Midnight Movie: Eleanor and Franklin (1976 television movie)

The film relates their lives in flashback from the perspective of the the newly-widowed Eleanor (in 1945), who recalls – the time they were children as cousins who met briefly – their courtship and marriage – bearing and raising a large family – her social efforts as he rises to Assistant Secretary of the Navy in World War I – his hidden affair with Lucy Mercer – her help and encourgement with his famous bout with the affliction of polio – her campaigning with Louis Howe, their mentor, crony and campaign manager during her husband’s runs for political offices in the New York state legislature – his unsuccessful effort for Vice President in 1920 – his election as Governor of New York and his rivalry with the failed candidate for the presidency in 1928, Al Smith – his election to the Presidency in 1932 during the “Great Depression”.