For Lincoln's birthday this Sunday--203 years old and still lookin' good--here is a one-minute clip from a recently rediscovered 1913 silent film called When Lincoln Paid. It had gone missing for 90-some years until a print was discovered in 2006 in a barn in New Hampshire. It stars and was directed by Francis Ford, the older brother and professional mentor of the great American film director John Ford. I learn from Wikipedia that Francis Ford played Lincoln in at least seven silent films--all of them lost, until this one was found. Francis was a big name in silent movies, but his career declined thereafter. His last directing credit was in 1928, though he worked as a character actor into the 1940s. His younger brother John, who learned much about film-making from him, consistently cast him in small, relatively unimportant, roles in his films, including an uncredited bit part in 1939's Young Mr. Lincoln, which starred Henry Fonda.
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