Abraham Lincoln (1930)

User Rating:

5.9/10   

Director:

D.W. Griffith

Writers:

John W. Considine Jr. (story)
Stephen Vincent Benet (adaptation)

Release Date:

8 November 1930 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama | History | War

Tagline:

The wonder film of the century, about the most romantic figure who ever lived!

Plot:

An episodic biography of the 16th President of the United States.

Plot Keywords:

Civil War | President | Assassination | Debate | Courtship

Cast

William L. Thorne	...	Tom Lincoln (as W.L. Thorne)
Lucille La Verne	...	Mid-Wife
Helen Freeman	...	Nancy Hanks Lincoln
Otto Hoffman	...	Offut
Walter Huston	...	Abraham Lincoln
Edgar Dearing	...	Jack Armstrong (as Edgar Deering)
Una Merkel	...	Ann Rutledge
Russell Simpson	...	Uncle Jimmy
Charles Crockett	...	Sheriff
Kay Hammond	...	Mary Todd Lincoln
Helen Ware	...	Mrs. Edwards
E. Alyn Warren	...	Stephen A. Douglas
Jason Robards Sr.	...	Billy Herndon (as Jason Robards)
Gordon Thorpe	...	Tad Lincoln
Ian Keith	...	John Wilkes Booth

Also Known As:

D.W. Griffith's 'Abraham Lincoln' (USA)

Runtime:

USA:90 min (TCM print) | 96 min (copyright length)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.20 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (MovieTone)

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

D.W. Griffith Productions

Trivia:

Reviews and other references credit Fred Warren for the role of General Grant and E. Alyn Warren for Stephen A. Douglas, but the print shown on Turner Classic Movies credits E. Alyn Warren for both roles. That print, however, is not original. It is an Art Cinema Associates Inc. re-release, with the title page changed accordingly. Fact of the matter is, E. Alyn Warren, who often worked under the name of Fred Warren, and plays both roles, Stephen A. Douglas, credited as E. Alyn Warren, and Ulysses S. Grant, credited as Fred Warren.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: Shortly before leaving Mary Todd waiting at the altar (circa 1850), Lincoln opens a drawer and looks at a daguerreotype of his lost love, Ann Rutledge, who had died several years before in 1835. Dagguereotypes did not reach the United States until the mid-1840s.

Quotes:

Abraham Lincoln: You know, Ann, I... I've always done a lot of dreaming. And lately it seems when I dream, your face gets mixed up in it.
Ann Rutledge: Does it really, Abe? Tell me about them, Lincoln.
Abraham Lincoln: Well, I... I feel as though I'm going to be seeing your face 'til the day I die. Course, I know that that'll be pretty hard on you to have to look at my face that long.
Ann Rutledge: Everybody to their own opinion.
Abraham Lincoln: Hmm?
Ann Rutledge: Well, I... I think it's the dearest, kindest, most beautiful face in the whole world.
Abraham Lincoln: Oh, Ann, Ann. Course, I know that's just flattery, but I love it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Century of Cinema (1994)

Soundtrack:

When Johnny Comes Marching Home

"The Most Romantic Figure Who Ever Lived????"

Before writing this review I saw that publicity driven line about this film. Abraham Lincoln is a lot of things, but NOBODY ever accused him of being a great romantic. All I can say there is, Huh?

Abraham Lincoln is one of two sound films made by movie pioneer, David W. Griffith. It's also something of an atonement for Griffith who was accused fostering racism with his masterpiece silent work, The Birth of a Nation.

Maybe if Abraham Lincoln had been a better film it would have succeeded in being an atonement. It certainly had one of the best interpreters of Lincoln ever in Walter Huston. The film also in many ways looks like a newsreel of the Civil War era. Our image of that era and you can see it in Ken Burns documentary comes from Matthew Brady's still photographs. In crafting this and The Birth of a Nation, Griffith was heavily influenced by Brady's still photographs.

Lincoln's prarie years were better told in Abe Lincoln in Illinois and Young Mr. Lincoln. Griffith should have stuck to the war years and made it in fact the Lincoln family story. One thing that would have done is eliminated Una Merkel as Ann Rutledge. Una Merkel had many a good role as a wisecracking dame in modern films. But in Abraham Lincoln she's just awful as Lincoln's lost love Ann Rutledge. It's a miracle she had a career after this film and a good one.