Warm Springs (2005) (TV)

Director:

Joseph Sargent

Writer (WGA):

Margaret Nagle (written by)

Release Date:

30 April 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Biography | Drama

Tagline:

The greatest challenge FDR faced was the one we never saw.

Plot:

Franklin Roosevelt, left a paraplegic from polio at 39 years of age, seeks out a miracle cure in the backwoods of Georgia.

Plot Keywords:

Swimming Pool | League Of Women Voters | Rise To Power | Filmed On Location | Great Depression

Awards:

Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 8 wins & 26 nominations

Cast

Kenneth Branagh	...	Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Cynthia Nixon	...	Eleanor Roosevelt
David Paymer	...	Louis Howe
Tim Blake Nelson	...	Tom Loyless
Matt O'Leary	...	Fred Botts (as Matthew O'Leary)
Matt Malloy	...	Lionel Purdy
Andrew Davoli	...	Jake Perini
Nelsan Ellis	...	Roy Collier
Jane Alexander	...	Sara Delano Roosevelt
Kathy Bates	...	Helena Mahoney
Melissa Ponzio	...	Lucy Mercer
Quint Von Canon	...	Stephen Teller
Mike Pniewski	...	Hastings, Party Leader
Grayce Spence	...	League Member
Rand Hopkins	...	Dr. Lovett

Runtime:

USA:121 min | Argentina:121 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Colour:

Black and White | Colour

Aspect Ratio:

1.78 : 1

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Singapore:PG | Canada:PG (Ontario) | UK:PG | Australia:PG

Filming Locations:

Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Company:

HBO Films

Trivia:

Most of the actors playing disabled people in the film are actually disabled.

Goofs:

Continuity: The train seen in an external shot as the Roosevelts travel to Georgia for the first time is clearly not of the same type as the train they are in. The train seen externally is British.

Quotes:

Al Smith: [listening to Roosevelt on the radio] Mark my words; he'll be dead in less than a year.

Movie Connections:

References Roberta (1935)

Soundtrack:

I Won't Dance

Realistic up to a point

Having been a a patient at Warm Springs for many years during the 1930s and late 1940s, I feel qualified to critique the HBO movie, Warm Springs. The feel of the period and the scenes of the Warm Springs area were fairly realistic. The Meriwether Inn and the surrounding grounds were located on top of a hill, and not on flat ground. The pool where everyone swam was the authentic pool that FDR asked his friend Edsel Ford to build for him, after he acquired the property. I have swum in the pool many times. FDR was a man of great humor, and this is what is lacking in Kenneth Branagh's portrayal. Branagh completely missed the essence of the man, but so would any actor who attempted to portray FDR. Fred Botts was a great friend of mine, and when he arrived in Warm Springs, it was in the baggage car of the train. His brother accompanied him, and had modified a packing crate for him to rest in. He couldn't sit up for very long without experiencing great discomfort. He could stand up, or he could lie down, so he asked his brother to build him the crate so he could ride in comfort from Pittsburgh to Warm Springs. FDR's first words to him upon Fred's arrival were, "You must be the skeleton from Pennsylvania." Fred was tall and very thin. In 1916, Fred was working toward his debut with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. Among his admirers and supporters was Enrico Caruso. When polio struck him, his singing career ended, and he returned home to Pennsylvania, where he remained a prisoner in his family home for 10 years. When he arrived at Warm Springs, he and FDR immediately became great friends, and he remained as the registrar of the hospital until his death in the 1950s. He was FDR's favorite singer, and he used his great bass voice to lead the Companions (the term for the first patients of Dr. Roosevelt) in singing at the many picnics that FDR had up on Pine Mountain. He was not the callow youth portrayed in the movie. Tom Loyless was, in fact, the co-owner of the Columbus, GA Ledger, and not a failed newspaperman as portrayed in the movie. Doctor Lovett was the first doctor at the hospital, and he did much good work among the patients. The report he supposedly wrote about FDR's condition is a fiction, as far as I know. The trip to the medical convention in Atlanta was mostly Hollywood propaganda. The pushboys were FDR's invention, and not Helena Mahoney's. FDR's appearance at the Democratic Convention in Houston happened much the way it was portrayed in the movie. Overall, the movie portrayed FDR's family situation fairly accurately. He experienced great pressure from his mother to come to Hyde Park and hide in the family home. It is to his great credit that he did not do this. A final note, it's a pity that FDR's law partner in New York, Basil O'Conner, was left out of the film. FDR persuaded O'Conner to become the Chairman of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. It wasn't long until the March of Dimes became the major funding effort for the National foundation, and Warm Springs was on solid financial ground. Comedian Eddie Cantor came up with the March of Dimes idea.