Adventure in Washington

This is a very interesting, if ultimately disappointing, hybrid (straddling the A and B classifications) picture from Columbia. The story is about a troublesome lad (Reynolds) who is sponsored, as a political favor, by a senator (Marshall) as a Senate page boy. After some initial resentments, the boy begins to appreciate his position and is devastated when circumstances jeopardize his job. Herbert Marshall and Virginia Bruce are friendly enemies and they make a unique screen team. The film sports a wonderful supporting cast, with especially fine performances by Samuel S. Hinds and Vaughan Glaser. Columbia recycled many of the sets (office building; senate offices; senate chamber; committee room) constructed for MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Not to mention page boy Dickie Jones, who has matured enough to give a heartfelt speech near the climax of ADVENTURE IN WASHINGTON. Another recycled set is the newspaper city room from HIS GIRL Friday. Other page boys who get a chance to shine are Charles Smith and Tommy "Butch" Bond. The main problem with the picture is the script. There are a lot of holes and unresolved issues. The film was released in ten reels but runs 84 minutes. This is a sure sign that there was some cutting prior to release. Harry Cohn must have chased producer Charles Rogers off the lot with the way this one wound up. This should have been a 75 minute feature at best, with faster pacing and a clearer scenario. There is some odd padding, including a couple of scenes at a cheap bowling alley set. Still, there are many pluses and some fine speeches about responsibility and civic pride. Also, the "McGuffin" is about a senate appropriations bill being balanced between relief expenditures and armament. The picture was released in May of 1941. Had it been made after Pearl Harbor, the debate might not have been so measured. My 16mm print is one of the "Sahara Television" prints shorn of the original Columbia logos. I'm sure if the film makes it to TCM it will be from Columbia 35mm materials. Keep an eye out. It's worth watching even if, ultimately, a bit unsatisfying.

Gene Reynolds is the son of Senator Herbert Marshall's dead political mentor. Marshall gets Reynolds an appointment as a Senate page. Reynolds is a tough kid, fighting everyone, until radio commentator Virginia Bruce talks him around. The effort also heals the wounds between the politician and the broadcaster. However, when Reynolds is blamed for general page mischief and is expelled, he seeks vengeance.

It's a junior-league version of MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, and its view of the Congress as a body that actually works seems a fairy tale in these times: likewise its now old-fashioned view of patriotism. Fortunately, it is acted by a bunch of old pros who can put anything over, including Samuel Hines, Ralph Morgan and J.M. Kerrigan. Even the pageboys are old pros, including Tommy Bond and Dickie Jones.

Gene Reynolds was also a long-time professional for a juvenile. His first movie bit was in the Laurel & Hardy feature, MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS. When his acting career ended in the late 1950s, he went behind the camera, to write, produce and direct the TV version of M.A.S.H.

Watching this film I was recently put in mind of the latest of Washington DC scandals involving page boys. Something like what Representative Foley of Florida did with a page boy a few years back would not be on the big screen back in those Code driven years. And I guess it depends on your point of view what is more immoral, what Foley did or what is shown in Adventure In Washington.

US Senator Herbert Marshall does a favor for one of the political bosses back in his home state. The favor for J.M. Kerrigan is make young Gene Reynolds a Senate page, maybe that will straighten out this particular juvenile delinquent. Reynolds is the son of the former big boss of the state now deceased as is Reynolds mother.

Reynolds is cast in a role that at MGM would have been done by Mickey Rooney or at Warner Brothers by Dead End Kids Billy Halop or Leo Gorcey. Usually Gene is a good kid, but he manages to do well with the bad boy role. Who turns out to be a good kid after all in the way he assumes responsibility especially pulling his patron Herbert Marshall out of a jackpot Reynolds put him in.

That Senate set built for Mr. Smith Goes To Washington got some more use for Adventure In Washington. Harry Cohn would not have contemplated otherwise. The girl reporter role here is played by Virginia Bruce, probably because they could not get Jean Arthur. Like Arthur in both Frank Capra classics Mr. Deeds Goes To Town and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, Bruce starts out as an adversary to the hero, but then becomes his biggest booster.

It might be interesting to see if this film ever got a remake today. It would not be a G rated remake you can bet.