Brigham Young is an American film that was released in 1940. It describes Young's

Brigham Young

Brigham Young was an American leader in the Latter Day Saint movement and a settler of the Western United States. He was the President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1847 until his death in 1877, he founded Salt Lake City, and he served as the first governor of the Utah...

 succession to the presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints after founder Joseph Smith, Jr. was assassinated in 1844.

Plot

The story begins in frontier-town Nauvoo, Illinois

Nauvoo, Illinois

Nauvoo is a small city in Hancock County, Illinois, United States. Although the population was just 1,063 at the 2000 census, and despite being difficult to reach due to its location in a remote corner of Illinois, Nauvoo attracts large numbers of visitors for its historic importance and its...

 in 1844. It follows the main body of the Church as they are forced to leave Illinois, choosing to settle temporarily in Nebraska and then to travel by wagon train to the Great Basin

Great Basin

The Great Basin is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds in North America and is noted for its arid conditions and Basin and Range topography that varies from the North American low point at Badwater Basin to the highest point of the contiguous United States, less than away at the...

. Much of the story's plot revolves around two of the group, Johnthan Kent and Zina Webb.

Production notes

The screenplay

Screenplay

A screenplay or script is a written work that is made especially for a film or television program. Screenplays can be original works or adaptations from existing pieces of writing. In them, the movement, actions, expression, and dialogues of the characters are also narrated...

 was written by Lamar Trotti from a story by Louis Bromfield.

The movie starred Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

 as Smith, Dean Jagger

Dean Jagger

Dean Jagger was an Academy Award winning American film actor.-Career:Born Ira Dean Jagger in Columbus Grove, Ohio, Jagger made his film debut in The Woman from Hell with Mary Astor...

 as Young, Tyrone Power

Tyrone Power

Tyrone Edmund Power, Jr. , usually credited as Tyrone Power and known sometimes as Ty Power, was an American film and stage actor who appeared in dozens of films from the 1930s to the 1950s, often in swashbuckler roles or romantic leads such as in The Mark of Zorro, Blood and Sand, The Black Swan,...

 and Linda Darnell

Linda Darnell

Linda Darnell was an American film actress.Darnell was a model as a child, and progressed to theater and film acting as an adolescent. At the encouragement of her mother, she made her first film in 1939, and appeared in supporting roles in big budget films for 20th Century Fox throughout the 1940s...

.

Reception

Michael and Henry Medved included Brigham Young in their 1984 book The Hollywood Hall of Shame

The Hollywood Hall of Shame

The Hollywood Hall of Shame is a 1984 book by brothers Harry Medved and Michael Medved. The authors had previously written or been involved in the creation of similar books exploring "bad movies" or "cinematic mistakes": The Fifty Worst Films of All Time, and The Golden Turkey Awards.While those...

, stating "Twentieth Century-Fox tried to emphasize its star power and to downplay the religious elements (eventually retitling it Brigham Young, Frontiersman), but the picture still failed, even in Utah.