User Reviews

"The County Chairman" is a typical Will Rogers vehicle: a drama rather than a comedy, but with plenty of opportunities for Rogers to offer his folksy wisecracks (which were usually written by Rogers himself, rather than his scriptwriters). The plot of "County Chairman" deals with Rogers's favourite subject - politics - and he's in fine form here.

Rogers plays Jim Hackler, the county chairman for his political party in Wyoming. The movie is careful to avoid establishing which party Hackler is working for, but Rogers himself once noted: "I am not a member of any organised political party. I'm a Democrat." Hackler is running the political campaign of his idealistic young law partner Ben Harvey (played by the bland Kent Taylor). Harvey's election rival is crooked politician Elias Rigby (well-played by Berton Churchill, who specialised in playing crooked bankers and crooked politicos). The rivalry between Hackler and Rigby is personal: years ago, Rigby married the women whom both men loved ... and now Rigby's daughter Lucy (Evelyn Venable) is in love with Ben Harvey.

Although candidate Harvey is honest, his campaign manager Hackler is accustomed to dirty politics. He discovers some "dirt" on Rigby which, if made public, would throw the election to Harvey ... but which would also hurt innocent people. Should Hackler tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may ... or should he run a clean campaign and run the risk that his crooked opponent might win? This is a Will Rogers movie, so the ending is obvious.

The most surprising thing about this 1935 movie is that Will Rogers makes a joke about the Turkish slaughter of the Armenians. This was the twentieth century's first example of genocide, an event which the rest of the world tried to forget as soon as possible. A few years later, Hitler would be emboldened to enact his own genocidal policies precisely **because** America and the European allies had stood back and allowed the Turks to slaughter the Armenians. It's astonishing to hear this (deliberately) forgotten event mentioned in a Hollywood movie, especially as the springboard of a joke.

On a personal level, I was very distracted by the name of Will Rogers's character in this movie: Jim Hackler. It kept reminding me of Jim Hacker, the main character in the BBC sitcom "Yes, Minister", which is also a political satire. Will Rogers had a reputation for biting political commentary ... but you'll find much more bite (and more wit) in any episode of "Yes, Minister" than you'll find in "The County Chairman". I'll rate this movie 4 points out of 10 ... and one point is for whichever one of the screenwriters had the courage to mention the Armenian genocide. I suspect it was Walter Woods, an unjustly forgotten scenarist who did uncredited work on this film. Back in silent days, Woods wrote the script for one of Will Rogers's best films, 'One Glorious Day', in which Rogers was bedeviled by a creature named Eck, short for Ectoplasm. This might explain why a folksy rube in 'The County Chairman' is named Uncle Eck.

A little bit of the comic character actor Stepin Fetchit goes a long way, his screen time dominating much of the film without really being integral to the story. His slowpoke line delivery would be grating on any character performer that had more than a few minutes of screen time. Other black character actors had the same issues of stereotyping, but none were as degrading as his image which made them seem like Speedy Gonzalez in comparison. The running joke of his unseen wife continuously expecting another child quickly wears thin and takes away from the main plot.

As a local judge, Will Rogers is involved in a local election where pompous Berton Churchill is running simply as a formality, his blowhard personality typical of the power hungry, accomplish little big wig, and he doesn't even have the support of his daughter, Evelyn Venable. She's involved with his rival (Kent Taylor) who wants to actually work for the people. Decent plot but a very dated, stagy presentation. Soft spoken Louise Dresser as Churchill's wife (once Rogers' sweetheart) and a young actor named Mickey Rooney are in support, but Rogers and Stepin overwhelm all of them.