Young Mr. Lincoln

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Young Mr. Lincoln
DVD cover
Directed by	John Ford
Produced by	Darryl F. Zanuck
Written by	Lamar Trotti
Starring	Henry Fonda Alice Brady Marjorie Weaver Richard Cromwell Donald Meek Eddie Quillan Ward Bond
Music by	Alfred Newman David Buttolph Edward B. Powell Louis Silvers Paul Van Loan
Cinematography	Bert Glennon Arthur C. Miller
Editing by	Walter Thompson
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	May 30, 1939
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
Budget	$1,500,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Young Mr. Lincoln is a 1939 biography/drama film about the early life of President Abraham Lincoln, directed by John Ford and starring Henry Fonda. Ford and producer Darryl F. Zanuck fought for control of the film, to the point where Ford destroyed unwanted takes for fear the studio would use them in the movie.

[edit] Plot synopses

The story takes place in Lincoln's early days, just as he's starting out as a lawyer in Springfield. But soon after arrival he's involved in defending two young men accused of murder, and the only witness to the crime is someone who claimed to have seen it under the light of a full moon...

[edit] Trivia

Henry Fonda originally didn't want the part, stating that he didn't feel right playing such a great man, but changed his mind when he was asked to see what he would look like in makeup and liked the results so much that he said once in an interview that it was like if he had Potrayed Christ on film.
The film also began the career of one of Hollywood's great character actors, Ward Bond.
The film has as its basis the murder case involving William "Duff" Armstrong, which took place in Springfield in 1857.
A scene cut from the film involved Lincoln meeting a a very young John Wilkes Booth, his future assassin.
Ironically, this film was an inspiration for Soviet filmmaker and propagandist Sergei Eisenstein and his film Ivan the Terrible.
Screenwriter Lamar Trotti was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story.