Brigham Young (1940)

User Rating:

6.5/10   

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Louis Bromfield (writer)
Lamar Trotti (screenplay)

Release Date:

27 September 1940 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | History | Romance | Western

Plot:

The true story of the famous Mormon leader, Brigham Young and his battle to transport his people across...

Plot Keywords:

Rocky Mountains | Hardship | Mormon | Brigham Young | Trial

Cast

Tyrone Power	...	Jonathan Kent
Linda Darnell	...	Zina Webb - The Outsider
Dean Jagger	...	Brigham Young
Brian Donlevy	...	Angus Duncan
Jane Darwell	...	Eliza Kent
John Carradine	...	Porter Rockwell
Mary Astor	...	Mary Ann Young
Vincent Price	...	Joseph Smith
Jean Rogers	...	Clara Young
Ann E. Todd	...	Mary Kent (as Ann Todd)
Willard Robertson	...	Heber Kimball
Moroni Olsen	...	Doc Richards
Marc Lawrence	...	Prosecutor
Stanley Andrews	...	Hyrum Smith
Frank M. Thomas	...	Hubert Crum (as Frank Thomas)

Also Known As:

Brigham Young: Frontiersman (UK) (USA) (promotional title)

Runtime:

113 min (FMC Library Print) | 114 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #6329) | USA:TV-PG (TV rating) | Finland:S

Filming Locations:

Alabama Hills, Lone Pine, California, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

Moroni Olsen was the only principal cast member who was a Mormon. Dean Jagger was not a member of that church when he portrayed its Church's leader, but he did join some 32 years later.

Quotes:

Mary Ann Young: You're dead set against California, aren't you?
Brigham Young: You know human nature. Take a crowd of people to a place of milk and honey and in six months time, they won't be worth shooting.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Religulous (2008)

Soundtrack:

Oh! Susanna

Powerful film, but Ty is just in it for box office

This is a wonderful movie about the struggle of the Mormons and their final settlement in Salt Lake, Utah. The beginning and the ending are especially powerful, and the message is one we all have to be reminded of - God doesn't talk, but he communicates, if we would only listen. As I am writing this in the midst of the horrors going on in New Orleans and the surrounding area due to Katrina, I was especially moved by the Mormons having to leave everything behind and move on after Joseph Smith was assassinated. People came to this country to escape religious persecution, and yet they could not. The struggle of the Mormons to cross the country, the cost in lives, the hardship they suffered was truly awe-inspiring, demonstrating their tremendous strength. As far as the actual beliefs of Mormons, this is not heavily gone into, and polygamy is mentioned but is not a centerpiece of the film at all.

The cast is top-notch, though others who have commented know more about the actual characters and can talk about how true the portrayals were. But as actors, Dean Jagger, Mary Astor, Brian Donlevy, John Carradine, Jane Darwell all do excellently with the script they were given.

Though the film could have easily stood on its own (and certainly does today) Tyrone Power and Linda Darnell were added to the cast to get the crowds into the movie theaters to see a film about the Mormons. Power is magnificently handsome as a young Mormon, and Darnell, as Zina, is not a Mormon but stays on with the family after her father is killed. Power does not have much to do until the end of the film, when he has a big scene, and Darnell (still a teenager at the time of the filming) has even less, though they make a lovely couple. Their fate is left unclear regarding her conversion, and one does wonder about the polygamy in their case. You can't beat either one for eye candy, however.