More than fifty years ago, when I was 10 or 12, my very radical parents compelled me to watch this film. At that age, most of it went over my head; I was far more interested in the Adventures of Sky King. But the movie stuck with me. I figured out eventually the political message, or so I thought. And remaining a faithful leftie, I embraced it. I note that the first User Review to appear on this site calls it a "ponderous socialist propaganda piece." None of that is correct. It is, as a film, not at all ponderous. The action moves swiftly. There is no wasted plotline, no unnecessary palaver. Perhaps the message is ponderous, if by that one means heavy handed. But it is not socialist. My parents were wrong. I was wrong. The reviewer is wrong. King Vidor will be turning in his grave. He was distinctly NOT a Socialist. He was a dedicated Libertarian. Not only is there no socialist propaganda in the film, but the idea of Socialism is specifically introduced in the scene in which the commune members discuss forms of government. They roundly reject Socialism, as they reject Democracy. If anything, the commune is Anarchist. Some years ago I showed this film to a Libertarian/Anarchist friend. (I guess I am one of the few people left who can discuss political ideas with a friend and not dissolve the friendship.) He had no objection to it. He loved it.
The film's message - coming in the midst of the Depression - is self-reliance. Government got us into this mess. Government is the problem. We must pull ourselves out. Some of the characters insist that We must have a government of some sort. So what do they settle on? A fake government. Democracy is hooted down. Socialism is rejected. One man, John, is put in charge. That might be called Monarchy. But John is really not in charge. He has no actual authority. He makes no binding decisions. He suggests but he cannot impose. He tries to enforce only one decision, his plan to build a conduit for irrigating the fields. He can't even impose that. Not until he asks the advice of John Qualen's Chris, the only knowledgeable farmer in the place, and Chris agrees with him, do the others consent. (They really should have made Chris the boss; he's obviously the only one who knows how to run a farm.) Politically, the commune runs on a system of anarchy - William Morris' vision in "News From Nowhere." Decisions come from the people. There is, of course, the question of law enforcement, the sphere in which, one may say, government is indispensable. Even there, we see no government. Louis, the former criminal, acts as a self-appointed gendarme. But he is not an agent of government. The people themselves will see to their own security and deal with their own problems in their own way. (There is also, note, no prohibition of private property. The proceeds of the agriculture, having been produced on a cooperative basis, are distributed on a cooperative basis, hardly a recipe for communism.)
A word about the acting. It's great all through: John Qualen, Barbara Pepper (Lucille Ball's friend), Addison Richards - all excellent character actors. The main roles are especially impressive, if you watch carefully. Considering that it is a message-heavy film, those characters are surprisingly complex. Tom Keene and Karen Morley express them splendidly. (Karen Morley was probably the only Socialist in the cast, for which she was duly blacklisted once Socialism became a Hollywood crime.) Tom Keene's character is sometimes seen as too goofy. That's it exactly. He is essentially a weak, frivolous person, as incompetent in life as he is on a farm. He lurches, we are told, from one get-rich-quick scheme to another. He's a precursor to Ralph Kramden. Who would put Ralph in charge of anything? He's amiable but weak, indecisive - precisely as Tom Keene plays him. Without Louis as enforcer how long could he have kept things together? He's too weak, too cowardly even not to run away, deserting his wife and his responsibility. But in the end he finds fortitude and resolution within himself. It's not an easy role to play, and Tom Keene does it to perfection. Karen Morley, in my opinion, has an even more subtle role. Mary could have been a vacuous character, merely a stand-by-your-man wifely adjunct. Karen Morley elevates the part, just by her look and her voice. Without overplaying, softly, she shows in every scene that she is his backbone, the backbone of all that we see. She needs him - she is particularly touching in the scene in which she cannot sleep for fear that murderous tramps may enter the dark isolated farmhouse - but he needs her even more, for his very existence. She is the one to discover the first growing shoots in the field. She is the symbol of the whole paradise - for an anarchist paradise it is. I would compare her role to that of Ma Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath." She is the pillar on which all stand. Jane Darwell got an Oscar for that one. Karen Morley deserved at least a nomination for this one.
There's no need to comment on the final scene, the famous choreographed digging of the canal. Orson Welles called it one of his favorite films. One can add no more to that.
The film's message - coming in the midst of the Depression - is self-reliance. Government got us into this mess. Government is the problem. We must pull ourselves out. Some of the characters insist that We must have a government of some sort. So what do they settle on? A fake government. Democracy is hooted down. Socialism is rejected. One man, John, is put in charge. That might be called Monarchy. But John is really not in charge. He has no actual authority. He makes no binding decisions. He suggests but he cannot impose. He tries to enforce only one decision, his plan to build a conduit for irrigating the fields. He can't even impose that. Not until he asks the advice of John Qualen's Chris, the only knowledgeable farmer in the place, and Chris agrees with him, do the others consent. (They really should have made Chris the boss; he's obviously the only one who knows how to run a farm.) Politically, the commune runs on a system of anarchy - William Morris' vision in "News From Nowhere." Decisions come from the people. There is, of course, the question of law enforcement, the sphere in which, one may say, government is indispensable. Even there, we see no government. Louis, the former criminal, acts as a self-appointed gendarme. But he is not an agent of government. The people themselves will see to their own security and deal with their own problems in their own way. (There is also, note, no prohibition of private property. The proceeds of the agriculture, having been produced on a cooperative basis, are distributed on a cooperative basis, hardly a recipe for communism.)
A word about the acting. It's great all through: John Qualen, Barbara Pepper (Lucille Ball's friend), Addison Richards - all excellent character actors. The main roles are especially impressive, if you watch carefully. Considering that it is a message-heavy film, those characters are surprisingly complex. Tom Keene and Karen Morley express them splendidly. (Karen Morley was probably the only Socialist in the cast, for which she was duly blacklisted once Socialism became a Hollywood crime.) Tom Keene's character is sometimes seen as too goofy. That's it exactly. He is essentially a weak, frivolous person, as incompetent in life as he is on a farm. He lurches, we are told, from one get-rich-quick scheme to another. He's a precursor to Ralph Kramden. Who would put Ralph in charge of anything? He's amiable but weak, indecisive - precisely as Tom Keene plays him. Without Louis as enforcer how long could he have kept things together? He's too weak, too cowardly even not to run away, deserting his wife and his responsibility. But in the end he finds fortitude and resolution within himself. It's not an easy role to play, and Tom Keene does it to perfection. Karen Morley, in my opinion, has an even more subtle role. Mary could have been a vacuous character, merely a stand-by-your-man wifely adjunct. Karen Morley elevates the part, just by her look and her voice. Without overplaying, softly, she shows in every scene that she is his backbone, the backbone of all that we see. She needs him - she is particularly touching in the scene in which she cannot sleep for fear that murderous tramps may enter the dark isolated farmhouse - but he needs her even more, for his very existence. She is the one to discover the first growing shoots in the field. She is the symbol of the whole paradise - for an anarchist paradise it is. I would compare her role to that of Ma Joad in "The Grapes of Wrath." She is the pillar on which all stand. Jane Darwell got an Oscar for that one. Karen Morley deserved at least a nomination for this one.
There's no need to comment on the final scene, the famous choreographed digging of the canal. Orson Welles called it one of his favorite films. One can add no more to that.