Apples for patriots

Rating: 10/10 (25 May 2005)

Ditto to all the positive comments, but in these days of Homeland Security II (how many people know that "PATRIOT" Act is an acronym?), I must call special attention to the very end of the movie, after the leaders have led the citizens of Fredonia in the satirical call-and-response that has the common crowd following the jackass-kicks of their president. As Margaret Dumont begins to sing the national anthem after the country's entirely accidental, the Marxes pelt her with apples, a fitting fate for any knee-jerk patriot. This was one of the more extreme expressions of the American stage and screen that saw the Gershwins taking the United States into war against Switzerland over cheese in "Strike up the Band" and setting the Vice President up for execution in "Of Thee I Sing." It's a wonder that the FBI didn't seize the film during World War II as they did copies of the Almanac Singers' "Songs for John Doe." (Recall that Abraham Lincoln had Septimus Winner, composer or "Listen to the Mockingbird" and "Ten Little Indians" jailed as a subversive under his suspension of habeas corpus for writing a song criticizing the firing of Gen. George McClellan, who was popular enough to pose a threat to Lincoln in the 1864 election.) Let's hope that the current administration never notices that this was one of the first movies to make the National Film Registry.