Gabriel Over The White House
President Judd Hammond (Walter Huston) is a corrupt puppet of big business, more interested in women and cards than addressing economic collapse or spiraling crime. But everything changes when he nearly dies in a car accident and is possessed by archangel Gabriel. Reborn, Hammond takes matters into his own hands.
Widely considered the first American political fiction film, Gabriel Over the White House is a strange and startling mix of religious fantasy, romance, and propaganda. On one hand, it's an unapologetic celebration of Franklin D. Roosevelt — released just weeks after his inauguration and produced by media mogul William Randolph Hearst, then the new president’s fervent supporter (and later the real-life inspiration for Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane). On the other hand, Hearst was also a well-known admirer of Benito Mussolini. Seen today, the film plays as a chilling endorsement of authoritarian strongman rule, unmistakably laced with fascist overtones.
before the screenings intro by Podkast amerykański hosts
in Polish only
Gregory La Cava
Gregory La Cava was an Italian-American director born in Pennsylvania in 1892. He began his career in the silent era, making both live-action films and animations, but is best remembered for comedies he made in the 1930s. Though he received multiple Oscar nominations and worked with some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, including Claudette Colbert, Ginger Rogers, and Katharine Hepburn, his career came to an abrupt end in the 1940s, and much of his work has since faded from public memory.
Selected filmography
1933 Gabriel nad Białym Domem / Gabriel Over the White House
1934 Sprawa Celliniego / The Affairs of Cellini
1935 Prywatne światy / Private Worlds
1936 Mój pan mąż / My Man Godfrey
1937 Obcym wstęp wzbroniony / Stage Door
Cast & Crew
