Product Details

• Actors: Gene Lockhart, Raymond Massey, Ruth Gordon
• Directors: John Cromwell
• Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Bros.
• DVD Release Date: June 22, 2009
• Run Time: 109 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0027IPV3Y
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #20,876 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Abe Lincoln in Illinois" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Among the most masterful matchups of actor and role in screen history is this stirring film of Robert E. Sherwood's beloved play taking a thoroughly human look at the early years of our 16th President, with all his frailties and strength of character. Best Actor Oscar? nominee* Raymond Massey (who originated the role on stage) wonderfully plays the future Great Emancipator in a chronicle of his backwoods childhood through his first romance with Ann Rutledge (Mary Howard) to his phenomenal rise to President Elect, besting the great orator Stephen Douglas (Gene Lockhart). Ruth Gordon also does memorable work as driven, ambitious Mary Todd Lincoln, whose vision of Abe's leadership destiny will not be denied by anyone - including her often reticent husband. There's also no denying the enduring emotional power of this simple, magnificent movie.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not to be overlooked, April 20, 2001

By 

Paul Sayles (Japan) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Abe Lincoln in Illinois [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This film is the perfect film recreation of Abraham Lincoln. Raymond Massey is brilliantly cast as young Mr. Lincoln. Whenever I think of Lincoln films, I think of Raymond Massey as the one and only Lincoln. The overall casting is superb and the story is exceptional and is well presented. There are a number of memorable points in the film. Lincoln's first introduction to politics is amusing. I tend to think that Ruth Gordon's portrayal of Mary Todd Lincoln is right on. Lincoln rarely stands up to her in her critiscm of thier lifestyle, his clothes, etc., but when he does, it is extremely powerful.

Massey doesn't do this on his own. The ensemble cast is exceptional, from the teacher who helps him improve his education, to the local judge, to his law partner and Stephen A. Douglas. All these people help make this film the exceptional story that it is.

If there is one film about Lincoln to recommend, this would be my first pick.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Real Mr. Lincoln, February 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Abe Lincoln in Illinois [VHS] (VHS Tape)

With all due respect to Henry Fonda, Walter Huston, and a myriad of other cinematic Lincolns, Raymond Massey is the Abe to end all Abes. His moving and mesmerizing performance gives us the real Mr. Lincoln in all his complexity. Alongside the warmth, compassion and humor for which we love and revere Mr. Lincoln, we see in Massey the dark side as well: the doubts, fears, indecision and deep melancholia with which Abraham Lincoln struggled his whole life. Ruth Gordon is superb as Lincoln's ambitious and rather overbearing wife, Mary Todd Lincoln. No hagiography, this movie lets us see the Lincolns as human beings with real "issues", rather than as mere heroes of history. Besides all this, we have Massey's physical resemblance to Lincoln, which is at times astonishing.

What's most amazing is that the spirit of the most quintessentially American of our American heroes should be so wonderfully captured and portrayed by ... a Canadian!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Done Exquisitely, January 17, 2000

By 

Alex (SYRACUSE, New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Abe Lincoln in Illinois [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Poetic, stagy adaptation of Pulitzer Prize winning play with Raymond Massey breaking all ground for anyone who has ever portrayed Honest Abe. There's fine support also from Ruth Gordon as Mary Todd, his wife, and Gene Lockhart as Stephen Douglas. You know how it ends, but still a must.