Wilson *** (1944, Alexander Knox, Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, Vincent Price) – Classic Movie Review 8647

Opportunity knocks for Alexander Knox, who grabs it to give a careful, painstaking and impressive star turn as US President Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924), rising from president at Princeton to governor of New Jersey to the White House as 28th American President in 1913-21, in director Henry King’s 1944 biopic Wilson. It won five Oscars.

It also stars Charles Coburn, Cedric Hardwicke, Geraldine Fitzgerald, Thomas Mitchell, and Vincent Price.

A fascinating film is classily performed and there is a beautiful, lovingly crafted production by Darryl F Zanuck, including Technicolor cinematography by Leon Shamroy. However, it was not a hit because politics is almost always poor box-office, Knox was not a star, it has an unappealing title and it is a tale that mixes Wilson’s achievement and vision with failure.

It was not for want of trying. Zanuck was a bit of a showman and advertised it thus: ‘DRAMA AND SPECTACLE UNPARALLELED! ENTERTAINMENT UNDREAMED OF! 12,000 PLAYERS! 200 MIGHTY SCENES! TOLD TO THE TUNE OF 87 BELOVED SONGS!’ He must have been proud of it, it is also known as Darryl F Zanuck’s Wilson, and his name is the above-title selling point on the poster.

It cost $4,000,000 and grossed just half of that in the US, which must have been virtually its only market. It probably had little appeal in the UK in 1944, and possibly has little now either, despite its considerable interest.

Lamar Trotti’s screenplay is a lengthy trot (154 minutes) through Wilson’s political career, and encompasses the uncomfortable facts that Wilson failed to keep America out of World War One, his League of Nations plan is doomed, and his warnings about World War Two are not heeded.

Wilson is the winner of five Oscars: for Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography Color, Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration Color, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound Recording. There were five other nominations: Best Actor (Knox), Best Director, Best Special Effects, Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture, and Best Picture. Knox won the Golden Globe for best actor, and he is ideal in the role. Price as campaign lieutenant William Gibbs McAdoo and Hardwicke as the villainous Senator Republican Henry Cabot Lodge both stand out in a crowd of good actors.

Also in the cast are Mary Anderson, Sidney Blackmer, Stanley Ridges, Eddie Foy Jr, Francis X Bushman, Ruth Nelson, William Eythe, Ruth Ford, Madeleine Forbes, Charles Halton, Thurston Hall, J M Kerrigan, James Rennie, Marcel Dalio, Katherine Locke, Stanley Logan, Edwin Maxwell, Clifford Brooke, Tonio Selwart, John Ince, Charles E Miller, Harry Tyler, Will Wright, and Ian Wolfe.

Wilson’s daughter, Eleanor Wilson McAdoo, was technical adviser on the film.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8647

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