Gabriel Over Washington - 1933

Synopsis Shortly after he is elected President of the United States, bachelor Judson C. Hammond hires Harley Beekman as his general secretary and longtime friend Pendola "Pendie" Molloy as his confidential secretary, and holds a press conference in the White House. When asked by reporters about the problems of unemployment, racketeering, foreign debt and hunger, Judson responds only with vague, optimistic platitudes, then announces that his answers are "not quotable." Disturbed by Judson's cavalier attitudes, Pendie gently tells her boss that he should take his duties more to heart and "do important things." Instead, Judson, under the influence of Jasper Brooks, his Secretary of State, continues his course of indifference and ignores the protests of John Bronson and his growing "army of the unemployed." Judson's attitudes change, however, when he is involved in a high-speed car accident and is plunged into a life-threatening coma. Although his doctors predict that he will die, Judson suddenly regains complete consciousness and spends two weeks in bed "thinking." When he finally emerges from his rooms, a thoughtful but energetic Judson orders Pendie to make contact with Bronson. To the surprise of his Cabinet officers, Judson defends Bronson and his right to march on Washington and fires Brooks when he challenges this new stand. Judson also changes his press policy, answering reporters' questions at length and allowing them to quote him for the first time. While the rejunevated Judson is busy implementing his new ideas, Antone Brilawksi, a notorious New York bootlegger and racketeer known as Nick Diamond, tries to bribe Bronson to halt his protest march to Washington because the presence of Bronson's camped "army" in the city distracts the local police from Diamond's illegal activities. When Bronson bravely refuses Diamond's bribe, he is shot and killed by Diamond's henchmen as he is leading his protest marchers out of the city. Against the wishes of his Secretary of War, who wants to send in troops to stop the march, Judson allows the protest to continue and even visits the marchers' camp to announce the creation of a federal "army of construction," which will employ thousands to build new roads and buildings. After Pendie confides in Beekman, with whom she has fallen in love, her belief that Judson has been inspired by the spirit of God's messenger, Archangel Gabriel, Judson demands the resignation of all his Cabinet members. Judson then addresses the Congress and, after requesting that a national state of emergency be declared, asks that Congress relinquish its power voluntarily to him. When various Congressmen accuse him of creating a dictatorship, Judson responds that his dictatorship is based on Thomas Jefferson's definition of democracy--"a government for the greatest good of the greatest number." Fed up with bureaucratic resistance, Judson declares martial law and uses his presidential powers to dismiss the Congress. As his first act under martial law, Judson undertakes to have the prohibition amendment repealed and calls Diamond to the White House. After Judson informs the gangster that the government is going to "muscle in" on the liquor selling "racket," Diamond orders a bomb attack on a government liquor store and tries to assassinate Judson. Outraged by Diamond's attack, in which Pendie is seriously wounded, the president assigns Beekman to oversee a task force that will eliminate the country's racketeers. Using tanks and machine guns, Beekman and his men force Diamond's gang out of their hideout and, after a military trial, execute them. Judson then deals with the problem of foreign debts by calling a conference on his presidential yacht and threatening various world leaders with American military build-up if they refuse to stop their own excessive military spending. By blowing up two American battleships in front of his peers, Judson demonstrates his commitment to disarmament and encourages his allies to sign a peace covenant and repay their foreign debts. After all of the world leaders sign the historic covenant, a weak and weary Judson puts his own name on the document, then, with his life's work done, dies. Cast & Crew Gregory LaCava Director Walter Huston as Hon. Judson [C.] Hammond, The President of the United States Karen Morley as Pendola ["Pendie"] Molloy Franchot Tone as Harley Beekman, Secretary to President Arthur Byron as Jasper Brooks, Secretary of State Dickie Moore as Jimmy Vetter C. Henry Gordon as Nick Diamond [alias of Antone Brilawski] David Landau as John Bronson Samuel Hinds as Dr. Eastman William Pawley as Borell Jean Parker as Alice Bronson Claire DuBrey as Nurse Release Date 31 Mar 1933 Color/BW Black and White Sound Mono (Western Electric Sound System) Production Dates began late Feb 1933 Duration (in mins) 85 or 87 Production Company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp. Country United States Gabriel Over the White House is an American Pre-Code film variously described as a "bizarre political fantasy"[1] or a "comedy drama"[2] that "is surprisingly socialist in tone (albeit veering toward National Socialism)"[3] and which "posits a favorable view of fascism."[4] The film stars Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon, and David Landau. It was directed by Gregory LaCava, produced by Walter Wanger[5] and written by Carey Wilson, who adapted it from the novel Rinehard by Thomas Frederic Tweed, who did not receive screen credit. Plot When the film opens, U.S. President Judson C. 'Judd' Hammond (Huston) is variously described as "a Hoover-like partisan hack"[6] or "basically a do-nothing crook, based on, to some extent, Warren G. Harding." Then he suffers a near-fatal automobile accident and goes into a coma. Through what Portland State University instructor[7] Dennis Grunes calls "possible divine intervention,"[8] Hammond (an "FDR lookalike")[9] miraculously recovers, emerging "a changed man, an activist politician, a Roosevelt."[2] President Hammond makes "a political U-turn,"[10] purging his entire cabinet of "big-business lackeys." When Congress impeaches him, he responds by dissolving the legislative branch, assuming the “temporary” power to make laws as he "transforms himself into an all-powerful dictator."[11] He orders the formation of a new “Army of Construction” answerable only to him, spends billions on one New Deal–like program after another, and nationalizes the manufacture and sale of alcohol.[12] The reborn Hammond's policies include "suspension of civil rights and the imposition of martial law by presidential fiat."[13] He "tramples on civil liberties,"[14] "revokes the Constitution, becomes a reigning dictator," and employs "brown-shirted storm troopers"[15] led by the President's top aide, Hartley 'Beek' Beekman (Tone). When he meets with resistance, the President "suspends the law to arrest and execute 'enemies of the people' as he sees fit to define them," with Beekman handing "down death sentences in his military star chamber" in a "show trial [that] resembles those designed to please a Stalin, a Hitler or a Chairman Mao,"[16] after which the accused are immediately lined up against a wall behind the courthouse and "executed[17] by firing squad."[18] By threatening world war with America’s newest and most deadly secret weapon, Hammond then blackmails the world into disarmament, ushering in global peace.[19] The film is unique in that, by revoking the Constitution, etc., President Hammond does not become a villain, but a hero who "solves all of the nation's problems,"[20] "bringing peace to the country and the world,"[21] and is universally acclaimed “one of the greatest presidents who ever lived.”[22] The Library of Congress comments: “ The good news: he reduces unemployment, lifts the country out of the Depression, battles gangsters and Congress, and brings about world peace. The bad news: he's Mussolini.[23] ” Context and analysis Controversial since the time of its release, Gabriel Over the White House is widely acknowledged to be an example of totalitarian propaganda. Tweed, the author of the original novel, was a "liberal champion of government activism"[24] and trusted adviser to David Lloyd George,[25] the Liberal Prime Minister who brought Bismarck's welfare state[26] to the United Kingdom.[27] The decision to buy the story was made by producer Walter Wanger,[28] variously described as "a liberal Democrat"[29] or a "liberal Hollywood mogul."[30] After two weeks of script preparation, Wanger secured the financial backing of media magnate William Randolph Hearst,[31] one of of Roosevelt's staunchest supporters,[32] who had helped him get the Democratic presidential nomination[33] and who enlisted his entire media empire to campaign for him.[34] Hearst intended the film to be a tribute to FDR and an attack on previous Republican administrations.[35] Although an internal MGM synopsis had labeled the script "wildly reactionary and radical to the nth degree,"[36] studio boss Louis B. Mayer "learned only when he attended the Glendale, California preview that Hammond gradually turns America into a dictatorship," writes film historian[37] Leonard J. Leff. "Mayer was furious, telling his lieutenant, 'Put that picture back in its can, take it back to the studio, and lock it up!'"[38] Released only a few weeks after Franklin Roosevelt's inauguration, the film was labeled by The New Republic "a half-hearted plea for Fascism."[39] Its purpose, agreed The Nation, was "to convert innocent American movie audiences to a policy of fascist dictatorship in this country."[40] Newsweek's Jonathan Alter concurred in 2007 that the movie was meant to "prepare the public for a dictatorship,"[41] as well as to be an instructional guide for FDR, who read the script during the campaign. He liked it so much that he took time during the hectic first weeks of his presidency to suggest several script rewrites that were incorporated into the film.[42] "An aroma of fascism clung to the heavily edited release print," according to Leff.[43] Roosevelt saw an advance screening, writing, “I want to send you this line to tell you how pleased I am with the changes you made in ‘Gabriel Over the White House.’ I think it is an intensely interesting picture and should do much to help.”[44] Roosevelt saw the movie several times and enjoyed it.[45] After a private screening, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt wrote that "if a million unemployed marched on Washington... I'd do what the President does in the picture!"[46] Alter comments: “ That the Rooseveltian hero of the popular film was a dictator must have seemed an advantage to the real-life president. It would help pave the way for precipitous action, if the role required it.[47] ” In the crisis of the Great Depression, many people suggested that dictatorship might be necessary to save the United States. While Roosevelt's adversaries feared the possibility of "totalitarian New Dealism," some of FDR's supporters had no such qualms: though he resented the suggestion, Roosevelt was often seen in the 1930s as a "benevolent dictator."[48] First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt “lamented that the nation lacked a benevolent dictator to force through reforms."[49] Influential[50] columnist Walter Lippmann told Roosevelt, "The situation is critical, Franklin. You may have no alternative but to assume dictatorial powers";[51] in his column, Lippmann wrote, "The more one considers the scope and the variety of the measures that are needed for relief and reconstruction the more evident it is that an extraordinary procedure—'dictatorial powers,' if that is the name for it—is essential..."[52] In his inaugural address, FDR said: “ If we are to go forward we must move as a trained and loyal army willing to sacrifice for the good of a common discipline, because, without such discipline, no progress is made, no leadership becomes effective. We are, I know, ready and willing to submit our lives and property to such discipline because it makes possible a leadership which aims at a larger good. ” The American people, he added, "have asked for discipline and direction under leadership. They have made me the present instrument of their wishes. In the spirit of the gift I take it."[53] The New York Herald Tribune welcomed FDR's inauguration with the headline "FOR DICTATORSHIP IF NECESSARY."[54] FDR economic adviser Herbert Feis commented, "The outside public seems to believe as if Angel Gabriel had come to earth."[55] The film was released inbut was not a commercial success. Newsreel film of the Royal Navy was spliced into the yacht sequence in theversion, implying that bothand the United States were co-operating to obtain disarmament. In a 2004 post on the "Progressive, Liberal" blog OpEdNews.com, longtime Democratic and progressive activist[56] Robert S. McElvaine compared then-President George W. Bush to Judson Hammond. Following the election of Barack Obama, People magazine film critic Leah Rozen included Gabriel over the White House as one of "five films you should absolutely see before inauguration day." Asked "Why is this a film we have to see before Obama comes into the White House?" Rozen said "it couldn`t be more timely... it's at a time of economic panic, huge financial disaster... You kind of go, 'Gee, did they just write this now?'..."

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