This is an interesting C film made on a tiny budget and directed by the run of the mill Phil Rosen, who made 142 films including such things as Charlie Chan and Shadow pictures. The film is a shameless attempt to exploit President Franklin Roosevelt's name at the box office. Roosevelt suggested an idea for a mystery story, six authors then wrote stories on that theme, which were published successfully, and this film takes inspiration from them (presumably without authority or without paying) and opens with a lot of ballyhoo about being 'the President's mystery'. And just in case anybody had any doubts, that is the title of the film too. It's called rubbing it in and also 'going for it'. Maybe they made a few bucks. However, having made all of those cynical observations, I can add that the film (which is not even a mystery story, by the way) has a serious message, which is treated with just enough restraint not to be a fantasy. Henry Wilcoxon plays a high-powered cartel lawyer who leaves his old life behind and sees the light. She takes the form of Betty Furness, who jumps from being 'Miss Brown' to 'darling' in about one second's screen time, so that an entire wooing and romance must have been left on the cutting room floor. But then, they don't really worry about such things in C pictures. On with the action. He decides to fight the cartel. The cartel send their bully boys round to wreck a factory, Wilcoxon is square-jawed and heroic and saves it, despite being in a framed rap for murder, indeed in jail for it, and the little guys struggle against the big guys in a very thirties way. There is lots of workers' action going on, speeches, incitement, dirty tricks, fistfights. The whole Great Depression looms large, Roosevelt is the hero, and the grit is gritty. It may be low-budget, it may be corny, but it is thoughtful, and avoids being propaganda, believe it or not. In the thirties, cartels may have been in people's imaginations a lot, but these days cartels are in people's faces, and we know they are no fantasy. Today's rogue traders and scheming moghuls make struggles to close down some canning factories in the interests of a monopoly, as in this film, look tame indeed. Sociologically and economically minded people would find this particular film relevant to their concerns, and it keeps you watching, so you can have some fun while you are worrying about society.
Review of The President's Mystery
