Magnificent Doll

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.

Popular historical novelist and biographer Irving Stone wrote the story and screenplay for The Magnificent Doll the story of Dolly Madison and the three men in her life, first husband John Todd, second husband and 4th president James Madison, and 3rd Vice President Aaron Burr. The roles are played by Ginger Rogers, Burgess Meredith and David Niven without his familiar mustache. The charm however is there.

I would rate Magnificent Doll a lot lower but for Niven's portrayal of Burr. It is one of the few villain roles that Niven ever did in his career. But Aaron Burr had a considerable reservoir of charm which enabled him to rise as he did.

In real life Burr did stay at the boardinghouse of Dolly Payne and did pay some court to the widow Todd. But there was no romance there and Burr was hardly her lost love. He had a well cultivated reputation as a rake and after the death of his wife many years earlier he was proving on all occasions his sword was mightiest of all.

There was a wife for Burr and a daughter Theodosia whom he doted on and who was his official hostess and political partner. She's eliminated and Dolly Madison's son by her marriage to John Todd did not die in the yellow fever epidemic. Her son Payne Todd was spoiled rotten and was the bane of the existence of his stepfather James Madison who exhausted a great deal of his own money with his stepson's gambling debts and buying off all the women he consorted with. Children of two of the three leading characters just eliminated from the story.

But that's only part of the problem with what Irving Stone wrote. According to Stone, Burr was early on fascist, not a believer in democracy especially when it went against him. That was a good movie selling point in 1946, but in real life Burr never thought in concrete methods to put his vast plans into action.

But Stone could always spin a good yarn in work like The Agony And The Ecstasy and The President's Lady which were historical novels that became pretty good films. Many years ago he wrote a book with short biographies of the men who ran and lost for president called They Also Ran. His conclusions about some of these defeated candidates are laughed at today by serious historians.

Ginger Rogers and Burgess Meredith are good in their parts. But acting honors go to David Niven in Magnificent Doll for what he does with the man described as the American Catiline, Aaron Burr.

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.

Dolly Madison is a truly fascinating character from American history. Unfortunately, while "Magnificent Doll" does center on her life, it also is filled with historical inaccuracies...enough so that it's not a particularly good history or civics lesson. The biggest problem is that romance between Madison (Ginger Rogers) and Aaron Burr (David Niven) as I could find no indication that they ever dated or had any sort of relationship apart from taking a room at her mother's rooming house. There also is no mention of a child from her first marriage...one that did NOT die from Yellow Fever. And, sadly, what we know Dolly DID do was generally omitted or given only brief mention.

Apart from the inaccuracies, the film is a mildly entertaining but occasionally stuffy film. In particular, the latter portion of the movie seems to go off the rails...and boredom set in as I watched. Not terrible...but Dolly sure deserves better than this tepid plot.

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" ....