Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)

Director:

James Cruze

Writers:

Maxwell Anderson (story)
Jo Swerling (writer)

Release Date:

15 October 1932 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Rips The Lid Off!

Plot:

Button Gwinett Brown is a freshman congressman on a mission to rid Washington of corruption. He quickly runs afoul of the powerful Senator Norton...

Plot Keywords:

Political | Based On Play

Cast

Lee Tracy	...	Button Gwinett Brown
Constance Cummings	...	Alice Wylie
Walter Connolly	...	Senator Wylie
Alan Dinehart	...	Edward T. Norton
Arthur Vinton	...	Beef Brannigan
Arthur Hoyt	...	Willis, Secretary
Berton Churchill	...	Speaker
Frank Sheridan	...	Honest John Kelleher
Clay Clement	...	Ambassador Conti
Clarence Muse	...	Clarence

Also Known As:

Invisible Power (UK)

Runtime:

USA:75 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Prohibition and political satire

Lee Tracy exemplified the 1930s American. After an impressive performance on Broadway in the original cast of 'The Front Page' (he created the role of the wisecracking reporter Hildy Johnson), Tracy went on to an even more impressive screen career ... usually playing hardboiled cynical reporters or newspaper columnists. (It helped that Tracy bore a strong resemblance to Walter Winchell.) Tracy's career faltered after the 1934 film 'Viva Villa!', in which he was cast (again!) as a hardboiled cynical reporter. During location filming in Mexico, Tracy got drunk and urinated off a hotel balcony onto a Mexican flag. When this leaked out (no pun intended) to the Mexican press, the outcry forced MGM to recall Tracy and reshoot his scenes with Stu Erwin.

'Washington Merry-Go-Round' was the title of a long-running newspaper feature by political columnist Drew Pearson (the mentor of Watergate era's Jack Anderson), and it's also the title of this film by underrated director James Cruze. Lee Tracy gives a fine performance in an atypical role: he's an honest, uncynical and naive man who has just been elected to the House of Representatives. He's immediately offered bribes by various political factions, but he turns them all down: he's here to represent the people who elected him! Tracy's character is named Button Gwinnett Brown, and he's identified as a descendant of the (real-life) patriot Button Gwinnett. (Gwinnett was a member of the Continental Congress who signed the Declaration of Independence and then enlisted in the Continental Army, getting killed almost immediately. His autograph is extremely valuable, being much rarer than George Washington's or Ben Franklin's.)

The excellent actor Alan Dinehart is quite good as Ed Norton, a crooked lobbyist who wants Brown to vote for legislation which will help the Prohibition bootlegging trade. Dinehart has impressed me in every role in which I've ever seen him, and he's at the top of his form here. Walter Connolly (an actor who never impressed me) plays a senator who is honest but stupid (come, now: how many of THOSE have we ever had?), unfortunately named Wylie. He's Wylie by name but not wily by nature. Norton offers Wylie a bribe, which Wylie refuses ... but then he's stupid enough to allow himself to get into a high-stakes poker game with Norton. There's a funny scene in which Norton deliberately loses one hand after another to Wylie, thereby giving Wylie the money which would have been his bribe anyway. The stupidity of Wylie's character is rather far-fetched. (Connolly was never a very plausible actor.)

SPOILER COMING. Intriguingly, at the end of the film Norton commits suicide: it isn't shown on screen, but it's clearly implied. This sort of ending became taboo a few years later, during the Production Code years.

Berton Churchill and Jane Darwell, from the 20th Century-Fox supporting stock company, give capable performances in this Columbia film. The talented black actor Clarence Muse is saddled with another of the many 'yassuh!' roles that unfortunately constituted the bulk of his career. The photography by Ted Tetzlaff is above average. I'll rate 'Washington Merry-Go-Round' 6 points out of 10.