Episode 31: Tennessee Johnson, the Life of Our Terrible 17th President, Andrew Johnson

Presidential month continues apace as Sara and Rena watch Tennessee Johnson, a garbage movie that would be better titled Battle Cry of FreeDumb.

Outrage, the likes of which our microphones and households have never experienced, is on the menu this week as we bear witness to this trashfire hagiography about one of America’s worst presidents, the drunken, corrupt, racist monster Andrew Johnson, who was apparently named after preceding drunken, corrupt racist monster Andrew Jackson. This rightfully-forgotten 1942 motion picture asks the question, “Why do we have to be so mean to the South after the Civil War?”

AJ tries valiantly to reunite a shattered country–but that evil and wicked Thaddeus Stevens wants accountability from the defeated Confederacy. We find fault with this film’s perspective that the Civil War was a forgivable misunderstanding, rather than a catastrophe that killed hundreds of thousands of men and was fought over a state’s right to legal slavery, and subsequently set our nation on a course to literally never take responsibility for our bad actions.

Some other issues: Van Heflin’s Robert Wuhl-ish open-mouthed “huh” style of acting, the villainous portrayal of Mr. Stevens (itself a war crime), and whether AJ’s wife is actually history’s greatest monster (it is always a woman, after all). Zero Mostel wanted this movie burned; we can’t really argue with that. Content warning: Sara’s thwarted Juilliard audition monologue is included in this episode. 

Tennessee Johnson stars Van Heflin as Andrew Johnson, Ruth Hussey as Eliza Johnson, Lionel Barrymore as Thaddeus Stevens, and a top hat from a prop closet playing Abraham Lincoln.

Sources: 

Wikipedia: Andrew_Johnson's_drunk_vice-presidential_inaugural_address 

The 1865 podcast

A bunch of stuff from the internet and some sources that we also used on the Lincoln episode but are far too despondent to remunerate at the moment.

Spoiler Warning: We spoil everything. And we enjoy it.

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