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Young Mr. Lincoln Overview:

Young Mr. Lincoln (1939) was a Black-and-white - Drama Film directed by John Ford and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and Kenneth Macgowan.

SYNOPSIS

Ford's depiction of Lincoln's early career finds the statesman in the shy, shambling young lawyer. Fonda plays the future president in the period from the Whig convention of 1832 to his decision to pursue his law career to his first major trial. Particularly telling and poetic is the loss of his first love (Moore), with the scene dissolving from their meeting by a river to her grave site on the same spot next to the now-frozen river. Fine historical drama with a great performance from Fonda.

(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).

Young Mr. Lincoln was inducted into the National Film Registry in 2003.

Academy Awards 1939 --- Ceremony Number 12 (source: AMPAS)

AwardRecipientResult
Best WritingLamar TrottiNominated
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Young Mr. Lincoln Facts
Henry Fonda originally turned down the role of Lincoln, saying he didn't think he could play such a great man. He changed his mind after John Ford asked him to do a screen test in full makeup. After viewing himself as Lincoln in the test footage, Fonda liked what he saw, and accepted the part. He later told an interviewer, "I felt as if I were portraying Christ himself on film."
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.
John Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought an extended battle over control of the film. Ford even had unused takes of the film destroyed so the studio could not insert them into the movie. One scene that Ford insisted on cutting was a scene where Lincoln met his future assassin, a very young John Wilkes Booth.
Henry Fonda wore specially made boots that made him appear taller.
"Academy Award Theater" broadcast a 30 minute radio adaptation of the movie on July 10, 1946 with Henry Fonda reprising his film role.
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