Film Snail

5.4

Abraham Lincoln

NR·1930·96m

History

Drama

History

Drama

Summary

A biopic dramatizing Abraham Lincoln's life through a series of vignettes depicting its defining chapters: his romance with Ann Rutledge; his early years as a country lawyer; his marriage to Mary Todd; his debates with Stephen A. Douglas; the election of 1860; his presidency during the Civil War; and his assassination in Ford’s Theater in 1865.

Cast

Walter Huston

Abraham Lincoln

Una Merkel

Ann Rutledge

William L. Thorne

Tom Lincoln

Lucille La Verne

Mid-Wife

Helen Freeman

Nancy Hanks Lincoln

Otto Hoffman

Offut

Edgar Dearing

Armstrong

Russell Simpson

Lincoln's Employer

Charles Crockett

Sheriff

Kay Hammond

Mary Todd Lincoln

Helen Ware

Mrs. Edwards

E. Alyn Warren

Stephen A. Douglas / General Grant

Jason Robards Sr.

Herndon

Gordon Thorpe

Tad Lincoln

Ian Keith

John Wilkes Booth

Cameron Prud'Homme

John Hay - Secretary to the President

James Bradbury Sr.

Gen. Winfield Scott

James Eagles

Young Soldier

Oscar Apfel

Secretary of War Stanton

Frank Campeau

General Sheridan

Hobart Bosworth

General Robert E. Lee

Henry B. Walthall

Colonel Marshall

Hank Bell

Townsman in Offut's Store (uncredited)

Maurice Black

Conspirator (uncredited)

Ed Brady

Confederate Courier (uncredited)

Robert Brower

(uncredited)

Kernan Cripps

Conspirator (uncredited)

Mary Forbes

Actress (uncredited)

Francis Ford

Sheridan's Aide (uncredited)

Robert Homans

A Senator - One of Lincoln's Advisors (uncredited)

Jane Keckley

Matchmaker (uncredited)

Robert Keith

Union Courier (uncredited)

Henry Kolker

New Englander (uncredited)

Ralph Lewis

Member of Lincoln's Cabinet (uncredited)

George MacQuarrie

Member of Lincoln's Cabinet (uncredited)

Scott Seaton

Minor Role (uncredited)

Carl Stockdale

Member of Lincoln's Cabinet (uncredited)

Harry Stubbs

Undetermined Role (uncredited)

Kathrin Clare Ward

Townswoman at Ann's Death (uncredited)

Crew

Director

D.W. Griffith

Adaptation, Dialogue

Stephen Vincent Benet

Dialogue

Gerrit J. Lloyd

Story

John W. Considine Jr.

Reviews

Geronimo1967

January 11, 2024

"Personally" directed by D. W. Griffith, this is a rather condensed version of the adult life of Abraham Lincoln. From his early life in the Kentucky backwoods where he grew up and his first love perished, through to his galvanising speech making, his election to the US Presidency followed by his decision to emancipate slaves eliciting a war that threatened his country with self-destruction before earning praise and enmity from his emergent and still divided nation. Walter Huston takes on the lead role and is about as wooden an actor as it's possible to get. Indeed, much of this looks and feels like it was a silent film with long, lingering, photography and a distinct paucity of dialogue until it livens up a bit towards the well documented denouement. Kay Hammond breathes a little life into affairs as his wife "Mary Todd" but for the most part this is a rather dry and all too adulatory, rose-tinted, biopic of a man we just don't have time to get to know as ninety minutes wings by. It's watchable, but really only as a "Janet and John" guide to this 13th President.