For those who dismiss Wilson as a propaganda war time film, they are making a vast mistake. It's propaganda to be sure, but it's propaganda concerning our war aims both in the First and Second World War and how they fell short of the mark. At least the mark set by Woodrow Wilson who was our 28th president and subject of this biographical film.
Prior to our entry into World War II, the country was in a great debate, with it almost split down the middle as to whether we should get involved in the second World War. When we were attacked at Pearl Harbor that debate ceased and we went to war with only one dissenting vote in the House of Representatives. The isolationist Senators who opposed the American entry before Pearl Harbor became an endangered species. Most over the elections of 1942, 1944, and 1946 in the Senate were defeated or chose to retire.
It was an article of faith that had we entered the League Of Nations as Woodrow Wilson wanted there might not have been a second World War. The pressure for American entry into a new world organization was near irresistible. And this film makes the case for the reason why.
The film covers that portion of Woodrow Wilson's life from the time some Democratic political bosses approached the President of Princeton University to see if he'd be interested in being governor to the end of his term in the White House in 1921. The film covers roughly an 11 year span. It does get the main points of Wilson's life accurately recorded.
Some names were changed, Thurston Hall's character of the political boss who approached Wilson was actually named James Smith and was a former US Senator who desired to go back to Washington. The characters that Charles Coburn as one of Wilson's professors at Princeton and William Eythe as a student whom we last see going to France as a doughboy are as far as I can tell completely fictional. But both serve as sounding boards for the Wilson character.
The women play a great part in Wilson's life, he was married twice and had three daughters with his first marriage. Ruth Nelson plays Ellen Axson Wilson his first wife who dies in the White House a year after his inauguration. She was a person who could occasionally bring him to a halt when he got too self righteous which even his devoted admirers agree he could.
The second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson played by Geraldine Fitzgerald was also supportive. She however tended to mirror and exacerbate the worst features of his personality. She is also credited with being our first unofficial female president when Wilson suffered his stroke in September of 1919. Maybe she was in fact because she controlled who and what had access to his person during the last 16 months of his term.
Today historians firmly believe that Wilson made two disastrous blunders by first calling for a Democratic Congress to be elected in 1918 and the war weary public responding in the opposite. Not the way to go if you want bipartisan support. And secondly not taking members of the Senate who had to pass on the treaty with a 2/3 vote to help in the negotiation. Wilson's predecessor William McKinley in ending the Spanish American War had no less than five members of the Senate involved in the process.
If the film has a villain it's of course Henry Cabot Lodge played by Cedric Hardwicke, unrecognizable in the white mane and goatee that the real Lodge had. Lodge may have wanted to kill Wilson's treaty by increments because it was Wilson's treaty, but he also raised some valid points about American sovereignty. Historians today recognize the strengths and faults of both men.
Whatever else Wilson was, he was a person of high ideals who did quite a bit in his term in the White House. The idealism of Wilson is what Alexander Knox captures well. Wilson was 20th Century Fox's prestige picture for 1944, it received ten Oscar nominations and won five Oscars that year in technical categories. Unfortunately it was also up against Going My Way in 1944 and it lost Best Picture to that classic, Bing Crosby beat out Alexander Knox for Best Actor, and Henry King lost for Best Director to Leo McCarey.
Historical revisionism has dated Wilson badly and it doesn't hold up well. Woodrow Wilson isn't on quite as high a plane as he was in 1944 when we were trying to sell the United Nations to the American public. Still it's not a bad film, but should be viewed with a whole salt shaker.
Prior to our entry into World War II, the country was in a great debate, with it almost split down the middle as to whether we should get involved in the second World War. When we were attacked at Pearl Harbor that debate ceased and we went to war with only one dissenting vote in the House of Representatives. The isolationist Senators who opposed the American entry before Pearl Harbor became an endangered species. Most over the elections of 1942, 1944, and 1946 in the Senate were defeated or chose to retire.
It was an article of faith that had we entered the League Of Nations as Woodrow Wilson wanted there might not have been a second World War. The pressure for American entry into a new world organization was near irresistible. And this film makes the case for the reason why.
The film covers that portion of Woodrow Wilson's life from the time some Democratic political bosses approached the President of Princeton University to see if he'd be interested in being governor to the end of his term in the White House in 1921. The film covers roughly an 11 year span. It does get the main points of Wilson's life accurately recorded.
Some names were changed, Thurston Hall's character of the political boss who approached Wilson was actually named James Smith and was a former US Senator who desired to go back to Washington. The characters that Charles Coburn as one of Wilson's professors at Princeton and William Eythe as a student whom we last see going to France as a doughboy are as far as I can tell completely fictional. But both serve as sounding boards for the Wilson character.
The women play a great part in Wilson's life, he was married twice and had three daughters with his first marriage. Ruth Nelson plays Ellen Axson Wilson his first wife who dies in the White House a year after his inauguration. She was a person who could occasionally bring him to a halt when he got too self righteous which even his devoted admirers agree he could.
The second wife, Edith Bolling Galt Wilson played by Geraldine Fitzgerald was also supportive. She however tended to mirror and exacerbate the worst features of his personality. She is also credited with being our first unofficial female president when Wilson suffered his stroke in September of 1919. Maybe she was in fact because she controlled who and what had access to his person during the last 16 months of his term.
Today historians firmly believe that Wilson made two disastrous blunders by first calling for a Democratic Congress to be elected in 1918 and the war weary public responding in the opposite. Not the way to go if you want bipartisan support. And secondly not taking members of the Senate who had to pass on the treaty with a 2/3 vote to help in the negotiation. Wilson's predecessor William McKinley in ending the Spanish American War had no less than five members of the Senate involved in the process.
If the film has a villain it's of course Henry Cabot Lodge played by Cedric Hardwicke, unrecognizable in the white mane and goatee that the real Lodge had. Lodge may have wanted to kill Wilson's treaty by increments because it was Wilson's treaty, but he also raised some valid points about American sovereignty. Historians today recognize the strengths and faults of both men.
Whatever else Wilson was, he was a person of high ideals who did quite a bit in his term in the White House. The idealism of Wilson is what Alexander Knox captures well. Wilson was 20th Century Fox's prestige picture for 1944, it received ten Oscar nominations and won five Oscars that year in technical categories. Unfortunately it was also up against Going My Way in 1944 and it lost Best Picture to that classic, Bing Crosby beat out Alexander Knox for Best Actor, and Henry King lost for Best Director to Leo McCarey.
Historical revisionism has dated Wilson badly and it doesn't hold up well. Woodrow Wilson isn't on quite as high a plane as he was in 1944 when we were trying to sell the United Nations to the American public. Still it's not a bad film, but should be viewed with a whole salt shaker.