An episodic dramatization of the 18th President of the United States' life, including his early years, affair with Ann Rutledge, courtship of Mary Todd, debates with Stephen A. Douglas, the election of 1860, his presidency during the Civil War, and finally his assassination at Ford's Theater in 1865.
| Tagline | The wonder film of the century, about the most romantic figure who ever lived! |
| Release Date: | Nov 08, 1930 |
| Genres: | History, Drama |
| Production Company: | Feature Productions, D.W. Griffith Productions, United Artists |
| Production Countries: | United States of America |
| Casts: | Walter Huston, Una Merkel, William L. Thorne, Lucille La Verne, Helen Freeman, Otto Hoffman, Edgar Dearing, Russell Simpson, Charles Crockett, Kay Hammond, Helen Ware |
| Status: | Released |
| Budget: | $0 |
| Revenue: | 400000 |
"Personally" directed by D. W. Griffith, this is a rather condensed version of the adult life of Abraham Lincoln. From his early life in the Kentucky backwoods where he grew up and his first love perished, through to his galvanising speech making, his election to the US Presidency followed by his decision to emancipate slaves eliciting a war that threatened his country with self-destruction before earning praise and enmity from his emergent and still divided nation. Walter Huston takes on the lead role and is about as wooden an actor as it's possible to get. Indeed, much of this looks and feels like it was a silent film with long, lingering, photography and a distinct paucity of dialogue until it livens up a bit towards the well documented denouement. Kay Hammond breathes a little life into affairs as his wife "Mary Todd" but for the most part this is a rather dry and all too adulatory, rose-tinted, biopic of a man we just don't have time to get to know as ninety minutes wings by. It's watchable, but really only as a "Janet and John" guide to this 13th President.
