The Dark Horse

I've read that the Warner's release, High Pressure, with William Powell, as the fast-talking pitchman Gar Evans, was a hit when it was released in January, 1932. Daryl Zanuck (writing as Mark Canfield) wrote a sequel. When Warner's couldn't get the writer of the original novel to agree to a price that they wanted to pay they transformed conman Gar Evans into the rapid-fire king-maker "Hal Blake." Instead of goods he was selling candidates. They bumped Powell (fearing a lawsuit if they used the same actor for similar characters) in favor of Warren William and the movie became The Dark Horse.

What a crackerjack little film! It had a large cast of assembly-line actors and crew who knew how to crank out a film hot enough to ignite the nitrate stock it was printed on. This film went through pre- production, production and post-production in time for its release in June, 1932. That's just five months after the film that inspired it! Its rushed release didn't show in its spot-on rapid fire dialog or delivery.

Other reviewers have whined about a later subplot involving Hal Blake's ex. By that time I was so completely won over the charms of this pre- code gem that I completely accepted, and enjoyed, the late curveball.

How could you not love a movie with a song like:

Upstate, downstate Cities and the sticks, The voters yell for change Even babies cry for Hicks! Boys and girls together Toms and Harrys and Dicks, Climb the big bandwagon, While they cast their vote for Hicks!

I had lots of chuckles for the first half of this spoof of the American political scene in the 1930's, when a deadlocked Progressive Party convention finally nominates delegate Zachary Hicks (Guy Kibbee) for governor because one of the party leaders liked his name, and then spread the word he'd be a good compromise candidate. What they didn't bargain for was that Kibbee was as dumb as could be. Party secretary, Bette Davis (young and beautiful in this early role), suggests getting the dynamo campaign manager, Warren William, to handle the campaign. The funniest scene occurs at the debate, when Kibbee's opponent (Berton Churchill) starts to give the same speech (written by Abraham Lincoln) that William had Kibbee memorize. William jumps up and accuses Churchill of plagiarism.

Kibbee is perfect as the dumb candidate, with his wide cherubic grin and innocent, halting way of speaking. William is also excellent as the fast talking, fast thinking manager, a part he played many times in previous and later films. Unfortunately, when William's ex-wife, Vivienne Osborne, shows up demanding past alimony payments and causing Davis to become jealous, the focus of the film changes a bit, much to its detriment. Still, the opposition Conservative Party has some tricks up their sleeve trying to win the election, which keeps the film interesting.

The main reason to see this film is Warren William, who is in top form as the shyster campaign manager. He is electric, constantly finding ways to fool the public and defeat the opposing party in the midst of the biggest disasters. William is a great actor -- I feel he never got his due. Bette Davis as his girlfriend also shines in an under-written role. Personally, I found Guy Kibbee not quite right as the lame-brained candidate that William and the others are trying to foist on the public. He seemed more like an empty canvas than a person. I would have preferred to see a real character emerge rather than a non-character. The story itself is implausible, silly and clichéd. But Warren William and Bette Davis are well worth watching.

Guy Kibbee is Zachary Hicks, "The Dark Horse" for a governor's race in this 1932 film starring Warren William, Bette Davis, Frank McHugh and Vivian Osbourne. In order to break the convention deadlock, the Progressive party nominates a sure loser, Zachary Hicks, for governor. Secretary Davis, a plant in the political bosses' offices, urges them to hire her boyfriend, Hal Samson Blake (William) as Hicks' campaign manager. At the moment, he's in jail for back alimony, but the bosses are stirred by a speech Hal gives the prisoners. A subplot, which enters the main plot eventually, is in fact this very alimony, which Hal's ex (Osbourne) is determined to collect from him. Her anger with him causes her to interfere with the governor's race.

This is a very amusing movie and of course, we've seen bumbling politicians throughout film history - "Thanks a Million," "The Great Man Votes," "The Senator was Indiscreet" (my favorite) etc. ad infinitum. The reason they're always funny is that nothing has changed, so these films always strike a chord. This movie has special interest because of the presence of a very young, very pretty Bette Davis and also because it's pre-Code. There's a lot of rather obvious suggestiveness in it that I suppose would have caused objection.

I have to confess an undying love for Warren William, who is, as always, relaxed, funny and marvelous as a wheeler dealer who can get anybody elected to anything. He was sort of a poor man's Barrymore in these roles. I would have loved to have seen Barrymore do this part as well. Davis in an early ingénue role is good, but it's before anyone knew what to do with her. A million actresses could have played her part, but how many actresses could have done what she did in Of Human Bondage? Guy Kibbee is a perfect idiot nominee with bad feet and an eye for the ladies, and Frank McHugh is on hand to give his usual excellent support.

Lighthearted fun and recommended as a reminder that the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Despite obvious limitations, this 1932 programmer is as perceptive and provocative as many of the more modern-day political films. What this minor movie underlines so importantly is the ease and appeal of electing an intellectual simpleton (Guy Kibbee) to high office (governor) for partisan purposes. Just wrap him in the appropriate populist symbolism, and he's a shoo-in. Unfortunately, the movie doesn't show how much money can be made from having an unquestioning dolt in office.

What it does show is the ease with which clever manipulators can say the right words and pander to an uncritical electorate. Consider the irony of both party candidates (Progressive Kibbee and Conservative Churchill) speaking from the same plagiarized page of Lincoln's soaring campaign rhetoric. What then separates the two if the speeches themselves are indistinguishable. What this comically made point suggests is that it's rhetoric rather than policy that's uppermost in winning the electorate. Comic or not, the point is still worth pondering.

Here the master manipulator is Warren William in a bravura performance-- too bad this dynamic actor is almost totally forgotten. Unfortunately, Guy Kibbee goes over the top as the good-natured simpleton, while Bette Davis shows both fire and flair in a very early role as William's office girl-friend. And in an unheralded albeit sleeper role is Vivenne Osborne as William's shrewish ex-wife, who's every guy's nightmare and enough to undo the whole institution of marriage.

Reviewer Hausner is correct that the focus shifts half-way through from Kibbee as governor to William's marital woes. It's almost as if the writers didn't know where to go with Kibbee's character once he's in office. Too bad-- there's real potential for incisive comment there. Anyway, we know the film precedes the deadening Production Code of 1934 since violation of the Mann Act turns up as a prominent plot device, ie. transporting women across state lines for immoral purposes, intended to stop what was then known as "white slavery" or forced prostitution. I don't recall mention of this risqué law any time during the 30-year Code era.

All in all, the movie is fitfully funny and interesting, but unfortunately fails to follow through on a fascinating premise.