Tennessee Johnson (1942)

Director:

William Dieterle

Writers:

Milton Gunzburg (story) and
Alvin Meyers (story) ...

Release Date:

December 1942 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Plot Keywords:

Washington D.C. | Tennessee | Conspiracy | Presidential Election | White House

Cast

Van Heflin	...	Andrew Johnson
Lionel Barrymore	...	Thaddeus Stevens
Ruth Hussey	...	Eliza McCardle Johnson
Marjorie Main	...	Mrs. Maude Fisher
Regis Toomey	...	Blackstone McDaniel
J. Edward Bromberg	...	Coke
Grant Withers	...	Mordecai Milligan
Alec Craig	...	Sam Andrews
Charles Dingle	...	Senator Jim Waters
Carl Benton Reid	...	Congressman Hargrove
Russell Hicks	...	Lincoln's emissary
Noah Beery	...	Sheriff Cass (as Noah Beery Sr.)
Robert Warwick	...	Major Crooks
Montagu Love	...	Chief Justice Chase
Lloyd Corrigan	...	Mr. Secretary

Also Known As:

The Man on America's Conscience (UK)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #8802) | USA:Passed (National Board of Review)

Company:

Loew's

Trivia:

Although "William Wright" is in the cast list playing the Alderman, the actor was actually Will Wright, who often used "William Wright" for his name when uncredited.

Goofs:

Factual errors: A key scene in the film depicts Johnson entering the Senate while it is debating his impeachment and removal from office, and making a major speech there in his defense. In reality, the actual President Johnson, despite his desire to confront his enemies in the Senate, never once entered or addressed that body during his impeachment trial.

Quotes:

Jefferson Davis: I must pronounce our solemn farewell. Under these circumstances, of course, my functions - and those of my colleagues - terminate here. We but tread in the path of our fathers when we proclaim our independence - and take the hazard, putting our trust in God, and in our own firm hearts - and strong arms - we will vindicate the right as best we may.
[looking slowly around the room]
Jefferson Davis: I see now around me some with whom I have served long; there have been points of collision. For whatever offense I have given, I ask forgiveness. Of whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here. I carry with me no hostile remembrance. I go hence unencumbered of the remembrance of injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered.
[...]

Soundtrack:

Red River Valley

Lincoln's Letter to Johnson

That letter Lincoln was supposed to have sent Johnson has kind of puzzled me. After all, it is read out loud twice. It SOUNDS like Lincoln's prose style, but I'd never heard of any other reference ot it. So I posted the question on a Civil War newgroups. Here's one of the exchanges.

"Robert Maxwell" wrote> It's generally agreed that at the second inauguration, Andrew Johnson was

skunk drunk when he took the oath and tried to make his speech. I just

watched the movie, "Tennessee Johnson," and it appears that Johnson was ill during the inauguration and that Lincoln later sent him a letter saying

something like, "If you took a drink more often, you would know better than

to take brandy on an empty stomach because you are ill. I know you only

were there because I asked you to be." Does anyone know if this letter ever

existed?

Reply. Having worked for three years as an assistant editor with The Papers of Andrew Johnson and as a member of the Board of Directors of the Abraham Lincoln Association, which is engaged in supporting projects to edit the papers of the sixteenth president, I can safely say that no one I know has ever claimed such a letter to exist.