Movie and TV Presidents: Alexander Knox as Woodrow Wilson
In 1944 Daryl F. Zanuck released a biopic about the 28th President entitled Wilson. It told the story of the life on Woodrow Wilson and was in technology remarkable for its time in that it was filmed in Technicolor. The movie starred Alexander Knox in the title role. Other stars included Geraldine Fitzgerald as Edith Bolling Galt Wilson, Thomas Mitchell as Wilson's advisor Joseph Tumulty and Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Senator Henry Cabot Lodge.
The movie was written by Lamar Trotti and directed by Henry King. Wilson's daughter Eleanor Wilson McAdoo served as a consultant on the film.
The story in the movie begins in 1909, when Wilson is the President of Princeton University and the author of several books on the democratic process. He is urged into running for Governor of New Jersey by the local political machine. The movie presents a very positive view of Wilson, and the film is sometimes criticized as being pure propaganda that sanitizes Wilson's image. He is very much portrayed as a martyr who battles an obstructionist congress led by Senator Lodge. The full effect of Wilson's stroke is not portrayed, nor is the influence that Edith Wilson exercised following the stroke.
The film won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (Wiard Ihnen, Thomas Little); Best Cinematography, Color; Best Film Editing; Best Sound, Recording (E. H. Hansen); and Best Writing, Original Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Alexander Knox); Best Director; Best Effects, Special Effects; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; and Best Picture. The film gave Canadian character actor Alexander Knox one of his few chances to play the lead in a film.
Though critically acclaimed, the film was a huge flop at the box office. It was a pet project of Darryl F. Zanuck, who greatly admired Woodrow Wilson, and its failure upset him to the point that he forbade any of his employees from ever mentioning the film in his presence again. Franklin D. Roosevelt showed the film at the September 1944 Second Quebec Conference with Winston S. Churchill. Churchill was unimpressed, however, leaving in the midst of the film to go to bed.
Contemporary film critic Manny Farber called the production "costly, tedious and impotent" and wrote this review:
"The effect of the movie is similar to the one produced by the sterile post-card albums you buy in railroad stations, which unfold like accordions and show you the points of interest in the city... The producers must have known far more about the World War, the peace-making at Versailles, and Wilson himself, but that is kept out of the movie in the same way that slum sections are kept out of post-card albums... About three-quarters of the way through, a large amount of actual newsreel from the first World War is run off and the strength of it makes the film that comes before and after seem comical."
I haven't found a clip of the movie, but I have found this YouTube video which actually contains the entire film:
The movie was written by Lamar Trotti and directed by Henry King. Wilson's daughter Eleanor Wilson McAdoo served as a consultant on the film.
The story in the movie begins in 1909, when Wilson is the President of Princeton University and the author of several books on the democratic process. He is urged into running for Governor of New Jersey by the local political machine. The movie presents a very positive view of Wilson, and the film is sometimes criticized as being pure propaganda that sanitizes Wilson's image. He is very much portrayed as a martyr who battles an obstructionist congress led by Senator Lodge. The full effect of Wilson's stroke is not portrayed, nor is the influence that Edith Wilson exercised following the stroke.
The film won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Color (Wiard Ihnen, Thomas Little); Best Cinematography, Color; Best Film Editing; Best Sound, Recording (E. H. Hansen); and Best Writing, Original Screenplay. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Alexander Knox); Best Director; Best Effects, Special Effects; Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture; and Best Picture. The film gave Canadian character actor Alexander Knox one of his few chances to play the lead in a film.
Though critically acclaimed, the film was a huge flop at the box office. It was a pet project of Darryl F. Zanuck, who greatly admired Woodrow Wilson, and its failure upset him to the point that he forbade any of his employees from ever mentioning the film in his presence again. Franklin D. Roosevelt showed the film at the September 1944 Second Quebec Conference with Winston S. Churchill. Churchill was unimpressed, however, leaving in the midst of the film to go to bed.
Contemporary film critic Manny Farber called the production "costly, tedious and impotent" and wrote this review:
"The effect of the movie is similar to the one produced by the sterile post-card albums you buy in railroad stations, which unfold like accordions and show you the points of interest in the city... The producers must have known far more about the World War, the peace-making at Versailles, and Wilson himself, but that is kept out of the movie in the same way that slum sections are kept out of post-card albums... About three-quarters of the way through, a large amount of actual newsreel from the first World War is run off and the strength of it makes the film that comes before and after seem comical."
I haven't found a clip of the movie, but I have found this YouTube video which actually contains the entire film: