Young Mr. Lincoln

 

“Blessed are the merciful, so for they shall obtain mercy.”  Matthew 5:7, quoted by Abraham Lincoln in “Young Mr. Lincoln”.

One of my favorite films of the past decade is Lincoln, directed by Steven Spielberg, which I wrote about a few years ago.  Spielberg’s film focused on the mechanics of what President Lincoln is most remembered for, the passage of the 13^th Amendment which eliminated slavery in the United States.  President Lincoln is one my heroes and I find just about any well written book or film that focuses on him worth spending my time on. However as much as I enjoyed Lincoln, I regretted that it only covered a brief period near the end of Lincoln’s life.  Recently I discovered a little gem called Young Mr. Lincoln, directed by John Ford in 1939, starring Henry Fonda. 

John Ford is probably most known for his Westerns with John Wayne.  My Ford education is pretty light as I’ve only seen The Searchers and Mr. Roberts but if I had watched the film without knowing who directed it I would have guessed Frank Capra as it shares some qualities with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, although it is not quite as idealistic.  Ford, and screenwriter Lamar Trotti, have clearly studied their subject’s life and have woven it skillfully into this mostly fictional story.  The film depicts Lincoln deciding to become an attorney, arrival in Springfield, Ill, and covers a trial partially inspired by a case Lincoln in real life tried about 20 years later, right before he ran for President.  We see a lot of the classic Lincoln tropes, including his skill as a storyteller, his empathy and rational head in a crisis, willingness to use physical force if needed and a lot of his awkwardness with women, specifically his future wife Mary Todd.

Ford and his makeup team manage to make Fonda resemble Lincoln and Fonda captures gets his stature, lanky nature, tendency to sit with his feet up, love of reading, and his slightly high voice.  Lincoln listens carefully and speaks respectfully to nearly everyone he encounters.  Ford frames a lot of the shots as a Steadicam single shot from the side without cutting, especially during a key cross examination scene late in the film, which emphasizes Lincoln’s stature.  Fonda also captures Lincoln’s sadness and in one point reflects that he has lost three of the people he most loves in the world.

Spoilers to follow:

The plot of the film, which takes a little time to kick in, shows Abraham Lincoln defending two young men who have been accused of killing a deputy sheriff.  Lincoln is a novice attorney but his values, empathy for the women of the family, who remind him of three women he most loved who have died (his late sister, mother, and first love), who would be left behind if the men are hung, and his extensive knowledge from reading Blackstone’s Commentaries, help him come through in a trial where the odds are stacked against him.  The two young men are new in the community and (and appear to have been only defending themselves since the deputy came looking for a fight) the deputy has a lot of local friends.

Part of the reason I thought the film might have been directed by Capra is has a theme of kindness.  Apart from Lincoln’s warmth, the two brothers each take the blame for the killing so as not to make the other suffer.  The sheriff treats the brothers well in jail because they are well behaved.  The boys’ mother refuses to indicate which one she believes killed the deputy because her faith will not allow her to send one of her boys to his death.

The Independence celebration both sets the stage for the confrontation with the deputy but allows us to see how an American town in the relatively new country celebrates its independence (showing veterans of America’s first two wars) and how Lincoln interacts with the members.  The scene allows Ford to show us Lincoln as a rail splitter.  During the pie judging contest Lincoln cannot choose a winner I think because in his heart he does not want to disappoint anyone.  Interestingly Lincoln cheats at the tug of war which would seem to go against his character but perhaps is designed to showcase his out of the box thinking.  Lincoln is never framed in shot with the other men in the contest which places him as a solitary figure.

The film also imagines Lincoln’s introduction to his future wife Mary Todd (Marjorie Weaver), who is being courted by Lincoln’s political rival Stephen Douglas (Milburn Stone).  Lincoln’s polite but distant treatment of Mary after she invites him to a party at her home preludes their ultimate relationship in which Lincoln apparently spent far more time in the company of others with whom he felt more comfortable rather than her.  There is a sense that the late Ann Rutledge is the only woman Lincoln will ever truly love, perhaps because she also came from a similar background.  For Mary it will always be an uphill battle to get Lincoln’s attention which may be a factor in her later mental health struggles. 

Fonda has two big scenes in the film that stand out.  After the boys are arrested Lincoln singlehandedly stops a mob first through strength and then by using the law and their faith to appeal to their better natures.  Lincoln forces them to look beyond the current circumstance and addresses the mob dynamic stating “We do things together we’d be mighty ashamed to do by ourselves” Throughout film history there is so much emphasis is on the classic scene in which Atticus Finch stops a mob in To Kill a Mockingbird that I was surprised that I had never heard of this one which if anything is even more dramatic.

The other big scene is the second cross interrogation of J. Percy Cass in the courtroom.  The public at the trial are rowdier than they would be now, but that might be accurate for the time.  The judge lets Lincoln pull a confession out of Cass without stopping him after he comes off the stand.  In a more realistic depiction, Lincoln probably would have been pulled from the courtroom, but the scene works because of Fonda’s commitment.  Nonetheless Donald Meek as the prosecutor seems to have been cast in part due to his short stature to contrast against Lincoln.

After the trial Lincoln humbly accepts the payment from the family and does not celebrate the win, just taking some minor satisfaction in the fact that the men have been freed.  I interpret the final scene, with Lincoln seemingly walking up the hill in a melancholic state to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic”, followed by a storm, to mean that that Lincoln will climb to the top of the world, and perhaps history, but that it will be turbulent.  Notably the last image is the powerful closeup of the Lincoln Memorial to the line “His truth is marching on” suggesting that Lincoln’s legacy lives on. 

Below are a couple of additional details I would like to comment on:

·       Alfred Newman’s score is charming and sometimes playful.

·       Is the film suggesting that Lincoln wrote the classic tune “Dixie”?  Dixie was written about 20 years after this film is set, by Daniel Decatur Emmett.  However, Lincoln did love the song and often played it at his rallies.

·       Lincoln’s ability to read a situation from the outside while in the middle of it is a unique quality, which he shares with President Obama, who always thought several steps ahead.

·       Lincoln treats the Clay women more respectably than director Ford does, never giving them much of an opportunity to develop as three-dimensional characters though Alice Brady’s representation of Mrs. Clay’s convictions are powerful.

·       Douglas is portrayed overall as well mannered suggesting a political but not a personal rivalry.

Young Mr. Lincoln is an opportunity Great to spend a couple more hours in the presence of Abraham Lincoln at a different point in his life.  ****