A Failure at Fifty

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The story of Abraham Lincoln's 30-year struggle of persistence-through-failure is told to an unemployed 50 year old man that has been contemplating suicide.The story of Abraham Lincoln's 30-year struggle of persistence-through-failure is told to an unemployed 50 year old man that has been contemplating suicide.The story of Abraham Lincoln's 30-year struggle of persistence-through-failure is told to an unemployed 50 year old man that has been contemplating suicide.

Director
- Will Jason
Writers
- Howard Dimsdale
- Arno B. Reincke
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.9/10

YOUR RATING

Director
- Will Jason
Writers
- Howard Dimsdale
- Arno B. Reincke
Stars

5User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

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Edmund Glover

Abe Lincoln

Mary Anderson

Ann Rutledge
(as Bebe Anderson)

Truman Bradley

Lincoln's Friend

Carey Wilson

Narrator
(voice)

Margaret Bert

Ann's Rutledge's Mother
(uncredited)

George Chesebro

Creditor
(uncredited)

Naomi Childers

Partner
(uncredited)

Jules Cowles

Member of the Senate
(uncredited)

Edward Coxen

Farmer
(uncredited)

Olin Francis

Trader
(uncredited)

Edward Hearn

Partner
(uncredited)

Claire McDowell

Minor Role
(uncredited)

Jack Mulhall

Partner
(uncredited)

Emmett Vogan

50 Year Old Jobless Man
(uncredited)

Director
- Will Jason
Writers
- Howard Dimsdale
- Arno B. Reincke
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

User reviews5

5.993

Featured reviews

Michael_Elliott

Passing Parade

Failure at Fifty, A (1940)

*** (out of 4)

Winning entry in the Passing Parade series has a fifty-year-old man, broke and hungry, about to kill himself when a man stops him and tells him the story of another man his age who went through decades of failure. This man started off poor, lost the woman he loved, went into debt, lost several Senate seats and all of this before finally becoming President. This of course is Abe Lincoln and this MGM short is a pretty good one and especially if you're a fan of the series. Once again there's a very dark tone running throughout the film and you won't be able not to think about IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE especially since it's an angel that stops the man from killing himself and teaches him why it's important to live. Character actor Edmund Glover plays Lincoln and does a pretty good job with the role even though he doesn't have any dialogue. The story itself is a pretty predictable one but it's still entertaining enough to make this worth sitting through. As usual Carey Wilson does a fine job narrating.

6boblipton

Spoiler Alert

If you're looking at this review, you probably came through the main IMDB page of this movie. That means you know that it's Abraham Lincoln who, in Carey Wilson's words, was a failure at fifty.

Of course, Lincoln was not the failure that Wilson portrays him as, plucked from the obscurity of failure. He had served in the Blackhawk War with distinction, and in Congress. He was well known as a member of the rising Republican Party, and a fine orator. But Wilson was Hollywood all the way and knew that when the facts and the legend conflict, you print the legend.

Storyline

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Quotes
[first lines]
Narrator: Night shift - men wanted, and they're taking 'em on at the rate of one every minute. It can't be long now, there's work ahead! Work, and pay, and food, and a bed...
[focusing in on one low-spirited man]
Narrator: but not for all. No more jobs open now, and the eternal fog of hopelessness chills your heart again. For you, my friend, are fifty years old and you're broke, friendless, jobless, down and out. You wonder if this can really be you - this worn and hungry man. Can it be the same you who at eighteen on a high school platform valiantly cried out 'Beyond the Alps lies Italy!'; the same you who kissed a lovely laughing girl in a moon drenched canoe on this very lake? Yes, the lake remains even if the lovely laughing girl is gone forever - gone with all else of dream and reality: all gone save you and the lake, and you're a failure at fifty.
[despondently contemplating suicide]
Narrator: The lake, why not? Tomorrow can be nothing more than a thrice bitter today. The water is cold, but no colder than the world has been to you, and the lake stretches forth a promise of forgetfulness... the lake.
[a hand grasps his shoulder]
Narrator: You might have known that someone would see you, but no matter; the lake will still be there in another hour and the stranger will not. 'No,' you hear yourself saying, 'I wasn't going to jump in mister.' But to make good your pretense, you'll have to listen - silly as may sound any talk to dissuade you. What is the stranger saying? Listen. Yes, listen my friend while I tell you a story...