Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President
Cast & Crew
Robert B. Sinclair
Ann Sothern
Lewis Stone
Walter Brennan
William Gargan
Marsha Hunt
Film Details
Technical Specs
Synopsis
When Jim Martin, Brooklyn's favorite postman, is arrested for tearing up a registered letter addressed to the widow Kitty Crusper, Joe and Ethel Turp take the matter up with the duly constituted authorities. However, when parish priest Bishop Bannon and Democratic Club president Pat Donegan claim they can do nothing because it is a federal matter, the Turps decide to call on the President. Taking the day off to drive to Washington, the Turps go to the White House, where the President, curious to know what the average person is thinking, agrees to see them. Joe and Ethel then tell him the story of their beloved postman, Jim, who, years earlier, fell in love with Kitty O'Brien: Jim is about to ask Kitty to marry him when he learns that she is already engaged to Henry Crusper. Devastated, Jim leaves to ride the railroad mail cars for twelve years until he learns that Henry has died, leaving Kitty alone to rear their young son Johnny. To help Kitty, Jim quits his railroad job and returns to his old mail route in Brooklyn. Even Jim's kindly influence is unable to help Johnny, the bad seed. The night that Kitty and Jim plan to announce their engagement, Johnny is involved in an armed holdup and blackmails Jim for money to leave town. After Johnny's departure, Kitty becomes ill, prompting Jim to forge letters to her, signed by Johnny. Every week for two years, Kitty receives a letter from her son until Jim opens the fateful registered letter from San Quentin, notifying her that Johnny died during an attempted escape. Knowing that the news will kill the frail Kitty, Jim destroys the letter and is arrested by the police for his deed. Back at the White House, the President takes pity on Jim, and when the Turps return home to Brooklyn, they discover that the mailman has been pardoned.
Director
Robert B. Sinclair
Cast
Ann Sothern
Lewis Stone
Walter Brennan
William Gargan
Marsha Hunt
Tom Neal
James Bush
Don Costello
Muriel Hutchison
Jack Norton
Aldrich Bowker
Frederick Burton
Al Shean
Robert E. O'connor
Cliff Clark
Russell Hicks
Paul Everton
Charles Trowbridge
Louis Jean Heydt
Ann Teeman
Mary Gordon
Tommy Baker
Patsy Allen
Tommy Bupp
Jack Mulhall
Lee Phelps
James Flavin
Stanley Andrews
Boyd Gilbert
Larry Harris
Tim Davis
Bud Mcallister
David Holt
Forbes Murray
E. Alyn Warren
Dixie Dean
Hal K. Dawson
George Rosener
Frank O'connor
Betty Farrington
Johnny Walsh
Roger Mcgee
Hugh Sheridan
Ben Taggart
Lee Prather
Edward J. Lesaint
Claire Mcdowell
Margaret Bert
Jessie Arnold
Crew
Melville Baker
Jack Dawn
Charles Falerno
Cedric Gibbons
Charles Hunt
Gilbert Kurland
Gene Ruggiero
Al Scheving
Gabriel Scognamillo
Edgar Selwyn
Douglas Shearer
Leonard Smith
David Snell
Edward Ward
Edwin B. Willis
Film Details
Technical Specs
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
The working title of this picture was A Call on the President. "The Turps" were regular characters in Damon Runyon's newspaper feature entitled The Brighter Side.
