Abe Lincoln in Illinois

I absolutely loved this movie! maybe it is because I am a history buff but I thought it was wonderful!. I am currently doing a project on Abraham Lincoln where my friends and I on working on a student directed film about Abraham Lincoln and you can not imagine how much this movie has helped me. This movie tells the tale of one of the greatest man in history and how he evolved along the way to become even greater. I can only hope that this movie will help someone see the wonders of his life as it helped me and as Honest Abe helped so many other people. I loved it when they showed his debate with Stephen Douglas. That was really the highlight of the movie because it showed him giving his real opinion and it caught my attention. His speech was amazing!! 10 thumbs up!!!! :D

If you've ever wanted to hear what Abe Lincoln sounded like, this is the film you'll want to see. Lincoln is portrayed by the late Canadian actor Raymond Massey - who, amongst many other roles, is also remembered from HG Welles' Things to Come, the screenplay of which was written by HG Welles himself. Early in Massey's career, Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, heard him perform and was struck by the similarity between Massey's speaking voice and that of his father. Since there are no recordings of Lincoln from that era shortly before Edison invented the Gramophone, we have to rely on descriptions of his voice. Some from that time state Lincoln's voice was high-pitched, and that Massey did not do the voice properly - however, I tend to give more credence to a living witness, Lincoln's own eldest son who, though he died 14 years prior to this film, still had the opportunity to see Massey on stage and hear his voice. Massey got it right, and this is one wonderful film - too bad I haven't found it on DVD - the next time it airs on TMC I'll have to record a DVD of it for myself.

Episodic recounting of Lincoln's life up to the Presidency. Written by Robert Sherwood, one of FDR's speechwriters. Good performances by Ruth Gordon, Alan Baxter, Howard DaSilva, Clem Bevans.

Massey is the definitive movie Lincoln. Excellent work, emotional range and depth. Much better than Henry Fonda, whose Lincoln was apparently in some kind of trance.

May seem a little dated to modern audiences; occasionally strives for emotional poignancy that now comes across as somewhat corny.

Lots of little details, good depictions of frontier life, political campaigns in the 1800's. Includes two of Lincoln's best speeches from that period, with Massey's performance very close to Lincoln's 19th century oratorical style.

Highly recommended to students of American history and fans of old movies.

If only we could've cloned Mr. Massey back in 1940, and then waited for a scriptwriter who could take a more controlled hand with historical accuracy than was fashionable in those days, and released the movie today...this remains my favorite treatment of one of my favorite historical figures; Massey seems born to have played Lincoln, from the obvious physical resemblance to the supposed mannerisms, and in doing so far outshines other Lincoln performances (Fonda's and Peck's come to mind). My peeve with the film is with historical detail, and I realize that Hollywood willingly sacrifices accuracy for dramatic artifice without so much as a blush...

This film portrays Abe Lincoln's political rise as a man of the people, from his wrestling brawl with town bully Howard da Silva to his failure as a general store owner and his humble beginning in politics as a town postmaster. The film portrays the women in Lincoln's life and the influence they had on him. Perhaps the most influential woman is the one not shown, his mother, but he shares a moving scene with his step mother as he's leaving home, and then with Ann Rutledge, and finally with Mary Todd played in an unusually interesting way by Ruth Gordon. It's perhaps the influence of these women and their uncertain fates that more than balanced Lincoln's well developed humor with a dark and secret melancholy. That aspect is captured through some of the scenes of Massey's Lincoln shot by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe. Between him, Massey, and Ruth Gordon, this film seems to carry some serious cinematically induced psychological influences.