ALEXANDER HAMILTON (1931) (Warner Bros.) (70 minutes)
This was the fifth sound film that Arliss made for Warner Bros. At the height of his prestige, having won the third bestowed Best Actor Oscar two years prior.
It is an adaptation of a stage play he had co-written and starred in. It did not have a long run, about ten weeks, but his characterization was highly praised. Despite the fact he was twenty years too old to play Hamilton at this stage of his life, the make-up did render his facial skin flawless and the dark wig helped to create the illusion.
It is a romantic work, based on a peccadillo of his when his wife was abroad. Hamilton was known for his active libido. The point of the play is that he was duped and coerced into the liaison and that the blackmailed threat of exposure was a political maneuver to block the passing of his Assumption Bill (creating a federal bank, paying the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and establishing credit for international commerce).
It is rather a one note plot, but as a political exercise in compromise, it is rather interesting. Most amusing is the scene where he maneuvers Madison and Jefferson into voting for his bill by reluctantly agreeing to vote for the country's capital to be on the Potomac, halfway between the North and the South - a plan of his own devising, but at that point, unknown to either of the future presidents pleading its cause.
Arliss is of course, flawless in his rendering of the character. Alan Mowbray with a false nose, appears as George Washington at the beginning and end of the film. His farewell to his troops in 1783, which opens the film, is very moving indeed.
After this brief prologue, the scene is set 8 years later, in 1791. Much turmoil exists around the treasury and the establishment of international credit. All the ex-soldiers want is to get paid, and they are of the peasant mind-set that they can't possibly see the big picture. Feeding themselves and their families is their only concern, and quite understandable it is.
Morgan Wallace as James Monroe and Montagu Love as Thomas Jefferson look nothing like their historical counterparts, but play their roles as both politicians and gentlemen adequately. Gwendolyn Logan has a brief scene as Martha Washington, a character I don't recall ever having seen impersonated in a Hollywood film.
This is not a great film by any means, but it is an interesting one, and its significance in being filmed during the Great Depression, with hope for economic stability, is pointed. Anyone interested in our revolutionary days and the beginnings of our nation will be intrigued.
This was the fifth sound film that Arliss made for Warner Bros. At the height of his prestige, having won the third bestowed Best Actor Oscar two years prior.
It is an adaptation of a stage play he had co-written and starred in. It did not have a long run, about ten weeks, but his characterization was highly praised. Despite the fact he was twenty years too old to play Hamilton at this stage of his life, the make-up did render his facial skin flawless and the dark wig helped to create the illusion.
It is a romantic work, based on a peccadillo of his when his wife was abroad. Hamilton was known for his active libido. The point of the play is that he was duped and coerced into the liaison and that the blackmailed threat of exposure was a political maneuver to block the passing of his Assumption Bill (creating a federal bank, paying the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and establishing credit for international commerce).
It is rather a one note plot, but as a political exercise in compromise, it is rather interesting. Most amusing is the scene where he maneuvers Madison and Jefferson into voting for his bill by reluctantly agreeing to vote for the country's capital to be on the Potomac, halfway between the North and the South - a plan of his own devising, but at that point, unknown to either of the future presidents pleading its cause.
Arliss is of course, flawless in his rendering of the character. Alan Mowbray with a false nose, appears as George Washington at the beginning and end of the film. His farewell to his troops in 1783, which opens the film, is very moving indeed.
After this brief prologue, the scene is set 8 years later, in 1791. Much turmoil exists around the treasury and the establishment of international credit. All the ex-soldiers want is to get paid, and they are of the peasant mind-set that they can't possibly see the big picture. Feeding themselves and their families is their only concern, and quite understandable it is.
Morgan Wallace as James Monroe and Montagu Love as Thomas Jefferson look nothing like their historical counterparts, but play their roles as both politicians and gentlemen adequately. Gwendolyn Logan has a brief scene as Martha Washington, a character I don't recall ever having seen impersonated in a Hollywood film.
This is not a great film by any means, but it is an interesting one, and its significance in being filmed during the Great Depression, with hope for economic stability, is pointed. Anyone interested in our revolutionary days and the beginnings of our nation will be intrigued.