Young Mr. Lincoln

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Movie
German title Young Mr. Lincoln
Original title Young Mr. Lincoln
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1939
length 100 minutes
Rod
Director John Ford
script Lamar Trotti
production Kenneth Macgowan ,
Darryl F. Zanuck / Twentieth Century Fox
music Alfred Newman
camera Bert Glennon ,
Arthur C. Miller
cut Walter Thompson
occupation

The young Mr. Lincoln (Original title: Young Mr. Lincoln ) is an American biopic by John Ford from 1939 about the early life of the future US President Abraham Lincoln . The script is based on a story by screenwriter Lamar Trotti . The German premiere took place on German television ( ZDF ) on May 11, 1972.

action

New Salem , Illinois , in 1832. Young Abraham Lincoln is a candidate for state parliament. After a speech, he sells groceries to a migrant settler family named Clay in exchange for issuing a code of law. Lincoln studies the book on a river and is inspired by the text. His childhood sweetheart Ann Rutledge encourages him to continue his studies. When Ann dies unexpectedly, Lincoln leaves his parents' business and begins studying law. Eventually he moved to Springfield to start a law firm with his friend John Stuart . On Independence Day he meets his future wife Mary Todd and his future political opponent Stephen Douglas .

After a party in Springfield, a fight between Scrub White and the two brothers Matt and Adam Clay breaks out in a nearby forest, in which a shot from White's pistol goes off. His friend J. Palmer Cass shows him lying on the ground, who will later be found to have been stabbed by a knife, as dead and accuses the brothers of murder. Her mother Abigail, who had watched the last part of the fight, refuses to make a statement that would have made her choose one of her sons from her point of view. The people of the place band together in a lynch mob, which is only stopped by Lincoln, who makes himself the lawyer for the brothers. Mary Todd, impressed by Lincoln's courage, invites him to a party at her sister's and her sister's husband's house, Ninian Edwards. Douglas is also at the party, but Mary can guide Lincoln past him. Lincoln later rides to Clay's cabin. There he meets his mother and gets to know the daughter-in-law Sarah and Carrie Sue, Adam's fiancée. He feels a deep sympathy for Mrs. Clay, because she reminds him with her kind and hardworking demeanor of his mother who died during his childhood.

With his down-to-earth logic and demeanor, Lincoln appeals to the jury at the trial to view the law as simply a matter of right and wrong. Prosecutor John Felder calls Abigail Clay to the witness stand. He offers her the life of one of her sons if she tells him the name of White's murderer. Abigail refuses to testify. Lincoln objects to Felder's strategy, who then accuses Lincoln of lack of experience. Felder now calls the surprised Cass to the stand. He testifies that Matt Clay stabbed the victim White, he saw her in the moonlight.

That same evening, Lincoln receives a visit from Judge Bell, who suggests that he consult the more experienced Douglas. But Lincoln wants to defend the two brothers alone. In an agricultural almanac, Lincoln discovers that the moon had already set by the time White died. So Cass was not able to watch the murder in the moonlight. Faced with this fact, Cass confesses to having committed the murder herself. Following the acquittal for the brothers, Lincoln is congratulated by Mary and Douglas, who see him as a worthy opponent. The Clay family returns to their farm while Lincoln walks alone up a nearby hill in a pensive mood.

background

The production budget was around $ 1.5 million. The film was shot in Sacramento , California .

The Clay murder case in this film was based on a real murder trial in Beardstown , Illinois , in 1858. Abraham Lincoln was defending William "Duff" Armstrong, who was charged with the murder of James Preston Metzker. As in the film, eyewitness Charles Allen stated that he saw Armstrong kill Metzker in the moonlight. Lincoln proved that the moon had already set at the time of the murder, and Armstrong was acquitted. While this trial is the first major case for the young Lincoln in the film, Lincoln was less than three years before the presidency at the Armstrong trial in 1858 and was already a prominent figure.

Young Mr. Lincoln is the last film by Alice Brady, which won an Oscar in 1938. She died of cancer five months after the film premiered at the age of 46. Screenwriter Lamar Trotti won an Oscar in 1945, again for a biography of a US President: Wilson by Henry King . Composer Alfred Newman, who won nine Oscars in his career, worked with the film's musical director, 1935 Oscar winner Louis Silvers . Richard Day (seven Oscars) and Thomas Little (six Oscars) provided the equipment, and Yakima Canutt was the stunt coordinator .

In 2005 the film was released on DVD (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) in the original full screen 1.33: 1. The DVD contains the English and German soundtracks.

Reviews

The lexicon of international film reads: “Biographical film about the beginning of the career of the famous American president; somewhat naive in the drawing of the main character, but atmospherically dense and believable, played convincingly by Henry Fonda ”. The result is "[e] in a film that is original, well thought-out and humanly real-looking down to the last detail". Prisma wrote: “The impressive work about the start of the career of the future US President Abraham Lincoln is a coherent, well-played picture of the time. However, the outdated (sometimes quite incorrect) synchronization often seems very naive ( "When I was still a little bitchy in Kentucky", etc.). Still, this is a great movie treat! "

Awards

At the Academy Awards in 1940 the film was nominated for an Oscar in the now defunct category of Best Original Story (Lamar Trotti) .

In 2003 the film was included in the National Film Registry of the National Film Preservation Board.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See imdb.com
  2. ↑ Young Mr. Lincoln. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed August 27, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used 
  3. ↑ See prisma.de