Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)

Directed by John Ford. Starring Henry Fonda, Donald Meek, Alice Brady, Ward Bond, Marjorie Weaver, Spencer Charters, Arlene Whelan, Pauline Moore, Milburn Stone, Eddie Collins, Dorris Bowdon.

Endearingly hokey story of Abe Lincoln’s adult life before a political career pointed him toward the White House. Fonda playing a slow-but-steady, upright sort of feller (even one of such “celebrity status” as this one) mixed into a stew pot of John Ford Americana is doggone close to a can’t-miss recipe, even though its earnestness and plain decency aims the material at a youthful audience either disinterested or unprepared for more serious, complex themes. Lamar Trotti’s script contains instances of stilted dialogue and structural issues in the first half (sections of Lincoln’s life are distilled to one or two scenes and then terminated, like his ill-fated romance with Moore that is made up of an extended bit of riverside conversation/wooing followed by her immediate off-screen death), but settles in nicely when the famed “Almanac Trial” takes over, with Lincoln defending two men accused of murder. Far too fictionalized to serve as a worthy biography, but rates pretty well as a gentle, dignified brand of entertainment. Brady’s final film.

69/100