John Payne returns home from the Revolutionary War to find his wife and daughter (Ginger Rogers) hosting a party. He is clearly not in a mood for a party. He tells how his life was saved and how he promised the man that his daughter would marry the man's son. Dolly Payne is upset by this arranged marriage but goes through with it. She and John Todd (Stephen McNally) have a loveless marriage in Philadelphia. They have a son. Then, disaster strikes. Yellow fever sweeps through Philadelphia, killing John and their son. Dolly and her mother (Peggy Wood) must rent out rooms of their house to make a living. Their first tenant is Senator Aaron Burr (David Niven), a handsome and charming man who arranges additional lodgers of high office. He immediately begins to woo Dolly. Soon after, James Madison (Burgess Meredith) takes a room and begins his own wooing of Dolly.
The story proposes a love triangle among Dolly, Aaron Burr, and James Madison. Aaron is charming and exciting, taking her on country rides and out on adventurous excursions. By contrast, James plays chess and convinces Dolly and her mother to host a party where politicking can happen. Aaron is tall and handsome. James is shy and cerebral. It is hard to understand why Dolly would choose James until Aaron torpedoed himself by declaring his plans to overthrow the country and become dictator. Sigh. Though she has chosen, there is still more movie. Now she uses her influence with Burr to get Jefferson the presidency in the contingent election of 1801. During Burr's treason trial, Dolly once again arrives on scene and talks a lynch mob into sparing Burr's life. Wow, she really is a Magnificent Doll!
Though it is true that Aaron Burr was a lodger of the Widow Payne and her daughter, Dolly Todd, he was not a competitor to James Madison. In fact, Burr happily introduced Madison to Dolly. A few months later, they were married. The movie compressed the timeline and dumped some important facts. First, Dolly had 2 sons from her first marriage, only one of which died in the yellow fever plague of 1793. Burr is miffed that the party set him aside in favor of Jefferson for the 1796 election, which is not the case. He was viewed as a strong running mate since Jefferson's strength was in the South while Burr was a New Yorker. Dolly gets undue credit for Jefferson's win in 1801 contingent election by convincing Burr not to lobby his case in Washington. Madison openly takes the blame for the failure of the Constitution, since he was its architect. The movie takes all the ambiguity out of Burr's Conspiracy, making it a clearcut effort to make war on the United States. Niven's Burr calls upon his troops to ambush American soldiers and only their universal desertion of him prevented it. No, that's not how that went down.
Just okay.
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