donald Meek, and his slick 'advisor', Stephen Douglas, played by a young Milburn Stone), and the informal, rule-bending country sense of Lincoln. With Ford 'regular' Ward Bond as a key witness, the trial is both unconventional, and riveting.

With the film closing as Lincoln strides away into the stormy distance, and his destiny (dissolving into a view of the statue at the Lincoln Memorial), audiences could take comfort in the film's message that if a cause is just, good would ultimately triumph.

"Young Mr. Lincoln" is a truly remarkable film, from an amazing year!

Young Mr. Lincoln marks the first film of the director/star collaboration of John Ford and Henry Fonda. I recall years ago Fonda telling that as a young actor he was understandably nervous about playing Abraham Lincoln and scared he wouldn't live up to the challenge.

John Ford before the shooting starts put him at ease by saying he wasn't going to be playing the Great Emancipator, but just a jack-leg prairie lawyer. That being settled Fonda headed a cast that John Ford directed into a classic film.

This is not a biographical film of Lincoln. That had come before in the sound era with Walter Huston and a year after Young Mr. Lincoln, Raymond Massey did the Pulitzer Prize winning play by Robert Sherwood Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Massey still remains the definitive Lincoln.

But as Ford said, Fonda wasn't playing the Great Emancipator just a small town lawyer in Illinois. The film encompasses about 10 years of Lincoln's early life. We see him clerking in a general store, getting some law books from an immigrant pioneer family whose path he would cross again later in the story. And his romance with Ann Rutledge with her early death leaving Lincoln a most melancholy being.

Fast forward about 10 years and Lincoln is now a practicing attorney beginning to get some notice. He's served a couple of terms in the legislature, but he's back in private practice not really sure if politics is for him.

This is where the bulk of the action takes place. The two sons of that family he'd gotten the law books from way back when are accused of murder. He offers to defend them. And not an ordinary murder but one of a deputy sheriff.

The trial itself is fiction, but the gambit used in the defense of Richard Cromwell and Eddie Quillan who played the two sons is based on a real case Lincoln defended. I'll say no more.

Other than the performances, the great strength of Young Mr. Lincoln is the way John Ford captures the mood and atmosphere and setting of a small Illinois prairie town in a Fourth of July celebration. It's almost like you're watching a newsreel. And it was the mood of the country itself, young, vibrant and growing.

Fans of John Ford films will recognize two musical themes here that were repeated in later films. During the romantic interlude at the beginning with Fonda and Pauline Moore who played Ann Rutledge the music in the background is the same theme used in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance for Vera Miles. And at a dance, the tune Lovely Susan Brown that Fonda and Marjorie Weaver who plays Mary Todd is the same one Fonda danced with Cathy Downs to, in My Darling Clementine at the dance for the raising of a church in Tombstone.

Lincoln will forever be a favorite subject of biographers and dramatists because of two reasons, I believe. The first is he's the living embodiment of our own American mythology about people rising from the very bottom to the pinnacle of power through their own efforts. In fact Young Mr. Lincoln very graphically shows the background Lincoln came from. And secondly the fact that he was our president during the greatest crisis in American history and that he made a singularly good and moral decision to free slaves during the Civil War, albeit for some necessary political reasons. His assassination assured his place in history.

Besides Fonda and others I've mentioned special praise should also go to Fred Kohler, Jr. and Ward Bond, the two town louts, Kohler being the murder victim and Bond the chief accuser. Also Donald Meek as the prosecuting attorney and Alice Brady in what turned out to be her last film as the pioneer mother of Cromwell and Quillan. And a very nice performance by Spencer Charters who specialized in rustic characters as the judge.

For a film that captures the drama and romance of the time it's set in, you can't do better than Young Mr. Lincoln.

According to John Ford's lyrically shot, fictional biopic of Abraham Lincoln's life his greatest faults may have been an obtuseness with woman and an ability to dance in "the worst way." Ford's camera has only praising views to reveal of Mr. Lincoln's early life. But for what the film lacks in character complexities it makes up for in beauty and depth of vision. Uncharacteristically beautiful compositions of early film, what could have been a series of gorgeous still frames, Ford has a unique eye for telling a story. The film sings of the life of a hopeful young man. Henry Fonda plays the contemplative and spontaneously clever Lincoln to a tee, one of his best roles.

The film concerns two young men, brothers, on trial for a murder that both claim to have committed. In classic angry mob style, the town decides to take justice into their own hands and lynch the pair of them, until honest Abe steps into the fray. He charms them with his humor, telling them not to rob him of his first big case, and that they are as good as lynched with him as the boys lawyer. What follows seems to become the outline for all courtroom- murder-dramas thereafter, as Abe cunningly interrogates witnesses to the delight and humor of the judge, jury and town before he stumbles upon the missing links.

The film plays out like many John Ford movies do: a tablespoon of Americana, a dash of moderate predictability, a hint of sarcasm that you aren't sure if you put in the recipe or if Ford did it himself. Despite the overtly 'Hollywood' feel of the film, and overly patriotic banter alluding to Lincoln's future presidency, the film is entirely enjoyable and enjoyably well constructed, if you can take your drama with a grain of salt.

In his otherwise excellent book, Lincoln in American Memory, the historian Merrill Peterson calls Young Mr.Lincoln a "boring, dreadful, film". This amazingly wrongheaded analysis simply proves that great historians are rarely fine film critics. I am working on a doctoral dissertation on Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. As part of my preparation for writing the dissertation, I made a careful analysis of this film, and of Tag Gallaghers brilliant interpretation of it in his seminal book on Ford. Young Mr. Lincoln comes out that culminating year of the first phase of Ford's cinematic authorship, 1939.In that greatest of Hollywood years, Ford directed three superb, still not fully appreciated films: Drums Along the Mohawk, Stagecoach,and Young Mr.Lincoln. It might seem odd to say that Stagecoach is not fully appreciated, all but the most purblind of critics must perceive that it is one of of the greatest Westerns, and perhaps even one of the hundred greatest films of all time. However, what is NOT fully appreciated is that these three films work together as a kind of trilogy-a triptych, in fact. Ford is creating a sort of mythic history of America on screen. Drums Along the Mohawk is the Revolutionary War. Young Mr.Lincoln is pre-Civil War America.Finally, Stagecoach is Post Civil War America. What the three films have in common is that they are an extended meditation on the American Adam and his "errand into the Wilderness". What are the Psychic and social costs of American manifest destiny, as America strives to build a new human city in the wilderness?Lincoln symbolizes Americas journey, as he seeks to reconcile the civilizational inmpulse (law), with the freedom of the wilderness.Young Mr.Lincoln is not history, ( It is full of historical "howlers'-as both Ford and Trotti were well aware), but myth. This is Lincoln, the symbol of justice and mercy, Lincoln, the man of the wilderness, striving to found a civilization within himself, and to become the "remarkable lawgiver' of young America. Young Mr. Lincoln is not history-like James Agee's long forgotten teleplay about Lincoln, and like Sandburgs biography, it is an epic poem...a very beautiful epic poem.

Why does this movie get so little attention? Maybe because it came out in that overstuffed great-movie year, 1939 (Wizard of Oz, Dark Victory, Grand Illusion, GWTW [which I can't stand]). But I really think it's because YML is a transitional film for Ford -- it's stuck between his early expressionistic period ("The Informer") and his classic Western period, with one stylistic foot in each. And it's unabashedly patriotic, only hinting at the dark reimagining of the American experience that the Master would come to in "The Searchers" and "The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance" -- but still hinting at it enough to turn off the McVeighs among us.

Maybe that's why I love it. You can see Ford coming to terms with the grand, Griffithesque vision of America through its most complicated avatar, Lincoln. Ford's love for his country was more like Lincoln's than Griffith's, anyway: like Lincoln, he acknowledged the genius of the democratic experiment, but he was also aware of its dangers: mob rule and self-satisfaction. YML's greatest scenes are all about this.

First, there's the local parade Abe attends, surrounded by yahoos whom he loves but also sees for what they are. (We see him in another scene accepting a legal case from one of these -- and warily biting the coin offered him for a retainer.) Veterans of the recent War of 1812 and Indian Wars march through; the crowd is wild for them, Abe merely respectful.Then a agon of old men in tricorners is pulled through the parade route. No one seems to know who they are. Lincoln quietly informs his friends that they are veterans of the War for Independence -- and gravely doffs his stovepipe hat. His friends, mildly ashamed (it appears) of their prevous jingoistic glee, follow suit, and stand silent and hatless as the old men pass.

Then the mildly ludicrous plot -- about two brothers accused of another man's murder -- kicks in, and Abe goes to work. The scene where he confronts a lynch mob, putting his foot up against the log they're using for a battering-ram against the jailhouse door, is a classic by any standard. But note how Abe talks to the mob on its own level while remaining, in spirit, resolutely on his own higher plane. After appealing to their macho impulses by offering to "lick any man here," he delivers a house-divided speech that soothes their savagery and leaves them confused and irresolute. "Dontcha wanna put that log down now, boys?" he asks when they have been flummoxed by his eloquence. "Ain't it gettin' a mite heavy?"

Throughout Ford indulges in shameless historical foreshadowings that would have made Stephen Vincent Benet blush. Abe meets Mary Todd and Stephen Douglas; he rides down a dirt road with a bumpkin who's playing a new tune called "Dixie" on a jaw-harp. "Kinda makes you feel like marchin'!" says the bumpkin, as he and Abe ride through a muddy patch in the road.

The ending is impossible to describe without inviting derision, but I swear to you, it works. Having won his case, Lincoln allows as how he might take a walk -- "maybe to the top of that hill." As he trudges on, the skies send down rain and lightning -- and Abe seems to know what this is a prelude to.

I acknowledge the superiority of the great Ford films that came after, but I will always have a special place in my heart for "Young Mr. Lincoln." Independence Day (the federal day of observance, not the movie) is coming; you could do far worse than to watch this great film before the barbecue.

This film was not only one of John Ford's own personal favorites but also numbered directors Sergei M. Eisenstein and Bertrand Tavernier among its high-profile admirers. Ironically, I've just caught up with it myself via Criterion's recent 2-Disc Set after missing out on a couple of original language screenings of it on Italian TV many years ago and again a few times on TV while in Hollywood!

The film marked Ford's first of nine collaborations with Henry Fonda and is also a quintessential example of Ford's folksy Americana vein. A beautifully made and pictorially quite poetic piece of work, the courtroom sequences (and eventual revelation) in its second half still pack quite a wallop, apart from giving stalwart character actor Donald Meek a memorably meaty role as the prosecuting attorney.

Fonda is, of course, perfectly cast as a bashful, inexperienced but rigorous and humanistic lawyer who was destined to become President; Fonda would go on to portray other fictitious politicians on film - most notably in Franklin J. Schaffner's THE BEST MAN (1964) and Sidney Lumet's FAIL-SAFE (1964) - and it's surprising now to learn that he was reluctant at the time about accepting the role of Lincoln since, in his view, that was "like playing God"!

It is interesting to note here that Ford had previously tackled Abraham Lincoln (tangentially) in THE PRISONER OF SHARK ISLAND (1936), a superb but perhaps little-known gem which has, luckily, just been released as a Special Edition DVD by the UK's veritable Criterion stand-in, Eureka's "Masters Of Cinema" label. Besides, I also have two more Abraham Lincoln films in my DVD collection which I've yet to watch and, incidentally, both were directed by D. W. Griffith - THE BIRTH OF A NATION (1915) and ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1930) - and, had I not just received a bunch of films I've never watched before just now, I would have gladly given them a spin based on my highly-satisfying viewing experience with YOUNG MR. LINCOLN.

This is an evocative and idealized portrait of the early life of Lincoln (he was born 1809 Hodgensville-Kentucky- and died in Washington 1865 in theatre Ford killed by James Wilkes Booth. John Ford's excellent movie takes Abraham Lincoln (Fonda) from his youth. He studied laws , common law and began practice as a lawyer in 1837. This Hollywood biography follows Lincoln from his log-cabin days, initial relationship to Mary Todd (Weaver), going on the couple from their first ball, and his departure for congress candidate . But it focuses mainly on two brothers (Richard Cromwell, Eddie Quillan) accused for murder, subsequent trial with amusing court debate scenes and the protection from their mum (Alice Brady) . The Lincoln-Fonda as defender advocate and Donald Meek-prosecutor are nothing short of brilliant.

Excellent performance from Henry Fonda as idealistic ,traveller Springfield solicitor , he was to star regularly for John Ford from this movie , as ¨Grapes of wrath" ,"My darling Clementine" , and "Fort Apache¨. Besides, sterling acting by Alice Brady as grieved mother , she was a great actress from the silent cinema to early sound , but this one resulted to be her last movie because she early died due to cancer . The Lincoln's deeds developing make for skillfully appealing entertainment. His portrayal shows a nostalgic longing for things past and old values and describes his goodness , uprightness and willful . Lincoln , like John Ford, was a straightforward man who never varied the ideals of his youth . This American masterpiece is correct on both counts , as splendid biography and as magnificent drama.

Other biographies about Abraham Lincoln are the following ones : 1) ¨Abraham Lincoln¨(1930) by D. W. Griffith with Walter Huston , Una Merkel, talking about his birth until his assassination ; 2) ¨Abe Lincoln in Illinois¨(1940) by John Cromwell with Raymond Massey , Ruth Gordon, concerning similar events to Ford's film throughout his career as a lawyer 3) TV version titled ¨Gore Vidal's Lincoln¨ with Sam Waterston and Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Todd. And, finally, a recent version by Steven Spileberg with Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field.

Henry Fonda brilliantly captures what we have long believed Abraham Lincoln was like. It is a fooler. Through Fonda's performance we are led to believe (on the surface) that Abraham Lincoln was a country bumpkin. But, through his confrontation with the lynch mob and especially during the court proceedings, you can see that beneath the exterior posturings is a brilliant man who has a very good command of what is going on around him and how to influence the people around him.

In this movie Henry Fonda shows that he has a very good grasp of how to present humor. It is an aspect of him that has been lost over the years. When he is telling stories and jokes he has the timing down perfect. There is a sequence in the trial that had me laughing quite hard. He shows this gift again in The Lady Eve in 1940.

The ending by John Ford is absolutely brilliant with Henry Fonda going to the top of a hill and in the distance a tremendous storm symbolic of the Civil War. He goes forward into history. The movie is fiction but the insight into Lincoln is tremendous. Definitely worth seeing again.

This was John Ford's entertaining if typically highly fanciful and sentimentalised dramatisation of the fledgling years of America's greatest president. I couldn't for a moment believe that many, if indeed any of the events in the movie happened as depicted here, but once you grant Hollywood the licence it usually took with bio-pics of historical figures, it's best to accept it more as entertainment than lesson.

Thus, right from the start, Ford plays up "Honest Abe's" virtues of strength, piety, common-sense and integrity and finds the perfect actor to embody them with Henry Fonda. Fonda drawls his way through the part, in a way very similar to that of another stoical American legend he would portray in a later Ford classic, Wyatt Earp in "My Darling Clementine", right down to his chair-balancing trick and awkward turn at dancing.

The central story of Lincoln's defence of two country boys on trial for the killing of a local bully effectively gives Fonda the chance to grandstand the great man's best attributes at an extended courtroom scene, although for my tastes, Ford overdoes does the the small- town schmaltz, right down to the judge sleeping during testimony, laughing aloud at Lincoln's humorous asides and most of all at Donald Meek's Victorian villain prosecuting counsel.

There's more corn too in Lincoln's interaction with the "good old country folk" he defends where we see Ford's again trademark idealisation of maternal figures, the way that "Super-Abe" defuses a potential lynching by standing in front of the mob's battering ram and delivering some home-spun homilies, as well as the numerous times the camera pauses on Fonda's profile to reinforce Lincoln's destiny, particular his framing on top of the hill in the pouring rain in the final scene before the dissolve to the shot of the Lincoln memorial.

Carping aside, it was still a highly enjoyable story, well shot and edited, with a fine performance by the young Fonda in the title role. A bit too sickly sweet for my tastes but in the final analysis, Ford builds his monument well.

There were quite a number of reasons for wanting to see 'Young Mr Lincoln'. Abraham Lincoln was one of the most fascinating and most important historical figures and a major part of American history. While Henry Fonda is not one of my favourite actors, he did give a number of fine performances and his best films such as '12 Angry Men' are milestones. Have for a long time thought very highly of John Ford. 1939 was also such a great year for film.

'Young Mr Lincoln' for me is not quite one of the best or most influential films of 1939 (close though), but it is both very enjoyable and interesting. Those that know little or nothing about Lincoln prior to watching and watched because of being a fan of classic film, Fonda and/or Ford, are likely to want to learn more about him. Anybody expecting historical accuracy are best looking elsewhere and it is understandable if some find it too hagiographic today. On its own merits, 'Young Mr Lincoln' is well worth watching and is a very good representation of both Fonda and Ford.

It's not without caveats. Some have found, or find, the first portion on the too slow side, and am going to include myself in this category where the story is a little too slight.

Not all the humour quite works, most of it does but some of it is silly and doesn't always fit easily with what happens or add much.

Fonda however is cast perfectly, the only debit being that distracting false nose through no fault of his own. He is very commanding throughout while never taking things too seriously (quite a lot of his delivery is playful). Alice Brady brings a lot of heart to her role and it was great fun seeing Donald Meek and Ward Bond playing their roles with authority and relish. Ford did not once seem uninterested or uncomfortable, lots of sensitivity and energy. The characters don't feel like caricatures and are easy to engage with.

While 'Young Mr Lincoln' is a slow starter, when it gets more eventful it is very involving and has a good deal more energy. The courtroom stuff not only has genuine tension and intrigue but is playful fun too, thanks to a mostly beautifully balanced and intelligent script that keeps sentimentality at bay and generally has some amusing humour. Not mixed uneasily mostly as well. The ending is powerful. 'Young Mr Lincoln' is beautifully filmed and typically stirringly scored by the great Alfred Newman.

Concluding, very good and interesting. 8/10

Sure it was well shot and made, very well shot and made! But the story was just so weak. And the portrayal of Lincoln was even weaker. Not that Henry Fonda wasn't good but the character he played was nothing but a loon. Do you mean to tell me that Lincoln was a wise cracking smart ass with no respect of the law or the court. I mean who the hell was he supposed to be? Cousin Vinnie? I mean come on, "I'll just call you Jackass then"???? I understand that Ford was going for great funny hero guy but I didn't really like this guy at all. He cheats in sports, talks like a real sweet simpleton and does not seem to know were to sit in a courtroom. How am I supposed to take this seriously.

The twist was even weaker. I mean come on! That was just stupid. The whole story seemed like it was thought up by some 5 year old in his or her dreams. Saying that I liked it enough, it was very entertaining and made me laugh at several occasions so I can't say it's a bad film. In fact I must say that I must say it's good enough, nothing that entertains me and makes me laugh can be bad BUT this vivid and silly story was just so ridiculous that I can't understand how anyone could consider it great.

I have no idea how historically accurate this film was but if any of it was true I would really have to shake my head.

Young Mr. Lincoln(1939) was released in the same year as another classic by John Ford called Stagecoach(1939). Its amazing that two great films like these were overlooked for the Best Picture award of 1939. Tells the fictitious but compelling story of the early days of Abraham Lincolm when he was a young struggling lawyer. He shows traits that made him famous during his role as the President of the United States. He does have a touch of the Sherlock Holmes method of solving crimes for he uses it to have defend a man falsely accused of murder.

Patriototic motion picture that is one of my favorite films from John Ford. Henry Fonda is perfect in the role of the young Abraham Lincoln. In fact, he bears a little resemblence to the late admired and revered, Abraham Lincoln. Fonda gives a performance of admiring humaine tenderness. Many of the scenes in Young Mr Lincoln(1939) are done with beauty and finesse.

The early career of Abe Lincoln is beautifully presented by Ford. Not that anyone alive has seen footage of the real Lincoln, but Fonda, wearing a fake nose, is uncanny as Lincoln, with the voice, delivery, walk, and other mannerisms - exactly as one would imagine Lincoln to have been. Ford, in the first of three consecutive films he made with Fonda, is at the top of his form, perfectly evoking early 19th century America. The story focuses on a pair accused of murder that Lincoln defends and the courtroom scenes are quite well done. The supporting cast includes many of Ford's regulars. This was Alice Brady's last film, as she died months after its release.

Young Mr. Lincoln is an excellent, if hagiographic, biography with a great performance by Henry Fonda in the title role. It traces Lincoln's early years, with an emphasis on his first criminal case as a lawyer.

The linchpin of the piece is Fonda's performance. He captures Lincoln's gravitas while still portraying him as an ordinary human being. In particular, he captures Lincoln's plainspoken manner, lending him an every man status even as the film glorifies him.

The film also benefits from some back door social commentary, particularly in a scene where his clients are about to be lynched. Although Lincoln's speech is directed to the situation at hand, it offers a pointed criticism of the lynchings then common in the South.

The film does at times slip into hagiography, particularly the ending, which features Lincoln walking into an oncoming storm in a bit of over the top symbolism. Still, it is a great, well made film worth your time.

When young, intelligent store owner Abraham Lincoln (Henry Fonda) exchanges some groceries for a law book, he becomes infatuated by it, and decides on a different career path. He arrives in the town of Springfield and co-runs a law firm, and although his techniques are a bit rough and maverick, he becomes well-renowned and respected. After staging an Independence Day parade, a murder takes place, in which two brothers apparently attack a man and stab him to death. Enchanted by the brothers' family's simple ways, and how they remind him of his own roots, he offers to take their defence.

While in France, movie-making was pushing the boundaries and were creating films that were more works of art than movies, America was making very American films (this is not a criticism, by the way, as America created some of their best pieces of work in the late 1930's and 40's). There was no more American a film-maker than the great John Ford, who was never more at home than when he was in the mythic Wild West, a place of beauty, violence and mysticism. And what more American story can there be other than the story of how one of the greatest Presidents in their short history came to be the man he was.

Ford had already fleetingly portrayed Lincoln in The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936), showing his assassination at the beginning of the film, and then moving on to concentrate on the man accused of harbouring John Wilkes Booth. While that film portrayed the brutality that people are capable of, juxtaposed with a story of one-man's fierce determination, Young Mr. Lincoln shows the brutality of America, and how one man's fierce determination can overcome the odds and make a difference. The partially-fictionalised court case is based on the case of William 'Duff' Armstrong, a man accused of murder who was proved innocent by Lincoln, against a state that believed he was guilty.

Although Ford wisely chooses to keep the focus on Lincoln's early manhood rather than to fit in his entire life, the film is sill confined to the rules of the biopic. The film suffers by being episodic, shifting from Lincoln's early discovery of law, to his re-location, to the love interest, to the 'big event' that will define him (at this point in his life). Knowing Ford's gift for storytelling, the film is disappointingly simplistic in structure. It is however anchored by a very impressive Henry Fonda performance, whose appearance is uncanny to Lincoln, under some effective make-up. And, as you would expect, the cinematography is superb, and proves that no-one can capture America like John Ford.

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YOUNG MR. LINCOLN (20th Century-Fox, 1939), directed by John Ford, with an original screenplay by Lamar Trotti, is not a film about the life of Abraham Lincoln, from log cabin to the White House, but a story about Lincoln's early years as a young lawyer.

The story begins circa 1832 where Lincoln (Henry Fonda) age 23, is working as part owner of a general store in New Salem, Illinois. On their way west, the Clay family stop by the store in need of supplies, and explain to the young man that all they can do by way of payment is supply Lincoln with their supply of books, which he happily accepts. Through these books, Lincoln studies law and is encouraged by his sweetheart, Ann Rutledge (Pauline Moore), to become a lawyer. Some years later, after studying law, he opens up his law office in Springfield where he comes across the Clay family once more, this time working in their defense when one of widow Abigail Clay's (Alice Brady) sons, Adam and Matt (Eddie Quillan and Richard Cromwell), are accused of shooting and killing a man named "Scrub" White.

Whether this story of Lincoln's years as a lawyer is accurate or fictional is uncertain, but it does make good story telling without straying apart from the person Lincoln was, a laid back man whose philosophy goes with his story telling. Henry Fonda would seem an unlikely choice to play Lincoln, but is acceptable in this role, with a make-up job that has him appear to look more like Lincoln than Lincoln did. Since nobody really knows how Lincoln sounded, he could very much had talked like Fonda. But Fonda's performance ranks one of the best in his career. The role of Abigail Clay, the mother of the accused young men, is given an excellent portrayal by Alice Brady, who sadly died of cancer the year of this film's release. Having watched many of her early film roles on television in which she was type-cast as air-headed society matrons in numerous comedies, such as THE GAY Divorcée (1934) or MY MAN GODFREY (1936), it's hard to believe that this is the same actress, a serious role as an uneducated pioneer woman whose sole interest is to save her two boys, but not tell which one of them is the guilty party, even if it means that both of them should be executed in hanging if found guilty. Had Brady lived, chances are she would have been reteamed opposite Henry Fonda in the John Ford directed masterpiece of THE GRAPES OF WRATH (1940), in the role of "Ma" Joad, as played in the final print by Jane Darwell, who won the Academy Award as Best Actress. But let's not forget Brady's did win such an honor for similar role as a pioneer woman, Mrs. O'Leary, in IN OLD CHICAGO (20th Century-Fox, 1937), starring Tyrone Power and Alice Faye.

In the supporting cast are Marjorie Weaver as Mary Todd; Arleen Whelan as Hannah Clay; Milburn Stone as Stephen A. Douglas; Ward Bond as John Palmer-Cass; Donald Meek as John Felder, the prosecuting attorney who disapproves of Lincoln's tactics in defending his clients. Meek's courtroom scenes with Fonda are one of the highlights in the story, adding humor to the story, along with Spencer Charters as Judge Herbert A. Bell, who, in one segment, snores while Felder is trying his case. In smaller roles seen in the early portion of the story are Jack Kelly as Matt, as a boy; Dickie Jones as Adam, as a boy; and Robert Homans as Mr. Clay, their father.

YOUNG MR. LINCOLN expertly and leisurely paced under the direction of John Ford, concludes the same way as did D.W. Griffith's talkie bio-pic, ABRAHAM LINCOLN (UA, 1930), with the camera focusing on the Lincoln Memorial accompanied by the underscoring of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

Highly recommended for Lincoln buffs, and while YOUNG MR. LINCOLN ceases to air on local television these days annually on February 12th (Lincoln's birthday), as it did in decades past, formerly shown on American Movie Classics, it can be found today on the Fox Movie Channel or as a video rental or check out from a neighborhood library.

One final note of interest: As Bob Dorian, former host of American Movie Classics, once mentioned during one of its TV presentations, is that one of the scenes cut from the final print of the film was Lincoln's brief encounter with a young actor named John Wilkes Booth as he is leaving a theater. (****)

The problem with portraying a real life individual is that the performance can be good, but still not work if the audience doesn't believe that the actor is portraying the person. That's the main issue with "Young Mr. Lincoln:" Henry Fonda gives a terrific performance, but I found it hard to believe that Abraham Lincoln was as soft-spoken as Fonda portrays him.

This is essentially a courtroom drama with a young Abraham Licoln at the forefront. Whether or not this was a true story, I don't know, but if it isn't, then why tell it using Lincoln as the central character? Never mind though. In the film, Lincoln is defending two young men who are accused of murder.

There's really not much to the film, and as a result, it seems rather empty. I wanted more story and character development. The film is 100 minutes long, but it doesn't feel like it. There are some little scenes featuring Lincoln and the blooming relationship with Mary Todd, but they seem superficial.

The acting is good all around, but as I said, Fonda's performance works as a character, but not Abraham Lincoln. I just don't believe that the real Lincoln was that soft-spoken. True, he has a big voice when he needs to, such as when he persuades a drunken lynch mob to let the accused stand trial, but Fonda portrays Lincoln too meekly. The other performances are solid though, especially Alice Brady as Abigail Clay, the mother of the accused. She's a nice lady who we can really feel for. Simple and uneducated, yet very sweet; we can see why Lincoln wanted to help her.

John Ford seems to think of this film as an epic, and at the time of its release, it probably was. But even then, there's just not enough material to present it as such.

It's a nice watch, but not a classic.

I tried twice to get through this film, succeeding the first time - and it was like pulling teeth - and failing the second time despite a great DVD transfer. The problem? It's simply too boring.

If you can get to the dramatic courtroom scene, which takes up most of the second half of the film, you have it made, but it's tough getting to that point. There are some interesting talks by "Abraham Lincoln" (Henry Fonda) during the trial. The ending is touching as Lincoln walks off and they superimpose his Memoral statue over the screen.

It's a nice story, well-acted and such....but it lacks spark in the first half and discourages the viewer from hanging in there. I suspect the real Abe Lincoln was a lot more interesting than this film.