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.

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.

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.

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.

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"