Abe Lincoln in Illinois: A Review

(I originally posted this on July 10, 2011.  Time to repost it again.)

 

Thomas Wolfe once famously wrote “you can’t go home again” and I guess that sometimes applies to films.  When I was a boy and a teenager I loved the film Abe Lincoln in Illinois. Released in 1940, the film was an adaptation of Robert E. Sherwood’s broadway play.  Raymond Massey gave a stunning performance as Abraham Lincoln which has remained with me, although I have not seen the film, other than Youtube excerpts, in probably 35 years.  Recently I learned that the film had been released on DVD.  Purchasing it, I watched it last Friday evening.

The film was certainly as powerful as I remembered it.  Raymond Massey gave an eerily on target performance as Abraham Lincoln and Gene Lockhart was magnificent as Lincoln’s great antagonist, Stephen A. Douglas.  However, in the intervening decades I had learned quite a bit about Lincoln and his time and several aspects of the film I found grating:

1.  Historical howlers:  Every Hollywood “historical” epic tends to commit sins against the historical record, but Abe Lincoln in Illinois had some egregious ones:

a.  Jack Armstrong, one of Lincoln’s earliest New Salem friends, is shown as offering to throw a tomato at Stephen A. Douglas during one of the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858.   I assume it was his ghost since Armstrong died in 1854.

b.  John Brown’s raid on Harper’s Ferry which occurred in 1859 is shown as taking place before the 1858 Lincoln-Douglas Senate race.

c.  Lincoln is shown as receiving a military bodyguard immediately after being elected.  No such protection was afforded the president-elect by President Buchanan, even though Lincoln was deluged with death threats.

d.  In an affecting scene, the citizens of Springfield begin singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic as Lincoln heads off to Washington in February of 1861.  The song wouldn’t be written until November of that year and not published until 1862.

2.  Ann Rutledge-The film spends a great deal of time depicting the romance between Lincoln and Ann Rutledge.  There is virtually no historical support for this charming old fable.

3.  Lincoln the Reluctant-Lincoln is shown as a very reluctant politician. Rubbish!  Lincoln loved politics and was an enthusiastic participant throughout his life.

4.  Mary the Shrew-Mary Todd Lincoln is depicted in the film as a shrew who drives an ambitious less Lincoln forward to fulfill his destiny very much against his will.  Lincoln had quite enough ambition on his own.  By most accounts the Lincolns had a loving marriage,  with the usual ups and downs familiar to most married couples who stay together through good and bad times. 

Raymond Massey For Barry Goldwater

 

The first presidential contest I can recall was that of 1964 when I was seven years old.  The tradition of Democrats attempting to paint Republicans as Fascists is an old one and Senator Barry Goldwater got the full treatment.  Almost all of the media was on the side of Lyndon Johnson, along with Hollywood.  An exception was actor Raymond Massey.  Massey was a true star of the Golden Age of Hollywood, often playing figures from history like Abraham Lincoln, John Brown and Nathan the Prophet.  A naturalized American citizen, Massey saw combat service in the Canadian Army in both World Wars.

Perhaps it was this combat service that added passion to the above television endorsement of Goldwater which still attracts attention fifty-six years later.  Massey is alarmed about the no win American policy in Vietnam.  Ironically the Johnson administration was secretly planning a mammoth build up of American troops in Vietnam after the election.  Alas this build up did not come with any semblance of a strategy to win the war.  Goldwater supporters would note wryly in the coming years that they were warned that if they voted for Goldwater that the US would be involved in a full scale war in Vietnam, and, son of a gun, that is precisely what happened!

Johnny Cash as John Brown

From the mini-series North and South (1985).  One of the odder casting choices I can recall.  Johnny Cash had a life-long interest in the Civil War, but he was a Southerner through and through.  Having said that, I think he gives an OK portrayal of John Brown.  By far the best portrayal of John Brown on film is that by Raymond Massey in the film Santa Fe Trail in 1940.  That same year Massey also gave what I think is the best film portrayal of Lincoln in the film Abe Lincoln in Illinois.  Start the video below at 8:00 to see the best part in regard to Massey’s role as Brown.