Evening star., 1943-03-19

OF mems baser emotions with the
real guilt that of Johnson's enc
mics. The truth about his life.
with Van Hefi1 telling it with
stormy convection. is the stuff OF
considerably better than the aver
age movie and a nice moral lesson
In the fruits Of disSention when de-
mocraCy is confronted by an emer-
GenCN The moral, incidentally. is
inherent in the drama. not stressed
IN II as so often is the case when
the movies set out to correct false
impression.
A special premiere audience,
guests of the theater management
and the Tennessee State Society,
with Miss Ruth Hussey co-star Of
the picture as guest Of honor.
Cheered the correction Justify al
last nights final performance.
History has provided the movies
few figures more vivid than the Vice
President who succeeded Lincoln
and came down to posterity as the
one who was impeached' Out of
homespun and illiteracy, more dra-
matically out of the chains Of
tailor to whom he was peon ap-
prentice. he came to champion the
rights Of the dispossessed. He was
a fanatical believer in the sacred
ness of the Union and he fought
his secessionist neighbors with the
special fury with which nature en-
doWed him perhaps too generously.
AS Van Heflin portrays him in
the tightly written script of John
Balderson and Welles Root, he was
Loncoln-like character-and
fitting SucCeSsor-in all save one re-
spect That difference lay in john
sons uncomfortable temper. Where
the man he succeeded could send
his enemies away with a joke that
was a parable. or parable that was
Joke, johnson flguratively Knocked
their teeth out. If he did not go
quite that far. his unbridled tongue
got him into an equivalent mess.
There was nothing he would not do
for the high principles in which he
believed, except keep his mouth
shut.
He is the better hero for that of
course, in the movie which states
eloquently that he was a misjudged
man.
Tennessee Johnson" is a tight |
piece Of script writing which is con-
Centrated largely upon the Wash
ington phase of Johnson's life. After
he is introduced as an escaped ap- |
prentice. established as an honest, !
hard working tailor in Tennessee. |
pictured as fiery proponent Of !
Constitutional rights, he is whisked i
onto the local stage at the time of |
the Civil War.
Once there. he finds himself en- !
gagged in battle far hotter than at !
Nashville. or elsewhere among his /
Civil War campaigns as soldier.
That is his conflict with Northern
erS. some of them honest and sim
Cere. some of them base, who would
turn victory into cruel revenge. 1t
is a great struggle and one that
carries the chief accent OF the pic
luIF. ONbl III Il W II jltit dliu IiiS4N
perhaps but never seriously vlolat-
Ing the license dramatists grant
themselves.
Helms impersonation OF john
son. a man harrassed by his temper
almost as much as by his ideals, is
one of the screens finer pieces OF
portraiture. 1t is thing OF COM
plete honesty. intelligence and more
resourcefulness than one is accus-
toned to finding in actors charged
with mimicing historically signlfl-
can't persons. If it did not win an
Academy aWard-and 1t did not-lt
Heflin upon the judges
who will remember the next time his
case comes before them.
Miss Hussey accounts handsomely !
FOR Eliza McCardle, the girl who
married the young Andrew and !
spent a lifetime encouraging him to |
greatness and the eventual control /
of himself Arresting among the |
other performances are those OF !