young mr. Lincoln (1939)

Directed by: John Ford | 96 minutes | drama | Actors: Henry Fonda, Alice Brady, Marjorie Weaver, Arleen Whelan, Eddie Collins, Pauline Moore, Richard Cromwell, Donald Meek, Judith Dickens, Eddie Quillan, Spencer Charters, Ward Bond, Milburn Stone

Sympathetic, quietly rippling film about the early years of Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865), the sixteenth President of the United States. Under the skilful direction of Ford with beautifully shot scenes that last just the right time, an idealized picture of Lincoln’s life in his home state is painted through a fictional murder case. The film starts off slow and never goes into a higher gear after that. Yet the film never seems to be boring, despite the unspectacular presentation.

What keeps the film captivating is mainly due to the formidable performance of Fonda, whose appearance with the help of a fake nose, a handy hairdresser and the prominent wart resembles the pictures known of Lincoln. The well-known gnome beard is still missing, because Lincoln did not grow his beard until after his election as President. Fonda is also a bit short of height, at 1.85 meters he does not come close to the almost two meters long Lincoln, which towered over most of his contemporaries.

Fonda carries this film on his shoulders and constantly manages to attract all the attention through his good, smooth playing. The other players have much smaller supporting roles, which are sometimes almost stereotypical, the story is constructed in such a black and white that the suspects defended by Lincoln are good guys without a blemish on their souls and the accuser (Meek) sophisticated and unsympathetic . Special mention to Brady as the mother of the suspects, who plays a heartbreaking role at the same time as subdued and painful. Lincoln is already essentially here what he later was according to the mainstream accounts of his life – a man of integrity, straightforward, compassionate, and using his intelligence to explain complicated matters in simple terms and funny similes. This description of Lincoln is more myth than much more complicated reality. It is in itself a pity that Ford, perhaps also given the zeitgeist, was unable to give a more complete picture of the infinitely more interesting Lincoln as a historical figure than as the legend in the making that is depicted here. What is really only missing from the film Lincoln is its power as a public speaker. As a result, there is no real character development of the main character. For the majority of Americans, Lincoln’s life was and is a piece of cake and almost every scene has a reference to a situation from the President’s later life. It is good to imagine how visitors at the time would have offended their neighbor or exchanged views if they were able to link an incident from the film to the known facts. Such as Lincoln’s meetings with his later political rival Stephen A. Douglas (Stone). Douglas would defeat Lincoln for a Senate seat in 1854, but lose as a Democratic candidate in the Presidential election in 1860. The difficult start of his relationship with Mary Todd (Weaver) is also discussed. Mary Todd Lincoln was of better family than her husband, and the situations the two found themselves in time and again emphasize that difference. Ford occasionally seems to very lightly touch on Mary Lincoln’s unstable personality, which worsened later in life and would cast a dark shadow over their marriage.

The lawsuit that occupies the last part of the film seems mainly intended to generate sympathy. Lincoln does not base his defense on sound legal arguments. Here the film goes a bit off track, because sometimes the whole thing degenerates into a bad farce. The judge dozes off and is openly snoring during the trial. Lincoln also admits a drunken unemployed person to the jury, after which the good man gives a funny, but counter-curling, hiccup when asked. Typical of Ford, the sentimentality for which he was known also comes into play. For today’s viewers, the last act is somewhat disappointing, as it doesn’t follow our familiar pattern from the courtroom film.

With a beautifully shot ending, as Lincoln climbs a path toward the horizon, there’s no doubt where that path will end. In the presidency Lincoln is still deeply honored for and where he managed to keep the Union “one and indivisible” for future generations. Too bad a fabricated lawsuit has been used to underscore the President’s later greatness. His true life story had been just as inspiring.