Based on Dore Schary's 1958 Tony Award-winning Broadway play of the same name, the film was directed by Vincent J. Donehue and stars Ralph Bellamy, Greer Garson, Hume Cronyn and Jean Hagen.

Conflict ensues between the bedridden Roosevelt, his wife Eleanor, his mother Sara and his close political adviser Louis Howe.

Roosevelt reenters public life as he walks to the speaker's rostrum at a party convention, aided by heavy leg braces and crutches.

[1] Sunrise at Campobello presents events that took place over three years, from August 1921 to July 1924, culminating in Roosevelt's speech at the 1924 Democratic National Convention.

However, it must be mentioned that a tendency to overdo some of the famous Roosevelt expressions ... induces a bit of vexation, especially when they are shown in close-up, which glaringly discloses their forced and theatrical quality."

"[8] More recently, Darragh O’Donoghue considers the film a hagiography but notes: "Hume Cronyn is the heart and soul of the film as Louis Howe, FDR’s right-hand man, an asthmatic whose relish for the 'real world' of compromised politics disgusts FDR’s patrician mother played with haughty relish by Ann Shoemaker.