Gefährtin seines Lebens

If anyone were ever to compile a Susan Hayward DVD boxed set (and I really wish someone would), it would have to include 1953's "The President's Lady." Both Ms. Hayward and Charlton Heston's performances, as Rachel and Andrew Jackson, were able to make me believe they were of that time and place. I am grateful to see it replayed on television every so often.

I keep waiting to see this again on TMC. I wish I had been around to see these movies when they were first released, on the big screen. How amazing it must have been. There are some good movies released today, but on the whole, they are more childish and less adult and certainly less well scripted than movies like this.

I find it a heart-breaker, and I cry my head off at the end. Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward are magic together, and this movie is magic as well. It points back to a time when yes, there were huge flaws in Americans, racism, etc, but they were on the whole a prouder race, and had more to be proud of, if you ask me.

Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward serve as markers of the definitive pioneer spirit of Americans at that time, and as such they deliver outstanding performances as flawed but real and strong people fueled by the idealism of an America in a time of self-discovery.

I wish they could make movies like this, full of heart and devoid of PC.

A few years ago, I was channel surfing one weekend and saw this movie about to start on TCM. I think I was in 7th grade at that time and didn't really know much about Andrew Jackson and the ugly presidential election against John Quincy Adams in 1828. Anyway the movie is quite romantic and the two leads have great chemistry together. The ending was so sad. I know it's just a movie but it gave me a warmer interpretation of Jackson. And after learning more about in U.S. History, I understand his position in the Peggy Eaton affair. See who says you can't learn from watching movies? I certainly do. Oh and another poster asked if Rachel really died before Jackson entered the White House and to my understanding, she does.

I'm delighted to see so many favorable reviews for this excellent picture. Released the same year CinemaScope made its splashy debut, 'The President's Lady' is a mid-sized production in b&w of typically high 20th-Fox quality. It would have been interesting if John Ford had directed it (it's his kind of film), but as it is, it is a minor classic all by itself, and Henry Levin did a great job.

The score by Alfred Newman deserves special mention. Not only is it moving and poignant in all the right moments, it is positive and robust and helps make the picture succeed on every level. It's a typical Newman score, which means music of extraordinary depth and quality.

Leo Tover's camera-work adds to the luster of this fine film. I can only request that it appear on DVD, for we enthusiasts, if no one else.

The figure of Andrew Jackson in American history is one that is constantly being reevaluated by historians. He was the champion of the common man in his day though the qualification should be made, the common white man. He was a slave owner, unapologetic in that regard, and American Indians have no cause to love him as he favored their complete removal to west of the Mississippi in his time.

Yet at the same time he was the spearhead of a movement to grant the franchise to the common Caucasian man. He was the first president who came from west of the Appalachians having moved from South Carolina to Tennessee which served as his base his whole political career. Our first six presidents came from the landed gentry who were the original founding fathers. Jackson worked his way up from poverty and never forget his roots no matter how rich he became.

Jackson was also the ideal of the frontier civilian soldier. Though with no military training so to speak, he distinguished himself in campaigns against the Indians and won an impressive victory at New Orleans beating some of the best of Wellington's Army from the Peninsular War in Europe. That victory is what sealed his reputation and eventually put him in the White House.

Irving Stone's biographical novel on which The President's Lady is based concentrates not on Jackson the historical figure, but on the love affair between Andrew Jackson and Rachel Donelson Robards. Rachel is played by Susan Hayward and she's a frontier woman and was until the day she died. Their love gets off to a rocky start because Rachel is divorced from her first husband Lewis Robards and weds Andrew thinking the divorce is final. In fact it wasn't and technically she was guilty of bigamy. They had to marry again and Jackson always defended his wife's honor by any means necessary as the film shows.

Charlton Heston came over from his home studio of Paramount to play Andrew Jackson in this 20th Century Fox production. He plays the tempestuous Jackson and it became one of the roles he was most identified with even after he was Moses in The Ten Commandments. In fact he played Jackson again in the DeMille supervised remake of The Buccaneer.

What The President's Lady does lack is any development of secondary characters. This film is strictly a star's vehicle. But when you got a pair of stars like Susan Hayward and Charlton Heston maybe it doesn't matter.

The film ends with the presidential campaign of 1828 and it was one of the nastiest in our history. The elite of the east knew it would lose power and fought with everything they could throw. Rachel's two divorces became campaign fodder.

By the way the Jackson camp weren't exactly shrinking violets either in this race. Still it did get down and dirty when it came to her.

The President's Lady holds up very well for today's audience and if Andrew Jackson is no political hero for good reasons to a lot of people, he was in fact a great romantic figure and more than a model husband. In fact it's really what The President's Lady is all about.