Title: Young Mr. Lincoln
Release Date: May 30, 1939
Director: John Ford
Production Company: Cosmopolitan Productions
Summary/Review:
Set in the 1830s, Young Mr. Lincoln is a very loosely historical drama about Abraham Lincoln (Henry Fonda) as a young lawyer and aspiring politician in New Salem, Illinois, as well as some of his early courtship of Mary Todd (Marjorie Weaver). The heart of the film is a courtroom drama where Lincoln defends two brothers accused of murder that is based on a real-life event, in 1858, when Lincoln proved a witness testimony to be false by using an almanac. The gist of the movie is to show Lincoln as a many with folksy charm and a good sense of humor, which may not be 100% historically accurate, but does make for some good comfort food viewing.
I believe that Fonda put a lot of himself into this performance, so while it may not accurately Lincoln, it does feel real. One of the standout scenes is when an angry mob tries to break into the jail in order to lynch the accused brothers (a scene that takes on new connotations after the recent white supremacist insurrection at the US Capitol). Lincoln talks them down using a mix of self-deprecation and humor, eventually guilting the crowd into dispersing. This movie is no doubt corny and hokey but Fonda’s performance and Ford’s direction give it enough oomph to make it an enjoyable film to view.
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 