Gabriel Over The White House
Sog.: dalla novella Rinehard di T.F. Tweed. Scen.: Carey Wilson, Bertram Bloch. F.: Bert Glennon. Mo.: Basil Wrangell. Mu.: William Axt. Su.: Douglas Shearer, Charles E. Wallace. Int.: Walter Huston (Judson Hammond), Karen Morley (Pendola Molloy), Franchot Tone (Hartley Beekman), Arthur Byron (Jasper Brooks), Dickie Moore (Jimmy Vetter), C. Henry Gordon (Nick Diamond), David Landau (John Bronson), Samuel S. Hinds (Dr. H.L. Eastman), William Paxley (Borell), Jean Parker (Alice Bronson), Claire Du Brey (infermiera di Jimmy). Prod.: Cosmopolitan Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Pri. pro.: 31 marzo 1933 DCP. D.: 86’. Bn.
Film Notes
A particularly dumb US President is elected – so dumb that he does not know where Siam is (any name coming to your mind?). But America is facing the Great Depression and God sends the Archangel Gabriel to inspire in the President the ‘right’ policies to face the crisis, and these include turning the US into a sort of dictatorship and vehemently humiliating its European and Asian allies, obviously weak, useless and ridiculous. But one second before signing the Treaty that would effectively turn the US into an imperialistic and unilateral dominant nation (how that could be?), the Arcangel leaves the President who suddenly realizes he went perhaps too far. Except that between him and the restoration of democracy and multilateralism stands his secretary (who is also his lover – any bell ringing?).
This could be the plot of Gabriel Over the White House. Or is it? Yes, but of which one? As there are two very different Gabriels, one for the domestic and one for the European market, and the many differences between the two are revealing of both the political debate of the time (or at least of W.R. Hearst’s take on it) and of the limitations imposed by the Hays Code.
The screening of the complete film in one version will be accompanied by a montage highlighting some of the key differences introduced all along the storyline, whose details were unclear until a closer comparison of the two ‘original’ versions held by the Ci- némathèque Royale de Belgique took place. “The film, intended by William Randolph Hearst as a tribute to newly elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt, called for the establishment of a benevolent dictatorship to solve the economic crisis facing America. When Hays saw the film be was dumbfounded. […] The next day Hays ordered (the film) back to the studio for political reorientation. Despite the fact that more than 30,000 dollars was spent on retakes, Gabriel Over the White House played to American audiences with most of its original message intact” (Gregory D. Black, in Film History, vol. 3, 1989).
Nicola Mazzanti