Abraham Lincoln (1930)

Abraham Lincoln, also released under the title D. W. Griffith’s “Abraham Lincoln”, is a 1930 pre-Code American biographical film about Abraham Lincoln directed by D. W. Griffith. It stars Walter Huston as Lincoln and Una Merkel, in her second speaking role, as Ann Rutledge. The script was co-written by Stephen Vincent Benét, author of the Civil War prose poem John Brown’s Body, and Gerrit Lloyd. This was the first of only two sound films made by Griffith.

PLOT

The first act of the film covers Lincoln’s early life as a storekeeper and rail-splitter in New Salem and his early romance with Ann Rutledge, and his early years as a lawyer and his courtship and marriage to Mary Todd in Springfield. The majority of the film deals with Lincoln’s presidency during the American Civil War and culminates with Lee’s surrender and Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theatre.

CREATORS

Directed by D. W. Griffith
Produced by D. W. Griffith and Joseph M. Schenck
Written by Stephen Vincent Benet, John W. Considine Jr., Gerrit Lloyd, and D. W. Griffith (uncredited)
Restored by moonflix, LLC

CAST

Walter Huston as Abraham Lincoln
Una Merkel as Ann Rutledge
W. L. Thorne as Tom Lincoln
Lucille La Verne as Mid-Wife
Helen Freeman as Nancy Hanks Lincoln
Otto Hoffman as Offut
Edgar Deering as Armstrong
Russell Simpson as Lincoln’s Employer
Charles Crockett as Sheriff
Kay Hammond as Mary Todd Lincoln
Helen Ware as Mrs. Edwards
E. Alyn Warren as Stephen A. Douglas
Jason Robards as Herndon
Gordon Thorpe as Tad Lincoln
Ian Keith as John Wilkes Booth
Cameron Prudhomme as John Hay (secretary to the president)
James Bradbury, Sr. as General Scott
Jimmie Eagle as Young Soldier
E. Alyn Warren as General Grant
Oscar Apfel as Secretary of War Stanton
Frank Campeau as General Sheridan
Hobart Bosworth as General Lee
Henry B. Walthall as Colonel Marshall

Original release date:
August 25, 1930

Genres: New Arrivals, Biography Films, Movies, 1930's, Drama Films, War Films, American Classics, Drama Movies, ALL Movies, War Movies, Biographies