Trailer
Plot summary
The Second Continental Congress has gathered in Philadelphia, where John Adams of Massachusetts keeps pressing for a break with Great Britain and the other delegates keep putting him off. Benjamin Franklin of Pennsylvania, who wants the same break, urges him to let another delegate make the motion. Richard Henry Lee of Virginia proposes the debate, which Congress agrees to hold, with John Dickinson of Pennsylvania leading the side that wants reconciliation. Dickinson then wins a rule requiring any independence vote to be unanimous, so Adams moves to delay the vote for three weeks and asks Thomas Jefferson to write the declaration, while he and Franklin work to bring six reluctant colonies around.
Cast
- Donald Maddenas John Dickinson (PA)
- Ron Holgateas Richard Henry Lee (VA)
- Emory Bassas Judge James Wilson (PA)
Show all 20 cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about 1776 (1972)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" was cut from the film before release and left off the soundtrack recording and the first VHS tapes and laserdiscs; according to producer Jack L. Warner, a friend of President Richard Nixon, Nixon had requested its removal.
- Jack L. Warner's attempt to comply with Nixon's demand that the song be removed was initially rebuffed by director Peter Hunt during production, only for the song to be cut in post-production while Hunt was on vacation.
- Jack L. Warner also wanted the original negative of the song shredded, but the film's editor kept it in storage unaltered, and the footage, some of it physically poor in quality, was restored for the DVD and Blu-ray releases.
- Many of the original Broadway cast, including William Daniels, Ken Howard, John Cullum and Howard Da Silva, reprised their roles; Jack L. Warner made that decision himself after feeling he had made a mistake turning down Julie Andrews for the 1964 film of My Fair Lady in favour of Audrey Hepburn.
- The water fountain seen during the musical number "The Lees of Old Virginia", with Ben Franklin, John Adams and Richard Henry Lee, became known to television viewers as the fountain from the opening credits of the series Friends.
- In a 2015 interview, Peter Hunt said that Jack L. Warner, on his deathbed in 1978, told a friend that he regretted editing the scene, believing he had ruined the film's structure as a result.
- When the Broadway musical was about to be presented to Richard Nixon at the White House in 1970, before the film was made, his staff pressed the producers to cut the same song; their request was denied.
- The play depicts Delaware's Caesar Rodney as an elderly man near death from skin cancer, which would eventually kill him, but he was just 47 years old at the time and continued to be very active in the Revolution after signing the Declaration.
