Muriel Angelus in “The Great McGinty.”
Preston Sturges wrote and directed The Great McGinty, 1940, a political satire that, seen today, is astonishingly accurate in its depiction of big city politics and the corruption and self-interest of politicians who claim to serve the interests of “the little people.”
Though the film is carefully non-partisan, depicting all politicians as crooked, one can’t help but notice that the movie deftly comments on the irreconcilable tension between the machinery of an impersonal government bureaucracy towards non-bureaucratic ends, namely improving the lives of citizens.
Early in the film, Catherine, the luminous Muriel Angelus in her last role before retiring, a decent, hard working secretary and the movie’s touchstone for morality, has an illuminating conversation with a politician, played by the great character actor William Demarest.
Catherine explains, with impeccable logic, why politicians who steal from citizens via graft, taxes, and useless government programs, aren’t really criminals.
Catherine: Especially since you can’t rob the people anyway.
The Politician: (with a double take) Sure… how was that?
Catherine: “Because what you rob you spend, and what you spend goes right back to the people, so where’s the robbery?”
The Politician: “Say, where’d you get that?”
Catherine: “In a book on politico something-or-other… it’s what you call sophistry.”
The Politician: “That book should be in every home.”
Whenever I hear Obama or his surrogates talk about “investing in our future” I imagine that politico something-or-other book in their hip pockets.
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
15 Comments
Catherine’s comments continue the old Broken Window fallacy first elaborated by Bastiat. Politicians use this fallacy all the time. We’re in the middle of it now. Yet another reason for Sturges’s brilliance.
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Sturges was among the greatest writer/director combinations ever and while he burned out before his time he left behind some great movies.
Willie Stark in All The King’s Men said graft was the oil that kept the engine of government running. Today he would be saying government ‘investments’ are what’s needed to keep society running. It’s just a coincidence that his favored constituencies are the ones receiving the ‘investment’. If the government would get out of trying to micromanage our lives (eat less salt and fat; wear a seat belt; put on your bicycle helmet; eat more broccoli and quit smoking) we could get by with a fraction of the government we have now. But when there is so much money flowing through politicians it’s easy for them to keep a little for their ‘hard work’.
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Johnny:
Preston Sturges is, IMHO, the greatest writer-director evuh. He directed about 13 films, 7 of which are genuine masterpieces: The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Mracle of Morgan’s Creek, Hail the Conquering Hero and Unfaithfully Yours. By any measure, that’s an astonishing legacy.
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Well, Billy Wilder was a pretty good W/D. But I think they are easily the top two.
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“Catherine: Especially since you can’t rob the people anyway.
The Politician: (with a double take) Sure… how was that?
Catherine: “Because what you rob you spend, and what you spend goes right back to the people, so where’s the robbery?” ”
Actually I think we get “back” 50% “if we are lucky”. As I am writing this I am thinking of the government as Jim and Tammy Fay Bakers “Ministry” (excuse me Robert – I have had a glass of wine;-) )
Where the income is for the “middleman’s” primary enjoyment – not for the intended’s (and sold to the public’s) benefit.
Preston Sturges is – I believe – my friend Larry the Cinamaphile’s (hereafter known as LTC) favorite director.
And he was spot on in this movie.
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Bill:
I saw a documentray about Jim and Tammy Fay and for the life of me I don’t see the charisma that propelled them, however briefly, to fame and fortune. They just weird and sad.
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Alias: Quite a different situation despite the similarities. FDR on the right side, the side I agreed with, on almost every question. Obama clearly not so much. We should always bear in mind that Ronald Reagan considered himself a Roosevelt Democrat, until that party disapeared. But, if your observation goes to the mainstream press being a sadly failed source of information, well…of course.
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It was an observation about the press, as you noted. I would agree with you about FDR. I would also suggest the JFK would be spinning in his grave if he could imagine some of the policies of the current “left”. By today’s standards, JFK was conservative in many ways. I had to laugh as I read a liberal post that Obama is “very right of center” in his presidency… to that I would ask, where the h*ll is the center??
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I like your thinking about JFK, Not the rest of his family, although I suppose there were moments from both of his brothers that made some sense. In any case, I consider President Kennedy a liberal or left leanding conservative. An aggressive foreign policy and a more enlightened domestic tone.
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The Bush Doctrine is basically just JFK reworded. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the Left revile it so.
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Well, if JFK were alive today he’d be a Republican.
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Of course. FDR too.
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NBL about FDR. He was socialist through & through and his advisors thought Stalin was a gift to the world. Don’t take my word for it. Read Amity Shlaes’s The Forgotten Man.
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Not sure you’re right. He certainly leaned left, but he was a pragmatist, meaning he favored whatever made him look good. That’s what I took away from the first half of Shlaes book (which was the only half I read).
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I find the analogy ironic. In 1940, we had a (relatively) liberal president who was confined to a wheelchair. The press, as a rule, did not show FDR in his wheelchair because it might show him as weak or imperfect. Now, we have the press who are unwilling to look at the President’s nation of birth and his scholastic records because it might negate their candidate or cast him in a bad light… after all, how would it look if George W Bush had better grades?
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