Abraham Lincoln

Episodic recounting of Lincoln's life up to the Presidency. Written by Robert Sherwood, one of FDR's speechwriters. Good performances by Ruth Gordon, Alan Baxter, Howard DaSilva, Clem Bevans.

Massey is the definitive movie Lincoln. Excellent work, emotional range and depth. Much better than Henry Fonda, whose Lincoln was apparently in some kind of trance.

May seem a little dated to modern audiences; occasionally strives for emotional poignancy that now comes across as somewhat corny.

Lots of little details, good depictions of frontier life, political campaigns in the 1800's. Includes two of Lincoln's best speeches from that period, with Massey's performance very close to Lincoln's 19th century oratorical style.

Highly recommended to students of American history and fans of old movies.

If you've ever wanted to hear what Abe Lincoln sounded like, this is the film you'll want to see. Lincoln is portrayed by the late Canadian actor Raymond Massey - who, amongst many other roles, is also remembered from HG Welles' Things to Come, the screenplay of which was written by HG Welles himself. Early in Massey's career, Lincoln's son, Robert Todd Lincoln, heard him perform and was struck by the similarity between Massey's speaking voice and that of his father. Since there are no recordings of Lincoln from that era shortly before Edison invented the Gramophone, we have to rely on descriptions of his voice. Some from that time state Lincoln's voice was high-pitched, and that Massey did not do the voice properly - however, I tend to give more credence to a living witness, Lincoln's own eldest son who, though he died 14 years prior to this film, still had the opportunity to see Massey on stage and hear his voice. Massey got it right, and this is one wonderful film - too bad I haven't found it on DVD - the next time it airs on TMC I'll have to record a DVD of it for myself.

If only we could've cloned Mr. Massey back in 1940, and then waited for a scriptwriter who could take a more controlled hand with historical accuracy than was fashionable in those days, and released the movie today...this remains my favorite treatment of one of my favorite historical figures; Massey seems born to have played Lincoln, from the obvious physical resemblance to the supposed mannerisms, and in doing so far outshines other Lincoln performances (Fonda's and Peck's come to mind). My peeve with the film is with historical detail, and I realize that Hollywood willingly sacrifices accuracy for dramatic artifice without so much as a blush...

I absolutely loved this movie! maybe it is because I am a history buff but I thought it was wonderful!. I am currently doing a project on Abraham Lincoln where my friends and I on working on a student directed film about Abraham Lincoln and you can not imagine how much this movie has helped me. This movie tells the tale of one of the greatest man in history and how he evolved along the way to become even greater. I can only hope that this movie will help someone see the wonders of his life as it helped me and as Honest Abe helped so many other people. I loved it when they showed his debate with Stephen Douglas. That was really the highlight of the movie because it showed him giving his real opinion and it caught my attention. His speech was amazing!! 10 thumbs up!!!! :D

With all due respect to Henry Fonda, Walter Huston, and a myriad of other cinematic Lincolns, Raymond Massey is the Abe to end all Abes. His moving and mesmerizing performance gives us the real Mr. Lincoln in all his complexity. Alongside the warmth, compassion and humor for which we love and revere Mr. Lincoln, we see in Massey the dark side as well: the doubts, fears, indecision and deep melancholia with which Abraham Lincoln struggled his whole life, and which clashed with his fierce ambition. Ruth Gordon is superb as Lincoln's equally ambitious wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. No hagiography, this movie lets us see the Lincolns as human beings with real "issues", rather than mere heroes of history.

Besides all this, we have Massey's astonishing physical resemblance to Lincoln.

What's most amazing is that the spirit of this most quintessentially American of our American heroes should be so wonderfully captured and portrayed by.... a Canadian!