Sunrise at Campobello

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Sunrise at Campobello is a 1960 American biographical drama about Franklin D. Roosevelt and his family as he deals with paralysis in 1921 and works to return to public life. The film is based on Dore Schary’s Broadway play of the same name, directed by Vincent J. Donehue. Ralph Bellamy stars as FDR, with Greer Garson as Eleanor Roosevelt and Hume Cronyn as Louis Howe.

The story follows three years—from August 1921 to July 1924—showing how Roosevelt, once active and athletic, becomes bedridden but gradually recovers and re-enters public life, eventually walking with braces and crutches to give a speech at the 1924 Democratic National Convention. The movie was made with the cooperation of the Roosevelt family; Eleanor Roosevelt visited the set, and exteriors were filmed at the Roosevelt estate in Hyde Park, New York, and Campobello Island.

Sunrise at Campobello emphasizes the realities of Roosevelt’s illness more than many earlier depictions. It received mixed reviews but praise for Bellamy’s performance, and Garson won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama. The film was shown at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1961, where some audience members left before it ended.