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Thomas Edison and the Reluctant Presidential Candidate

Monday: The Purchase Price (1932)
        Joan is a lounge singer in the city. She is unlucky in love. Joan is involved with a married gangster. She wants out of the relationship but he won't let her. So she runs away. But he finds her again. While contemplating what to do she talks with her maid. Her maid is part of a mail order bride program. She is going to marry a farmer and live with him in the country. The maid is self conscious of her looks so she sent her fiancé a picture of Joan. Joan thinks a life on a farm sounds great. The maid doesn't really want to marry the farmer. So Joan goes in her place. The farmer's name is Jim. He lives all by himself and doesn't socialize very much. They have a rocky start to their marriage. Joan start to fall in love with him. She works hard to convince Jim that she loves him. I liked this movie ok. It was fine. Not the best ever but enjoyable.

Tuesday: Young Mr. Lincoln (1939)
       The movie starts with Abraham Lincoln as a young man living in New Salem, Illinois. He gets a book on law and falls in love with law. He works hard to become a lawyer. He moves to Springfield and opens up a law practice. He gets his first case when two brothers are accused of killing a man. The man happened to be friends with the police. A local politician is running the show behind the scenes on the prosecutor's side. Everything seems to be working against Abraham winning his case. He soon proves what a good lawyer and man he is. I liked this movie. It was interesting to learn a little about Lincoln at that age.

Wednesday: State of Union (1948)
       Kay has inherited her father's newspaper. They both had the goal of getting into the white house. She works with a former politician, Jim, to get someone elected President for the republican party. She chooses the head of a airplane manufacturer, Grant. It turns out that she is having an affair with him. Grant and his wife Mary are not on good terms. When he agrees to run for president, he and Kay know that it will mean he will have to travel and campaign with Mary. They need to show a happy married couple. Mary agrees. She wants to get Grant back. Although she is still upset that he is having an affair. Her motives are confusing. Everyone backs Grant for president. He seems to be on the right path. Then once night it all changes. He does what Jim wants him to do and changes everything he once stood for. Mary tries to get him back to the man he was. I liked this movie a lot. The acting was really good. I have now seen all the movies that Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn did together.

Friday: The Current War (2017/2019)
        This movie is about the fight for who will be the major electricity provider for the U.S. Edison, Westinghouse, and Tesla are the main competitors. Edison invents the lightbulb. He starts working to provide electricity to whole cities. He is stubborn. He only wants to do it his way. He doesn't listen to Tesla, who works for him. And he won't work with Westinghouse. So Westinghouse develops a engine to provide electricity. He has more success and is selling it at a cheaper price. He starts to get more cities than Edison. Edison still refuses to change. He spreads lies that the electricity  Westinghouse is providing is dangerous. Tesla has the idea for how to make the perfect engine to provide electricity. But that is all it is, an idea. He has a hard time actually making it. The three men compete to see who will be the main provider of electricity. This is a really good movie. The cinematography is amazing. The acting is so good. One of my favorite actors, Benedict Cumberbatch, is Edison. He does a really good job. The film was supposed to come out almost 2 years ago. But it was owned by the Weinstein company. It was set to release only a couple months after all the stuff came out about him committing sexual assault. So they didn't release the movie, even though they had already been advertising for it and it had a release date. He is a horrible man. But I don't see why they couldn't have still released the movie. It's not the actor's fault that he did all these things. They worked hard on this movie. I was worried it was never going to be released. I am glad that it did. Maybe it will win some awards. Also Edison basically invented motion pictures.
       

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