IMDb > Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
Young Mr. Lincoln
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Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) More at IMDbPro »

IMDb Holiday Movie Guide

Overview

User Rating:
7.7/10   1,914 votes
MOVIEmeter: ?
Down 14% in popularity this week. See why on IMDbPro.
Director:
John Ford
Writer:
Lamar Trotti (screenplay)
Contact:
View company contact information for Young Mr. Lincoln on IMDbPro.
Release Date:
9 June 1939 (USA) more
Genre:
Drama more
Tagline:
The story of Abraham Lincoln that has NEVER been told!
Plot:
A fictionalized account of the early life of the American president as a young lawyer facing his greatest court case. full summary | add synopsis
Plot Keywords:
more
Awards:
Nominated for Oscar. Another 1 win more
User Comments:
A Jackleg Prarie Lawyer more (34 total)

Cast

  (in credits order) (verified as complete)

Henry Fonda ... Abraham Lincoln
Alice Brady ... Abigail Clay
Marjorie Weaver ... Mary Todd
Arleen Whelan ... Sarah Clay
Eddie Collins ... Efe Turner
Pauline Moore ... Ann Rutledge
Richard Cromwell ... Matt Clay
Donald Meek ... Prosecutor John Felder
Judith Dickens ... Carrie Sue
Eddie Quillan ... Adam Clay
Spencer Charters ... Judge Herbert A. Bell
Ward Bond ... John Palmer Cass
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Tiny Jones ... (scenes deleted) (as Elizabeth Jones)
Eddy Waller ... Father (scenes deleted)
Clarence Wilson ... Dr. Mason (scenes deleted)
Ernie Adams ... Man with Lynch Mob (uncredited)
Sam Ash ... Extra Dancing at Party (uncredited)
Arthur Aylesworth ... New Salem Townsman (uncredited)
Virginia Brissac ... Peach Pie Baker (uncredited)
Paul E. Burns ... Loafer (uncredited)
George Chandler ... Loafer (uncredited)
Cliff Clark ... Sheriff Gil Billings (uncredited)
Frank Dae ... (uncredited)
Francis Ford ... Sam Boone (uncredited)
Harold Goodwin ... Jeremiah Carter (uncredited)
Charles Halton ... Hawthorne (uncredited)
Herbert Heywood ... Tug-o'-War Contest Official (uncredited)
Robert Homans ... Mr. Clay (uncredited)
Dickie Jones ... Adam Clay as a Boy (uncredited)
Jack Kelly ... Matt Clay as a Boy (uncredited)
Fred Kohler Jr. ... Scrub White (uncredited)
Kay Linaker ... Mrs. Edwards (uncredited)
Robert Lowery ... Juror Bill Killian (uncredited)
Jim Mason ... Juror (uncredited)
Louis Mason ... Court Clerk (uncredited)

Edwin Maxwell ... John T. Stuart (uncredited)
Sylvia McClure ... Baby Clay (uncredited)
Ivor McFadden ... Juror (uncredited)
Tom McGuire ... Bailiff (uncredited)
Dave Morris ... Loafer (uncredited)
Frank Orth ... Loafer (uncredited)
Jack Pennick ... Big Buck Troop (uncredited)
Steven Randall ... Juror (uncredited)
Russell Simpson ... Woolridge (uncredited)
Milburn Stone ... Stephen A. Douglas (uncredited)
Charles Tannen ... Ninian Edwards (uncredited)
Harry Tyler ... Barber (uncredited)
Dorothy Vaughan ... Apple Pie Baker (uncredited)
Billy Watson ... Boy on Right of Bean Shooter (uncredited)
Delmar Watson ... Admiring Boy in New Salem (uncredited)
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Directed by
John Ford 
 
Writing credits
Lamar Trotti (screenplay)

Produced by
Kenneth Macgowan .... associate producer
Darryl F. Zanuck .... producer
 
Original Music by
Alfred Newman 
David Buttolph (uncredited)
Louis Silvers (uncredited)
Paul Van Loan (uncredited)
 
Cinematography by
Bert Glennon 
Arthur C. Miller (uncredited)
 
Film Editing by
Walter Thompson 
Robert Parrish (uncredited)
 
Art Direction by
Richard Day 
Mark-Lee Kirk 
 
Set Decoration by
Thomas Little 
 
Costume Design by
Royer 
 
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Wingate Smith .... assistant director (uncredited)
 
Sound Department
Eugene Grossman .... sound
Roger Heman Sr. .... sound (as Roger Heman)
Robert Parrish .... sound effects editor (uncredited)
 
Stunts
Yakima Canutt .... stunts (uncredited)
 
Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sam Benson .... wardrobe (uncredited)
 
Music Department
Louis Silvers .... musical director (uncredited)
 
Other crew
Rosemary Benét .... poet: poem "Nancy Hanks"
 
Crew verified as complete


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Additional Details

Parents Guide:
View content advisory for parents
Runtime:
100 min
Country:
USA
Language:
English
Color:
Black and White
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)
Certification:
Finland:S | USA:Approved (PCA #5216)
Filming Locations:
Sacramento, California, USA
Company:
Cosmopolitan Productions more

Fun Stuff

Trivia:
The trial of William "Duff" Armstrong, on which the fictionalized defense of Matt and Adam Clay shown in this movie is based, actually took place in 1858, when Lincoln was a successful railroad attorney and soon to be a nominee for the Senate. The other person accused of murder had been convicted in a separate trial several months earlier. more
Quotes:
[Lincoln and Felder are picking jurors for the trial of Matt and Adam Clay]
Prosecutor John Felder: Mr. Lincoln should know that the mere fact that a prospective juror knows counsel for the state does not disqualify him.
Abe Lincoln: I know that, John. What I'm afraid of is that some of the jurors might NOT know you... and that'd put me at a great disadvantage.
more
Movie Connections:
Referenced in "Jeopardy!: (#26.18)" (2009) more
Soundtrack:
The Dew Is On The Blossom more

FAQ

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User Comments

   (Comment on this title)
16 out of 18 people found the following comment useful.
A Jackleg Prarie Lawyer, 9 September 2005
9/10
Author: bkoganbing from Buffalo, New York

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.

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