Abraham Lincoln (1930)

User Rating:

6.0/10   

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:

Courtship | Debate | Civil War | President | Assassination

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--Lincoln's Employer
Charles Crockett	...	Sheriff
Kay Hammond	...	Mary Todd Lincoln
Helen Ware	...	Mrs. Edwards
E. Alyn Warren	...	Stephen A. Douglas / Gen. Ulysses Grant
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) (alternative title)

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:

D.W. Griffith had previously filmed Lincoln's assassination at Ford's Theater in The Birth of a Nation (1915).

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:

[an aide suggests that General Lee surrender]
Gen. Robert E. Lee: (grasping sword) Surrender? My poor army! Why I'd rather die a thousand deaths than...
Aide: There, there, General. You must lie down and rest.

Movie Connections:

Featured in A Century of Cinema (1994)

Soundtrack:

In the Gloaming

Yes, it is bad, but...

I think it qualifies as a must-see film for all true scholars of the cinema. That is not to say that it is a good film. It is most certainly not. But this is really a perfect film in which to study the biggest change that this artistic medium ever experienced, the change from silence to sound. The whole film comes off as so, so awkward. It doesn't help that the script is awful. The film is actually over-ambitious, trying hard to cover the entire life of Abe, from birth to death. However bad Abraham Lincoln is, though, I myself found it more than watchable and always fascinating. 6/10.