THE LINCOLN CYCLE (1917) Part 1 (Episodes 1-4)
Special Features: New 2K DCP. Live musical accompaniment by Andrew Simpson
aka THE SON OF DEMOCRACY
Restored by the Library of Congress and unveiled at the 2018 Pordenone Silent Film Festival as part of an extensive John M. Stahl silent series, THE LINCOLN CYCLE (aka THE SON OF DEMOCRACY) comprises the surviving eight two-reel episodes of producer and star Benjamin Chapin's 1917 series on the life of Abraham Lincoln. While Chapin gave himself screen credit for writing, producing and directing the films and portraying the 16th President (as well as Lincoln's father Thomas and grandfather, also named Abe), Stahl credibly claimed to have been the series' actual director, and the quality of the films' structure and performances would seem to bear that out. Episodes from Lincoln's youth are dramatized with vigor and sensitivity, and the portrayals by Charles Jackson as young Abe and Madelyn Clare as his mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln are revelatory. DIR John M. Stahl; SCR/PROD Benjamin Chapin. U.S., 1917, b&w, 215 min. total (Part 1 approx. 106 min; Part 2 approx. 111 min). Silent with English intertitles. NOT RATED
Co-presented with the Lincoln Group of the District of Columbia (lincolnian.org).
AFI Member passes accepted.
Click here for Part 2 (Episodes 5–7, 10) - Mon, Feb. 21, 2:00 p.m.
Run Time: 106 Minutes
Opening Date: Saturday, February 12, 2022
Genre: Drama, biography