By Frank Miller
The Washington Masquerade
Brief Synopsis
A widowed U.S. Senator finds himself embroiled in scandal when he remarries.
Cast & Crew
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Charles Brabin
Director
Lionel Barrymore
Jeff[erson] Keane
Karen Morley
Consuela Fairbanks [Keane]
Diane Sinclair
Ruth Keane
Nils Asther
[Henri] Brenner
Reginald Barlow
Senator [Fred] Withers
Film Details
Also Known As
Public Life, The Washington Show, Washington Whirlpool
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jul
9,
1932
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play La Griffe by Henry Bernstein (Paris, 18 Apr 1906) and The Claw , adapted by Edward Delaney Dunn and Louis Wolheim (New York, 17 Oct 1921).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 27m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
9 reels
Synopsis
Following his successful attempt to petition the governor for a pardon for a boy wrongly convicted of murder, attorney Jefferson Keane is welcomed home as a hero. Though Jeff doesn't care much for politics, he accepts the invitation of fellow Bar Association members to run for the United States Senate against the bombastic incumbent, Senator Bitler. Jeff wins the election, incurring the ire of Bitler and his cohorts, and becomes the butt of Washington newspapers' jokes about "the new Lincoln." The jokes soon subside, when Jeff makes an impassioned speech before a special session of Congress against the control by big business of the nation's resources. Though opponents call his speech "Communistic," visitors in the gallery cheer Jeff, and the press compliments his "plain words by a plain man." Now a celebrity, Jeff is invited to the White House, where he is approached by Consuela Fairbanks, a Washington hostess who had earlier snubbed him. Lying that she heard his speech from the gallery, Consuela begins to pursue Jeff, inviting him to parties and pretending to be attracted to him. Jeff, who has been a widower for many years, admires the attentions of a beautiful young woman and dismisses his daughter Ruth's reservations about Consuela's motives. Soon Consuela charms and seduces Jeff into a marriage that she hopes will help her financially. Not long after their marriage, Consuela gives a dinner party which Henri Brenner, her former lover, attends. She rejects Henri's advances at first, but some time later they resume their affair. Meanwhile, after confessing to Jeff that she is terribly in debt, Consuela urges him to resign from the Senate and accept a lucrative position with the law firm of Alan Hinsdale, a businessman whom Jeff has always mistrusted. At first Jeff wants to believe that Consuela's high opinion of Hinsdale is justified, but he gradually realizes that Hinsdale is using him to front for illegal activities. When Jeff comes home early one day and interrupts Consuela and Henri in a compromising position, he realizes that Ruth had been right all along. After Consuela leaves him, Jeff goes to Ruth, who urges him to fight a new Senate investigation of his relationship to Hinsdale and his secret partner, former Senator Bitler. At the Senate hearings, old friends from home stand by Jeff, as does Ruth, but the strain of testifying weakens his heart. After an impassioned plea in which a faltering Jeff says that he was guilty of bribery, but that Hinsdale has betrayed the people of the United States, Hinsdale's cause is turned over to the Attorney General for prosecution. The strain of the speech causes Jeff's heart to give out, though, and he collapses. After Jeff dies, his friend Stapleton tells Ruth, "he loved his country well enough to die for it."
Director
Charles Brabin
Director
Cast
Lionel Barrymore
Jeff[erson] Keane
Karen Morley
Consuela Fairbanks [Keane]
Diane Sinclair
Ruth Keane
Nils Asther
[Henri] Brenner
Reginald Barlow
Senator [Fred] Withers
William Collier Sr.
[Pete] Babcock
William Morris
Senator Hodge
Rafaela Ottiano
Mona [Farrell]
C. Henry Gordon
[Alan] Hinsdale
Burton Churchill
Senator Bitler
Henry Kolker
Stapleton
Hattie Mcdaniel
Maid
Charles Coleman
Butler
Crew
Film Details
Also Known As
Public Life, The Washington Show, Washington Whirlpool
Genre
Drama
Release Date
Jul
9,
1932
Premiere Information
not available
Production Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corp.
Distribution Company
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Distributing Corp.
Country
United States
Screenplay Information
Based on the play La Griffe by Henry Bernstein (Paris, 18 Apr 1906) and The Claw , adapted by Edward Delaney Dunn and Louis Wolheim (New York, 17 Oct 1921).
Technical Specs
Duration
1h 27m
Sound
Mono (Western Electric Sound System)
Color
Black and White
Theatrical Aspect Ratio
1.37 : 1
Film Length
9 reels
Articles
Washington Masquerade
Crusading small town attorney Lionel Barrymore takes on his state's political machine and wins a Senate seat. But once he's escaped local corruption can he survive the even bigger sharks in national politics? In lesser hands, this could have been a turgid morality play, but with Barrymore in the lead it becomes a fascinating and still timely character study. His Jeff Keane, a populist candidate with high ideals, is a predecessor of James Stewart in Frank Capra's classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). But since this is a pre-Code film, the action gets a little steamier, with society hostess Karen Morley laying on the heat to get Barrymore into bed and then to the altar. Before long sex has corrupted this 20th century Lincoln while his wife cavorts with an ex-lover (Nils Asther). Ironically, the film's leads were playing their political opposites. Barrymore was a lifelong Republican opposed to Roosevelt and the New Deal, while Morley's liberal activism cut short her time at MGM and eventually led to her being blacklisted. The film was adapted from a French play (La Griffe) Barrymore had starred in on Broadway to great acclaim. The screen version may not have been as well received, but it still gave the character star, fresh off his scene-stealing turn as Kringelien in Grand Hotel (1932), some powerful scenes. Watch closely for Hattie McDaniel as a maid in only her third film.
By Frank Miller
By Frank Miller
Washington Masquerade
Crusading small town attorney Lionel Barrymore takes on his state's political machine and wins a Senate seat. But once he's escaped local corruption can he survive the even bigger sharks in national politics? In lesser hands, this could have been a turgid morality play, but with Barrymore in the lead it becomes a fascinating and still timely character study. His Jeff Keane, a populist candidate with high ideals, is a predecessor of James Stewart in Frank Capra's classic Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). But since this is a pre-Code film, the action gets a little steamier, with society hostess Karen Morley laying on the heat to get Barrymore into bed and then to the altar. Before long sex has corrupted this 20th century Lincoln while his wife cavorts with an ex-lover (Nils Asther). Ironically, the film's leads were playing their political opposites. Barrymore was a lifelong Republican opposed to Roosevelt and the New Deal, while Morley's liberal activism cut short her time at MGM and eventually led to her being blacklisted. The film was adapted from a French play (La Griffe) Barrymore had starred in on Broadway to great acclaim. The screen version may not have been as well received, but it still gave the character star, fresh off his scene-stealing turn as Kringelien in Grand Hotel (1932), some powerful scenes. Watch closely for Hattie McDaniel as a maid in only her third film.
By Frank Miller
Quotes
Trivia
Notes
Pre-production titles of the film included Public Life, and Washington Whirlpool. Motion Picture Herald and Hollywood Reporter reviewed the film respectively under the titles Washington Show and The Washington Show. Motion Picture Herald called The Washington Masquerade the first in a cycle of new political films. Lionel Barrymore played the lead in the Broadway production of The Claw, which reviews note was one of his most successful plays. The New York Times review also mentions that in the play, the Barrymore character was French and a more tragic figure than the film's "vigorous American, flavored with humor and not a little gusto."
