The Senator Was Indiscreet

... because usually William Powell played a wise dapper fellow. Here he is a bumbling fool, a Foghorn Leghorn like bag of wind who is almost unrecognizable dressed up like Colonel Sanders with white hair and beard. And the pity of it all is he is also a U.S. Senator. To prevent offense, his home state is never named, nor is the region of the country from which he hails ever named. For that matter, his political party is not named either. Senator Melvin G. Ashton (Powell) is facing reelection to the senate. He knows he'll lose, so it's either back to the private sector after 35 years in various political offices - in his youth he painted white lines down the middle of roads - or he can run for President. He chooses the latter purely because of the paycheck potential.

The senator's personal assistant (Peter Lind Hayes as Lew Gibson) has a reporter girlfriend (Ella Raines as Poppy), and Lew invites her to listen to the Senator's speech one night. The senator drones on for over two hours saying nothing and boring the audience to tears. Poppy walks out after arguing with Lew that she wants to expose Ashton as the bag of wind that he is.

The reason the head of the party (Ray Collins as Fred Houlihan) is tolerating Ashton's candidacy is that the senator has a diary in which he has written down the details of all of the party's dirty deals and is holding it over the party's head unless they at least let him try to win the nomination. But then the unspeakable happens - somebody steals the senator's diary and unless it is recovered not only the senator, but his entire political party is doomed.

This film is like a reverse video of "State of the Union" from the following year, where Spencer Tracy is a thoughtful man who threatens the party as a possible presidential candidate as he speaks for himself. Here Ashton is a buffoon without a thought in his head who would never speak anything meaningful to anyone. It is a rare breath of cynicism regarding America's political institutions just as the Cold War is ramping up - and did I mention it is hilarious?

Allen Jenkins has a great supporting role as a very mercenary private detective. Milton Parsons is the party operative who has the job of calling in the party "cleanup crew" with names that sound like they are all in the mafia. I'd describe the rest of the characters, but suffice it to say that nobody in this film seems to have any positive character traits and thus none of them are people you will find the least bit admirable.

The final scene is hilarious with even a dig at the safety of nuclear testing and a cameo that will surprise you and leave you laughing if you know anything about film history. Highly recommended.

In the "good old days", in this case 1947, politicians were career opportunists and just as self serving and corrupt then as they are now. Happily, in the movies - unlike in real life - we can laugh at the trouble they get themselves into.

After 35 years of serving his state's constituents, senator Ashton wants to be president. And just what qualifications does he offer, asks his scoffing party leader? From a list "mama" found in a magazine, #3 is to have a dog. Ashton says, " I have a dog. I hate the hound. He's bit me 4 times, but I have one." This mild satire kept me laughing from beginning to end. Powell, as expected, is terrific, and Ray Collins stands out among the supporting characters. The "Senator" is not a classic comedy as is "My Man Godfrey", but it's not necessary or possible that every comedy hit a home run in order to be deemed worthy of our time.

It is hard not to want see 'The Senator Was Indiscreet' with such an eye-catching title, William Powell in the lead, as someone who likes comedy and satire and a very interesting idea for a story. It could have gone the way of being an intriguing and very funny satire. It also could have gone the way of not being sharp or biting enough and being too silly and contrived.

'The Senator Was Indiscreet' luckily was the former. It is occasionally on the silly side, some parts were a bit of a stretch and the surprises are not always there, but a vast majority of the time it's very interesting, very clever and very funny. Really did enjoy 'The Senator Was Indiscreet' a lot, as one can already see, and it is a shame that it is as underseen and overlooked as it is.

One of its best assets is the cast. Powell has seldom been this tongue-in-cheek and he does a marvellous job here. Ella Raines is fetching and amusing while there are great supporting from Peter Lind Hayes and Allen Jenkins.

Also terrific was the script. It was smart, sharp and didn't hold back while not going over the top. It was unusual back then for a film to poke fun at politics and its institutions as directly and cynically as 'The Senator Was Indiscreet', and must have been a shock back then. The story was always absorbing and lifted by great chemistry within the cast, plenty of amusing moments (like with the tissue paper), a lively pace and also a few nice surprises along the way (especially a not so expected ending.

Visually, 'The Senator Was Indiscreet' looks good and it is a shame that George S. Kaufman didn't direct more films after, he does really well here and is at equal ease at the director's helm as he was as a writer/playwright.

Altogether, very enjoyable and sadly not without the credit it deserves. 8/10 Bethany Cox

This wonderful vehicle carried so many great character roles and made statements about how things run. Many ring true today. It provided a deliciously skeptical view of politics in general and the American idea that "any boy can can grow up to be President"! The rise of State Highway Divisor Melvin Ashton to the US Senate and the brink of the Presidency may explain how some of our more recent candidates have made it to stage center. My favorite running gag from this film was the characterization of the Bolshevik waiter by the wonderful Hans Conried. It is a snapshot of 1947 America with the impending threat of the Red witch hunt. His portrayal rings true with his bewildered observation of the American political process. It suggests that America was more than a match for Conried's "complete report een treepliket to the Kramleen by 5 PM". It is a DISCREET suggestion of the excess attention focused on the artistic community at the time by the guardians of our liberty. William Powell again comes through in a comedic role. The film's ending is a great piece of irony and social comment. He finally made it as the Big Kahuna, albeit on a slightly smaller stage!

It seems that politicians – or, perhaps more accurately, our perception of politicians – have changed very little in the sixty years since this film was released. Not only are they deceitful, power-hungry fast-talkers, but, most worryingly of all, they're not all that bright, either. George S. Kaufman's 'The Senator Was Indiscreet (1947)' is the earliest American political satire that I can recall seeing – though earlier examples almost certainly exist – and the film traipses many of the paths that would be echoed in subsequent films such as Hal Ashby's 'Being There (1979)' and Barry Levinson's 'Wag the Dog (1997).' At the forefront of these films is the complete trivialisation of the political system, portraying politicians either as dim-witted blow-hards or as ruthless power-grabbing tacticians, sometimes both. William Powell's Melvin G. Ashton falls into the former category, a white-haired Senator with more than a few loose screws upstairs. Nevertheless, he possess one vital item of leverage, a diary detailing every nasty political scam of the last thirty-five years, and so his influence is limitless.

William Powell, recently free from the 'Thin Man' series (1934-1947), is perfect as the IQ-challenged Senator with big ambitions. When he's not proposing absurd new regulations – for example, that all Americans should write letters on tissue paper to ease the burden on mail-men – Ashton is publicly and vigorously denying that he will run for Presidential Candidacy. In political terms, this means that he will run for Presidential Candidacy. Party colleague Houlihan (Ray Collins) attempts to talk Ashton out of his ambitions, almost convincing him to enter into a football career, but his persuasion is ultimately fruitless, especially considering the important historical document that Ashton has in his possession. When the coveted diary unexpectedly goes missing, every politician currently in office is thrown into chaos, and personal secretary Lew Gibson (Peter Lind Hayes) is sent to retrieve it, with journalist girlfriend Poppy McNaughton (Ella Raines) snapping at his heels. Even if all this doesn't seem your thing, wait around for the ending, which reveals a pleasant surprise.

'The Senator Was Indiscreet' was adapted from a screenplay by Charles MacArthur {co-author of "The Front Page"}, and the sole film directed by George S. Kaufman, a prominent playwright. There are several classic lines of dialogue ("Don't you think it's time you cut out the part where you laugh at the idea of the U.S. going to war against Japan?"), but the story unfolds fairly predictably. This, of course, doesn't necessarily negate the film's entertainment value, but I'd have liked a more daring degree of satire. The comedy style itself has its roots in the likes of 'His Girl Friday (1940),' but the jokes are more conservative, the laughs are scarcer, and the characters do not speak with the hilariously-frantic overlapping dialogue of Howard Hawks' film. Nevertheless, the lighthearted jibes at politicians are enjoyable, and it's not much of a stretch for the audience to believe that a clueless half-wit like Senator Melvin Ashton might potentially find himself at the doorstep of the White House. Indeed, recent history has shown us that he could even have gone further.