Gabriel Over the White House (1933)

Gabriel Over the White House is an American fantasy film first released in 1933, directed by Gregory La Cava.  The film is based on a novel by T.F. Tweed and stars Walter Huston, Karen Morley, Franchot Tone, Arthur Byron and Dickie Moore.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


The American people expect great things from Judson Hammond when he is inaugurated President of the United States, having promised radical action to lift the country out of the depths of the worst depression it has ever known.  But Hammond is not the great man his electorate believe him to be.  He is more interested in playing with his infant nephew and starting an affair with his secretary than with tackling tricky matters of state.  Then Fate intervenes – with spectacular results.  Having narrowly survived a car accident, Hammond emerges from a coma and appears, to all who know him, to be a changed man.  He no longer thinks about his own interests or those of his party but is, instead, focused on implementing radical solutions to his country’s problems.  He announces he will form an army of construction workers to solve the issue of mass unemployment.  He will repeal the 18th amendment and open government licensed liquor houses to put the gangsters out of business.  His party colleagues are appalled at these propositions but when they try to take action against Hammond, he declares a state of emergency and dismisses his entire cabinet.  Then the President turns his attention to the most difficult problem of all: getting the European countries to repay the debts they incurred during the last war.  Hammond is adamant that the Europeans will pay back what is due to the United States and instigates a plan that will change the world forever...

Although it was conceived as a piece of political propaganda, Gabriel Over the White House is, when viewed today, a fascinating period piece that offers a valuable insight into the mores, anxieties and aspirations of the American people at the height of the Great Depression.   The film was commissioned during the 1932 American presidential campaign by the powerful media magnate William Randolph Hearst in support of Franklin D. Roosevelt, the Democratic Party candidate for the presidency.  Its political agenda aside, the film is a compelling piece of Utopian drama which is well made and features an arresting performance from Walter Huston.

The film’s ambiguous political stance has been the subject of debate and controversy ever since the film was first released in 1933.  On the one hand, the film appears to advocate the kind of radical social liberal policies which Roosevelt himself would implement, such as the lifting of prohibition and the creation of ambitious construction projects to give jobs to the mass unemployed.  But there is also an unmistakable tone of fascism in the way in which these grand schemes are brought about.  In the film, the President assumes absolute authority and neuters the democratically elected government, effectively tearing up the American Constitution – which is probably not the kind of thing any candidate for the presidency would ever include in his manifesto (although Roosevelt did approve the film’s screenplay...)

Whilst the film gives a pretty accurate forecast of much of what FDR was able to achieve during his term of office, the one area where it proved to be sadly amiss is in its depiction of a coming together of the world powers to ensure a lasting peace.   The great failing of the Roosevelt administration was its inability to look beyond the bubble that was the United States and take heed of the troubles that were brewing in Europe, until it was too late.  The consequences of this missed opportunity are of course known to us all: a second devastating global conflict, the invention of the atom bomb, half a century of the Cold War, and the prospect of much worse to come.  Maybe it is time for Gabriel to make a second visitation to the White House...

© James Travers 2008

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