MORMONS IN THE MOVIES

FROM MORMONSPLOITATION TO EDIFICATION, LATTER-DAY SAINTS CINEMA RUNS THE GAMUT.

- BY HENRY C. PARKE

The early screen portrayals of Mormonism were not flattering, especially in their focus on the perceived evils of polygamy. Mormon evangelists had made themselves so unpopular in Denmark that by 1911, they had a mini-industry of anti-Mormon films, with others made in France and England in addition to the United States. Similarly themed silent versions of Zane Grey's Riders of the Purple Sage, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's A Study in Scarlet were not likely to produce converts.

The first important film about Mormons, and Brigham Young in particular, was 20th Century Fox’s 1940 release, Brigham Young, which starred handsome Tyrone Power—not as Young, but as a sort of Mormon “everyman,” with Linda Darnell as a non-Mormon “everywoman.” Fox President Darryl F. Zanuck was one of the few non-Jewish studio heads, but he was very socially conscious. Concerned about the abuse of Jews in Germany, he wanted to present the story of the Mormons as a sort of parable to what Jews were going through. Delighted at the chance for a positive portrayal, Zanuck received the wholehearted assistance of the Mormon Church. Director Henry Hathaway was less enthusiastic: “The two dullest things in the whole world are a wagon train and religion. Now you take them and put them together.” But with a script by Fox’s top screenwriter, Lamar Trotti, and cinematography by three-time Oscar-winning black-and-white master Arthur Miller, Hathaway made a thrilling, timeless adventure. An important production, it was shot not only at Fox’s soundstages and their Malibu Ranch, but at Big Bear, Lone Pine and other California locations, plus Elko, Nevada, and Kanab, Utah.