Libramedi Intense, gripping, stylish and poignant

Helloturia I have absolutely never seen anything like this movie before. You have to see this movie.

Plustown A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

jbsaunders-1 This film is only of historical interest but it does contain one valuable element. In one scene, GEORGE M COHAN, portraying a medicine-show huckster, actually does a soft shoe dance which is brief, but delightful. Cohan was a renowned dancer on stage and in vaudeville. He learned his dancing on the road, from the best vaudeville performers, and he developed a very distinctive dancing style. This film is possibly the only film image we have of Cohan dancing. (There are plenty of records of his singing, which was only passable.) What's interesting about the dance routine is, once you've seen it, you realize what a great job Jimmy Cagney did in YANKEE DOODLE DANDY. Cagney imitates the George M Cohan style perfectly. See this film and YANKEE DOODLE DANDY and compare!

John Esche Light weight but winning political satire even in its day, the big news in this well reviewed Rodgers and Hart not-quite-musical (there are just four main musical sequences - the best known song is "Give Her A Kiss") was George M. Cohan's first appearance in a talkie - he would make but one more in 1934 (GAMBLING), three years before Cohan returned to Broadway with Rodgers & Hart in their 1937 hit I'D RATHER BE RIGHT, playing a real president - FDR.Playing the dual role here of a candidate and his more likable double, Cohan more than justified the hype, and ably assisted by the always wonderful Claudette Colbert as the candidate's girlfriend (shades of THE PRISONER OF ZENDA) and Jimmy Durante who almost steals the film as the nice Cohan's manager (catch Durante in MGM's 1934 STUDENT TOUR playing a crew coach named Merman in an in joke!), Cohan makes this a must-see in any year. In an election year like this one, we can only wish the finale were reality rather than a gentle satire of pandering to public perceptions.The pleasant surprises don't stop with the leads however. Watch the singing portraits of past presidents in the opening for Alan Mowbray as George Washington and later, Sidney (Charlie Chan) Toler's appearance as a political boss - all smiles but as rooted in what "works" as any current campaign manager - is a joy to behold.If you've seen Jimmy Cagney dancing to an Oscar as Cohan in the World War II YANKEE DOODLE DANDY (a decade after this effort), take a look at Cohan doing the original steps (in black-face, yet in an "on stage" number) and you'll wonder if Cagney didn't study this film specifically. In the great legacy of film musicals, THE PHANTOM PRESIDENT is probably little more than a footnote, but it's a very enjoyable, important one.

metaphor-2 If you saw Cagney in Yankee Doodle Dandy, you've got the wrong idea. George M. Cohan was the smoothest song-and dance-man of them all, not the edgy fireball that Cagney portrayed. (No knock to Cagney; but he couldn't repress his natural energies) Watching Cohan, the original, is a delightful experience.The plot is a fairly funny political satire. A politician with just what it takes to be president, but none of the "good American sex appeal" needed to get elected, finds an exact double: a medicine show charlatan. The medicine show man is hired to pinch hit for campaign purposes. His sidekick (Durante) comes along for the ride. They turn the medicine show into the convention. Durante does one of his famous "I won't talk on the radio" routines. It's, overall, light fare, but thoroughly enjoyable.This film used to be shown on New York City local TV every four years on Election Night. Now, it seems to be virtually impossible to see. Too bad Universal (which owns the old Paramount films) doesn't dig it out of the vault and put it on Video.

rr19 This is the movie that DAVE was based on. Cohan is a song & dance man who is a double for the President - brought in to run for a second term, as the real President has no charisma. Durante is his sidekick.This film used to be shown a lot on TV, but has been AWOL the last 10 years as far as I can determine.Cohan's only film.