An amusing minor whimsy, courtesy of Berlin, Hope, and Moore

Mention Irving Berlin's musicals, one will recall AS THOUSANDS CHEER, ANNIE GET YOUR GUN, CALL ME MADAM. I would recall the first musical I ever saw, MR. PRESIDENT with Robert Ryan and Nanette Fabray (Berlin's last musical, and a relative failure for his career - he never composed another musical or piece of new music). Few will remember a successful musical satire he did in the early 1940s, LOUISIANA PURCHASE. It was a timely piece of satire regarding political corruption in the state of Louisiana. As such it deserved Hollywood treatment, which is the only reason it is still capable of being recalled.

One has to go back a few years. From 1928 through 1935 the Long political machine ran the government and state of Louisiana like a private country (a type of radical dictatorship) led by the Governor (later Senator and U.S. Presidential hopeful) Huey Long. Long had the brains and ruthlessness to keep the machine working, handpicking and dominating the various cogs of the machine, such as his stooge governor O. K. Allen. Then Long got shot and killed (probably by one of his bodyguards, not by the alleged assassin Dr. Carl Austin Weiss), and the machine ran somewhat for the next four years. The new Governor was Richard Leche, a Long supporter whom Huey used but barely trusted. Huey knew that Leche and his cohorts were basically thieves, and while Long found corruption useful he also found it had to be realistic and not all controlling. Sure enough Leche and his pals robbed the state, and a gleeful FDR started a series of investigations that led to Leche going to prison. So did others. It ended the early Long Machine, subsequently rebuilt by the "Kingfish"'s brother Earl and son Russell.

At the start of the movie there is a meeting of the cohorts (Frank Albertson, Andrew Tombes, Raymond Walburn). Tombes, a good comic (and occasionally dramatic) actor is dressed as an academic with robe and mortarboard hat. The reason is that the head of Louisiana State University was involved in one of the discovered scandals. He was involved with a construction racket where private homes were built on the grounds of the college athletic fields and stadium. The actual head of the State University fled the campus and was caught by state police after a high speed chase almost to the state border with Mississippi.

Berlin's film takes off after this background. He is not doing more than a cursory spoof of the actual scandal. However it has some good work in it. The music is not top draw Berlin, but any Berlin tune is at least worth listening to. Even the title song, "Louisianan Purchase...I'll tell you what it means...It means New Orleans", has a bounciness to it. And Emory Parnell's opening bit as a lawyer (a Jewish one, of all things, named Horowitz) giving his legal opinion to Paramount about making the film is amusing. Parnell, who had a good baritone, sings the letter, ending it with the name of his law firm (which has members of several minority groups in it).

Bob Hope, playing his normal type, is an opportunist front man for Albertson and the others, who have planted enough evidence to leave him holding the bag...unless he helps them prevent a Federal investigation led by Senator Oliver P. Loggenberry (Victor Moore), a Presidential aspirant and honest (if somewhat naive) politician. Moore's stage career had extended back to the beginning of the 20th Century, where he was the lead in George M. Cohan's FORTY-FIVE MINUTES FROM BROADWAY with Fay Templeton. But his biggest hit role was in the 1931 Gershwin/Kaufman and Hart musical satire OF THEE I SING, where he played Alexander T. Throttlebottom, the witless successful candidate for the Vice Presidency of the United States. Hence, his being a comic U.S. Senator Loggenberry (note the similarity final name with it's multiple syllables). Loggenberry is sharp enough to know there is corruption, but his abilities as a politician are mingled by his crass idiocies. He enters a fancy restaurant run by Irene Bordoni (a front for the corrupt ring running the state). It serves fancy French food, but Moore ends up believing it is a Jewish restaurant, and orders a delicatessan sandwich.

Hope tries to catch Moore in some compromising situation with Vera Zorina or with Irene Bordoni, but his every scheme fails (in one he and the other members of the gang pretend they are waiters at the restaurant). They do get a compromising photograph of Moore with Bordoni, but Moore turns the tables by marrying the lady (reminding her that a wife can't testify against her husband).

The final part of the film is a spoof of the then recent film hit MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, with Hope battling for his political and personal life by trying to filabuster the Louisiana state legislature while Moore faces a time limit (he has to return to Washington). There is even a reference to Jimmy Stewart at the start of the filibuster, and when Moore protests the state senators start yelling "Quiet Yankee!". Subsequently Hope reads the entire of GONE WITH THE WIND as part of his filibuster. As he notes the entire legislature (and Moore) have fallen asleep, he picks up a microphone and continues talking. He leaves the room for a moment, but his booming voice is heard, waking up the legislatures and Moore, all of whom look high and low for him until he reenters the chamber.

It is not a great comedy or even a great musical, but as an amusing comic whimsy it holds up quite well, and also serves as an interesting time capsule of it's period.