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The Senator Was Indiscreet
This 1940's political spoof delivers several good laughs and plays out in a fairly entertaining manner. It keeps its story simple while making the main character as convoluted as possible. Most political films now could take a look at this film as to how to make a good political film without forcing an agenda down the viewers throat.
This film is about a senator, who knows what party, who has a diary he has kept for thirty-five years chronicling the exploits of his colleagues and himself. He holds it over the party head in his attempt to run for president, but disaster strikes when the journal is stolen. George S. Kaufman's directorial debut, and from my understanding his only film, works on a lot of levels as a comedy poking fun at the absurdity of the politicians and the double dealing that goes on in politics. He does this while keeping the story very simple, which is nice as most political comedies become pretty convoluted, and this one just allows the jokes to pop without the audience having to catch some subtle jab at some current or former politician or some political party.
The acting in this film is solid. William Powell plays the lead role of the bumbling, diary keeping senator who wants to be president. He comes off very well in that role combining stupidity with being extremely full of himself and confident in his abilities to accomplish anything. The rest of the acting compliments him quite well. None of the other characters stick out as nicely as the senator, but they all support him very well.
Visually this film is somewhat interesting. In a little research before watching the film, I found out that Kaufman directed like he directed stage, with his eyes closed. So his directory of photography had to set up a lot of the shots while Kaufman focused on the sound to make sure that the characters were believable. The techniques used aren't anything out of the ordinary, but the fact that Kaufman put as little input into the shots as he did is somewhat interesting to me.
Overall this is a pretty fun film. It ideally would keep the jokes coming a little quicker then they did. A lot of them were word gags which are possible to miss, but they didn't need explaining. It was entertaining and a fun old film to watch.
Overall Grade: B
Story: B+
Acting: B
Audio/Visual: B
This 1940's political spoof delivers several good laughs and plays out in a fairly entertaining manner. It keeps its story simple while making the main character as convoluted as possible. Most political films now could take a look at this film as to how to make a good political film without forcing an agenda down the viewers throat.
This film is about a senator, who knows what party, who has a diary he has kept for thirty-five years chronicling the exploits of his colleagues and himself. He holds it over the party head in his attempt to run for president, but disaster strikes when the journal is stolen. George S. Kaufman's directorial debut, and from my understanding his only film, works on a lot of levels as a comedy poking fun at the absurdity of the politicians and the double dealing that goes on in politics. He does this while keeping the story very simple, which is nice as most political comedies become pretty convoluted, and this one just allows the jokes to pop without the audience having to catch some subtle jab at some current or former politician or some political party.
The acting in this film is solid. William Powell plays the lead role of the bumbling, diary keeping senator who wants to be president. He comes off very well in that role combining stupidity with being extremely full of himself and confident in his abilities to accomplish anything. The rest of the acting compliments him quite well. None of the other characters stick out as nicely as the senator, but they all support him very well.
Visually this film is somewhat interesting. In a little research before watching the film, I found out that Kaufman directed like he directed stage, with his eyes closed. So his directory of photography had to set up a lot of the shots while Kaufman focused on the sound to make sure that the characters were believable. The techniques used aren't anything out of the ordinary, but the fact that Kaufman put as little input into the shots as he did is somewhat interesting to me.
Overall this is a pretty fun film. It ideally would keep the jokes coming a little quicker then they did. A lot of them were word gags which are possible to miss, but they didn't need explaining. It was entertaining and a fun old film to watch.
Overall Grade: B
Story: B+
Acting: B
Audio/Visual: B