This story begins in 1921, while the Roosevelt family is on vacation, at their Canadian Campobello residence, just before Franklin began his polio symptoms, which is the main focus of the film. I learned so much about FDR's long term intimates in this film, both directly, and indirectly, through my subsequent internet investigations. For example, I hadn't heard of Louis Howe, played by Hume Cronym, who was Franklin's constant political campaign manager from 1909 until his death in 1936, and was a near constant member of the Roosevelt household during this time. We might rightly label him 'King Maker', he was so important in engineering Franklin's political ascendancy. He is a prominent character in the film...........If Howe was Franklin's most important male intimate, along with wife Eleanor, his most important woman aid was 'Missy' Le Hand, played by Jean Hagen. She also was a near constant member of the Roosevelt household, beginning as Franklin's secretary during his 1920 running as the Democratic Vice Presidential candidate, and serving him until heart problems forced her retirement in 1941. Never marrying, it's clear that Franklin was the love of her life, despite occasional short-lived dalliances with others. It's clear that he also loved her, and there is speculation as to whether their love extended to the sexual level. Regardless, Eleanor was friendly with her, and she served as hostess when Eleanor was on one of her trips. While Franklin was President, she served as the first women Secretary to the President. She functioned as the 'Queen' of the White House staff, and 'Gatekeeper', mostly determining who would see the President. In the latter respect, she functioned much as Woodrow Wilson's last wife, after Wilson had his debilitating stroke. The film, based on the previous play, conveniently skips two small craft cruises, which Eleanor didn't participate in, when Franklin and Missy got even better acquainted, and Franklin emerged in better spirits and physically. Unfortunately, in the film, she is pretty much kept in the background, although she appears several times taking dictation or typing........... We get an inkling of the domineering influence of Franklin's mother, Sara, even after his marriage. Sara, played by Ann Shoemaker, was strongly opposed to Franklin's marriage to distant relative Eleanor, and tried to keep them from seeing each other. Perhaps she correctly sensed that Eleanor was not psychologically equipped to deal with children. Unfortunately, the couple produced 6 children. From the onset of their marriage, Sara was essentially a member of their household, overshadowing Eleanor, and was the main influence in raising the children! In the film, after it became evident that Franklin's paralyzed legs probably weren't going to recover(as polio-paralyzed limbs sometimes did), she demanded that he give up his political ambitions, and retire to the life of a country gentleman. Franklin vehemently disagreed, as did Eleanor and Howe, and Sara was overruled............. An over-aged, but effective, Greer Garson played Eleanor. Although she was better looking than Eleanor, she was fantastic at mimicking Eleanor's very distinctive manner of speaking and other mannerisms. Used to looking at the 1942 Greer, I didn't really recognize her........... A few years before this story begins, Eleanor received a rude shock when she discovered a pack of love letters to Franklin from her secretary: Lucy Mercer. There was even 'talk' of divorce. However, Sara and Howe strongly discouraged Franklin from divorcing Eleanor, and Franklin finally consented. Nonetheless, an emotional wedge had been driven between Franklin and Eleanor, which we don't see in the film, the two seemingly being lovey dove with each other. Eleanor heretofore resolved to devote her life to various political causes, besides being Franklin's companion. As brought out in the film, Howe encouraged Eleanor's political asperations, and coached her in public speech making, as she was not a natural speech maker. He even boasted that, given enough time, he would make her the first woman President. Unfortunately, he died before he had a chance to make good this boast............Now, we come to Franklin, himself. Ralph Bellamy makes an excellent FDR mimic, although perhaps he is too uniformly cocky and optimistic, even for FDR. In the early going, he is optimistic that his leg paralysis will subside, just as his hand paralysis had. Bellamy usually has Franklin with a fashionable long cigarette mouth holder or pipe in his mouth. If representative, along with his frequent cocktails, his disability, and the stress of being a wartime President, no wonder he died at a relatively young age.......... In the latter part of the film, NY governor and 1928 Democratic Presidential candidate Al Smith appears, with Franklin supporting his candidacy. Franklin would take over his job as NY governor. Unfortunately, Smith was the first ever Catholic candidate for president, thus controversial for that reason. Also unfortunately, Smith was running at the wrong time for a Democrat, and lost the election to Hoover, in a landslide. But, with the '29 economic crash and subsequent Depression, the political landscape radically changed. Thus, in the 1932 election, with the backing of Howe, instead of supporting Smith, Franklin ran against him, and the rest is history. .........Incidentally, it's too bad that the Australia outback's self-educated nurse 'Sister' Kenny couldn't have come to the US 20 years earlier, with her 'muscle reeducating' massage therapy frequent cure for polio. That's right, I said 'cure'. Despite being mostly shunned by the Australian and US medical establishments as a presumed uneducated quack, her thousands of successes(including future singer Dina Shore) couldn't be ignored forever. In 1952: the year of her death, she even won the 'most admired woman in the US' award, beating out the usual winner: Eleanor. I suspect I'm correct in saying that she is the only non-Presidential First Lady to win that award! ............1952 was also the year that that Salk began testing his polio vaccine on the public, eventually making Kenny's discovery virtually obsolete. The 1946 movie "'Sister' Kenny", staring Rosalind Russell, greatly increased her notoriety in the US, leading to her 1952 award. You can see it for free at YouTube, or buy the DVD...........Hope you enjoyed my review and learned a few interesting things. I enjoyed writing it!
Review of Sunrise at Campobello
