New West Network

The Making of Brigham Young

By Contributing Writer, New West Unfiltered 5-15-06

By Clint Wardlow, UtahGothic.com

One of the more interesting aspects of the of 20th Century Fox's DVD release of Brigham Young, more interesting than the movie itself, is the commentary provided by BYU film historian, James D'Arc. Unlike most DVD commentary, D'Arc provides a lot of enlightening facts about the trials and tribulation the filmmakers went through in bringing Brigham Young to the screen.

In 1939, when 20th Century Fox announced it was making a big budget movie about Brigham Young, Mormon Church president Heber J. Grant and his officials were worried. After all, movie portrayals of the Mormon experience in the past cast a less than stellar view of the Church. During the silent era, Hollywood ground out over 30 exposes such as Trapped By The Mormons which depicted young innocent girls lured into polygamous weddings with lecherous Mormon patriarchs. As entertaining as these ventures might be, church officials felt they were a less than fair representation. I mean, the orthodox Mormons hadn't been practicing polygamy for damn near 50 years. To make sure the Church had some input in the story of its second greatest icon, Grant assigned Elder John A. Widtsoe to influence the outcome of the film. Good flack that he was, Widtsoe began by inviting the screenwriter to Utah to see Mormons first hand. He got the deluxe treatment, a four-day tour of Utah including Temple Square. As a result, church officials proudly said the filmmakers incorporated a lot of their suggestions.

Brigham Young was budgeted at a lavish $1.4 million. Producer Darryl F. Zanuck also took a personal interest in the film. He saw it as a parallel to the modern day plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany. At the time of release many reviewers commented the story was more "about the 1940s than the 1840s." To get the most bang for his buck, Zanuck brought on Henry Hathaway to direct and Lamar Trotti to turn Louis Broomfield's story into a script. Zanuck cast his biggest stars, Tyrone Powers and Linda Darnell, to play the romantic leads. For the role of Brigham Young, unknown Dean Jagger was selected.

Thursday: Brigham Young: Fact and Fiction