The President's Lady

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.

Although Rachel Donelson (Susan Hayward) is married when Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) meets her in a log cabin at Nashville in 1791, he knows that she will be his wife some day... And it is he who accompanies her when her mother, Mrs. Donelson (Fay Bainter), sends her to Natchez to get her away from Lewis Robards (Whitfield Connor), her husband, who is making her miserable...

In a riverboat, on their way to Natchez, they are attacked by Creek Indians and the danger brings them close to each other...

When they reach Natchez, Rachel stays at the home of a relative and Andrew tells her that they can get her marriage annulled and be wed... Before they can do anything, however, Andrew receives a letter from his law partner in Nashville, John Overton (John McIntire), saying that Robards has been granted a petition for divorce on the grounds of adultery, naming Jackson as correspondent...

Andrew is humiliated by this injustice, but he feels proud of his love for Rachel and tells her so...

They get married and go back to Nashville where Andrew becomes interested in politics... Soon, however, they find out from John Overton that although Robards had been granted a petition for divorce, it had not been consummated until now; therefore, Rachel and Andrew have been living together for two years without really being married... At Rachel's insistence, they are wed again at her mother's home...

The news spreads, however, and at a party Charles Dickinson (Carl Betz) makes a remark about Andrew – 'stealing another man's wife.'

Andrew challenges him to a duel, and wounded, makes a solemn vow to Rachel that he will lift her so high that no one will ever again dare say a word against her…

It is a pity that this well directed and well acted movie was not filmed in Technicolor as Susan Hayward looked so beautiful...

One scene is particularly stunning... She's deliriously happy at the news that her husband is on his way home... Then she realizes that, having worked in the fields all day, she's messy and dirty... In desperation, she grabs a pitcher of water to wash her face and drops it on the floor... Her husband walks in as she is picking up the pieces and her expression, a mixture of wild elation and acute embarrassment, is truly incredible...

Henry Levin's film got two nominations, one for Art and Set Direction and the other for Costume Design...

Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward star in The President's Lady about President Andrew Jackson and his wife a divorcée. Susan Hayward tugged at our emotions in her films and in a career noted for brilliant work the great Lady from Brooklyn gave a touching performance in this film. Ms. Hayward a strong woman needed strong male co stars and Mr. Heston fills the bill in this film. While Garbo, Bette Davis, Joan Crawford and Barbara Stanwyck deservedly rank among the top female film stars Ms. Hayward's also deserves inclusion for her gallery of great performances among them I Want To Live her Academy Award Winning performance.

Susan Hayward combined great sexy glamorous appeal, and was also one of the screen's top dramatic actresses during her stardom, and a worldwide box office star as well. As Daryl Zanuck noted "Susan Hayward is a our multi million dollar star"

Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward are Andrew and Rachel Jackson in this wonderful biographical film.

Out on the frontier, Andrew falls for Rachel the first time they meet under difficult circumstances.

The plot, of course, is where the two married but soon learn that Rachel's first husband, Lewis Robards, never got the divorce and therefore the two are living in sin. For this period of time, this is a national disgrace.

The two are dogged by accusations of immoral doings during their lifetime.

As we know through history, Jackson lost the 1824 election by chicanery and was elected in a landslide 4 years later. His beloved, Rachel, lived to see him elected but the years of scandal, adversely affected her health and she dies before his 1829 inauguration.

Heston and Hayward were perfect as near examples of the American spirit during the very early years of our republic.

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.