The Most Fascistic Film You've Never Seen

by Gerard Emershaw

1933 marked the release of Gabriel Over the White House, a bizarre, interesting, dangerous, and yet entertaining film directed by veteran director and former animator Gregory La Cava. This little known film is best described as a Depression-era “Anti-Atlas Shrugged” that was filmed long before Ayn Rand presented her best known ideas. Gabriel Over the White House is part fantasy, part rom com, and part cold blooded fascist propaganda.

Adapted by screenwriter Casey Wilson—who had written the 1925 adaptation of Ben Hur and the 1935 version of Mutiny on the Bounty—from a novel by British novelist T.F. Tweed, Gabriel Over the White House was co-produced by progressive publisher William Randolph Hearst—who had, of course, been the inspiration for Citizen Kane. Hearst was a former Democratic Congressman and unsuccessful candidate for New York Governor. He was most famous for his “yellow” journalism which played a strong role in successfully agitating for an American war with Spain in the late nineteenth century. Hearst was a major supporter of FDR and the New Deal.

Gabriel Over the White House can be described as a fascist's fantasy of what the FDR presidency should be like. Filmed during the 1932 election, the film was released on March 31, 1933—less than a month after Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration.

The film stars character actor Walter Huston as newly elected American President Judson Hammond. Huston was an energetic and youthful 50 at the time. He would go on to win an Oscar for his unforgettable work as the old codger in Treasure of the Sierra Madre in 1949 and to be nominated for Oscars for Dodsworth (1937), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1942), and Yankee Doodle Dandy (1943). Huston's dynamic yet subtle performance carries the film. Gabriel Over the White House also stars Franchot Tone—who would be nominated for an Oscar three years earlier for his lead role in Mutiny on the Bounty—as the President's secretary and closest confidante.

Gabriel Over the White House opens with President Judson Hammond being sworn into office. It immediately becomes clear that Hammond is the typical politician. He owes favors to those who put him into office and is more beholden to his political contributors and his party than he is to the people or the Constitution. He soon explains that he cannot be an idealist because it is the political party that calls the shots. In these early scenes with his slicked back hair, Huston's Hammond resembles President Herbert Hoover more than a little bit.

President Hammond is a bachelor President with a cute little nephew and he soon orders his secretary Hartley “Beek” Beekman to make the beautiful Miss Pendola Molloy into Beekman's unofficial assistant after she shows up to the White House late at night. With an attractive bachelor President and an attractive and independent leading lady, it looks as if the film is going to veer into rom com territory like a proto version of The American President. However, the film soon performs a bait and switch and takes us into some very chilling and almost surreal territory.

During a meeting with the White House press corps, President Hammond shows himself to be a caricature of Herbert Hoover. Hammond tells the reporters that they may not quote him on the record and that questions must be submitted a day in advance. He also expresses his support for Prohibition, characterizes unemployment as a “local issue” and organized crime as a “local problem.” In short, Hammond is presented as a “do nothing” President. Hoover had similarly been popularly characterized as a “laissez faire do-nothing president” although this was largely untrue. President Hoover instituted a Keynesian "New Deal lite” during the latter stages of his presidency. FDR campaigned to the right of the progressive Hoover during the 1932 presidential election, promising things such as a balanced budget.

The strongest parallel with the Hoover administration is provided by liberal activist John Bronson's “Unemployed Army”—which closely resembles the “Bonus Army” that Hoover crushed through the use of military force. Bronson is planning a march on Washington with over a million unemployed men. When Bronson speaks on the radio, President Hammond is shown playing with his young nephew in the Oval Office and completely ignoring the speech.

President Hammond is presented as a bit of a reckless rascal in the first half hour of the film. He drives his own car—and drives it fast. In a key scene, Hammond is shown driving his car at over 100 MPH and leaving a car with reporters in the dust. Hammond loses control of the car, crashes, and winds up in a coma.

As Hammond lies unconscious at the White House, his doctors hold a vigil over him. He has a fractured skull and is not expected to live. While he is on the verge of death, a mysterious bell rings. Shortly thereafter, Hammond miraculously wakes up and recovers fully. This sets up the key ambiguity in the film and provides for an element of magical realism. The question is whether Hammond simply recovered naturally or whether there was divine inspiration involved. In essence, we are given the sort of ambiguity that would later be used in films such as K-PAX.

The notion of divine intervention saving the life of an American President provides an intriguing yet disturbing element of the Divine Right of Kings. It also reminds the modern viewer of George W. Bush—who clearly believed that God intended him to rule and intended him to invade Iraq. More broadly, this subtle theological element closely parallels the close ties that fascism had with organized religion in nations such as Germany, Italy, and Spain. Fascism—contrary to popular belief—is always closely tied to traditional religion.

After waking up from his coma, President Hammond sits alone thinking for several weeks. During this time, nobody is informed that he has recovered. It is revealed that Hammond has been transformed. It is as if he is now a different man. Is this the result of brain damage? Has he been possessed by some sort of angelic—or demonic—entity? Has he undergone a personality change as the result of a mystical experience? This question is never fully answered, but what is clear is that President Hammond is now very different. He loses interest in the beautiful Miss Molloy. He loses interest in his young nephew. He is focused and determined but also humorless and almost inhuman. He is a bit of a jerk, actually. In many ways, Huston plays Hammond like FDR for the remainder of the film.

While Hammond was incapacitated, the country has drifted to the verge of chaos. When he returns to duty, Hammond is informed that Bronson's Unemployed Army is headed toward D.C. His Secretary of War recommends that the demonstration be broken up through the use of military force—as Hoover had done to crush the Bonus Army. Hammond refuses and orders food and medical care to be provided to the Unemployed Army when they arrive, and he says that fighting starvation is the “moral equivalent” of war. This would become a central notion of progressive fascism in the United States and lead to things such as the War on Poverty, the War on Drugs, and the War on Terror. He expresses the idea that citizens should be guaranteed the “elemental necessities” and in so doing he anticipates FDR's “Second Bill of Rights” that would be presented in his 1944 inaugural speech a decade later. Hammond smiles confidently and tells his Secretary of War to read the Constitution because the President does have some power! Of course, the truth is that Article II of the Constitution grants POTUS few enumerated powers, but why let the Constitution get in the way of a good fascistic story? Hammond fires his Secretary of State to demonstrate his power.

The Unemployed Army marches from New York City toward Baltimore. It is presented as a peaceful and racially integrated group. Well, there is one token Black man shown at any rate. Hammond also has a token Black man working for him—his butler Sebastian who is a complete caricature. Progressives like Woodrow Wilson had been vehement racists, so it is no surprise that a progressive fascist film such as this would have racist undertones. On the way to Baltimore, a machine gunner in the back of a van disguised as an ambulance shoots and kills John Bronson. In an unintentionally funny scene, Bronson tells his followers to go on, and they do—walking right over his dead body as his daughter mourns!

President Hammond meets the Unemployed Army in Baltimore, and the group demands work. Hammond promises to establish an “Army of Construction”—which like future fascistic New Deal programs such as the Civilian Conservation Corps would pay the unemployed to do public works. Of course, neither the Congress nor the President have the enumerated power to set up such an organization, but that hardly matters. Like any would be fascist dictator, Hammond has gained the loyalty of the unemployed masses just as Mussolini and Hitler had been doing in Europe.

Hammond's cabinet meets in secret to discuss their concerns about his unhinged tyrannical behavior, but Hammond learns of the meeting. He sends them each a note demanding their resignations for “reconstruction of the government.” While the President has the authority to seek the resignation of members of his cabinet, it is interesting to note that the 25^thAmendment—passed thirty years later—allows for the President to be declared disabled and removed from office by the Vice President and a majority of cabinet leaders. At this point it is clear that President Hammond is quite mentally ill.

Congress refuses to grant Hammond the money for his “Army of Reconstruction” and threatens to impeach him for his dictatorial unconstitutional overreach. Hammond gives an impassioned pro-Keynesian speech about economic proposals and action, and then asks Congress to a declare state of emergency, and adjourn until normal conditions are restored. Until “normal conditions” are restored, Hammond will wield dictatorial powers. When Congress rightly accuses the President of becoming a dictator, Hammond lectures them. He tells them that it is Congress who have given up democracy and become traitors. Hammond invokes the names of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. He goes so far as to claim that Jefferson was essentially a proto-Marxist utilitarian! Hammond then claims that the President has the power to declare martial law. Of course, even on the most fascistic reading of the Constitution and the law, the President may only declare martial law—according to the Insurrection Act of 1807—in the case of “insurrection” or “domestic violence” that so hinders the execution of government that citizens are deprived of their basic rights. However, progressives then like progressives now had fantasies about benevolent dictatorships that things like the niceties of law should never interfere with.

The Congress relents,and the next day the newspaper headline reads: “Congress Accedes to President's Request! Adjourns by Overwhelming Vote ... Hammond Dictator.” The dictator El Presidente Hammond prevents the foreclosure of mortgages, passes banking laws to protect money in banks, and provides direct aid to farmers. In essence, Hammond unilaterally enacts his own New Deal. It is interesting how much this resembles what FDR would do. FDR had a Congress dominated by members of his own party. If FDR had found himself in a situation where Congress was dominated by critics of the New Deal, would he have resorted to dictatorial actions like his fictional cinematic counterpart did? Given FDR's dictatorial use of executive orders—such as the one that led to the internment of Japanese Americans during the war—and his threat to “pack” the court, it is not that farfetched to claim that FDR may have become Hammond if Congress had been less friendly to his progressive brand of Depression-era fascism.

Dictatorship dominating democracy. Presented in a favorable light in an American film. Amazing! But the film only gets more chilling as it marches toward its conclusion. Hammond ends Prohibition. This is the first good idea that he has had in the entire film. However, instead of allowing a free market in alcohol to end gansterism, Hammond puts the alcohol industry under federal control. When wealthy New York bootlegger Nick Diamond—anti-semitism much?—begins to wage a terroristic campaign against federal alcohol stores, Hammond “fires” his secretary “Beek,” and names him the head of a new federal police unit to target racketeers. By this point “Beek” has fallen in love with Miss Molloy and proposed to her. Hammond seems to care little about having been made a cuckold by his own secretary. Perhaps this is some subtle reference to Hammond being “Christ-like” in being celibate, but it plays as a rom com gone very wrong.

“Beek” uses tanks to attack the headquarters of Diamond. With no Congress to interfere—and this is just what the film says—Hammond allows “Beek” to act as judge, jury, and executioner. Diamond and his lackies are not given due process. Instead of jury trials, they are tried before a military tribune which “Beek” presides over! All are declared guilty and sentenced to death. In a chilling scene, “Beek” orders a firing squad to “fire” as Diamond and his men stand against a wall bound and blindfolded. While I am a fan of horror films and no stranger to slasher films and “torture porn” horror flicks, this scene caused a wave of nausea to come over me. Is this what President Obama or some future POTUS may do with the broad anti-terror powers which Obama has claimed? Why fear drones when we have good old fashioned firing squads? Sickening!

The final scenes of the third act of the film present Hammond's foreign policy. President Hammond seeks to force European powers to pay their debts to the United States. While to the liberatrian-minded this may sound like a good idea—the government should not be intervening by giving foreign aid or loans at all—in the context of the times, it is problematic. If the European powers were all forced to pay money that they did not have during the Great Depression, Germany would not have been the only belligerent fascistic military power to arise on the Continent. World War II may have been even bigger and even more bloody had a plan like Hammond's been carried out.

Like FDR the candidate—and unlike FDR the President—Hammond preaches balanced budgets. Despite setting the stages for future war, he tells the foreign powers that if they stop spending money on unnecessary weapons and balance their budgets, they will become prosperous. At least it turns out that Hammond is not a complete Keynesian. One virtue at least! Hammond proposes the “Washington Covenant” by which if the rest of the world agrees to stop military build-ups, then the United States will do the same. Of course, it is likely that Germany, France, the United Kingdom, Japan, or the Soviet Union would violate such a treaty and be enabled to militarily dominate the world, but progressives always had good intentions that led to disastrous consequences. Then and now.

Hammond does give a speech in which he predicts the awesome and terrible power of air forces and how they would lead to great destruction and suffering if there was another global conflict. He specifically mentions the danger of “death rays”—which remind the modern viewer a good deal of the radioactivity of the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II.

After signing the “Washington Covenant” with the quill that Lincoln used “to free the slaves,” Hammond collapses and dies in an apparent attempt for the filmmakers to make him into a martyr or further solidify Hammond's “Christ-like” nature.

While some may dismiss Gabriel Over the White House as an anachronistic precode relic of the Depression, in many ways it portrays the deepest desires of neo-progressives—as well as neoconservatives. To these individuals, the Constitution means nothing. Republican democracy means nothing. All that matters is carrying out the policies of one's favored political party—whether that is accomplished through democracy or dictatorship. The film's unapologetic presentation of its ideals is refreshing. If only neocons like Cheney or neo-progressives like Obama would have stated so nakedly their true desires.