Magnificent Doll

David niven, ginger rogers, burgess meredith. This is the love triangle of dolly payne, james madison, aaron burr. A little united states history, told from dolly's point of view. Probably not the best choice, as it's all quite stuffy and stilted. Dolly spouts sayings, mottos, aphorisms all the way through. Burr is chasing after dolly, but she finds madison attractive. If you know murrican history, you'll know how it turned out! It moves pretty slowly... the script needed some zinging up. No real magic between all these stars, it's mostly fighting over political ideals. Slavery, north versus south. And apparently burr had designs on taking leadership of the united states by force, rather than by election. B meredith is quite lucid in this one. In some, he slurs and mumbles. It's okay. Directed by frank borzage. He had already won his two oscars already. Written by irving stone. He had also written lust for life, about van gogh.

I saw this movie 45 years ago on the "Fabulous 52", a late night show dedicated to old movies. I was a teenager at the time and would stay up very late while babysitting. It made a big impression on me and I never forgot it. I especially enjoyed the story line of her first marriage although, I later found out it was not accurate. I searched in recent years to find it on DVD to no avail. To my delight, I recently was able to watch the entire movie on the Internet, 45 years later! What a treat! I remembered a lot of it. I would love to have a copy of it. Although the story line is not quite accurate, the movie got me interested in Dolley Madison and her life. I thought it was very well done for a movie of its time. I would recommend it to old movie buffs.

Except for those Vice Presidents who ended up as President (14 of them)only one is remembered as a distinct personality: Aaron Burr. And it is for some questionable reasons. His ambitions were on the scale of Napoleon Bonaparte, aimed (supposedly) not only towards the U.S. but also Mexico, and against Spain (and supposedly willing to use French or British assistance). He managed to show that Thomas Jefferson, for all his brilliance as party leader and politician, could be momentarily thrown for a loop by a clever, unforeseen loophole. He helped destroy Alexander Hamilton's political career, and then ended Hamilton as well. And, despite facing political ruin, he managed to leave his political chief's political projects in ruins. To 90% of the American public, mention Burr and the word "traitor" or "unscrupulous" pops up.

There are those who deny this view of Burr. Jefferson and Hamilton were grown men, who played hard ball politics with each other and with each other's supporters. Burr was no different from them. Jefferson was willing, as John Adams' Vice President, to forget his old friendship with Adams and concentrate on derailing his chief's policies and aims (as Burr did towards Jefferson). Hamilton hit Burr pretty well in the New York Gubernatorial race of 1804, helping to defeat Burr in that election (and in the process so insulting Burr as to lead to Burr's challenge and their duel in Weehauken). As for the treason against the U.S., it is now questioned if Burr was really planning to overturn U.S. government control over the western states, or just jumping the gun on westward expansion (Burr died in 1836, and lived long enough to see the fall of the Alamo and the creation of the Texas Republic - he made some sharp and cutting comments that one age's treason was another age's patriotism, which seems well called for). But in any case, Hamilton had played around with similar expeditions in Latin America in the late 1790s. But he never went as far as Burr did, involving the ranking general of the U.S. Army as a co-conspirator. So Hamilton's actions are forgotten today but Burr's actions are not.

One day a creative script on Burr's career will be created, and a Scorsese director will handle it. Until then, the only film dealing with Burr's career (aside from a television version of "The Man Without a Country" made in the 1970s)is this odd little film that concentrates on the career of Dolly Payne Todd Madison, the wife of the "father of the Constitution", our 4th President James Madison. Ginger Rogers and Burgess Meredith play the Madisons (and give good performances), but the film is stolen by David Niven. Niven's darker side was rarely noticed in his climb to stardom, but when he played a figure with frailties (the Major in "Seperate Tables", or the scoundrelly heir in "Tonight's the Night") he actually gave his best performances. Here he played Burr as the ambitious politico who nearly stole the 1800 election from Tom Jefferson (but for Alex Hamilton's action to keep enough Federalists from supporting Burr), and as Hamilton's slayer turned into super traitor - who got acquitted in the treason trial of 1807 (the film does not show how poor the government's case against Burr really was). Unrepentent at the end, he manages to maintain our fascination, although the audience feels it was a blessing that he failed in the end. In reality, given his commitment to immigrants, abolitionism, and feminist rights (which neither Adams, Jefferson, nor Hamilton were fully committed to), one wonders if it would have been such a bad thing had he become President in 1800.

In this loose political biopic, Ginger Rogers stars as a pre-first lady Dolly Madison. She runs a respectable boarding house, and when David Niven comes rolling in with tangible charm, bravado, and guts, she agrees to go out with him one evening. His idea of a good time is far from hers, though; he takes her to a seedy bar and gets into a fist fight. Plus, when Ginger finds herself drawn to the quiet, studious fellow in the corner named James Madison (played by Burgess Meredith), it's pretty clear she isn't ending up with David Niven.

While I don't really find it believable to see Ginger Rogers's heavy makeup and blonde hair in a period piece, this is still entertaining for a bit of light politics and romance. I'll watch anything with David Niven, and I love seeing him in cavalier, playboy roles. If you're a Ginger fan, it's a must-see, and if you like "woman behind the man" themes, you'll love it.

It's considered polite to consider Borzage's post -war movies mediocre,which is completely unfair.Although they cannot match the director's 1927-1940 brilliant production (who can anyway?),some of them are acceptable,and some even highly commendable:such is the case of " I've always loved you" (1946) or "moonrise" (1948)."The Spanish main" (1945) although hailed by some as a pirates classic ,fails to excite ,perhaps because it is an impersonal movie.

"Magnificent doll" blends love stories with political subjects .David Niven ,cast against type ,plays the part of the villain,a politician who won't be satisfied till he owns everything .Ginger Rogers is good,but her character is a bit unbelievable.

In fact,at least to my eyes,only the first part is Borzagesque: Dolly's first husband is the good man we meet in many of his movies,the one ready to give it all ,to sacrifice everything,even his own happiness if the woman he loves is happy ;that was the story of the heroes/heroines of "street angel" "lucky star" "green light" "big city" ....