Le général invincible

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 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.

Seeing how I had just started my usual Epics marathon a little earlier than Easter time this year and that it happened to be Andrew Jackson's birthday yesterday, I made it a point to catch up with both the original 1938 Cecil B. De Mille production of THE BUCCANEER as well as Charlton Heston's first stab at the role (the second would, of course, occur in the 1958 remake of the latter) in the film under review which, incidentally, I have missed out on several times on Italian TV over the years thinking it more a "woman's picture" than a historical epic. While the latter suspicion turned out to be true enough, it also proved more enjoyable and even compelling than I had initially envisaged.

20th Century Fox's current diva, Susan Hayward, plays the titular role of Rachel Donaldson and it is just one of many real-life women she vividly portrayed on the screen: from Bathsheba to Messalina, from Jane Froman to Lillian Roth, culminating in her Oscar-winning turn as Barbara Grahame in I WANT TO LIVE! (1958). The story, narrated in the first person by Hayward herself, starts with her very first meeting with Andrew Jackson, then a budding Nashville lawyer in partnership with an older one (John McIntire). The two fall for each other instantly and they do not shirk from displaying it to everybody else…even down to having Hayward's unpleasant husband returning unannounced to break up their square dance! This sets off a feud between Jackson and the Donaldsons (who also include matriarch Fay Bainter) on one side and the Robards (including a brother named Jason!!) that hounds the increasingly prestigious couple till the end of her days. In the eyes of the close-minded Nashville community, the feisty Hayward willfully destroyed her marriage to pursue the brash new-kid-in-town Heston – even if her husband had actually been having an affair with his Creole maid behind closed doors right under the nose of his dying mother (Margaret Wycherley)!

Once Jackson's career as a lawyer takes off, he is soon appointed the regional Attorney General but still takes time off to romance Donaldson while employed as an Indian trapper on a treacherous riverside trip she is undertaking to escape from her husband's wrath. Reaching Natchez, they are mistakenly informed that her husband's plea for divorce had been accepted and they marry immediately; it turns out that divorce claim was premature and on and on they go to more public shunning (including after an all-important horse race Heston wins against Charles Dingle that leads to a fatal duel) and, ultimately, public shaming when Senator Jackson joins the U.S. Presidential race that, we are told here, he wins on the very day he lost his sickly wife. Indeed, we had previously watched a lonely Hayward undergoing many hardships while taking care of her two homesteads at the same time that Heston is battling the British in New Orleans or other senators in Washington. The barren woman had also had her adopted Indian child (brought back home by Jackson after one of his campaigns) die on her while she was engaged in yet another fruitless attempt to be accepted as an equal by the unforgiving female community! Although I have no clue as to how accurate the melodramatic events depicted here are or not (they are based on an Irving Stone book, whose later biographies of Vincent Van Gogh and Michelangelo were also filmed, the latter with Heston himself), the resulting film is good to look at and listen to: Leo Tover was the cinematographer, Alfred Newman provided the fine score and both the production and costume designs garnered Oscar nods.

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.