oscaralbert Review of Torchy Runs for Mayor

Torchy Runs for Mayor (1939)

A clairvoyant movie studio warns America of a day . . .

[6/10 · 14 November 2018]

. . . when government leaders will be allowed to declare that the Free Press mandated by the U.S. Constitution is an "Enemy of the People," just as the Evil Dictators of the Third Reich, Red Commie Russia, the Laotian Killing Fields, terrorist-riddled Saudi Arabia, and Tibet-swallowing Red China have done in the total absence of the U.S. Constitution. The always eponymous Warner Bros. warn We Americans of (The Then) Far Future in TORCHY RUNS FOR MAYOR about a demonic city in which reporters are threatened, fired, tortured, and killed on the slightest whim of the Ruling Class. Warner warns us that the crime syndicate that will some day take over the U.S. government is the REAL "Enemy of the People" during TORCHY RUNS FOR MAYOR. With Mayor, Warner's seers forecast America's step-by-step descent down the Road to Perdition, as bully boy Crime Lord "Dr. Dolan" calls ALL the shots in the World of Torchy. He dismisses her exposes as "fake news," and gets her canned, just as Today's White House is able to fire TV reporters. Dolan has "Editor Ward" first roughed up, then killed, just as Today's Oval Office Occupant eggs on his Pachyderm Party Henchmen to body slam reporters and enables his Saudi business buddies to chop up journalists for dinner. With MAYOR, Warner Bros. warns us that we should not ask for whom the bell tolls while Journalism is being strangled: "In the silence of the night, we should shiver with affright," as our final drop of Freedom is wrung out.