No, Really, It Exists, I Swear!

Films, TV shows, and books of the 'modern' era
klondike

No, Really, It Exists, I Swear!

Post by klondike »

OK, if I was still waltzin' my matilda 'round over at the TCM site, any more, I'd run this over the dateline wire on their FYI forum -
But, as Bellows Falls and the Silver Screen Oasis are the only places, any more, that I'm comfortable hangin' my hat, and as I've gone nearly cross-eyed running unsuccessful keyword searches on IMDb already, I'm going to ask for input on this conundrum from my Community:
I can vaguely recall, as a child of less than 9 years old, watching a movie being run on afternoon TV involving the dramatization of a plot to steal the entombed body of Abraham Lincoln.
OK, I hear you guys up-back snickering, but honest-to-murgatroid, a historical event of similar nature did happen, and actually constitutes one of the earliest Secret Service case files.
And somewhere back there in the celluloid mists of proto-matinee history, there's a cheapjack B-flick about it! RELEASE THE HOUNDS!
No, but seriously, Gang, I could use some help on this one.
Thanks for your attention!
Last edited by klondike on December 5th, 2007, 7:43 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Post by movieman1957 »

I can't speak to the TV show but I know there was a plot to steal his body. As I recall when the thieves failed (I thought this was in the early 1900s though) the family decided to open the coffin for a look. The found the body very well preserved. A pile of confetti like material on his chest turned out to be a disintegrated flag.

After completing all this the body was set back in the tomb and sealed under an enormous amount of concrete.

I think I saw this in a documentary on Lincoln but I'd have to double check.
Chris

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Post by TalkieTime »

It seems to me that I read a lengthy article in American Heritage magazine concerning this matter. This was back in the days when American Heritage was hardbound and without advertising--probably back in the 1960's. The article even described that Lincoln's fingernails had continued to grow after his death leading some to speculate that he had been buried alive.
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Post by SSO Admins »

talkietime, the AH article is online here. There was also a book written on the plot earlier this year.

When I was a kid, we had those hardbound editions of AH sitting around the house. I think I read every single one of them. It was a great magazine, and I probably knew more American history at 11 than any other kid in town.
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Post by moira finnie »

Hi Klondike,
This tv memory sounds like something that would've been right up the creepy alley of John Newland, host of One Step Beyond
I see that there was an episode, called "The Day the World Wept-The Lincoln Story" touching on the spookier elements surrounding Lincoln's death back in 1960. Perhaps this very real conspiracy was also mentioned there. I don't know about your neck of the woods, but when I was growing up, our local tv stations used to show this program in repeats. For those who've never seen it, One Step Beyond was sort of a low rent Twilight Zone, with some retreads of Saki stories and the perpetuation of numerous urban myths as well.

Btw, Klon, I think you should start working on a screenplay treatment of this material, pronto. I can envision the hapless, grave-robbing conspirators as Joe Pantoliano, Joe Grifasi and Philip Seymour Hoffman as the ringleader. Maybe they could dig up Royal Dano to play the body of Lincoln. Don't forget to cast someone as unlike Lincoln as possible for Robert Todd Lincoln.

As you probably know, since the younger Mr. Lincoln was a "neighbor" of yours at his estate at Hildene in Manchester, VT, he was quite a striking figure in the Gilded Age, and, though he might be described as the Fred Thompson of his time as a perennial fave of certain people for candidacy for the presidency, fortunately for the country, he just spent his life making a pile of dough, herding his poor demented mother around, and trying to get the Lincoln burial monument (with his Dad encased in cement) built. Here's an interesting article about Bob's life.

Did I say that about the great character actor, Royal Dano?? I'm BAD, don't talk to me anymore. Still, thanks for bringing up this interesting topic and for the American Heritage link in this thread as well, Jon.
Last edited by moira finnie on December 5th, 2007, 3:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
klondike

Post by klondike »

:( ( - s i g h - ) :(

No help on the Movie Trail, eh?

( follow-up sigh )

Chris, TT, Boss Jon: thanks for the fun chime-ins & chat - it is a deliciously bizarre topic, ain't it? In case you never have, you should consider checking out one of my fave websites of all time: snopes.com, arguably the Mt. Everest of old-wife/jr. high/urban legend debunkment . . fun mostly 'cause besides bursting all those pop-culture folklore balloons, they also give you exhaustive background on the whys, hows, whens & wheres of all that groovy mis-info.
When I first discovered that site, I literally lost nearly 2 whole days of my leisure life wandering through all their files & forums!

Moira - Ohh, trust me, ma cher', One Step Beyond was a TV mainstay of my youth, somehow spooking me out far worse as a child than did the old TZone, or Outer Limits; even now, the merest scrid of that witchy, writhing theremin theme music can pop me out my seat like ol' jack-in-the-box, with every hair on both arms spiked right up to attention!
But, back to matter at hand here, no, what I'm chasin' round the shadowed corridors of memory is definitely not an episode of anything written for broadcast; I distinctly remember a great involvement of programme music, cinema quality camera work, a rolling-titles epilogue and full-length film credits.
(And, actually, I have seen all of the separate Lincoln-topic eps from TZ, OL, 1STB, Night Gallery and Boris Karloff's Thriller, and they are definitely different-colored horses.)
I do like your casting ideas for that potential "Abe-duction" film you proposed - except I'd add spooky old Christopher Walken as the secretly-deranged senatorial conspirator . . my theory about CW from seeing him in his last 3 or 4 films is that he can no longer distinguish whether or not he is on-camera!
Whoever pens this masterpiece aborning, though, sure won't be me . . truth be told I can't (reliably) write worth a hot dingleberry on a cold morning!
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Post by SSO Admins »

klondike wrote:I do like your casting ideas for that potential "Abe-duction" film you proposed - except I'd add spooky old Christopher Walken as the secretly-deranged senatorial conspirator . . my theory about CW from seeing him in his last 3 or 4 films is that he can no longer distinguish whether or not he is on-camera!
I once saw an interview with Walken where the interviewer asked him why he'd been so successful. His reply, and I'm paraphrasing, was that if a director wanted a Chris Walken type he had to get the original, because no one else could do it.
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Post by markfp »

Don't worry Klondike, I believe you. The film you're thinking of is THE ABDUCTORS" (1957) starring Victor McLaglen and George Macready. It was directed by Victor's son Andrew V. and was the only time the he directed his father. It was also Victor's last American film before he died in 1959. I got this info from TCM's database.

Haven't thought of it in decades, but I remember seeing it as a second feature when it was first released and it was in a TV movie package in the 1960's. It was released by 20th Century-Fox, but it was an independent production so who knows where it is now. Too bad, as I recall it was a pretty good little film.
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Post by klondike »

Thank you, Mark!
That sounds like exactly the film that I am so clearly half-remembering; and the good news would seem to be that, small, quick & low-budget though it might be, it must be worth looking at to some extent if it features good ol' Vic McL!
:wink:
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Post by markfp »

Klondike, Glad I could be of service. The only thing is, now I want to see it again too.

When I started researching it for you, I was thinking it starred Dick Powell, but I was confusing it with Anthony Mann's 1951 film THE TALL TARGET in which Powell was a detective trying stop Lincoln from being assassinated on a train. That's an MGM film and turns up on TCM now and then.

Mark
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Post by moira finnie »

This sounds like a pretty interesting movie. Thanks for bringing this up, Klondike and Mike for accurately naming the film, which is listed here---though it seems that no one but Klon & Mike have seen this flick in decades, alas, and probably won't be surfacing soon unless 20th Century Fox dusts it off for the FMC or AMC, (which shows quite a few older Fox movies).

I did a quick search to see if any recordings of the movie might be available and so far haven't found anything but a review of actress Fay Spain's somewhat sketchy career over on that delightfully raffish website, Brian's Drive-in Theater. There was a picture that popped up, reproduced below. Does this look familiar, Mr. Klondike?
Image
Left to right, Fay Spain, Carl Thayer, and Mr. McLaglen in The Abductors (1957).
klondike

Post by klondike »

Yup, there's been more cobwebs blown into the wind now that I've seen that picture, Moira; I seem to recall now that I saw the last half of it the same week I was sent to my room for firing my cap-gun in the house . . that, or spraying the mailman with the garden hose (again) . . anyway, would've been sometime in the summer of '62 . .
And, yup, Mark, you're right on the money about 1951's The Tall Target, another fun "little" movie, albeit one with a bit better pedigree.
Hey, and remember the extra spooky thing (after the fact) about Tall Target?
Dick Powell's character (the protagonist) is named John Kennedy !
:shock:
How w e i r d is that?!
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Post by CoffeeDan »

That's a historical fact, Klondike. Lincoln's bodyguard was named John Kennedy.

Even weirder is the fact that John F. Kennedy had a personal assistant named Evelyn Lincoln! (No relation to the one-time president, though.)
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LINCOLN/KENNEDY

Post by Sue Sue Applegate »

I enjoyed reading this thread about the quest for a lost gem of a film.
For more of the strangely weird Lincoln/Kennedy coincidences, go to:

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Post by Ollie »

If/When we discover the name of this, I hope someone will start a new thread with it as the title so we can track it down! It sounds great.
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