If You Get Turner Classics- Rare Film About A Fascist USA on @ 9:30AM ET

[Khephra]

I saw an entire hour devoted to talking about this movie on CSPAN. It's a very, very mixed msg film. VERY.

I haven't seen it, but the CSPAN program showed extend clips and basically revealed all the plot points.

This is one sick puppy of a film.

"What's it called already!"I can hear you screaming.

It's called "GABRIEL OVER THE WHITE HOUSE".


Here's a bit from the Turner Classics site.

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snip.......................

Imagine this scenario if you can. The President of the United States is involved in a serious car accident and, while recovering, receives a visit from the Archangel Gabriel. Forced to acknowledge the desperate state of the country due to his poor leadership, the President vows to set the nation right, fires the crooked cabinet members who got him elected and transforms himself into an all-powerful dictator who wages war against organized crime, all in a determined bid to restore social order in America. What sounds like a right-wing paranoid fantasy is actually the plot of Gabriel Over the White House, a political allegory that was one of the first films to openly address the problems resulting from the Great Depression such as unemployment, homeless people and the rising crime rate. You also won't see another Hollywood film in which our fearless leader is viewed by his constituents as either a madman or a messiah.

Filmed before Roosevelt took office as President of the United States, Gabriel Over the White House was a collaboration between producer Walter Wanger and publisher William Randolph Hearst's Cosmopolitan Studios, whose films were distributed by MGM. Hearst's political views were well known through the editorials he published in his own papers and when he read Rinehard, a novel by British novelist Thomas F. Tweed, Hearst knew he had found the perfect vehicle to express his views on the state of the nation. President Judson Hammond (played by Walter Huston in the film) is the total autocrat: he storms into the House of Representatives and declares a state of national emergency, convincing the lawmakers to grant him absolute power. Freely adapting Jefferson's concept of democracy, which was based on "the greatest good for the greatest number," President Hammond is able to smash through bureaucratic roadblocks, gun down gangsters without a trial, and bully the world into meeting his demands. By the end, he has solved the unemployment problem and enforced a worldwide disarmament but dies a martyr for his efforts. It's easy to see the appeal President Hammond had for an all-powerful newspaper tycoon like Hearst.

Louis B. Mayer, on the other hand, was a staunch Republican and was appalled by Gabriel Over the White House. "Put that picture in its can. Take it back and lock it up!" was the directive he reportedly gave Eddie Mannix, his top executive, after screening it for the first time. Mayer considered it an attack on President Hoover and demanded extensive retakes on the film before he would release it; the theory being that Hoover would be out of the White House by the time Mayer allowed the film to open theatrically.

Ironically, Gabriel Over the White House turned out to be one of the biggest box office hits of 1933; its topical subject matter obviously spoke to audiences who felt the need for strong leadership after the economic chaos of the Great Depression. It also sparked some lively debates among film critics in its day. The New York Times wrote "It is a curious, somewhat fantastic and often melodramatic story, but nevertheless one which at this time is very interesting." The reviewer for The Nation said "Gabriel Over the White House is probably the most important bad film of the year. It is important because it marks the first attempt by Hollywood producers to exploit the current popular interest in social and economic ideas...Its all-too-evident purpose is to convert innocent American movie audiences to a policy of fascist dictatorship in this country." He also added that it "has about as much reality as a diagram on a blackboard."

more.............................

http://www.turnerclassicmovies.com/ThisMonth/Article/0,,64124%7C64125%7C64130,00.html

[terrya]

1. I do have TCM, khephra.

I've heard of "Gabriel Over the White House", but I've never seen it. I've wanted to see this.

Interesting, isn't it, how this scenario seems sort of familiar? Except for the part about ending unemployment and affecting disarmament.

I can imagine how some Republicans might have seen this film as a smear against FDR.

Thanks for mentioning this. I'm watching it.

Terry

[Khephra]

2. If I turned one person on to the film who wanted to see it,

then I've done my job. ;-) I'm happy to have helped you out.

I've got the DVD recorder ready. I'm not even sure if you can get it on DVD or not.

[Dogmudgeon]

3. A "great" lost film!

I watched it the last time it was on.

Take Kephra's word for it -- you don't want to miss this one!

--bkl

[Khephra]

4. Last kick before I head off to bed

I'm setting the vcr and watching it later.

[Solomon]

5. Thanks Khephra. Didn't know about this movie. I caught this thread

about 5 minutes into the movie and am recording it.

[DrZhivago]

6. saw it and fell asleep

it was petty weird however

[Parrcrow]

7. Jesus that was disturbing

And for the first time in 70 years it was realistic.