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Gabriel Over the White House

Gabriel Over the White House
Directed by Gregory La Cava
Produced by Walter Wanger
William Randolph Hearst
Written by Story
T.F. Tweed
Screenplay
Carey Wilson
Bertram Bloch
Starring Walter Huston
Karen Morley
Franchot Tone
Music by William Axt
Cinematography Bert Glennon
Edited by Basil Wrangell
Distributed by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer
Release date
March 31, 1933
Running time
86 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Budget $232,400

Gabriel Over the White House is a 1933 American Pre-Code film starring Walter Huston that has been described as a "bizarre political fantasy" and which "posits a favorable view of fascism."

The movie was directed by Gregory La Cava, produced by Walter Wanger and written by Carey Wilson based upon the novel Rinehard by Thomas Frederic Tweed, who did not receive screen credit (the film's opening credits say "based on the anonymous novel, Gabriel Over the White House") and received the financial backing and creative input of William Randolph Hearst.

The supporting cast features Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon, and David Landau.

When the film opens, U.S. President Judson C. 'Judd' Hammond (Huston) (possibly a reference to Judson Harmon) is variously described as "a Hoover-like partisan hack" or "basically a do-nothing crook, based on, to some extent, Warren G. Harding." Then he causes a near-fatal automobile accident and goes into a coma. Through what Portland State University instructor Dennis Grunes calls "possible divine intervention," (characterized by a breeze blowing through a closed window) Hammond awakens as a decisive man of action.

President Hammond makes "a political U-turn," purging his entire cabinet of "big-business lackeys." When Congress impeaches him, he responds by declaring martial law, dissolving the legislative branch, assuming the “temporary” power to make laws as he "transforms himself into an all-powerful dictator." He orders the formation of a new “Army of Construction” answerable only to him and nationalizes the manufacture and sale of alcohol.


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