Lee Tracy Upends Depression-Era Crooks

Precode On a Washington Merry-Go-Round (1932)

Fresh congressman Lee Tracy enlists the Bonus Army as vigilantes against corrupt capital operatives. Opening titles and afterward dialogue assures us that government isn't run so crookedly as by characters here, who'll commit murder to shore up weak links, but did anyone then or now believe Washington's tepid walk-back? Disclaimers in front were often tip-offs to hard-hitting within, like apologies that are plainly insincere. Where's point of telling us that most officialdom is on the level when we're shown the opposite? Only way off this Merry-Go-Round is suicide; it's hard to imagine patrons setting goal in civil service after seeing this. Alan Dinehart is the power behind power, his bootleg imports greased by US Army assist where needed. Washington Merry-Go-Round is deeply cynical even as it suggests that maybe lone reformer Tracycan straighten things out. With trust in government at low ebb circa 1932, I doubt many were convinced that one man could make a difference. Had we all resigned to reality of a rigged system? Merry-Go-Round sides with early-30's protest pics that eschew legal process in favor of direct people's action, a last stand for Wild West corrective before Hollywood was taught responsibility by Production Code authorities and a watchful Washington.