This highly fictionalized biopic from MGM and director William Dieterle charts the life of Andrew Johnson (Van Heflin) from his days as a near-illiterate tailor in Tennessee to his unlikely education at the hands of Eliza McCardle (Ruth Hussey) who would become his wife, to his entry into politics, eventually becoming Vice President under Abraham Lincoln, succeeding him after his assassination, only to become the first US President to face impeachment. Also featuring Morris Ankrum as Jefferson Davis.

The liberties taken by the screenwriters to make Johnson into a shining patriotic hero were so egregious to some that a protest movement formed against this movie, leading to picket lines and angry print editorials. Strangely enough, the most vocal opponents to the movie were Vincent Price and Zero Mostel! The movie is mostly malarkey, but so were so many "history lessons" coming out of Hollywood, so this one doesn't offend me that much. The purpose was to inspire and celebrate rather than inform or educate. If only it succeeded more at the former the lack of the latter wouldn't be so noticeable. The movie is clunky in its pacing, and can't decide what it really wants to say about its protagonists. Heflin and Hussey do as good a job as they were able given the material, but many of the supporting cast are wasted in nothing roles. The production design is nice, with detailed settings and nice costume work. Running about 105 minutes long, the movie really needed another 30 or so to add more depth and nuance to the players.

VAN HEFLIN as Andrew Johnson and RUTH HUSSEY as his wife both give earnest performances and the screenplay, while fictionalizing certain points for dramatic license, is a good one. But, as usual, history buffs are going to nitpick the inaccuracies to the point of dismissing the film as fiction. Not true. What it does do is make anyone who watches it want to consult the history books--and that's a good thing if you want to know the whole story behind Johnson being the first president in history against whom impeachment charges were made.

As his adversary in the impeachment process, LIONEL BARRYMORE delivers another one of his more restrained performances without overdoing the ham. He and Heflin share some pretty dramatically effective moments, both of them in fine form. Heflin takes the character of Johnson from his humble beginnings as a tailor to his marriage to Hussey and his gradual emergence as a spokesmen for the people of Tennessee. For the sake of running time, it skips most of the years leading up to the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination, compressing all of those events and managing to keep the screenplay a tightly knit focus on the impeachment process itself. Only quibble is it fails to make clear the strongest point of the impeachment.

VAN HEFLIN plays most of his role in appropriate age make-up (as does Hussey) and they're both terrific. In lesser roles, MARJORIE MAIN, REGIS TOOMEY and CHARLES DINGLE provide colorful support.

Summing up: May not be a complete history lesson, but it will certainly cause viewers to probe more deeply into the detailed background of historical interest. And it does serve to remind us what a fine actor Van Heflin was in a demanding role.