Gabriel Over the White House
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Gabriel Over the White House is a 1933 motion picture depicting a fictional President of the United States who has a religious experience and attempts to solve his country's problems through authoritarian means.
The film stars Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, C. Henry Gordon, and David Landau. It was directed by Gregory LaCava and written by Carey Wilson, who adapted it from a novel by Thomas Frederic Tweed, who did not receive screen credit.
[edit] Synopsis
The film opens during the depths of the Great Depression, during the administration of the newly-elected President Judson C. "Judd" Hammond (Walter Huston). Hammond, a corrupt and apathetic, though charismatic, party hack, cares little for the pressing problems of the day, declaring that crushing unemployment and rampant bootlegging are "local problems" that the federal government should stay out of. An isolationist, he ignores other nations, even those that might pose a threat to America. He is much more interested in doling out government jobs to his cronies and having an affair with his "private secretary," Pendie Molloy (Karen Morley), than with doing any actual work.
One day, while showing off in his brand-new automobile, President Hammond suffers a near(?)-fatal crash, during which, he believes, he sees the Archangel Gabriel. Upon awakening from an apparent coma, Hammond, believing himself to be under Gabriel's direction, resolves to use whatever means are necessary to transform America into a Utopia.
Hammond's first act to that effect is to order that food be provided to an army of the unemployed that are marching to Washington, D.C. to demand government aid that will reduce unemployment and poverty.
Arriving at the marchers' camp, Hammond goes on the radio to announce the planned formation of an "Army of Construction," a massive public works program that will give a paying job to every man and woman in America.
Unsatisfied with his venal and corrupt Cabinet, Hammond demands that they all resign. This action triggers impeachment proceedings against him by Congress, which is also portrayed as corrupt and controlled by big business. When President Hammond comes before Congress to anwer their charges, he instead proclaims that, due to out-of-control crime and rampant civil disorder over the economy, he is declaring a state of emergency. He then orders Congress to adjourn indefinitely and assumes the "temporary" power to write and pass legislation.
Now unfettered by the normal system of checks and balances, Hammond outlaws foreclosures, subsidizes all agriculture, and allocates $4 billion for a variety of new programs to stimulate the economy.
Next, Hammond tackles the problem of organized crime, legalizing the production of alcohol and nationalizing the industry. In retaliation, crime boss Nick Diamond (C. Henry Gordon) orders the bombing of a government-run liquor store and, in one of the film's more surreal moments, a drive-by shooting of the White House in which Pendie is seriously injured.
Outraged by this affront to his authority, Hammond declares martial law and forms the "Federal Police," a paramilitary force that answers only to him. Suspending the writ of habeas corpus, Hammond sends the Federal Police to round up Diamond and his men. The gangsters are placed before a military tribunal led by Hammond's top aide (Franchot Tone) and tried and convicted without evidence or a chance to mount a defense. Immediately after the proceedings, the criminals are taken behind the courthouse and executed by a firing squad.
Satisfied that he has settled his country's domestic problems, Hammond turns his gaze on the rest of the world, where many countries are refusing to pay their war debts from the Great War and, instead, are busily stockpiling weaponry for use in new wars.
Ordering an immense buildup of the military, particularly the Air Force and Navy, he calls the Heads of State of all of the warlike and debtor nations of the world together for a conference aboard a battleship. There, he displays the massive amounts of raw power possessed by the American military and intimidates the leaders of the world into signing a treaty in which they pledge disarmament and promise to repay all of their debts to America. Violation of the treaty, it is implied, will result in destruction.
Having restored a stable economy, eliminated organized crime, and created world peace, Hammond dies suddenly (implicitly, because Gabriel stops sustaining him) and ascends into Heaven.
[edit] Context and analysis
Controversial since the time of its release, Gabriel Over the White House is widely acknowledged to be an example of propaganda, although contention exists as to which ideology it is propaganda for.
Filmed during the 1932 presidential election on the orders of media magnate William Randolph Hearst, the film was intended to be an instructional guide for Franklin D. Roosevelt during his presidency. Hammond as he exists prior to his accident is an amalgamation of caricatures of Presidents Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, and Herbert Hoover, Roosevelt's immediate predecessors. After his accident, he is Hearst's idealized image of the perfect president, the president he wanted Roosevelt to be.
These facts, coupled with the film's almost chilling accuracy at predicting Roosevelt's economic programs, lead many, particularly conservatives, to believe that film is a sympathetic portrayal of what might be American liberalism's worst excesses.
Liberals often counter these claims by declaring that the film's politics trend more toward fascism than liberalism. They point out that both Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini took steps similar to Roosevelt's in stabilizing their countries' economies and both men were much more like Hammond in their social and foreign policies (e.g., massive military buildup, martial law, secret police, show trials, etc.) than Roosevelt. They further point to Hearst's well-known dalliance with Nazism, including his attendance of the 1934 Nuremberg Rally, as evidence of their theories.
Recently, author and history professor Robert S. McElvaine wrote an editorial for the left-wing OpEdNews.com in which he compared current President George W. Bush to Judson Hammond.
