AllMovie

Cliff Robertson stars as automobile mogul Henry Ford in this 2-part TV biopic. Ford's single-minded determination to put every driver in America into a Model T exacts a tragic price in his personal life. The one who suffers most is Ford's son Edsel (R. H. Thompson), who though the figurehead president of the Ford Motor Company is little more than a hired hand, asking "How high?" when his father tells him to jump. Ford's archaic attitudes towards his fellow man-manifested in his rabid anti-semitism-are not glossed over in this presentation. Hope Lange costars as Ford's wife, while Elizabeth Thompson plays his inconvenient mistress. Originally aired as part of the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series, Henry Ford: The Man and the Machine debuted in May of 1987.