User Reviews

Screen Directors Playhouse: Lincoln's Doctor's Dog (1955)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The Civil War is in its darkest days and President Abraham Lincoln (Robert Ryan) is severely ill due to the stress. His doctor (Charles Bickford) recommends that the President spend his birthday in bed but he doesn't see how that will be possible because he has so much on his plate. The doctor then gets the idea of giving the President a puppy. This entry in the Screen Directors Playhouse isn't all that bad but at the same time there's nothing too overly special about it. I think the greatest thing the film has going for it are the performances but the screenplay needed to be a tad bit stronger. There's no action here but instead it's mostly just the doctor and the President talking about a wide range of issues. The war is brought up several times and we get other things like Lincoln growing up in Kentucky and wanting catfish for dinner. Since this is a dialogue driven film, it really doesn't help that some of the spoken words are either weak or just not interesting enough to keep the viewer's full attention. I do wish the dialogue had been somewhat better but it simply jumps around too much. Another problem is that it just comes across way too cute. I'm not sure how truthful this story is but there are just way too many times things seem sugar-coated. Robert Ryan is pretty good in the role of the President as he comes across as a sweet-natured man and he was quite believable during the scenes where the President is worried about all the lives that the war is costing. Bickford easily steals the film as the doctor as there are times where I really forgot I was watching a performance because he came across so much like a doctor. I loved the way he handled the dialogue and overall he just came across very good.

This installment of "Screen Director's Playhouse" was directed by H.C. Potter and as was the custom of the show, he introduces this play. Unfortunately, it didn't do much for me...plus, the entire story was fiction.

When the episode begins, Abraham Lincoln (Robert Ryan) is getting scolded by his doctor (Charles Bickford). Why? Because Lincoln is working himself to death. Sure, there's a war on, but he needs to take time to relax and sleep or his days will be numbered. The answer to all this is a doggy....whatever.

I just found the entire episode to be schmaltzy and silly....and I usually hate extreme schmaltz! Overall, a rather weak installment of the show....you can do better and I would have hoped for more from the fine actors who were in this one.

As the other reviewer notes, the story is static and the dialog is wooden. But I wonder who deserves the blame because I believe the original story was influenced by a bit of "folklore" wisdom within the book business. Supposedly, it was impossible for a publisher or a bookseller to lose money on a book about Abraham Lincoln, doctors, or dogs. And thus if anyone ever wrote a book called Lincoln's Doctor's Dog, it was bound to be a best-seller.

Christopher Morley the author of the story that formed the basis for the film, was quite the sophisticated writer, very much "in the know" within literary circles. I believe his original story was intended to be both a wink at the book business joke (which Morley would have known), and a genuinely heartfelt tribute to Lincoln. Unfortunately none of that double-level awareness went into this overly earnest, overly talky effort.

Too bad they never made "The Editor of Lincoln's Doctor's Memoir."