Abraham Lincoln (1930)

Well this is as close to a cross between the last two film I reviewed as is possible. John Huston plays Abraham Lincoln for director D. W. Griffith. Now I always felt kind of sorry for Griffith (though I've seen little of his work) that he was so successful in silent films and so not successful once talkies came around. Well turns out there is a legitimate reason for this, he's not a very good director of talkies. This film feels antiquated even for a 1930's movie set in the mid 19th century. The sets, especially at the beginning, are barley stage quality. The acting, I'll call it minimal. Huston's the only one in the film with a semblance of spark, and the movie does Mary Lincoln no favors. There is too much material covered, basically the whole of Lincolns life in little vinyets. No depth, little more then hagiography. The movie apparently exists in a number of different cuts, Wikipedia says its 97 minutes but the one I saw was just under 85. It's public domain and you can find it plenty of places online, not that you'd want to. Well as a sleep aid maybe. *1/2