President’s Mystery, The (Republic 1936, Sidney Blackmer, Henry Wilcoxen)

The only movie based on an idea conceived by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt (or any other president!), it was developed as an article for Liberty magazine before it became a screenplay written by Nathanael West, who used his experience to later write the blistering satire ‘The Day of the Locust’. A Depression-era lawyer whose practice helps greedy capitalists exploit working people gives up his wife and his practice in disgust. He tries to reinvent himself, and falls in love with another woman (Furness).

production details
USA | Republic | 80 minutes | 1936

Director: Phil Rosen
Producer: Nat Levine
Director of Photography: Ernest Miller
Editing: Murray Seldeen, Robert Simpson
Script: Lester Cole, Nathanael West

cast
Sidney Blackmer as George Sartos
Henry Wilcoxon as James Blake
Betty Furness as Charlotte Brown
Evelyn Brent as Ilka Blake
Barnett Parker as Roger
Mel Ruick as Andrew
Wade Boteler as Floyd, the sheriff
Si Jenks as Earl