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After delivering an address at the dedication ceremony of the cemetary at Gettysburg, on 19 November 1863, President Abraham Lincoln is disappointed in the crowd's seeming lack of enthusiasm. The following day, while taking a reflective walk around the Capital, he encounters a young boy in urgent need of an attorney. Accompanying him to a nearby hospital, the boy explains that his brother, a Southern soldier wounded in battle, is dying and wants to dictate his will. The young man, eyes bandaged and unconscious of the stranger's identity, regales him with the newspaper's accounting of the eloquent speech and recites as much of it as he is able. He reassures the address's author that the crowd's lack of ovation was because they were too much in awe to move or speak. The President is humbled. Written by Chris Stone <jstone@bellatlantic.net>
Frank McGlyn who usually played Abraham Lincoln in so many films must have been busy so MGM took the highly unusual step of hiring burlesque comedian Chic Sale who was playing many grandfatherly types in his declining years as Lincoln. Sale does a restrained and dignified portrayal of Lincoln.
The short subject is in two parts first with Lincoln riding on the train to Gettysburg trying to compose a few short remarks for the occasion. He's with Edward Everett the main speaker and his Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton.
The scene then cuts to Lincoln visiting a hospital where he reads those remarks to a blind and dying southern soldier.
The Perfect Tribute was a well acted short subject from MGM.