Abe Lincoln in Illinois

Plot synopsis:
Abe Lincoln (Raymond Massey) leaves home for the first time, having been hired along with two of his friends by Denton Offut (Harlan Briggs) to take a load of pigs by water to New Orleans. When the boat gets stuck at a dam at the settlement of New Salem, Abe first sees and loses his heart to Ann Rutledge (Mary Howard), the beautiful daughter of the local tavern keeper. Thus, when Denton later offers him a job at the store he has decided to set up in New Salem, Abe readily accepts.
Abe discovers however that Ann already has a beau. Nonetheless, he settles in, making himself the most popular man around with his ready, good-natured humor, and taking lessons from schoolteacher Mentor Graham (Louis Jean Heydt). When his rival for Ann's affections leaves to better himself, Ann waits for him two years before receiving a letter from him in which he states he does not know when he will return. Abe seizes the opportunity to express his love for her; she is unsure of her feelings for him and asks for a little time. Alas, she dies soon after of "brain fever", telling Abe on her deathbed that she could have loved him.
Abe is asked to run for the State Assembly. He reluctantly accepts and wins, but after his first term in Springfield, Illinois, he decides to study the law instead. When Mary Todd (Ruth Gordon) visits her sister Elizabeth Edwards (Dorothy Tree) and her wealthy, influential husband Ninian (Harvey Stephens), a party is held in her honor. All the eligible bachelors show up, including Abe's fiercest political rival, Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart). However, it is the homely, unpolished Abe who catches Mary's fancy, much to her sister's chagrin. Ambitious, Mary senses greatness in him and is determined to drive him to his rightful destiny, despite his lack of ambition. Abe does ask her to marry him, but changes his mind at the last minute, discomfited by her drive, and leaves town. After thinking things over, however, he asks for her hand again. She accepts. Years pass, and they have several children.
With a presidential election looming, Abe's party is so split that none of the favorites is acceptable to all. The party leaders compromise on "dark horse" Abe Lincoln. He engages in a series of debates with Stephen Douglas, the opposing candidate. One of the main issues is slavery. In a stirring speech, Abe contends that "a house divided against itself cannot stand". He wins the election. As the film ends, Abe bids his friends goodbye and boards the train to go to Washington, DC.

Tags: historical

Review:
Good performances by Ruth Gordon, Alan Baxter, Howard DaSilva, Clem Bevans.Massey is the definitive movie Lincoln.
Includes two of Lincoln's best speeches from that period, with Massey's performance very close to Lincoln's 19th century oratorical style.Highly recommended to students of American history and fans of old movies..
No hagiography, this movie lets us see the Lincolns as human beings with real "issues", rather than mere heroes of history.Besides all this, we have Massey's astonishing physical resemblance to Lincoln.What's most amazing is that the spirit of this most quintessentially American of our American heroes should be so wonderfully captured and portrayed by....
Besides Raymond Massey, a whole flock of actors have been known for playing America's sixteenth president, Henry Fonda, Walter Huston, Sam Waterston, Hal Holbrook, Dennis Weaver, Gregory Peck, John Carradine.
Character actor Frank McGlyn practically made a career of playing The Great Emancipator whenever Honest Abe was a character in a film.
But the standard has been set by Raymond Massey who did Lincoln in Robert Sherwood's play for 472 performances on Broadway during the 1938-1939 season and he repeats the title role in Abe Lincoln in Illinois for this film version.
Herndon's well known antipathy for Mary Todd Lincoln as the shrewish wife of his good friend comes through her in Ruth Gordon's portrayal.
Lincoln is still our tallest president at 6'4" so the contrast on the speaking platform at the Lincoln-Douglas debates was really something to see.The only other actor to recreate his stage role besides Massey was Howard DaSilva who played Jack Armstrong.
It was one of DaSilva's earliest screen roles.Raymond Massey got an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor in 1940 and he was up against a strong field that included Henry Fonda for The Grapes of Wrath, Charles Chaplin for The Great Dictator, and Laurence Olivier in Rebecca.
ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS (RKO Radio, 1940), directed by John Cromwell, is not so much a biography of Abraham Lincoln, but the life Lincoln lived from his early years to a position that would lead him to politics, and against all odds, his winning the election for the United States presidency in 1860.
Sherwood, the screen adaptation, tracing Lincoln's thirty years starting in 1831 to his train ride leading to Washington, D.C., in 1861, stars Raymond Massey in a role he originated on stage, being the best performance of a great American ever enacted by an actor who wasn't.
Although he didn't win the election for that year, it is Massey who very well holds this movie together.A follow-up of sorts to John Ford's most recent YOUNG MR.
LINCOLN (20th Century-Fox, 1939), starring Henry Fonda, focusing on Lincoln's early years as a young lawyer in Springfield, Ill., and a retelling in parts to D.W. Griffith's ABRAHAM LINCOLN (United Artists, 1930), starring Walter Huston, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS starts off on a rainy afternoon in 1831 with an introduction to the character of Abraham Lincoln (Raymond Massey), age 22, sitting on the floor in a log cabin reading a book by Shakespeare, accompanied by his father (Charles B.
The marriage produces four sons (the movie indicates three, eliminating one who died in his fourth year), and shows Mary's fight in having her hayseed husband fulfill his destiny, to become president of the United States.Ruth Gordon (1896-1985), a prominent stage actress and playwright, in her movie debut, gives a remarkable performance in one of the best carnations of Mary Todd Lincoln ever portrayed on screen.
Lockhart's best moment finds his Stephen Douglas sincerely congratulating his opponent Abraham Lincoln in winning the U.S. election, something that should become a prime example with modern-day candidates.As mentioned before, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS is very much a retread to D.W. Griffith's 1930 presentation of ABRAHAM LINCOLN, with differences being the elimination of Lincoln's birth, his trying years in the White House during the Civil War and assassination in April 1865.
In many ways, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS is an excellent movie with excellent portrayals.
Highlights include the well staged Lincoln-Douglas debate, and one where Lincoln finally losing his temper towards his wife, Mary, after embarrassing him in front of his committee, by ordering her, twice, "You're not/never to do that again!"ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS, formerly shown on commercial television annually either on or around Lincoln's birthday, February 12, later presented on video cassette finally on cable television's American Movie Classics prior to 2000, and Turner Classic Movies.
Abe Lincoln would've made a great Raymond Massey....
If only we could've cloned Mr. Massey back in 1940, and then waited for a scriptwriter who could take a more controlled hand with historical accuracy than was fashionable in those days, and released the movie today...this remains my favorite treatment of one of my favorite historical figures; Massey seems born to have played Lincoln, from the obvious physical resemblance to the supposed mannerisms, and in doing so far outshines other Lincoln performances (Fonda's and Peck's come to mind).
Lincoln is portrayed by the late Canadian actor Raymond Massey - who, amongst many other roles, is also remembered from HG Welles' Things to Come, the screenplay of which was written by HG Welles himself.
Some from that time state Lincoln's voice was high-pitched, and that Massey did not do the voice properly - however, I tend to give more credence to a living witness, Lincoln's own eldest son who, though he died 14 years prior to this film, still had the opportunity to see Massey on stage and hear his voice.
I have seen this film probably 15 times or more and have been a devotee of the Lincoln mythology (for lack of a better term) for nearly 20 years.
But, the best part of the movie is how even with some artistic license the characters surrounding Lincoln are historically strong and represent in a film microcosm a very accurate historical reality of Lincoln's early years.
Since the film takes place before Lincoln is actually president, Mary Todd Lincoln's shenanigans within the White House or her emotional unraveling in her later years is not an issue here.
While ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS is far from perfect, it is light-years ahead of the other contemporary works in giving a balanced account of Lincoln's life.
While heroic in many ways, Lincoln is more of a man in this film and the facts are generally true--and that's a lot more than can be said of such sentimental hogwash as D.W. Griffith's 1930 fiasco ABRAHAM LINCOLN--which is basically one myth after another strung together!!
a legitimate shot at presenting the real Abe. This film portrays Abe Lincoln's political rise as a man of the people, from his wrestling brawl with town bully Howard da Silva to his failure as a general store owner and his humble beginning in politics as a town postmaster.
Perhaps the most influential woman is the one not shown, his mother, but he shares a moving scene with his step mother as he's leaving home, and then with Ann Rutledge, and finally with Mary Todd played in an unusually interesting way by Ruth Gordon.
Raymond Massey's portrayal of Abraham Lincoln during his rebuttal of Stephen A Douglas towards the end of the movie is the most fantastic combination of great content and great acting I have ever seen.
The rest of the movie is also top quality.On www.answers.com I read: Early in Massey's career, Abraham Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln (1843-1926), heard Massey perform and was struck by the close similarity of Massey's speaking voice to that of his father.In the end it's hard to separate Mr. Massey from Abraham Lincoln.
Both Raymond Massey (who played Abraham Lincoln) and Gene Lockhart (who played Stephen A Douglas and was the father of June Lockhart) were born in Canada.
The movie follows Abraham Lincoln (Raymond Massey) from his early days in Kentucky up until his election as President.
If you want to learn more details about Lincoln's life, I'm sure your local librarian would fall over his or herself to recommend some good books for you to read.Surprisingly, the movie was a huge flop for RKO at the time.
But the script and more accurate casting (Massey was just born to play Abe) probably leans in favor of this film.
Raymond Massey earned his only Oscar nomination for "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." Where was the academy fifteen years later when "East of Eden" debuted?
Sadness pursues him with the early loss of his mother and later his wife-to-be Ann Rutledge.As a young lawyer, he meets the politically ambitious and cunning Mary Todd Lincoln.
Take it from a person who knows the Lincoln story; has lived his whole life the area portrayed in the film.
I think it be a foolhardy endeavor to look to this motion picture for an answer about Abraham Lincoln and the life thereof.This film does not provide an answer but more or less an idea about the times which immediately preceded Abraham Lincoln into office.It is nonetheless a very fine film about a truly great man in Abraham Lincoln.I think if there is one thing about these Hollywood films they due tend to mix things up a bit and this particular film is no exception,however that being said,Raymond Massey was as close to the real thing as I have ever seen.A truly remarkable rendition is made by the casting of Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln.In so far as his performance,it is equal to his likeness to Abraham Lincoln,unmistakable.The attempt to place certain events as having occurred in Abraham Lincolns life is not without peril because there is next to no information about Ann Rutledge.This seems to be very much the way that these films like to mix things up,I don't think there was such and historically there is no real evidence of any such relation.However it is not unattractive and it is more to the credit of this medium than to Abraham Lincoln.The addition of these false attributes are of another sort and provide only a glance at an underlying problem associated with Hollywood and its film making proclivities,however it is well maintained that this is a top rate motion picture.Perhaps one of the most stirring moments in this picture was the depiction of the Lincoln-Douglas debates and here it,this film and its star,Raymond Massey as Abraham Lincoln shine as the star in the sky.It is perhaps one of the defining moments in this film and indeed it drew much attention in its time as well.Abraham Lincoln did provide for a dramatic farewell however the placing of the Battle Hymm of the Republic was poorly timed,however some of the speeches were stirring then and even now,perhaps Abraham Lincoln does walk at midnight.Mary Todd Lincoln was played by Ruth Gordon and though it can be difficult to judge what life can provide for in the proposal and the subsequent life that Mary Todd and Abraham Lincoln had,here we have almost an ill suited pairing that provide for a wealth of humor and pathos in both the performances by Ruth Gordon and Raymond Massey.There is such a genuine appeal of this backwoodsman in Abraham Lincoln that pleasure in his life and times proceed beyond our ability to judge.It is a film that has the uncanny ability to keep your attention through character development rather than special effects.The performance of Ruth Gordon as Mary Todd Lincoln is as well worthy of the man and his times.It is very dutiful and devoted though no less engaging to watch these two bare three children as time passes.Abe and Mary were to lose there youngest while Abraham Lincoln was in office.The loss had a devastating effect on both parents with special mention in particular to Mary Todd.However,this film does not start here but ends up here and perhaps some mention about the earlier time in the film is worth consideration.It seems that Abraham Lincoln was very much self taught and possessed a desire to know more through his efforts and others efforts in his behalf.It is a little bit confusing as to why they would wish to suggest that Abraham Lincoln did'nt know Shakespeare from one of his plays or sonnets for that matter.I think that is Hollywood and such are there proclivities to a particular kind of thinking.This illusion may in fact suggest something of a racial nature which is not necessarily black but does court influence.The influence here like then was of an arrogant nature and it promised only ridicule and a unreasoning demand.This is one of the sorrows that this film hides in its colloquial attempt to include all in its nature.It is worthy of note that there was cause as to the Civil War and indeed this film showed some of that.The highlighting as to the flint of the fire being the story of John Brown is only the beginning and even more so this film was not so much an attempt to know the causes as to the conflict but was an attempt more so to present the life leading up to that point in time of Abraham Lincoln.This time in history has that about it,it is a flint by which the fires of everlasting virtue are brought upon the life of our greatest president.This film provides in its own right a category which I refer to as Americana.Though indeed we are looking at a motion picture and further we may suggest that there is nothing like the real thing it remains a film as popular and as worth enjoying as any the likes that have come from Hollywood,USA.It has been graded a 10 because it rates great Americana story telling.The only suggestion that I wish to conclude this comment with is that when I saw this film as coincidence would have it,I was in a class entitled "Civil War History" in an institution of higher learning and it made this all the more enjoyable.If you wish to know more about this very dramatic time you might be well served to purchase,"The Civil War,A film by Ken Burns"or maybe become a historian like Bruce Catton because there is more drama in this time period then Hollywood can produce.This comment is being submitted in honor of Presidents Day-Feb.21,2005..
Raymond Massey received his only Oscar nomination as "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" and it's s superb performance and unlike Ford's movie this covers the whole spectrum of Lincoln's life from the earliest days right up to Washington and the presidency, his courtship of Ann Rutledge, (a charming Mary Howard), and marriage to Mary Todd, (a wonderful Ruth Gordon).Other standouts in a good cast include Gene Lockhart as Stephen Douglas and Howard Da Silva as the town bully who becomes Abe's best friend.
This movie has to be the definitive treatment of Abe Lincoln in a motion picture.
Although not a documentary, this movie dramatizes Lincoln's life, especially as it relates to those factors which led to his nomination and election as President.
Ruth Gordon gives an outstanding performance as Mary Todd Lincoln and Gene Lockhardt is wonderful as Stephen Douglas, who was Lincoln's main political rival as well as his friend.
"Abe Lincoln in Illinois" is more of a biographical sketch that gives us far more of Lincoln's political rise, as well as his romances with Ann Rutledge and, later, Mary Todd.
Ford's movie mostly sketches the character of Lincoln and then turns into a courtroom drama leavened with comic incidents.Comparing the two leads, it can be said that Raymond Massey is a more convincing Lincoln than Henry Fonda.
(The film prunes this "house divided against itself" speech.) But -- I'll try to keep this short -- aside from Cromwell's movie covering Lincoln's maturation from a slow youth to his departure with his new whiskers for Washington, while Ford's movie covers a much shorter time span and includes virtually no politics -- Ford's movie is helped immensely by Alfred Newman's multivaried musical score.
There's nothing like it in "Abe Lincoln in Illinois." On top of that, Sherwood's narrative (he did the screenplay too) has more serious drama in it, including the conflict between the compliant and peaceable Lincoln and his fiery and ambitious wife, who was later to spend time in an insane asylum.
"Abe Lincoln in Illinois" Movie Review with a Big Ending Spoiler!.
In Robert Sherwood's "Abe Lincoln in Illinois"(1940), Raymond Massey was Abraham Lincoln, and it showed.
"Abe Lincoln in Illinois" is the best of the Lincoln movies.
But Mary saw a winner in Abraham.As a lawyer, Abe tended to show a great deal of interest in all people, in helping the poor and in politics.
Mary liked those positives in his personality.During these years, Lincoln worked hard and readied himself for a successful law and political career.
In his later years, Massey became a U.S. citizen.Gene Lockhart, Bob Cratchett of "A Christmas Carol"(1938), played Stephen Douglas.
Ruth Gordon, known as the fun 80 year old Maude of the cult film "Harold & Maude" (1971), played Mary Todd.
This wrecked Abe Lincoln in Illinois's certainty of a place in the Times Ten Best.
These comments fall a long way short of Nugent's endorsement which declared: "Although the Pulitzer committee may smile skeptically, we have no hesitation in calling the film the play's superior, in calling Raymond Massey's screen Lincoln better than his play's Lincoln, in finding it not only a more complete record of the man and his times, but a far more dramatic and a far more significant biography than the Pulitzer committee saw."Other critics across the nation were equally enthusiastic: With 221 votes, the film placed 6th in the annual Film Daily poll.COMMENT: One of the best films ever made, this movie features a brilliant performance from Raymond Massey in the title role.
Certainly Raymond Massey rendered one of the all-time great performances of the cinema.
While this film may not toe the line is historical accuracy it was probably are more realistic look at what Abe Lincoln's life was really like.
Her Mary Todd portrayed as a power hungry, totally controlling, head strong woman was the perfect opposite of Massey's down home, humble Lincoln.
From completely ignoring Lincolns 3 sons deaths to showing Mr. Lincoln as a perfect person , this movie lacked big time.