Staff Infection, The Daily Briefing

IN HONOR OF JUNE 3, ELECTIONEERING AT ITS FINEST: ON FILM

 

Electioneering always looks like more fun in the movies–and it’s never looked better than in this 1940 sequence from Paramount Pictures’ Preston Sturges-directed “The Great McGinty.”

Preston Sturges? He’s the guy who brought you “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” and of course “Sullivan’s Travels”–this last, the tale of a noted comedy director who has to be dissuaded from making a serious movie.

(The title of the serious novel he wants to base his serious movie on? “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” Yes, the Coen brothers love Preston Sturges.)

Anyway: “The Great McGinty” is the tale of a crooked ex-bum (Brian Donlevy) who rises to become governor, thanks to a political power broker (Akim Tamiroff) and his gravel-voiced lieutenant (William Demarest).

They’re all stock players; Sturges used actors he liked over and over, to great effect. Nowhere outside of maybe Florida (sorry!) has voting 37 times–and celebrating it with a boilermaker–ever been this funny.

Also? McGinty and The Boss (Tamiroff’s character) were so well-received that they re-appear four years later–still totally crooked–in “The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek,” alongside Demarest, headliners Betty Hutton and Eddie Bracken; a 1932 Ford Model B convertible–and Hutton’s sextuplets.

Enjoy! And figure out whom you’ll be voting for in the June 3 primary. The field is full. State Senator Alan Lowenthal is on the ballot. So is his ex-wife, First District Councilwoman Bonnie Lowenthal, who will take on Seventh District Councilwoman Tonia Reyes Uranga in the 54th Assembly District contest.

June 3 is also the day that Congresswoman Laura Richardson faces off against challengers Peter Mathews and Lee Davis. Decisions, decisions.

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