O Destino me Persegue

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...

This movie is basically factual. It gives an excellent portrayal of two complex historical characters. Heston is excellent as a strong Andrew Jackson and Hayward gives strength with a touch of humanity to Rachel Donelson Robards Jackson. You can get a feel for the ruggedness of a young Tennessee with Jackson as a person who will ascend to historical significance. It is the style of movies that you do not see anymore.

One reviewer questioned whether Rachel died before Jackson became President. Yes she died before he was sworn in as President. Many feel her health deteriorated rapidly as she faced the negative comments made about her during the election of 1828. She was ostracized because of her divorce from Robards. This mistreatment was cause for several hotheaded reactions from Andrew Jackson. This is hard for our current culture to understand since by all accounts it was likely an abusive marriage.

I know there is much disagreement regarding colorization of older movies but I would really like a colorized version of this excellent historical biography. It is a classic of this style of film.

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.

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.