Even a B picture from MGM looked a whole lot like an A film from some other
studios. No box office stars appear in Man Of The People, but in this case that
only makes this one more real.
Fiorello LaGuardia would have identified with Joseph Calleia in this one. He's a newly minted lawyer and just about to hang out a shingle in the old neighborhood. But the local Tammany like organization comes calling and says join or you will starve. Calleia has no choice but to join and at first he's thinking he's done the right thing.
But while boss Thomas Mitchell does help constituents in certain things he also gets a cut of a lot of corruption. One egregious examle was a 'gold finding machine' in which a lot of Calleia's friends were bilked.
The political machine as in a lot of urban areas was Irish dominated as personified by Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell wants Calleia in with him to control the more recent arriving Italians. But Calleia proves not easy to handle.
Calleia's character in a lot of ways is based on Fiorello LaGuardia who spent his life fighting Tammany Hall corruption. I'm sure the then mayor of New York City must have loved this film. And as it turned out he was running for a second term as mayor in 1937 when Man Of The People came out.
One sour note in the proceedings, Ted Healy plays a typical Tammany Hall character and he was more annoying than funny. And his actions really don't ring true with the character we are first presented with.
Still Man Of The People is not a bad political movie. It would have been an A film at RKO or Republic.
Fiorello LaGuardia would have identified with Joseph Calleia in this one. He's a newly minted lawyer and just about to hang out a shingle in the old neighborhood. But the local Tammany like organization comes calling and says join or you will starve. Calleia has no choice but to join and at first he's thinking he's done the right thing.
But while boss Thomas Mitchell does help constituents in certain things he also gets a cut of a lot of corruption. One egregious examle was a 'gold finding machine' in which a lot of Calleia's friends were bilked.
The political machine as in a lot of urban areas was Irish dominated as personified by Thomas Mitchell. Mitchell wants Calleia in with him to control the more recent arriving Italians. But Calleia proves not easy to handle.
Calleia's character in a lot of ways is based on Fiorello LaGuardia who spent his life fighting Tammany Hall corruption. I'm sure the then mayor of New York City must have loved this film. And as it turned out he was running for a second term as mayor in 1937 when Man Of The People came out.
One sour note in the proceedings, Ted Healy plays a typical Tammany Hall character and he was more annoying than funny. And his actions really don't ring true with the character we are first presented with.
Still Man Of The People is not a bad political movie. It would have been an A film at RKO or Republic.