Following their comedy hit Reducing (1931), the two actresses moved on to Politics (1931), which followed the usual scenario of their comedies. In the small town of Lake City, music teacher Ivy Higgins (Polly Moran) and her husband Peter, the town barber, share a house with Hattie Burns (Marie Dressler) and her daughter Myrtle. Ivy, who detests the fact that the town has become a haven for Jim Curango's racketeers, is running for the office of mayor to unseat the current mayor, Tom Collins, who is in a partnership with the mobsters. When Myrtle's friend, Daisy Evans, is killed at the Little Club by Nifty, one of Curango's men, with a bullet intended for Benny Emerson, Myrtle's secret sweetheart, Hattie joins with Ivy in her resolve to close the town's speakeasies.
Once again, the public lined up to see the latest Dressler-Moran feature but many critics felt the formula was already wearing thin. Variety noted that "the very evidence of lack of real action by the two principal characters in the cast, Dressler and Moran, is a weakness Metro may not be able to afford if another movie is planned for the pair. It's taking a long chance with the earned drawing power of these two."
MGM ignored the advice and cast Dressler and Moran together again in Prosperity in 1932 but first Dressler would appear solo in Emma (1932) for which she received her second Oscar® nomination as Best Actress.
Director: Charles F. Riesner
Screenplay: Wells Root, Robert E. Hopkins, from a story by Zelda Sears and Malcom Stuart Boylan
Cinematography: Clyde DeVinna
Art Direction: Cedric Gibbons
Film Editing: William S. Gray
Cast: Marie Dressler (Hattie Burns), Polly Moran (Ivy Higgins), Rosco Ates (Peter Higgins), Karen Morley (Myrtle Burns), William Bakewell (Benny Emerson), John Miljan (Jim Curango), Joan Marsh (Daisy Evans).
BW-72m.
