Saturday, April 12, 2014

April 12 - Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years

Today’s movie is a biography that has a scene set on April 12.  I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.

ELEANOR AND FRANKLIN: THE EARLY YEARS                             

The film starts the day FDR dies April 12, 1945. [01:40 to 11:33]  Eleanor Roosevelt then recalls incidents of their lives. When she was a small girl her family traveled to Europe. Her father was an alcoholic and after her mother dies Eleanor is kept separated from her father, who she dearly loved. Both her little brother and father die. She meets FDR. Eleanor is sent to a girls school in England for three years.  When she comes back to the USA, he begins courting her and finally proposes to her the weekend of the 1904 Harvard-Yale football game.  They are married on St. Patrick’s day 1905 with her uncle US President “Teddy’ Roosevelt giving her away. They are happy for a while,  but while Assistant Secretary of the Nay, FDR begins an affair with Eleanor’s social secretary Lucy Mercer, which she learns of from some letters in his suitcase when he returns from the Versailles Peace Conference. His mother tells FDR she will disinherit him if he divorces and Eleanor agrees to stay with him on condition that he never see Lucy again. After FDR develops polio Eleanor steps in and tours in his place.  FDR is elected governor of New York and later President.

A mainly realistic account of the lives of this famous couple from the early years until 1932.  Not too melodramatic. Mainly concentrates on Eleanor and not Franklin. 
    
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom by Conrad Black (Public Affairs, New York, 2003) at pages 1109-1113 gives the date of FDR’s death

Awards - The film won the Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction or Scenic Design - Dramatic Special or Feature Length Film Made for TV; Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography for Entertainment Programming for a Special; Outstanding Achievement in Costume Design for a Drama Special; Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing for Entertainment Programming for a Special; Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Mixing; Outstanding Achievement in Make-Up; Outstanding Directing in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy; Outstanding Individual Achievement in Any Area of Creative Technical Crafts; Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Comedy or Drama Special(Murphy); Outstanding Special - Drama or Comedy; Outstanding Writing in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy - Original Teleplay Emmys. It was also nominated for the Outstanding Achievement in Film Sound Editing - For a Special Program; Outstanding Achievement in Graphic Design and Title Sequences; Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama or Comedy Special (Hermann); Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama or Comedy Special (Alexander); Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Comedy or Drama Special (Tedrow) and Outstanding Single Performance by a Supporting Actress in Comedy or Drama Special (Skala) Emmys at the 28th Primetime Emmy Awards.   

Producers - David Susskind, Audrey Maas and Harry R. Sherman

Director - Daniel Petrie

Screenplay - James Costigan

Released - January 11, 1976

Runtime  - 4 hours

Starring -

Edward Herrmann  as FDR
Jane Alexander  as Eleanor Roosevelt
Rosemary Murphy as Sara Delano Roosevelt
Pamela Franklin as Anna Hall Roosevelt
David Huffman   as Elliott Roosevelt
Irene Tedrow    as Mary Ludlow Hall
John Burnett    as Hall Roosevelt
Linda Kelsey    as Lucy Page Mercer Rutherfurd
William Phipps  as Theodore Roosevelt
Linda Purl  as Alice Roosevelt Longworth
Devon Ericson   as Corinne Roosevelt Robinson
Teresa Steenhoek as Anna Roosevelt Halsted
Lilia Skala  as Marie Souvestre
Ed Flanders  as Louis Howe
Arthur Adams as Arthur Prettyman
Helen Kleeb as Margaret Suckley
Peggy McCay  as Grace Tully
Anna Lee as Laura Delano
Harry Holcombe  as Steve Early
Ned Wilson  as Endicott Peabody 
Len Wayland  as Admiral Ross McIntire
Lindsay Crouse  as Marjorie Bennett
Edward Winter as Joe McCall
Mackenzie Phillips as Eleanor, age 14

Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014.





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