The Wet Parade

Author and environmentalist Edward Abbey once said "Democracy - rule by the people - sounds like a fine thing; we should try it sometime in America." At least the internet says he did. The makers of this film felt the same way about Prohibition. They must have felt pretty strongly since the film ran for two hours back when the average was about 1h 10m.

Did you that know that during Prohibition the US government put poison in industrial alcohol so it couldn't be converted to drinking alcohol? The result of this policy was that criminals converted it anyway and thousands of people were poisoned to death. Yes, it's in the movie and can be verified on reputable websites. Just one of the historical facts you can pick up from this film, not to mention a sampling of the spectrum of public opinion at the time.

For instance, imagine you were an ordinary social drinker at the time. The film captures such people's incredulity as they watched the laborious process involved in passing a Constitutional amendment, one they never dreamed possible, that would make their recreational drug of choice illegal.

Despite such nuances the film makes no bones about its anti-alcohol feelings. It differs from laughable anti-drug films like "Reefer Madness" in that its makers actually knew about the real effects of the drug in question. Its point is that Prohibition as it existed was not working and was only funneling money into organized crime while increasing disrespect for law and order. It was made during the tail end of Prohibition, when it must have been clear that its repeal was imminent. Its message is a pious hope that somehow Prohibition can be made to work, but it doesn't quite specify how.

By the way, there is a plot with stars like Robert Young and Myrna Loy buried in all of this, which generally moves at the snappy pace of other pre-code films. Its excessive length is due to its repetitious hammering home of the evils of alcoholism. They did try to liven it up a little by having comedian Jimmy Durante playing an unlikely Prohibition agent who performs bits of Durante's nightclub act. Still it may impress you as overlong, melodramatic and even depressing at points, but those interested in American history and culture in the 1920s and 30s will find it fascinating.

If I had one piece of advice for people wanting to try out films of the 1930s, it would be to check out any movie with Walter Huston in it. From Gabriel Over the White House to Kongo to The Beast of the City and more, the man was in some of the weirdest and most interesting films of the period. Here we have a film about the dangers of alcohol, made a year before prohibition ended. The film seems to be both anti-alcohol and anti-prohibition, which makes for some fascinating think-work about what the movie is really trying to advocate.

The film starts with Lewis Stone's Colonel Sanders-looking Southern patriarch, whose daughter (Dorothy Jordan) is trying to get him to quit drinking. After a short while we move North to a fresh-faced Robert Young and his lush of a father Walter Huston. The two stories eventually intersect as Young falls in love with the daughter. Prohibition passes which leads to a tragedy for Young, who decides to become a treasury agent and is partnered with Jimmy Durante (!). From here the movie hits a bit of a lull as we get a fairly typical T-man story until the final minutes, which are exciting.

The film offers some great moments such as the haunting image of Lewis Stone's final fate or the powerful scene where Walter Huston's wife confronts him about his bootleg liquor. The cast is excellent. The performances are melodramatic but in the best way. In addition to the stars already mentioned, we also have Neil Hamilton, Myrna Loy, and Wallace Ford. Not a bad lineup.

As an entertainment piece, I think it's solid. But it has added value as a historical curio, allowing modern audiences to get perspective on the thoughts and feelings at the time regarding an important period in our history.

Victor Fleming's "The Wet Parade" (1932) would be an appropriate double feature companion to "Reefer Madness". But while it shares that film's exaggerated (insert hysteria here) style, it is a much higher budget production and ultimately delivers a balanced and well- reasoned message.

It also has an all-star cast, although many of them are very early in their careers. The story centers around an old southern family, the Chilcotes; Lewis Stone, Dorothy Jordan, and Neil Hamilton (Commissioner Gordon on television's "Batman" series). Other name actors included Walter Huston, Robert Young, and Myrna Loy, Wallace Ford, and Jimmy Durante.

The film is almost an epic as it covers a 15-year span from 1916 to 1931. During WWI Congress expands federal regulation with a wartime measure called the Food Control Act (regulating grain among other things). This leads to the ill-advised Volsted Act and the 18th Amendment outlawing liquor (insert nationwide "Prohibition"). But prohibition curtails only legal drinking, and gives criminal elements a huge base of potential customers. Although much of the demand is met by smuggling (especially from Canada) and domestic distillation, there is quick money to be made with bogus product. Criminals simply take bulk denaturated (meaning unfit to drink) cleaning fluid ( a mix of ethyl alcohol and methanol) and package it as a name brand product. The film shows an excellent sequence of this process.

The film also shows the consequences of consuming this product; blindness or death.

The intention of the film is not to promote drinking but to illustrate a bigger evil, the unintended consequences of the government's ill-advised attempt to prohibit the activity. "The Wet Parade" was a rare example of mainstream Hollywood's willingness to openly take a side in a political issue. In doing so they risked alienating a huge potential audience (the President had vetoed the original legislation and it took legions of pietistic voters to pass the 18th Amendment). The effectiveness of the "The Wet Parade" message no doubt contributed to the passage of the 21st Amendment the following year (1933), which repealed nationwide prohibition. Then again, what do I know? I'm only a child.

Probably Upton Sinclair's novel was ambiguous so the MGM film version had to be equally so. But The Wet Parade was made and released before the public's verdict on Prohibition was in. At the end of 1933 the 21st amendment to our Constitution was passed repealing the 18th amendment banning liquor. The cure was worse than the disease.

The Wet Parade deals with two families headed by Lewis Stone and Walter Huston. Stone is a southern colonel who likes his branchwater and bourbon and Huston a New York hotelier who also is a drinker. The culture of drink is inculcated in both families.

Two who missed it are Stone's daughter Dorothy Jordan and Huston's son Robert Young. Alcohol claims family and friend all around them. And Prohibition just seemed to make it worse.

Among the rest of the cast look for outstanding performances from Neil Hamilton as Jordan's brother, Jimmy Durante as a Prohibition agent , and Myrna Loy as a flapper who abandons Hamilton in a crisis. In the case of Hamilton he did in real life develop a serious drinking problem.

A good film that was made before it's time.

One of my favorite movies mostly because I'm a Jimmy Durante fan and he plays, of all things, a treasury agent during prohibition! True, that doesn't stop him from being somewhat funny, cracking jokes and displaying his comedic talents, so anyone who likes Durante will enjoy his participation in this movie. There is also some fine ensemble acting from the large cast as we see some of the evils of liquor both before and during prohibition. And there's a great scene showing bootleggers making phony whiskey using wood alcohol and printing labels saying it was pre-prohibition liquor or from Canada.

I noticed two onscreen credit errors: Frederick Burton is listed as playing Major Randolph, and Reginald Barlow is listed as playing Judge Brandon. The character names were erroneously interchanged.