Gabriel Over the White House [VHS Tape]

MGM Home Video, 1993. Rare, officiall VHS release. Attractive pictorial sleeve, moderate corner wear. A political hack played by Walter Huston (the father of John Huston) becomes President during the height of the Depression and undergoes a metamorphosis into an incorruptible statesman after a near-fatal accident and meeting with the angel Gabriel. The newly inaugurated President Judson Hammond is content to live out the four years exercising a hands-off approach and leaving the problems of Depression America to local authorities. But, after a miraculous recovery from an auto accident and divine intervention, Hammond is ready to take on every social ill and neither Congress, gangsters nor the nations of the world can stop him. In 1932, America struggles with the effects of the depression and Prohibition. A new president, Judson Hammond (Walter Huston), is inaugurated. A handsome, amiable man, he is more concerned with his young nephew (Dickie Moore) than the problems of the unemployed. Hammond is a party figurehead - the candidate of corrupt interests - and a bachelor with a very private secretary, Pendola Molloy (the elegant Karen Morley). This president tests the dedication of his idealistic public secretary, Hartley Beekman (Franchot Tone), and nearly everyone else around him. Things change, however, when President Hammond has an accident. Near death, he has an epiphany - and turns with a vengeance on those who elected him, becoming an advocate for the common people. In directing the film, director Gregory La Cava and producer Walter Wanger developed a startling cinematic answer to the chaos that many thought was overrunning the country. The film feels like a prayer for deliverance; regarded as truly remarkable when it appeared, La Cava's movie is still astonishing today. "...the most sensational piece of film entertainment the world has ever known..." - The Hollywood Reporter. One hour and eighteen minutes. In Glorious Black & White.. Very Good/Very Good.