The President's Lady

1953

Action / Biography / Drama

Plot summary


Uploaded by: FREEMAN

Director

Top cast

Charlton Heston Photo
Charlton Heston as President Andrew Jackson
James Best Photo
James Best as Samuel Donelson
George Chakiris Photo
George Chakiris as Nashville Party Guest
Susan Hayward Photo
Susan Hayward as Rachel Donelson
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
899.73 MB
978*720
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 37 min
P/S 0 / 1
1.63 GB
1456*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 37 min
P/S 1 / 3

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Nazi_Fighter_David8 / 10

Susan Hayward looked so beautiful..

Although Rachel Donelson (Susan Hayward) is married when Andrew Jackson (Charlton Heston) meets her in a log cabin at Nashville in 1791, he knows that she will be his wife some day... And it is he who accompanies her when her mother, Mrs. Donelson (Fay Bainter),sends her to Natchez to get her away from Lewis Robards (Whitfield Connor),her husband, who is making her miserable...

In a riverboat, on their way to Natchez, they are attacked by Creek Indians and the danger brings them close to each other...

When they reach Natchez, Rachel stays at the home of a relative and Andrew tells her that they can get her marriage annulled and be wed... Before they can do anything, however, Andrew receives a letter from his law partner in Nashville, John Overton (John McIntire),saying that Robards has been granted a petition for divorce on the grounds of adultery, naming Jackson as correspondent...

Andrew is humiliated by this injustice, but he feels proud of his love for Rachel and tells her so...

They get married and go back to Nashville where Andrew becomes interested in politics... Soon, however, they find out from John Overton that although Robards had been granted a petition for divorce, it had not been consummated until now; therefore, Rachel and Andrew have been living together for two years without really being married... At Rachel's insistence, they are wed again at her mother's home...

The news spreads, however, and at a party Charles Dickinson (Carl Betz) makes a remark about Andrew – 'stealing another man's wife.'

Andrew challenges him to a duel, and wounded, makes a solemn vow to Rachel that he will lift her so high that no one will ever again dare say a word against her…

It is a pity that this well directed and well acted movie was not filmed in Technicolor as Susan Hayward looked so beautiful...

One scene is particularly stunning... She's deliriously happy at the news that her husband is on his way home... Then she realizes that, having worked in the fields all day, she's messy and dirty... In desperation, she grabs a pitcher of water to wash her face and drops it on the floor... Her husband walks in as she is picking up the pieces and her expression, a mixture of wild elation and acute embarrassment, is truly incredible...

Henry Levin's film got two nominations, one for Art and Set Direction and the other for Costume Design...

Reviewed by edwagreen9 / 10

Rachel Jackson, A Lady for All Seasons ***1/2

Charlton Heston and Susan Hayward are Andrew and Rachel Jackson in this wonderful biographical film.

Out on the frontier, Andrew falls for Rachel the first time they meet under difficult circumstances.

The plot, of course, is where the two married but soon learn that Rachel's first husband, Lewis Robards, never got the divorce and therefore the two are living in sin. For this period of time, this is a national disgrace.

The two are dogged by accusations of immoral doings during their lifetime.

As we know through history, Jackson lost the 1824 election by chicanery and was elected in a landslide 4 years later. His beloved, Rachel, lived to see him elected but the years of scandal, adversely affected her health and she dies before his 1829 inauguration.

Heston and Hayward were perfect as near examples of the American spirit during the very early years of our republic.

Reviewed by rmax3048236 / 10

Heartbreak Lay Just Around the Corner.

Enjoyable semi-biography of the tempestuous president Andrew Jackson (Heston) seen through the eyes of his wife, Rachel (Hayward).

We learn that Jackson is proud, a man of honor, that he falls in love with Rachel on a riverboat, marries her while she's still married to someone else, defends her name violently, brings her an abandoned Indian baby when she's unable to have her own, smokes a pipe, dislikes politics, is away from home often, has a gentle heart, and is easily manipulated by his understanding wife, to whom he remains devoted throughout his life.

In between, in a brief and offhand way, we learn that he becomes Attorney General of Tennessee, commands the state militia, fights in the Creek war, is appointed a General in the Army, beats the British at the Battle of New Orleans (after a peace treaty had already been signed, not mentioned),and is elected president. We don't get to see any of this, because the story is about Rachel and her joys and travails.

She suffers one tragedy after another. A brother is killed by Indians, her adopted Indian baby dies, she's insulted in public and called a prostitute -- which seems almost tame by comparison with today's name calling. Finally she collapses from a nameless illness in a muddy street. Every few minutes, Rachel seems to collapse into someone's arms and sob.

I just realized something. I clicked the spoiler alert box because I didn't want to reveal the fact that Andrew Jackson became president of the United States of America. In the back of my mind was the fact that a recent poll of high school students found that the majority couldn't place the American Civil War in its correct half century. And a substantial number didn't know which countries were on which side in World War II -- many believed that we and the Germans fought the Russians. Something is warped. Either our society's shared data base is dangerously eroded or I need a frontal lobotomy. Somebody hand me that garden trowel.

If you're going to fulfill a feminine fantasy, Charlton Heston as the devoted Andrew Jackson will do just fine. He's tall, handsome, baritoned, and he rises in his station from rough-hewn woodsman to master of a huge Southern-plantation style mansion called The Hermitage in Tennessee. He's masterful and terribly wealthy, but dumb enough to be guided by a clever and loyal wife. Rachel narrates the film until she dies of that nameless disease then, for the last few minutes, Heston's sonorous voice takes over as he assumes the office of president. Not that he gives us any hint of his politics. His few sentences are all about his gummy memories of the beautiful Rachel.

Susan Hayward is pretty good as Rachel, her New York accent notwithstanding. Heston, I don't believe, had yet to develop his acting chops. In the violent scenes he grimaces toothfully, as if smiling, in order to project a strenuous effort. However, he certainly LOOKS enough like Andrew Jackson, if the picture on the paper currency is accurate. He was to play Jackson again. Henry Levin's direction is pedestrian but gets the job done.

It's really an old-fashioned movie. Jackson is a paragon and Rachel is his equal. I don't think they'd make a biopic of ANYBODY today without revealing some secret vices, even if they had to be fabricated. They'd give Jackson a closet full of ladies' slippers or something.

I enjoyed it though, especially because of the performances of Hayward and Heston. They seem to work well together. And there is an occasional humorous touch in the script.

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