Walter Huston is a great Abe in a very stiff movie

Is it worth your time?

If you are a history nerd or you just love seeing how movies figured out how to use sound, then yes, give it a watch. If you want a fast-paced action movie or a modern drama with lots of subtext, you will probably be bored out of your mind within ten minutes. 😴

It’s a movie that feels very old, but in a way that is kind of charming if you’re in the right mood. It’s definitely not for people who can't stand theatrical acting where everyone speaks like they are standing on a stage two miles away.

I sat down to watch this because I wanted to see how D.W. Griffith handled people actually talking. It turns out, he handled it by making everyone stand very still and shout their lines at the ceiling. 🏛️

The movie kicks off with a storm and a log cabin, which is about as cliché as you can get for Lincoln. But there is something weirdly cozy about the low-budget sets and the way the wind sounds like someone blowing into a microphone.

Walter Huston is the main reason to stay. He has this way of moving his body that makes him look exactly like those old statues of Abe, but he also feels like a real guy who enjoys a drink. 🥃

His performance is way better than the movie around him, honestly. He captures that sadness in the eyes that Lincoln always seemed to have in his photos.

There is a scene early on where he’s courting Ann Rutledge, played by Una Merkel. It’s incredibly sappy and the dialogue is a bit much, but you can feel the movie trying so hard to be sweet. ❤️

When she gets sick, the movie gets very dark very fast. The transition from 'happy couple' to 'crippling grief' happens in about three minutes, which is typical for these old episodic biopics.

I noticed that the makeup on Huston gets progressively more intense as he ages. By the time he gets to the White House, he looks like he’s made of granite and wood polish. 🎩

The pacing is a bit of a disaster, if I'm being honest. It jumps from one major life event to the next without much connective tissue, almost like a slideshow with voices.

One minute he's a store clerk, the next he's a lawyer, and then suddenly he's debating Stephen Douglas. It feels less like a story and more like a 'Greatest Hits' album of American history. 🇺🇸

The war scenes are... interesting. They feel very small compared to what Griffith did in his silent epics, which is a bit of a letdown if you know his history. 🎞️

There are some shots of soldiers marching that look okay, but a lot of it is just people in rooms talking about maps. It lacks the atmosphere of something like The Isle of the Dead, which actually used shadows to tell a story.

I did like the scene where Lincoln is just sitting there, exhausted, while people yell at him. You get a sense of the heavy weight he was carrying, even if the script is a bit clunky. ⚖️

There is a strange moment where a soldier is being sentenced to death for sleeping on duty. Lincoln steps in to save him, and the whole thing feels very staged, like a Sunday school play.

The way the film handles the supporting cast is pretty uneven too. Some actors are doing this high-intensity theater acting, while others look like they just wandered in off the street and aren't sure where the camera is. 🎥

It reminded me a little bit of the stiff acting you see in A Christmas Carol from that same era. Everyone is so careful not to trip over the cables or move too far from the hidden microphones.

The Gettysburg Address is handled about how you’d expect. It’s treated with massive importance, and Huston delivers it with a lot of gravity, but it feels like the movie stops dead just to let him say the words.

I actually preferred the smaller moments, like when he's just joking around with his cabinet members. Huston has a great laugh that feels genuine, which is rare in these early sound films.

The ending at Ford's Theatre is shot in a way that feels surprisingly modern. There is a bit of tension there, even though we all know exactly what is going to happen. 🎭

The way John Wilkes Booth is portrayed is a bit over-the-top, like a villain from a silent melodrama. He practically twirls his mustache while he waits in the wings.

I found myself wondering what this movie would have looked like if it had been made five years later. By 1935, they had figured out how to make sound movies feel less like 'recorded plays' and more like actual cinema.

As it stands, it’s a weird relic. It’s got a lot of heart, and Walter Huston is genuinely fantastic, but the structure is just too choppy to be a masterpiece. 🧩

If you enjoy seeing the evolution of film, it's a must-see. If you just want a good story, you might find yourself checking your phone halfway through.

It doesn't have the weird energy of something like The Show, which at least felt like it was trying to be edgy. This is very respectful and very safe.

Overall, I'm glad I watched it, mostly for Huston's face. He really did look like he walked right off a five-dollar bill. 💵

Random notes I took:

• The baby Lincoln looks way too old to be a newborn. 👶
• A lot of people in the background just stand there like mannequins.
• The sound of the horses' hooves is way louder than the actual horses.
• Lincoln's stovepipe hat is comically tall in some scenes.
• The lighting in the cabin is somehow brighter than the lighting outside. 🕯️

It’s a flawed movie, but its a sincere one. Sometimes that is enough to make it worth an hour and a half of your life on a Tuesday night.