Young Mr. Lincoln (A- or 3.5/4 stars)
'Young Mr. Lincoln' (directed by the great John Ford, who also gave us The Grapes of Wrath this same year) is a wonderful valentine to Honest Abe and, it follows Lincoln during his early yrs. in Illinois (1832 or so), as he rises from a country guy born in a log cabin to a famous lawyer. The film begins in New Salem, Illinois, & shows Abe's folksy, homespun style on the political stump, his brief romance with the ill-fated Ann Rutledge (Pauline Moore), & his 1st reading of the rights/wrongs of the law. After this, we follow Abraham's run for state legislature; his stint as a novice lawyer in Springfield; Abe judging a messy pie-eating contest; we see him as a rail-splitter; and we even see his awkward courtship with feisty southerner Mary Todd (Marjorie Weaver) at an opulent society ball.
The 2nd half of the movie shows Abe acting as legal defense for 2 brothers (Richard Cromwell, Eddie Quillan), who - after a raucous 4th of July celebration - are unjustly accused & charged with murder. Each brother confess in an attempt to save the other, and their mother (Alice Brady) - an unreliable, yet apparently 'only' witness - refuses to damn one son over the other. Abe blusters his way through the trial, looking for that "1" clue that could free his clients. I loved this section of the film as it cannily transitioned from covering episodic events ... to an old-fashioned, engrossing courtroom drama. In the courtroom, Abe is a firm believer in common sense, "I may not know so much of law, but I know what's right, what's wrong, & I know what you're asking is wrong!". In the final shot, Abe walks to the top of a hill to the ominous bleakness of an approaching storm; an unsubtle hint to his eventual rise in power & the upcoming slavery crisis that will split the U.S. in two.
As the shrewd lawyer who cares deeply about people, I was completely spellbound by Henry Fonda's performance. The entire cast is great; particularly Alice Brady {who sadly died the year this film was made} as the heartbroken frontier woman whose sons are up for murder, and Ward Bond in the main antagonist role. But yeah, Fonda is incredible. Through Fonda, we see Abe's slow-spoken, bawdy sense of humor; his introspective nature, his wisdom, his kindness, and he hints at a man who is quietly tortured inside about the gravity of his decisions {and what he would do in the future for all humanity}. Not even a prosthetic nose & chin could prevent Fonda from conveying such subtlety of emotion as it lay bare across his face. He embodies the young Honest Abe persona, so very well.
John Ford's 'Young Mr. Lincoln' is a near-perfect film; seamlessly working in such elements as myth, patriotism, drama, humor, suspense, history ... while also being visually lovely (poetic, even), as well. And you know, it might have been easy to treat Lincoln with such overpowering, larger-than-life reverence, but director John Ford & his screenwriter Lamar Trotti find a middle ground concerning him; a complex man with humble beginnings who suffered for making important decisions about all people ... high & low. Abraham Lincoln helped bring love, understanding, & a little sense to a nation that was suffering from many horrible inhumanities. In seeing young Abe here - long before he became our 16th president - John Ford does the man great justice with this beautiful, character-revealing film.
The 2nd half of the movie shows Abe acting as legal defense for 2 brothers (Richard Cromwell, Eddie Quillan), who - after a raucous 4th of July celebration - are unjustly accused & charged with murder. Each brother confess in an attempt to save the other, and their mother (Alice Brady) - an unreliable, yet apparently 'only' witness - refuses to damn one son over the other. Abe blusters his way through the trial, looking for that "1" clue that could free his clients. I loved this section of the film as it cannily transitioned from covering episodic events ... to an old-fashioned, engrossing courtroom drama. In the courtroom, Abe is a firm believer in common sense, "I may not know so much of law, but I know what's right, what's wrong, & I know what you're asking is wrong!". In the final shot, Abe walks to the top of a hill to the ominous bleakness of an approaching storm; an unsubtle hint to his eventual rise in power & the upcoming slavery crisis that will split the U.S. in two.
As the shrewd lawyer who cares deeply about people, I was completely spellbound by Henry Fonda's performance. The entire cast is great; particularly Alice Brady {who sadly died the year this film was made} as the heartbroken frontier woman whose sons are up for murder, and Ward Bond in the main antagonist role. But yeah, Fonda is incredible. Through Fonda, we see Abe's slow-spoken, bawdy sense of humor; his introspective nature, his wisdom, his kindness, and he hints at a man who is quietly tortured inside about the gravity of his decisions {and what he would do in the future for all humanity}. Not even a prosthetic nose & chin could prevent Fonda from conveying such subtlety of emotion as it lay bare across his face. He embodies the young Honest Abe persona, so very well.
John Ford's 'Young Mr. Lincoln' is a near-perfect film; seamlessly working in such elements as myth, patriotism, drama, humor, suspense, history ... while also being visually lovely (poetic, even), as well. And you know, it might have been easy to treat Lincoln with such overpowering, larger-than-life reverence, but director John Ford & his screenwriter Lamar Trotti find a middle ground concerning him; a complex man with humble beginnings who suffered for making important decisions about all people ... high & low. Abraham Lincoln helped bring love, understanding, & a little sense to a nation that was suffering from many horrible inhumanities. In seeing young Abe here - long before he became our 16th president - John Ford does the man great justice with this beautiful, character-revealing film.