The Declaration of Independence

The Declaration of Independence

26/11/1938 0h 17m 6.3/10

Overview

This historical featurette focuses on Caesar Rodney of Delaware who in the summer of 1776 cast the deciding vote, at the meeting of the Continental Congress in Philadelphia, so that the Declaration of Independence was adopted.

Director

Crane Wilbur

Top Billed Cast

John Litel

John Litel

Thomas Jefferson

Lionel Belmore

Lionel Belmore

The Innkeeper (uncredited)

Owen King

Edward Rutledge

Rosella Towne

Rosella Towne

Betsy Kramer

Richard Bond

Richard Bond

Thomas Lynch Jr.

Ted Osborne

Ted Osborne

Caesar Rodney

Reviews

CinemaSerf

CinemaSerf

7/10/2025

5/10

With the slightly incongruous strains of “God Save The King” accompanying this short feature, it offers us a zealous and simplistic, “Janet and John” guide to those brave men who decided to separate from the mother country and set out on their road to freedom, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It’s the sort of film you might show to young children to excite their interest in history, or dressing up, or both - but the only actual political point it seems to me to promote is one that says: if I don’t do what you want to do at gunpoint, you will do what I want at gunpoint instead. It’s probably fine if you are ten years old, but otherwise it’s all far too overly condensed to do anything like justice to the prologues and visceral debates across the thirteen states that were nowhere near as unanimous and back-slapping as this suggests the process was. Maybe they could have credited the writers of Magna Carta in here too?

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