Fictional Presidential Films

About the Book

Fictional Presidential Films Hollywood’s manner of making films, its conventions, applies especially to fictional presidential films, allowing filmmakers to express their ideas that could not be done in traditional historical films. Fictional Presidential Films offers a complete filmography of these two-hundred-plus films decade by decade since 1930. The main body of the work provides a brief summary of each decade along with a summary on the overall nature of films in which a fictional President appeared. Each relevant film is then discussed with credits, plot summary, description of the presidential appearance, and, when possible, an assessment of the presidential portrayal included.

About the Author

Sarah Miles Bolam has worked in journalism in the United States and abroad, creating publications and serving as a critic of the arts for daily and weekly publications. She has also taught literature and journalism for the State University of New York system and is the author with John Tebbel of the Pulitzer-Prize-nominated The Press and the Presidency. Thomas J. Bolam is a retired executive who spent most of his career in the Far East. They divide their time between New York and Texas. Their last book was The Presidents on Film (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2007). Cover photo from the George Eastman House in Rochester, New York, shows director Gregory La Cava (seated) with star Walter Huston (at desk) in Gabriel Over the White House (1933), a Cosmopolitan Production for MGM. Design by Danica Eskind.