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

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

Did You Know?

Trivia

According to a MovieTone newsreel, the Salt Lake City premiere of Brigham Young, a month before the New York premiere, was the largest premiere in film history. 215,000 people crowded the streets of Salt Lake City to view a massive parade, complete with floats and racing cars with the stars riding in them. Twentieth Century Fox's studio head Darryl F. Zanuck, also the producer of the film, had a part in planning the parade. The Salt Lake City Mayor named that August 23rd Brigham Young Day- the first and only. Originally, one theatre in Salt Lake City was to show the film, but the demand for seats became so high that eventually seven theatres in the city showed the film.

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Goofs

In the movie Joseph Smith is shown unarmed when he is shot and killed. In reality he was armed with a "Pepper" pistol.

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Quotes

Porter Rockwell: Zigzag. That means he wants to talk peace. You zigzag out to meet him.

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Connections

Edited into The Unauthorized Hagiography of Vincent Price (2014)

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Soundtracks

Come, Come Ye Saints
(uncredited)
by William Clayton
Played by the band at the new settlement

User Reviews

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.