[MKFC] Theatre presents Griffith’s “Abraham Lincoln”
![[MKFC] Theatre presents Griffith’s “Abraham Lincoln”](http://mkchi.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/abraham-lincoln-1930-01-g.jpg)
[MKFC] Theatre Night
Abraham Lincoln, Griffith’s first talky.
August 8th Wed. 10pm, RSVP on [FB]
After the Chicago Community Dark Room come join us for a Laserdisc film and unlimited popcorn.
See what we have in our Laserdisc collection and discuss what to show next. You may also bring your own independent short film for consideration.
A $5 donation to support the space, utilities and refreshments is appreciated.
Abraham Lincoln, also released under the title D. W. Griffith’s ‘Abraham Lincoln’, is a (1930) biographical film about American president Abraham Lincoln directed by D. W. Griffith. It stars Walter Huston as Lincoln and Una Merkel, in her second speaking role, as Ann Rutledge. Her first speaking role was in a short film, Love’s Old Sweet Song (1923) filmed in the Phonofilm sound-on-film process.
The script was co-written by Stephen Vincent Benét, author of the Civil War prose poem John Brown’s Body. This was the first of only two sound films made by Griffith. The film was not a hit at the time, but in recent years it has come to be regarded as one of the definitive films on Lincoln.
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 Civil War and culminates with Lee’s surrender and Lincoln’s assassination at Ford’s Theater.
The film covers some little known aspects of Lincoln’s early life, such as his romance with Ann Rutledge, his depression and feared suicidal tendencies after her death, and his unexplained breaking off of his engagement with Mary Todd (although the film surmises that this was due to unresolved feelings over Ann Rutledge and adds a dramatic scene where Lincoln stands Mary up on their scheduled wedding day, which never happened).
This was Griffith’s second portrayal of Lincoln’s assassination, the first being in The Birth of a Nation. -Wikipedia
Leave a Reply 
