Product Details

• Actors: Raymond Massey, Gene Lockhart, Ruth Gordon, Mary Howard, Minor Watson
• Directors: John Cromwell
• Format: Black & White, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Turner Home Entertainment
• VHS Release Date: February 10, 1998
• Run Time: 110 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301328043
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #212,705 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Covers the period from Lincoln's early years as a Kentucky woodsman until his election to the Presidency in 1860. Included are his first love, his marriage, the Illinois law practice and his debates with Stephen Douglas.

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.