The Wet Parade
Directed by Victor Fleming
Written by John Lee Mahin from a novel by Upton Sinclair
1932/US
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
IMDb page
First viewing/Forbidden Hollywood Vol. 6
Roger Chilcote: [speaking of his drunken son to Judge Brandon and Major Randolph after dinner] Republican tendencies, George, that’s what’s the matter.
Major Randolph: I never knew a Republican who could hold more than a pint.
This is a historically interesting look at alcoholism in America, the potential cure via Prohibition, and its utter failure to fix the problem.
The film spans the period from 1916 to 1932 and examines the fate of two related families. The wealthy Chilcote family still live the plantation lifestyle in the deep South. Roger Chilcote (Lewis Stone), the patriarch of the family, seems to drink all day long and has many buddies who do the same. Roger Jr., his son, is also usually soused. Daughter Maggie May (Dorothy Jordan) is a teetotaler and keeps begging her father and brother to stop drinking and get to work. She has very poor success.
The Tarlton family are the Chilcote’s poor Northern cousins. Mrs. Tarlton and her teetotal son Kip (Robert Young) struggle to keep the family’s hotel running while patriarch Pow Tarlton is busy drinking heavily and campaigning on behalf of Woodrow Wilson. Roger Chilcote turns up trying to flee his family and drink in peace. His sister Maggie May follows and eventually she and Kip fall in love.
The introduction of Prohibition in 1919 is very hard on Pow. Finally he is brought low by bad liquor he is sold for cheap on the black market. With Jimmy Durante as a G-man.
I thought this was pretty interesting. Walter Huston is fantastic in it. The other actors are a mixed bag. Fun to see Jimmy Durante in a somewhat serious role, though he is always cracking jokes. Dorothy Jordan is not a good actress and overdoes the melodrama whenever she has the chance. The film is almost two hours long and it held my interest throughout.
Nothing for this specific movie so here’s a tribute to Walter Huston. The film is currently available for free on YouTube.
