The second of three great films released by John Ford in 1939, Hollywood’s most famed year, preceded by “Stagecoach” and followed by “Drums Along the Mohawk”, this slice of Americana perfection posits the Great Emancipator in the dusty town of Springfield, Illinois, years before any notion of a presidential run, as a green lawyer defending two innocent brothers from a lynch mob and a murder wrap. As young Abe, Ford casts Henry Fonda for the first time, looking eerily like the famous rail-splitter with a prosthetic nose and top hat, giving the kind of sensitive and sly performance the director would come to rely on seven more times over the next two decades. As a bonus feature on Criterion’s top notch double-disk, a BBC interview with Fonda tells of his reluctance to take the part, but was persuaded by Ford who suggested playing the role not as the legendary presidential figure, but as a naïve kid looking to make a name for himself as a lawyer in a town full of blowhards and drunken hotheads; a fine persuasion, it’s one of Fonda’s most recognizable parts, quick witted, brooding and soulful, the prototypical Fordian hero.