A Stranger in Town

Oddly, this film stars Frank Morgan as a Supreme Court justice! He's on vacation and runs afoul of a small town's corrupt administration. The crooked judge, mayor and their henchmen don't realize who Morgan is, so he's able to see first-hand their under-handed tactics. Because of their abuse of political power, Morgan decides to stick around and assist a naive young lawyer (Richard Carlson) in his bid to become mayor. At first, they are pretty much ignored, though in time, when the race for mayor seems tight, the old mayor unleashed a wave of dirty tricks--not realizing that Morgan holds the ultimate trump card.

I had a hard time deciding whether to score this one a 7 or an 8. It was very good--particularly for a B-movie. Being a "B", it is a relatively short picture (only 67 minutes) but unlike many Bs it has excellent production values (especially the writing) and is very entertaining. About the only knock against it is that I thought the fight scenes were a bit too "slapsticky" and didn't exactly integrate well into the rest of the picture. Still, it's a dandy performance by Frank Morgan, as he's more restrained (i.e., less "hammy") than in most of his starring vehicles--well worth seeing and a lot of fun--as well as a decent civics lesson.

Good "B" picture starring Frank Morgan as a Supreme Court justice who goes on a hunting trip. He winds up becoming entangled with a small town's crooked politicians. Unassuming drama has a slight Frank Capra feel to it. Morgan is very good in a subdued performance. Richard Carlson plays the young lawyer who seems to be the only one in town that wants to stand up to the corrupt politicians. Robert Barrat, Porter Hall, Donald MacBride and company make amusing villains. Jean Rogers is the pretty love interest for Carlson. Pleasant cast and an earnest script. Short runtime helps. This is an entertaining hidden gem you should definitely check out if you get the chance.

Looking for something to watch on a Friday evening while feeling ill I ran across this wonderful little gem I had dvr'd earlier in the week solely because it had Frank Morgan AND Richard Carlson. My mind wanted to see The Wizard of Oz meets the man who fights The Creature from the Black Lagoon and how well they would be together! TCM had given it only 3 stars so I was not expecting much and the first 90% of the film was entertaining enough, a solid 3 star movie. Amusing to envision a time when a Supreme Court Justice would not be instantly recognized by the Mayberry-esque type town mayor and judge (even if the quaint town does have some shady goings on). No googling in that day and age! Then we reach the last 10 minutes of the film. Which if I could rate the film ONLY on those last 10 minutes it would be a solid 5 stars. Frank Morgan delivers a speech that will move and inspire you. Gave me chills to hear a monologue from a man written and spoken over 60 years ago that could be a headline of this evenings news. The problems he spoke about are exactly the problems our nation is facing today. Touched me so profoundly I played it over and over until I got every word written down and then posted it online to my friends. Bottom line, a nice enough little film from the early 40's with a magnificent ending. Worth watching with your children for not only does it address some current political problems but also bullying.

What makes this one Stand Out from War Years Motion Picture Portrayals of Small Town America is the Realist Portrayal of Corruption. Films of that Era (WWII) Tended to Propagandize the USA as a Utopia of Goodness as its Rally Cry to Ramp Up the Citizenry.

Nothing Wrong with that but it is Refreshing that this Little Movie had the Integrity to Say that Maybe We were not Perfect and some Fighting was needed Right Here at Home. Notice how the Justice Prods and Pokes at Apathy and Cowardice against Inequities and Bullying.

It's all Done in a Lighthearted Manner and is Good Entertainment while Posing Questions and Inspiring to a Greater Good. Certainly Worth a Watch for 1943 Cultural References that are Still Relevant Today.

Previous reviewers of this movie are all over the map. Some really liked it, others were disappointed that Frank Morgan did not reprise his role in the Wizard of Oz. Most don't seem to appreciate the movie for what it had to offer movie goers in 1943. And that's a shame.

This movie was made during the early part of World War II. The Japanese had bombed Pearl Harbor in Dec 1941. We started to strike back in the Pacific, and in Nov 1942 we managed to invade and take control of North Africa (Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia). That would allow us to prepare for an invasion of what Churchill called *the soft underbelly of Europe*, Italy and eventually southern France. By April of 1943, things were starting to look better for us, but D-Day, and our success there, were still a year and a half away. There were still many isolationists in the U. S. who felt we should not have gone to war in Europe. Others wondered if we would succeed against Germany. But FDR said that we had to defend *the four freedoms* around the world. American values, if you will, but FDR was not so close-minded as to depict them as just American.

That's what this movie is all about, encapsulated in Frank Morgan's speech before the court near the end of the movie. It is every American's duty to defend democratic (with a small d) values. That means fighting locally the sort of small-town corruption and dictatorship that tries to take self-government away from the people. (The romantic lead, who starts off as a weakling, will learn that in the course of the movie, as all Americans, especially isolationists, needed to do.) What the corrupt mayor of that small town was doing was just a smaller version of what dictators around the world were trying to do on a much larger scale. Americans needed to fight such dictators on the home front, just as we needed to fight them on a much greater level.

There are problems with this movie, sure.

The actor who plays the small-town lawyer who must learn to defend democracy, Richard Carlson, isn't up to the task of showing why he is weak to begin with and how he learns to fight with something in addition to - not other than - his fists to win the small-town war against fascism.

The depiction of small-town corruption, presented as unexceptional, suggests that there are worms gnawing away at our great democracy from inside. In the context of this movie, that is disquieting. It might have been more powerful if there had been some effort to link the small-town despots to their equivalent on the world stage.

This movie is never as bone-chilling as masterpieces of the genre like *Mr. Smith Goes to Washington* and *Mr. Deeds Goes to Town*, both of which deal with how corruption in our institutions threaten our democratic way of life. The corrupt small-town powers here hurt two men, but we are not made to feel their pain, or to imagine that their pain could one day be ours. That makes this movie less powerful.

But it's still a lot more than just another romantic comedy. It is another entry in the *Why we fight* series of movies that Hollywood put out during World War II, a series that produced some of the greatest movies ever made.