starring Brian Donlevy, Muriel Angelus, Akim Tamiroff
written and directed by Preston Sturges
82 minutes
Dan McGinty (Brian Donlevy) a homeless man moves into local politics. He gets his start in politics by voting 37 times on election day. This impresses the local mob boss (Akim Tamiroff). The boss man hires him to collect protection money for him but it isn't long before McGinty graduates to running for alderman after the incumbent is sent to prison.
McGinty gets married to Catherine, his secretary, when he decides to run for Mayor. He doesn't really want to get married and neither does she. They come to an agreement which allows him to do as he pleases and her to continue working for him, as his wife.
Catherine and her young chidren, she's divorced, over time unintentionally push McGinty to reform his ways and try to be a better man. He can only do so much. Things come to a head after he wins the race for governor and gets into a fight with the mob boss who has been supporting him all along.
There are two stories here. One is about McGinty's relationship with Catherine. The other is about him discovering that stepping on other people doesn't satisfy him. Neither one gets a proper resolution. There are some funny moments that made me laugh but I found the ending of the movie to be abrupt.
I'm kind of surprised that Preston Sturges won an Academy Award for this movie for Best Original Screenplay. It was the only Academy Award nomination for the movie.
Those were my initial thoughts. Upon further reflection I think that one should not overlook the framing scenario that bookends the movies. It makes me wonder if most of what happened was just a story that McGinty made up. Did Katherine and her kids really exist? If they did, were they as he described them? Did he really rise through the ranks to become governor of the state? I prefer the uncertainty that the framing sequence suggests to me over the certainty that he ran away from the life he created for himself.
Notes
Muriel Anglelus played the part of Catherine. This is her last screen credit although she lived until 2004. I have not seen any of the other movies in which she appeared.
Akim Tamiroff played the part of the nameless mob boss. I have seen some other films in which he has appeared (Touch of Evil, Topkapi, After the Fox, Alphaville) but not recently.
William Demarest was also in this movie playing the part of one of the nameless boss's men who helps McGinty's career. He was also in Sullivan's Travels (1941).
Esther Howard also had a small role in this movies. She was also in Sullivan's Travels and Born to Kill (1947).
No comments:
Post a Comment