Some actors play great characters, and other actors have great characters thrust upon them. That seems to have been the case for Henry Fonda, at least as far as the role of Abraham Lincoln was concerned. It took some rather profane convincing from director John Ford before Fonda finally accepted the title role in Young Mr. Lincoln (1939). Fifty-eight years later, it's hard to imagine any other actor from the period pulling off this particular performance. The picture, which is set in the early 1830s, features Lincoln - who, at this point in his life, is a country lawyer - defending two young men against murder charges. The case, however, is a work of complete fiction. Many of the pivotal people in Lincoln's life appear in the film, including the future First Lady, Mary Todd (Marjorie Weaver). The narrative plays up Lincoln's gifts as a no-nonsense communicator, both as a public and private man. Ford and writer Lamar Trotti were interested in examining the character traits that would one day make Lincoln a great President, regardless of whether the scenes they used to do it actually occurred in real life. Fonda was endlessly impressed with Ford the director, and would go on to make several other classic films with him. "(Young Mr. Lincoln) was a beautiful script," he would tell Anderson, "but like in My Darling Clementine (1946) there were things (Ford) put in at the moment, just little pieces of business, sometimes little pieces of dialogue that were so right on. Fonda was lucky he had already read several books about Lincoln before finally agreeing to star in the film. Ford didn't insist on actors doing research when appearing in historical epics- he simply expected it, and would even quiz secondary performers about their characters, just to make sure they were on their toes..."