The Magnificent Yankee (1950 film)

• Louis Calhern: Oliver Wendell Holmes
• Ann Harding: Fanny Holmes
• Eduard Franz: Louis Brandeis
• Philip Ober: Owen Wister
• Herbert Anderson: Baxter
• Richard Anderson: Reynolds

The Magnificent Yankee is an American biographical film of 1950 by John Sturges. The film, based on the 1942 novel, Mr. Justice Holmes by Francis Biddle and the subsequent stage play The Magnificent Yankee in 1946, tells the story of the American legal scholar, lawyer and judge on the United States Oliver Wendell Holmes Supreme Court, Jr. (1841 - 1935).

Action

The writer Owen Wister tells the life story of Judge Oliver Wendell Holmes. Wister begins his story in 1902. Holmes, now 61 years old, leaves his house in Boston and moved to Washington, DC., Where he works as a judge on the U.S. Supreme Court. With his wife, Fanny, he moves into a new house. Visit the site of a battlefield of the American Civil War, in which Holmes has fought in 1864 as a young Union soldier. The idea to work as a judge with former Confederates, delighted Holmes.

The cynical Congressman Adams, great-grandson of former President John Adams, sees in President Theodore Roosevelt, who called Holmes a judge, a danger to the country. Soon after, Fanny suffers from depression, since they can not have children. But Holmes assures his love for her. Holmes wants to do his job from home and plans to hire a Harvard graduate as secretary every year. So both can enjoy, to experience the power of the young men a kind of parenting.

After the swearing discuss Holmes and his staff on the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States as well as the pros and cons of the Sherman Antitrust Act. Holmes is an opponent of the act, and he is personally attacked by Roosevelt, an advocate. Is sanctioned Also known as the Sherman Act, after a vote, Roosevelt rumbles on.

Holmes is a tough boss for his employees, which is forbidden to marry, so long as they work for Holmes. Baxter, one of the young secretaries, announces, so he can marry his girlfriend. Fanny asks her husband on to reconsider its request and rejects Baxter's dismissal from. Homes realizes that his wife is right and keeps Baxter in his service.

1916 appoints the new president Woodrow Wilson Holmes friend, the Jewish lawyer Louis Brandeis, to the Supreme Court. The nomination will be discussed over six months in Congress. Holmes supports the nomination, thus facilitating Brandeis appeal. Although Holmes is regarded as deviants, but he and Brandeis can modify the legal methods progressive. Their friendship grows deeper at work for the legalization of trade unions and the definition of the right to freedom of expression. Holmes has many opponents, many of his judgments are appealed, but its rulings are confirmed for the most part.

1921 Holmes celebrates his 80th birthday. But the celebration is affected by the fact that one has Holmes passed over for the nomination of the Chief Justice. When in 1929 his wife Fanny is dying, he gives her the promise to continue to work for his country. Holmes remains until he reached the age of 90 at the court. Shortly after his resignation breaks the stock market together. President Franklin D. Roosevelt is forced, for the first time in the history of the United States to close the Landesbank. Finally, he announces to visit Holmes to consult with him. Holmes prepares proudly on the visit. He wants to give the president the only advice he knows: In times of war you have to fight hard for his country. He decides to bequeath the bulk of his assets to the government.

Reviews

" [ ... ] Elegant transfer to the canvas. "

Awards

Walter Plunkett received a 1951 nomination for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design ( b / w). Louis Calhern received nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actor and a Golden Globe.

Background

The premiere took place in Los Angeles on December 20, 1950. This was done in order to qualify for the 1951 Oscar Contest. The actual release date was then carried out on 18 January 1951.

Louis Calhern embodied the judge in the film underlying stage play. After the Broadway hit Calhern went with the piece for ten months on tour. When the film rights were bought by MGM, Calhern was the logical first choice for the lead role.

Outfitter of the film were Cedric Gibbons, and Edwin B. Willis. For sound, Douglas Shearer was in charge, the special effects were from A. Arnold Gillespie.

Francis Biddle, the author of the literary model for the film and the stage play, was a judge and was appointed in 1946 to the U.S. Chief Judge at the Nuremberg Trials. After graduation Biddle was private secretary to Oliver Wendell Holmes.