Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Gabriel Over the White House (1933)
Director: Gregory La Cava
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
A party stooge in the pockets of 'special interests', the newly elected US President, Hammond (Huston), has no intention of squaring up to the Great Depression...until he wakes up from a car accident a changed man: a visionary leader. What distinguishes La Cava's political fable from ostensibly similar populist fantasies by Frank Capra is not so much ideology as urgency. Where John Doe preached neighbourliness and Mr Smith talked boys' camps, Hammond sidesteps Congress to declare a state of emergency, establishes an 'Army of Construction' (a prototype for Workfare), pits the military against the mob, and instigates World Disarmament. His 'divine madness' smacks of fascism, though La Cava might have enlisted Plato in his support as well as Lincoln; and in any case, American movies are as paradoxical as American politics: Louis B Mayer - a staunch Republican - held up the film's release because he saw it as an insult to ex-President Hoover and a boost for Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Any similarities with Messrs Bush and Clinton are entirely coincidental.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Gregory La Cava
Producer: Walter Wanger
Cast: Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, Arthur Byron, C Henry Gordon, Samuel S Hinds, Jean Parker full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 87 mins
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now