Mired in the depths of the Depression, Americans found some renewed hope when Franklin Roosevelt became president in early 1933. Released not long after his inauguration, March 1933’s Gabriel Over the White House reflects that spirit.

Newly elected US President Judson Hammond (Walter Huston) exists as a corrupt party lackey who cares more about fun and his personal life than how he runs the country. However, matters take a turn when Hammond nearly dies in a car accident.

After a miraculous recovery possibly aided by the Angel Gabriel, Hammond becomes a reformed man. He uses his position to pursue what he views as the public good and does so by any means necessary, even when his choices might conflict with laws.

Hmmm… a selfish, not particularly bright narcissist with no interest in governance becomes president and then enacts his agenda via potentially unconstitutional methods. Why does that concept sound so familiar to me?

Let’s just say that I strongly suspect Warner Archives chose the January 2025 release date of the Gabriel Blu-ray as a sly commentary on current politics. Which leads me to a definite problem with the 1933 movie.

As I write this in February 2025, the current POTUS is running roughshod over the Constitution. For many of us, this creates a terrible concern.

But would we feel the same way if “our guy” used extra-legal methods to enact policies of which we approve? I’d hope so, as the Constitution shouldn’t be “up for grabs” depending on your political preferences.

But excuses will likely be made when the POTUS in question achieves goals that you desire. Gabriel feels like it exists as an attempt to convince the then-new President Roosevelt that he needed to pooh-pooh the Constitution if he wanted to save the country and bring it out of the crippling Great Depression.

Which makes the movie look like it argues fascism is A-OK as long as the proverbial trains run on time. In the defense of the filmmakers, they didn’t know what would happen worldwide in the years that followed Gabriel.

Hitler came to power right around the same time as FDR, so his primary atrocities existed in the future. Mussolini had turned Italy into a fascist state already by 1933, but I don’t think that situation had really reached the US public yet.

As such, the American public saw no signs of how dire a fascist situation could become. This likely meant that the idea of a rule-violating leader who didn’t worry about the strict view of the law sounded pretty good to citizens desperate to break out of the Depression.

92 years later, I can’t speculate how Gabriel went over with viewers. I can say that the heavy-handed “message movie” doesn’t work now.

Indeed, the 2025 political circumstances I mentioned previously mean Gabriel holds up even worse now than it might’ve 15 years ago. With a law-violating president actually in office, the story leaves fiction in the dust.

Even without the movie’s unsettling endorsement of fascism, Gabriel simply never turns into a well-made tale. Maybe Capra could’ve pulled off this kind of tale but Gregory La Cava simply makes it stiff and tedious.

Really more a long series of lectures and screeds than a movie, Gabriel just sputters. Much of it makes little sense, such as how President Hammond’s IQ seems to jump about 40 points during his comatose period.

Huston does fine as the lead, but the thin nature of the part holds back his performance. No one else elevates the thin material either.

Gabriel comes with so little substance that it struggles to fill its brief 86-minute running time. For instance, we find a gratuitous romance among the president’s assistants that feels like nothing more than the filler it is.

I think Gabriel offers historical interest as a glimpse of the mid-Depression mindset. Unfortunately, it simply flops as a film and feels more like propaganda than cinematic drama.

Gabriel Over the White House appears in an aspect ratio of 1.37 on this Blu-ray Disc. This was largely a strong presentation.

In general, sharpness satisfied, as the movie usually appeared well-defined. Some softness popped up for the occasional shot but the majority of the flick boasted nice delineation.

Shimmering and jaggies remained absent, and edge haloes also failed to appear. The movie’s grain structure felt natural, and print flaws didn’t mar the proceedings.

Blacks appeared deep and dark, and contrast came across well. Shadows held up nicely, though a few shots felt a bit bright. Given its age, the image worked well.

Similar thoughts greeted the sturdy DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack of Gabriel, as it held up over the last nine-plus decades. Speech could seem a bit brittle at times, but lines were intelligible and concise enough.

Music and effects displayed the expected restricted dynamic range, but they showed acceptable clarity and didn’t suffer from significant distortion. The mix lacked pops, clicks, hum, or other defects. This was a more than competent track for a movie from 1933.

The disc comes with there cartoon shorts from the same era as Gabriel. We get Bosko In Person (7:33), Buddy’s Beer Garden (7:15) and The Dish Ran Away With the Spoon (7:31).

Bosko existed as a Looney Tunes rip-off of Mickey Mouse, albeit one who looks disturbingly like a “blackface” performer. Bosko shorts maintain interest as historical curiosities, but like the others I’ve seen in the series, the tedious “In Person” lacks much entertainment value.

Beer Garden brings an early Looney Tunes tale, but not one with Bugs or Porky or Daffy or any notable characters. Instead, we find the titular “Buddy”, a role that starred in a couple dozen shorts from 1933 to 1935 and then promptly became forgotten to all but the most dedicated animation buffs.

I can’t claim Buddy didn’t deserve obscurity, as he offers a bland personality. Beer Garden itself lacks much charm, as it comes across as a cut-rate Disney ripoff. Looney Tunes would eventually offer brilliant cartoons, but Beer Garden shows they had a long way to go.

Finally, Dish brings a musical short in which kitchenware romps and sings. “Merrie Melodies” shorts of this era tended to seem more cute than funny, and that trend persisted with the forgettable Dish, though it does become the most clever of this disc’s three cartoons.

As a snapshot of political attitudes a few years into the Great Depression, Gabriel Over the White House becomes an interesting curiosity. As a film, though, it seems relentlessly heavy-handed. The Blu-ray comes with solid visuals as well as acceptable audio and a few bonus cartoons. Gabriel musters historical interest but never becomes much of a movie,