Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)

User Rating:

6.4/10   

Director:

James Cruze

Writers:

Jo Swerling (screenplay)
Maxwell Anderson (story)

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:

Granddaughter | Secretary | Political Corruption | Murder | Train

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
Berton Churchill	...	Speaker of the House
Frank Sheridan	...	Honest John Kelleher
Clay Clement	...	Ambassador Conti
Clarence Muse	...	Clarence

Also Known As:

Invisible Power (UK)

Runtime:

79 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

The title is taken from a popular 1931 best selling book, "Washington Merry-Go-Round," by Robert Sharon Allen and Drew Pearson. Columbia bought the rights to the title only, and then hired Maxwell Anderson to write a fictionalized story about corruption in Washington, D.C..

Quotes:

Button Gwinett Brown: [making his maiden speech in Congress] . . .The Digger bill is a barefaced attempt to loot the Treasury to the tune of two million dollars of the people's money. I'm only a greenhorn; I don't know what it's all about
[raucous applause]
Button Gwinett Brown: . . . . Maybe two million dollars isn't important in a four billion dollar budget. But this is important, gentlemen: A lot of you are going to vote for the Digger bill, which you haven't even read, so that others will vote for *your* bill, which *they* haven't read. These chiseling little camphor-ball measures are just chips in the big poker game, played with the people's money.

Soundtrack:

Hail! Hail! The Gang's All Here

ANOTHER LEE TRACY WINNER

Though it's small in scale and unpretentious, this is really an excellent film, able to hold its own with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and other later, more ambitious films. It's fast paced, and intelligently integrates comedy, drama, public-spirited ideas, good performances, and an excellent script.

Don't believe Halliwell on this one ("naive comedy-drama with a miscast star"). Lee Tracy plays Button Gwinnet Brown (descended from a Declaration of Independence signer), elected by the crooked machine but determined to bite the hand that fed him. He's perfectly cast as the no-bull guy who (though he may be cynical at times) always tells the unpalatable truth. His several great "soap-box" speeches might have been unbearable from anyone else. His speech about how everyone has their hand out, delivered to bonus marchers who have their hands out, his complaint about pork-barrel bills, and his comments on voter apathy are all still timely. (The touch of vigilantism, though admirably held in check, and the suggestion of the danger of dictatorship, are mere whispers of thirties sensibilities.) This portrait of Washington's corrupt lobbyists and influence peddling seems, if anything, more relevant to today's scene than Capra's better-known tracts.

On the train to Washington he meets Constance Cummings, a Washington insider, who wants to put him on the inside track in spite of himself. She's not Capra's brassy tool of cynicism whose latent heart of gold is set beating by the hero's purity. Her attitude is more ambiguous; she seems to think Tracy's crusade against corruption can be waged without danger to the status quo. (One advantage of the brevity of the film is that it all takes place over a few days, so it's logical for her not to completely grasp his intent.) Cummings is one of the forgotten great female leads of the early thirties, largely because many of her films are unavailable Columbia films like this one. Her performance here and her character as written are exceptional.

Walter Connolly, as an honest but complaisant Senator, is excellent, as always. Alan Dinehart is a Washington wheel and all-around bad guy, quite believable.

Very enjoyable and well worth seeing; too bad this seems to be unavailable on TV and video.