After watching Somewhere in Time (1980) earlier this afternoon, I'd have to say this movie outshines that movie. Not only does this movie not use the same outdated Hollyweird motif of the man "getting the girl" and living happily ever after, as is partially implied by Somewhere in Time, but it has a stronger social criticism. The main character, in this pre-Hays Code movie, Joe Gimlet (played by Lee Tracy), is an owner of a small drugstore, literally petty bourgeoisie but he has aspirations to become rich like his childhood friend Ted Wright (played by Otto Kruger) after a dispute with his wife to Mary (played by Mae Clarke) to invest their $4,000 in savings.
Then in a drunken rambling he is hit by a car and is transported 20 years into the past, seemingly to 1913, meaning he knows all the events up to March 6, 1933, the day he began his time traveling. Of course like other time travel movies, like Somewhere in Time, Girl Who Leaps Through Time, and the Time Machine, he uses this time travel for his own benefit, to become very rich, literally a bourgeois figure who knows the future. This leads him to marry Elvina (played by Patty Simmons), whom he has a rocky relationship in part because she cheats on him, and get appointed to the War Production Board, from which President Woodrow Wilson fires him for his "erratic behavior." In the process he realizes that money cannot buy him happiness and he becomes a victim of his own success with the police going after him for his bank's misdeeds on March 6, 1933. He then wakes up and it turns out to be all a dream as is in the hospital and had hit his head, greatful for what he has. In this way, the film is a bit like Frank Capra films in that it is critical of the rich and sorta stands up for the "common man," making it better than other time travel movies.
All in all, I found this movie enjoyable and I would definitely watch it again if I have the chance.
Then in a drunken rambling he is hit by a car and is transported 20 years into the past, seemingly to 1913, meaning he knows all the events up to March 6, 1933, the day he began his time traveling. Of course like other time travel movies, like Somewhere in Time, Girl Who Leaps Through Time, and the Time Machine, he uses this time travel for his own benefit, to become very rich, literally a bourgeois figure who knows the future. This leads him to marry Elvina (played by Patty Simmons), whom he has a rocky relationship in part because she cheats on him, and get appointed to the War Production Board, from which President Woodrow Wilson fires him for his "erratic behavior." In the process he realizes that money cannot buy him happiness and he becomes a victim of his own success with the police going after him for his bank's misdeeds on March 6, 1933. He then wakes up and it turns out to be all a dream as is in the hospital and had hit his head, greatful for what he has. In this way, the film is a bit like Frank Capra films in that it is critical of the rich and sorta stands up for the "common man," making it better than other time travel movies.
All in all, I found this movie enjoyable and I would definitely watch it again if I have the chance.