Autocracy On Film: [i]Gabriel Over The White House[/i]

In Gabriel Over the White House (1933, directed by Gregory La Cava), Judson Hammond is a fictional American president whose political party is not named. The party expects their “boy” to do what they want him to do. A near-death experience changes Hammond. He wakes from a coma determined to do the greatest good for the greatest number, even if it means firing the cronies in his cabinet, dismissing Congress, declaring a national emergency and imposing martial law. For movie audiences both weary and fearful after years of the Great Depression and rampant gang warfare, a movie about a political leader who assumes authoritarian control—seemingly to benefit the populace—struck a chord. For some, that chord was hope; for others, a serious warning about the precarious fate of democracy.  

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