Story of Will Rogers, The

With Will Rogers Jr. as his dad, Jane Wyman as Betty Rogers and heaps of homespun warmth, there's plenty to like about this biography of the "Poet Lariat" who never met a man he didn't like. From its lead performance to its storyline based on Betty's reminiscences to its fond direction by Michael Curtiz (a polo-playing buddy of Rogers), the movie has an authenticity befitting this most authentic of American heroes. Humorist, vaudevillian, film star, journalist, aviation buff, champion of the common man and more, Rogers crammed a lot of living into his 56 years. And The Story of Will Rogers, featuring Slim Pickens, Eddie Cantor, James Gleason, Mary Wickes and Jay Silverheels, turns it all into a lot of movie.

• biography
• drama
• western