Magnificent Doll

One woman's romantic entanglements have historic repercussions in Frank Borzage's MAGNIFICENT DOLL. Dorothea 'Dolly' Payne (Ginger Rogers) is torn between her affection for Aaron Burr (David Niven), Vice President under Thomas Jefferson and something of a scoundrel, and James Madison (Burgess Meredith), a political idealist soon to be known as the 'Father of the Constitution.' Penned by Irving Stone (THE AGONY AND THE ECSTASY), who often wrote about the personal lives of the founding fathers (and their love interests), MAGNIFICENT DOLL chose to downplay political discourse for the sake of emotion, which sparked some criticism upon the film's initial release. 'Heaven help the poor school children whose minds are supposedly informed about the American Federalist period by the film MAGNIFICENT DOLL,' quipped Bosley Crowther in the New York Times. But the film has since earned a more relaxed appreciation for it's breathless, almost campy approach to American history, and the romantic impulses that shaped it's progression.