Brigham Young (1940)

In 1844, after the assassination of Mormon leader Joseph Smith by an angry mob in Illinois, the Mormons choose Brigham Young as their new leader and follow him to a new promised land in Utah.

Director:

Henry Hathaway

Writers:

Louis Bromfield, Lamar Trotti (screenplay)

Stars:

Tyrone Power, Linda Darnell, Dean Jagger

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tyrone Power	...	Jonathan Kent
Linda Darnell	...	Zina Webb
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)

Storyline

The true story of the famous Mormon leader, Brigham Young and his battle to transport his people across the Rocky mountains to settle in Salt Lake City. The plot focuses on two of his people, Jonathan Kent and Zina Webb and the hardships they have to face along the way.

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Plot Keywords:

brigham young character | character name as title | two word title | psychotronic film | rocky mountains | 

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Taglines:

The Great American Motion Picture !

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Genres:

Adventure | Biography | History | Romance | Western

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Certificate:

Approved

Did You Know?

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.

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Goofs

The burial marker was dated June 3, 1845 for Eliza Kent. Talk the next day was about the gold discovery in California. Some Mormon men working for mill operator James Marshall had been in a group landing on the west coast. The day reported for the discovery was January 24, 1848.

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Quotes

Brigham Young: Indians can't be any worse than some Christians I know. But just the same, until we find a little more about them, we mean to trust in you, Lord, and keep our powder dry.

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Connections

Featured in Religulous (2008)

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Soundtracks

Shimalong Joe
(uncredited)
Composer unknown
Played by a band at the party and sung by Fuzzy Knight

User Reviews

A good movie--Heber J. Grant's thoughts

I just saw the movie Brigham Young (1940) at a screening at Brigham Young University. I found the movie to be entertaining and worthwhile as a film, although the historicity is basically a skeleton on which Hollywood drapes their story--which is what Hollywood did all the time anyway. At least it is a positive portrayal.

It may interest readers to know what Heber J. Grant, President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1918 to 1945 had to say about the movie. This is taken from the LDS Conference Report, Sunday October 6, 1940, page 96.

"I am thankful beyond expression for the very wonderful and splendid moving picture that has been made of Brigham Young. I have heard some little criticism of it, but we cannot expect the people who do not know that Brigham Young was in very deed the representative of God upon this earth, who do not know his wonderful character, to tell the story as we would tell it. We know that he was a prophet of the living God and the representative of the Lord here upon the earth. There is nothing in the picture that reflects in any way against our people. It is a very marvelous and wonderful thing, considering how people generally have treated us and what they have thought of us. Of course there are many things in the picture that are not strictly correct, and that is announced in the picture itself. It is of course a picture and we could not hope that they would make a picture at their expense, running into a couple of million dollars, to be just as we would like it. We know that Brigham Young was a powerful and wonderful man, the greatest man of his day, and one of the great things about Brigham Young was that he always gave credit to Joseph Smith for everything that he did. He claimed that he was simply building upon the foundation laid by the prophet of God, who had seen God and conversed with Jesus Christ. He never doubted for one minute the final triumph of the people here in Utah. He was a man of God, and the people thought the world and all of him."

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

27 September 1940 (USA)

Also Known As:

Brigham Young: Frontiersman

Filming Locations:

20th Century Fox Ranch, Malibu Creek State Park - 1925 Las Virgenes Road, Calabasas, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$2,700,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Twentieth Century Fox

Technical Specs

Runtime:

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

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White (Sepiatone)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1