Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

Hmmmm, this movie did use to be on Youtube in about 10 pieces, but it would seem copyright infringement got to that too.


This was a very good movie, or I thought so anyway, I know it's not a very popular one, I don't know why. I suppose part of it might have to do with its history, in that, if my memory serves me correctly, shortly after this movie came out it got a lot of backlash because they compared the president's control and actions to the dictatorship of the newly risen chancellor Adolf Hitler. But I liked the movie, and I wish either it'd get put on DVD at a reasonable price, or that they'd show it on TV more often.

Made and I'm presuming set in 1933 during the middle of the Depression, a newly elected president is in office who doesn't take his job seriously (yeah I know, when do they ever?) he'd rather fool around with a secretary and play with his nephew than actually have to do anything about the situation created by the Depression...and then one day he's driving his own car at 110 miles an hour, and crashes, and almost dies, and he emerges a few days later a VERY changed man. Suddenly, he has solutions to help the poor and homeless and to stomp down on the crime bosses to finally take them out.

This was based on a book by a Thomas Frederick Tweed, which I also had a very hard time coming by, and I haven't gotten around to reading it yet, so I can't say what was in the original story and what was added for the movie, but I do wonder what was going through Mr. Tweed's head that he decided to do a story where the President is intervened by the Archangel Gabriel.


Has anybody here seen this one?