THE GREAT MAN VOTES (1939) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Garson Kanin
John Barrymore, Virginia Weidler, Peter Holden,
Katharine Alexander, Donald MacBride, Benny Bartlett,
Granville Bates, Luis Alberini, William Demarest
John Barrymore plays an ex-college professor and single dad doing his best to raise a couple of kids while working as a night watchman and putting away significant quantities of bootleg hooch. When a corrupt ward heeler comes around hoping to secure his vote in an upcoming election, he sees a glimmer of hope, or at least a chance to make things better for the kids. Barrymore was having serious memory issues by this time, and apparently read most of his lines off cue cards, but he had the skill to pull that off and appears to be having a good time doing it. It's a funny and affecting late-career performance. The movie's take on how electoral politics works out in the precincts and down in the streets is not reassuring.
