Top 5 Political Satire Movies: "Louisiana Purchase"

January 14, 3:26 PMClassic TV ExaminerDoug Krentzlin

Previous Next

Comment Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Classic TV Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

 

With the upcoming inauguration and Congress returning to session, I thought this would be a good time to take a look at a genre that personifies the concept of freedom of speech: the political satire. Here is the third of five recommendations (in chronological order) of films that cast a critical eye on politicians and their business.

Based on Irving Berlin’s hit Broadway musical comedy “Louisiana Purchase” (1941) is an unjustly forgotten gem that deserves to stand with “Duck Soup” and “Dr. Strangelove” as one of the movies’ funniest and sharpest political satires.

Scripted by Jerome Chodorov and Joseph Fields from the libretto by Morrie Ryskind (who later became a leading political pundit), “Louisiana Purchase” is an equal opportunity offender: Democrats are portrayed as corrupt libertines and Republicans are depicted as sexually repressed misers.

The opening number, taken directly from the stage original, sets the tone. A lawyer (Emory Parnell) warns the filmmakers that they will be liable for a lawsuit if they portray the state of Louisiana as being rife with corruption, but they’ll be safe if the movie has a fictional setting. At this point, a bevy of chorus girls appear singing about how the following show takes place in “a mythical state we call Louisiana” and “if there’s really such a place, that’s certainly news to us.”

Republican Senator Oliver P. Loganberry (Victor Moore repeating his stage role) has been appointed to investigate graft and political corruption in Louisiana. Especially dreading his arrival is a quartet of New Orleans crooks: politician Colonel Davis (Raymond Walburn), his son Robert (Frank Albertson), college Dean Manning (Andrew Tombes) and police Capt. Whitfield (Donald MacBride).

In order to protect themselves, they set up innocent state representative Jim Taylor (played by one of Hollywood's greatest comedians, Bob Hope) to be the patsy for their shady deals. Facing criminal charges, Taylor decides his only chance is to frame Loganberry in a sex scandal with the help of Viennese con artist Marina Von Minden (Vera Zorina).

The movie’s grand finale is a vast improvement over the stage version’s abrupt ending. In a hilarious parody of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,” Taylor prevents Loganberry from testifying before the Louisiana Legislature by staging a filibuster. (As Hope puts it, “I got special permission from Jimmy Stewart.”)

Directed by Irving Cummings, “Louisiana Purchase” was Hope’s first movie shot in Technicolor. The supporting actors include “Slapsie Maxie” Rosenblum, Irene Bordoni (also from the Broadway original) and the sexy, vivacious Dona Drake who performs the title number during the elaborate Marti Gras sequence.