Sunrise at Campobello (1960)

 

Much of Sunrise at Campobello occurs during a three-year span in the life of future U.S. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor. It begins in 1921 with a visit to the family’s summer home on Campobello Island in New Brunswick, Canada. Ralph Bellamy’s FDR seems healthy, but he soon suffers paralysis, and his wife and closest advisor, Hume Cronyn’s Louis Howe. have to bolster him physically and emotionally as he adjusts to life in a wheelchair. Eleanor, in particular, nurses him to the point of exhaustion and has to grapple with FDR’s demanding mother, Sara (Ann Shoemaker), who doesn’t want him to return to politics. Eleanor (capably portrayed by Greer Garson despite some awkward fake teeth) has to assume some of the responsibilities of public life for Franklin, and Howe as his closest political advisor keeps trying to keep Franklin interested in running for political office. Cronyn is quite funny in the role, serving as the comic relief in a film heavy with sadness over FDR’s health decline (although the sequence where they try to get FDR aboard a boat without the press finding out generates some humor). Franklin doesn’t want to be an invalid, and he even drags himself up a staircase just to prove his determination. The climax of the film involves a request by New York Governor Al Smith to have FDR nominate him for President at the Democratic Convention of 1924. Sara, unsurprisingly, just wants him to move to the family residence at Hyde Park. He has to walk and stand in order to deliver the speech, and it takes a lot of planning on the part of Eleanor, Howe, and the family to keep the assembled politicos from learning of his paralysis. Even though the film was made with the participation of the Roosevelt family, including Eleanor, it’s still rather astonishing to see how Franklin managed to hide his need for a wheelchair or heavy leg crutches from the public. The film version was adapted from a stage play, and it’s frankly still rather stagey. The performances occasionally devolve into a form of caricature, such as when Bellamy holds his cigarette holder clenched between his teeth. However, as a fictional attempt to show what the Roosevelts endured after Franklin’s diagnosis, Sunrise at Campobello serves as an inspiration.

Oscar Nominations: Best Actress in a Leading Role (Greer Garson), Best Color Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Color Costume Design, and Best Sound