THE PRESIDENT'S LADY is a handsome biography of Andrew Jackson, taken from the pages of Irving Stone's best-selling novel and starring CHARLTON HESTON and SUSAN HAYWARD in the leads and dealing primarily with the scandalous background of their marital lives which had a lasting effect on Rachel Jackson's health and the fact that she married Jackson when her divorce had not yet been finalized.
It's a good thing Heston and Hayward have good chemistry together because the romantic aspects of the story have been heavily played up, turning it more into a romance against the usual blend of wilderness perils involving a frontier couple. As Heston goes from senator to presidential candidate, it becomes clear that Rachel Jackson is an obstacle to their being accepted in polite society.
Given the brief running time of the film, it's obvious that much of the tumultuous home life of the Jacksons had to be glossed over for the film, however detailed it may have been in the Stone novel.
Heston is unassuming as Jackson, feisty only when he's punching someone with a good left, and Hayward is the picture of demure womanhood most of the time, which makes her a lot less interesting as an actress.
There's nothing extraordinary about this biography--in fact, it's rather dull at times with only occasional sparks of life. The performances are adequate, but nothing that fans of Heston and Hayward haven't seen before in more typical assignments. Fay Bainter is utterly wasted in a brief supporting role.
Only the last twelve minutes of the story deal with Jackson's Washington, D.C. years and the tumultuous election years where he entered public office as president and the dirty campaign that strikes at Rachel's reputation again.
Summing up: Satisfactory, but never much more than a routine bio of a great president and his lady.
It's a good thing Heston and Hayward have good chemistry together because the romantic aspects of the story have been heavily played up, turning it more into a romance against the usual blend of wilderness perils involving a frontier couple. As Heston goes from senator to presidential candidate, it becomes clear that Rachel Jackson is an obstacle to their being accepted in polite society.
Given the brief running time of the film, it's obvious that much of the tumultuous home life of the Jacksons had to be glossed over for the film, however detailed it may have been in the Stone novel.
Heston is unassuming as Jackson, feisty only when he's punching someone with a good left, and Hayward is the picture of demure womanhood most of the time, which makes her a lot less interesting as an actress.
There's nothing extraordinary about this biography--in fact, it's rather dull at times with only occasional sparks of life. The performances are adequate, but nothing that fans of Heston and Hayward haven't seen before in more typical assignments. Fay Bainter is utterly wasted in a brief supporting role.
Only the last twelve minutes of the story deal with Jackson's Washington, D.C. years and the tumultuous election years where he entered public office as president and the dirty campaign that strikes at Rachel's reputation again.
Summing up: Satisfactory, but never much more than a routine bio of a great president and his lady.