Gabriel Over the White House (1933). 86 minutes. Directed by Gregory La Cava. Starring Walter Huston (as President Judson Hammond), Karen Morley (as Pendola Molloy), Franchot Tone (as Hartley Beekman), and C. Henry Gordon (as Nick Diamond).
“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.”
Film Series on Religion and the Founding
of the American Republic, Library of Congress
Gabriel Over the White House has been called one of the most bizarre movies of the 1930s. It is also the rare film that people will stress is notable but not many will say they actually liked. The movie focuses on a Depression-era American president who, following a car accident, appears to be possessed by an other-worldly spirit and is turned into a raging totalitarian dictator who ameliorates hard times by doing away with Congressional, and other, limitations on his power. Among … Read the rest