Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

Despite its cloying, Capraesque title, Gabriel Over the White House is in fact one of the more disturbing movies to come out of classic Hollywood. Released in the early days of the Franklin Roosevelt Presidency, and financed by the near fanatic Roosevelt supporter William Randolph Hearst, the film is a sort of plea for an (benevolent) American Dictatorship. Walter Huston plays Judson C. 'Judd' "The Major" Hammond, and opens on his inauguration day. It is the middle of the Great Depression, and President Hammond has made a lot of campaign promises about how he is going to fight it, but in reality he's just an ineffectual, mildly corrupt, partisan hack whose in office merly to serve party and corporate interests. Hammond's long time personal secretary/implied Mistress Pendola Molloy (played by real life leftist/McCarthy victim Karen Morley) appeals to Hammond to use the office he has found himself in to do some real good for the people.Hammond instead carries on in Hoover/Harding mode until he is in a major car accident while teasingly trying to get away from some reporters. Hammond of course survives but is rendered comatose and his long time personal physician Dr. Eastman (Samuel S. Hinds) is sure that he will not pull through. Yet miraculously he does.

Weeks after the accident Hammond comes out of the coma, looks up at a mysterious light only he can see, and becomes a different man. In short order he meets with a group of unemployed veterans he had been putting off before and comes up with a plan to draft them all into a sort of public works corp. His cabinet doesn't like this so he sacks them, Congress doesn't like this so he dissolves them. Hammond also repeals prohibition, but sets up the government as the sole licensed dispenser of alcohol, infuriating organized crime as embodied by the notorious mobster 'Nick Diamond' (C. Henry Gordon), and we haven't even gotten yet to his plan to blackmail the globe into disarmament and world peace. In short Hammond becomes an unstable dictator with delusions (or as the film implies non-delusions) of divine sanction. It was maybe half way through the movie before I was hopping that someone, probably Hammond's personal assistant Hartley "Beek" Beekman (Franchot Tone) would take him out, this of course is not to be.

Gabriel Over the White House is a very strange movie, its Fascism Lite. It made me uncomfortable, and kind of angry. Never the less, I think its worth seeing, if only just to marvel at its oddness. **

You can watch it free here.

Lincoln (2012)

Steven Spielberg's Lincoln is (quit wisely) not an attempt at a life spanning bio-pic of Abe, nor does it focuses on one of the better known episodes from his Presidency, like his handling of the Fort Sumter crises or The Gettysburg Address, rather the film focuses on Lincoln's skills as a politician. Politician here is meant in perhaps its least negative sense, the film which is based in part on Doris Kearns Goodwin's Pulitzer Prize winning examination of Lincolns political skill Team of Rivals, focuses on the behind the scenes efforts in January of 1865 that resulted in the passage of the definitively slavery ending 13th Amendment to the US Constitution. Daniel Day-Lewis plays Lincoln ethereal but shrewd, I think a lot can be said for the unique high raspy voice he gives his Abraham.

At the start of the film the war is going so well for the Union that Lincoln fears the Confederacy might sue for peace before the newly elected Republican congress can take there seats in March. Lincoln knows that the people are tired of war, and if the south offers to surrender in return for keeping there slaves the public might just force him to accept that offer, and Lincoln is desperate to get the slavery issue decided once and for all with abolition. There fore Lincoln employs a diverse group of characters, congressman, political operatives, cabinet members, and even his wife in an effort to cajole lam duck Democrats and shoehorn in the amendment before a forthcoming Confederate peace delegation can arrive in Washington. The film is full of interesting, real-life characters who are largely lesser known, and who give a gamut of our greater character actors juicy roles with which to chew. David Stratharin, Hal Holbrook, Tommy Lee Jones, James Spader, Salley Field, Michael Stuhlbarg, Bruce McGill and many others get to put on that 19th century make up and have a fun time just acting. This is a very talkie movie, very little action per-say, but it's engaging throughout and quite fascinating in being a big budget, all-star vehicle, that one can easily imagine ending up as a stage play adaptation on PBS. Really rather refreshing. ***1/2

The Obscure Hollow- Great Pictures.

The Citadel (1938)

Adaptation of the 1937 A. J. Cronin novel of the same name that had an influence on the establishment of Britain's National Health Service. The film stars Robert Donat (a year before achieving cinematic immortality in the title role of Goodbye Mr. Chips) as Dr. Andrew Manson, a Scottish born recent med school graduate taking his first position in a small Welsh coal mining town. While there he brings a still born baby back to life (that part didn't work for me), befriends an alcoholic pharmacy assistant (Ralph Richardson) with whom he blows up a contaminated sewer, and falls in love with the local school teacher (Rosland Russell). The movie follows Dr. Manson's career as he and his new wife leave the small town to work in a medical co-op for a miners, then to a struggling London practice, and then to get success caring for London's rich and powerful. Along the way the earnest, idealistic young doctor finds himself worn to a soft cynicism by early middle age, and it will take tragedy to bring him back to his crusading idealistic ways. The cast here is strong, including Rex Harrison in a small role as one of Manson's med school colleagues. This is a film I'd wanted to see for some time and I found it satisfied my fairly high expectations. Donat is really good at this kind of sympathetic role and I found Russell to be very good in a sympathetic role as well, and of course Richardson can really chew the scenery. Directed by King Vidor. ***1/2

The Hellfire Club (1961)

Hammer-esque British film based around Sir Francis Dashwood's semi-secret 18th century club. The Hellfire Club has been linked to various Satanic and pagan rites, but appears to have been simply an excuse for drunken debautury and mocking blasphemy by a group of well connected 18th century Brit's. The plot concerns "Jason" (Keith Michell) the presumed dead heir to an English lordship who returns from exile in Europe after his fathers death. Jason's cousin Thomas (Peter Arne) has assumed the lordship and doesn't like the idea of being stripped of it, so upon discovering Jason's identity he hunts Jason down kills his cousins longtime guardian Timothy (David Lodge) and has Jason sent to prison. Timothy had run a travailing circus and upon his death and Jason's capture love interest #1 Yvonne (Kai Fischer) and the other cicus folks mount a rescue for Jason. After his escape Thomas and his men kidnap love interest #1, so Jason returns to the family estate to rescue Yvonne, but his cousins mistress love interest #2 Isobel (Adrienne Corri) betrays him to The Hell Fire club whose meetings he had infiltrated posing as a French aristocrat.Yeah its kind of ridiculous, but its fun and not nearly as graphic as I expected. Jason had been an acrobat at the circus so he gets to do a lot of gymnastics in addition to the rather enjoyable sword play we see throughout the film. This movies cast is padded with small roles from the always good  Peter Cushing and Miles Malleson. A really enjoyable romp. ***

You can watch it online for free here.

Threads (1984)

Threads is the British answer to the American anti-nuclear war tele-film The Day After, only its considerable harsher, more depressing, and effective. Done in a quasi-documentary style, the film focuses on two families, as well as one government official in Sheffield England, and how they cope with an impending nuclear war, the attack its self, and the aftermath. A tremendous job is done in building the tension. A mounting foreign policy crises centering on Iran begins as little more then passing news items in the background of the everyday lives of our characters. Gradually things become more and more heightened and uncertain, panic sets in, the government steps up, fear grips the nation and the world. This goes on for roughly the first hour, then we have the attack, and its of course a catastrophic one. It is followed by the long, decaying descent of the aftermath. The world of before has been destroyed, it is never to be again, the government tries but it is no where near up to the task. One of the things that distinguishes this film from its Yankee precursor The Day After, beyond simply its increased harshness and graphicness, is that it doesn't wind down in the immediate aftermath of the nuclear conflict, no it goes much beyond that, almost 15 years, and we get to the see the long term effects this has on civilization. Not only is most of the infrastructurean d production capacity wiped out, and not only do countless millions, the vast majority of the pre-war population die, but those born after the blast suffer from learning disabilities and deformities, they simple are not going to be capable of returning civilization to anything close to what it was before the war. This is a dark and depressing film, and an extremely effective one. It can be hard going at times, and it will stay with you long after you've finished it, but I think sitting through Threads (the title by the why is a reference to the threads that hold society together gradually unwinding) is well worth the time and effort. You can even watch it free online. Mighty impressive. ****

In God We Teach (2011)

Modest but intriguing documentary about a New Jersey high school student who secretly records his history teacher engaged in arguable Christian evangelism in class. The kid released the tape and it caused a local scandal that even managed to get some national television exposure. The kid in question, Matthew LaClair, came for an atheist family, and many in the community thought him to be a trouble maker who set the teacher up. The teacher, David Paszkiewicz, was a popular long time instructor at the school who was also a part time youth minister. The documentary is a no thrills affair, it allows both protagonists to give there take on events, as well as a number of talking heads, and clips from the media. Towards the end of the documentary they add an interesting counterpoint, in effect putting the shoes on other feets by briefly exploring the case of a California high school teacher recorded by one of his students making arguably anti religious statements in class. I thought this last part was very effective, it forces the audience out of there comfort zone by making them face an equivalent situation, and see where there loyalty's actually lie. A nicely compact piece. **1/2.

You can watch it for free here.