This film portrays Abe Lincoln's political rise as a man of the people, from his wrestling brawl with town bully Howard da Silva to his failure as a general store owner and his humble beginning in politics as a town postmaster. The film portrays the women in Lincoln's life and the influence they had on him. Perhaps the most influential woman is the one not shown, his mother, but he shares a moving scene with his step mother as he's leaving home, and then with Ann Rutledge, and finally with Mary Todd played in an unusually interesting way by Ruth Gordon. It's perhaps the influence of these women and their uncertain fates that more than balanced Lincoln's well developed humor with a dark and secret melancholy. That aspect is captured through some of the scenes of Massey's Lincoln shot by legendary cinematographer James Wong Howe. Between him, Massey, and Ruth Gordon, this film seems to carry some serious cinematically induced psychological influences.
Review of Abe Lincoln in Illinois
