Brigham Young (1940)

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Louis Bromfield
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:

Mormon | Brigham Young | Hardship | Rocky Mountains | Burial

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)
Fuzzy Knight	...	Pete
Dickie Jones	...	Henry Kent
Selmer Jackson	...	Caleb Kent - Jonathan' Father
Frederick Burton	...	Mr. Webb - Zina's Father
Arthur Aylesworth	...	Jim Bridger
Chief John Big Tree	...	Big Elk (as Chief Big Tree)
Davison Clark	...	Johnson
Claire Du Brey	...	Emma Smith (as Claire DuBrey)
Tully Marshall	...	Judge
Dick Rich	...	Mob Leader Whipping Mr. Kent
Ralph Dunn	...	Jury Foreman
Edwin Maxwell	...	Another Mob Leader
Edmund MacDonald	...	Elder
George Melford	...	John Taylor
Russell Simpson	...	U.S. Army Major
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Paul E. Burns	...	Man with California Gold News (uncredited)
Edmund Elton	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Jody Gilbert	...	Stout Woman Who Can't Swim (uncredited)
William Haade	...	Skeptic (uncredited)
Herbert Heywood	...	Jokester at Chronicle Notice (uncredited)
Cammilla Johnson	...	Little Girl (uncredited)
Cullen Johnson	...	Boy in Covered Wagon (uncredited)
Payne B. Johnson	...	Boy in Covered Wagon (uncredited)
David Kirkland	...	Elder (uncredited)
Frank LaRue	...	Sheriff (uncredited)
Charles Frederick Lindsley	...	Trailer Narrator (uncredited)
Murdock MacQuarrie	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Louis Mason	...	Man Laughing at Joke (uncredited)
Charles Middleton	...	Mob Member (uncredited)
Philip Morris	...	Mob Member (uncredited)
Imboden Parrish	...	Man (uncredited)
Ruth Robinson	...	Discouraged Mormon (uncredited)
John Roy	...	(uncredited)
Frank Shannon	...	Second Man with California Gold News (uncredited)
Lee Shumway	...	Mob Member (uncredited)
Harry Tyler	...	Undetermined Role (uncredited)
Eddy Waller	...	an with California Gold News (uncredited)
Cecil Weston	...	Woman (uncredited)
Blackie Whiteford	...	Court Spectator (uncredited)
Hank Worden	...	Mormon Cheering Porter (uncredited)

Directed by
Henry Hathaway

Writing credits
Louis Bromfield
Lamar Trotti		(screenplay)

Produced by
Kenneth Macgowan	....	associate producer
Darryl F. Zanuck	....	producer

Original Music by
Alfred Newman
Robert Russell Bennett		(uncredited)
David Buttolph		(uncredited)
Cyril J. Mockridge		(uncredited)

Cinematography by
Arthur C. Miller		(as Arthur Miller)

Film Editing by
Robert Bischoff

Art Direction by
William S. Darling		(as William Darling)
Maurice Ransford

Set Decoration by
Thomas Little

Costume Design by
Gwen Wakeling

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Otto Brower	....	second unit director (uncredited)
Charles Hall	....	assistant director (uncredited)
Ad Schaumer	....	assistant director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Roger Heman Sr.	....	sound (as Roger Heman)
E. Clayton Ward	....	sound

Special Effects by
Fred Sersen	....	special effects

Camera and Electrical Department
Joseph LaShelle	....	camera operator (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sam Benson	....	wardrobe (uncredited)

Other crew
Eleanor Harris	....	story researcher
George D. Pyper	....	technical advisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation)

Distributors

• Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation (1940) (USA) (theatrical) (as Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2003) (USA) (VHS)
• 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Fox Video (1995) (USA) (VHS)

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 leader, but he did join some 32 years later.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Eliza Kent's tomb "wheel" shows she died in 1843 on the trek west. But Joseph Smith did not die until 1844 and the saints did not leave Nauvoo until 1846.

Quotes:

[an army officer tells the Mormons they must leave Illinois immediately because the law can't help them]
Brigham Young:The law? What law? The law that let's a pack of scoundrels come in here and hunt us down like wild animals, burn our homes, ruin our crops, arrest our leader on trumped-up charges and then look the other way when a mob breaks in and murders him? If they call that law, let 'em keep it. We don't want any more of it!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Religulous (2008)

Soundtrack:

Come, Come Ye Saints

Comments from a Mormon about Brigham Young-Frontiersman

I enjoyed Brigham Young-Frontiersman immensely, however, I would not characterize the movie as an accurate portrayal of the personalities in the film. Although the events are accurate enough, the film does not do justice to the historical figures. Immediately noticeable is the positive light that Mormons are cast in, and I think this is necessary to make the film work given the subject matter and historical events portrayed. Nevertheless, being a card carrying Mormon, and having read a great deal of history and biography on the leaders of the Church, I cannot say that the personalities are true to history. I thought that Vincent Price cast as Joseph Smith was very strange, though my reaction to him in the role was heavily tainted by his later roles in the Roger Corman adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe's works (The Pit and the Pendulum, The Raven, etc.). Still, I felt that Price was not charismatic enough, and did not have the forceful presence that Joseph Smith surely had in life. Dean Jagger cast as Brigham Young was more tolerable, but not really as convincing as say Brian Keith in the Wind and the Lion, or George C. Scott in Patton. Furthermore, Brigham Young had a very powerful, direct, yet unrefined manner of speech that had it been carefully followed or mimicked, would have made the character much more convincing. His manner of speech is entirely unique and really gets a reader's attention. It is often very humorous as well. Hearing it in the film would have greatly improved the script, but the writers would have needed to immerse themselves thoroughly in his discourses and writings to carry it off.

Moreover, there are a host of perspectives or ways of looking at things that are unique to Mormons, not to mention a very distinctive manner of speech and phraseology regarding religious matters that the film failed to capture. As an active Mormon, I would have to say that as I watched the film I felt like an insider observing a film written by outsiders who had not properly done their homework. The film has many fine qualities and I give it a good rating. If the writing had been more true to Mormon thinking, speech patterns and their leaders unique personalities, it would have been all that was necessary to raise the film from good to great. All of this aside, I give the film three stars out of a possible four.