A presidential candidate is deemed to have a dull personality, thus a charismatic look-alike is hired as a front.A presidential candidate is deemed to have a dull personality, thus a charismatic look-alike is hired as a front.A presidential candidate is deemed to have a dull personality, thus a charismatic look-alike is hired as a front.
Hooper Atchley
- Announcer
- (uncredited)
June Gittelson
- Woman in Medicine Show
- (uncredited)
Ben Hall
- Man in Medicine Show Audience
- (uncredited)
Paul Hurst
- Sailor
- (uncredited)
Edward LeSaint
- Convention Chairman
- (uncredited)
Charles Middleton
- Abe Lincoln
- (uncredited)
Frank Mills
- Driver
- (uncredited)
Edmund Mortimer
- Guest
- (uncredited)
Alan Mowbray
- George Washington
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe portraits that provide a prologue for the movie and sing about the problems of the country during the Depression are of the same four presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt) that are on Mount Rushmore in South Dakota that was being carved at the time this movie was released.
- GoofsThe Universal Vault Series DVD defaults to 16:9 creating a squashed image. It can be manually adjusted to 4:3, however.
- Quotes
Prof. Aikenhead: Blair lacks political charm. Blair has no flair for savoir faire.
- SoundtracksPHANTOM PRESIDENT PRELUDE
Written by Richard Rodgers
Lyrics by Lorenz Hart
Sung and chanted by uncredited players
Featured review
A pair of identical strangers, I am sure this happens all the time...at least in movies!
The famous Broadway song and dance man, George M. Cohan, only made a couple films. So, seeing "The Phantom President" is one of the only ways you can see him acting.
George plays two different people in this story. Theodore K. Blair is a rich guy who's in line to possibly be the next President. However, he's not very good at public speaking. But, when his campaign folks find a very charismatic medicine show man who looks EXACTLY like Blair, they get Peeter Varney to impersonate Blair on the campaign trail. Naturally, they want to keep this sort of thing out of the papers and don't even tell Varney's buddy (Jimmy Durante) nor Blair's girlfriend (Claudette Colbert)...which leads to all sorts of mix-ups.
While Varney's help should be much appreciated, through the course of the film you start to see what sort of a skunk Blair is. In fact, instead of rewarding Varney for helping him become President, Blair plans on sending him off to a hellish reward near the North Pole! What's to become of this evil plan? See the film.
While the music seemed a bit corny to me, I did enjoy the script and the film ended on a marvelous note. It's surprising, then, that this movie was a huge money-loser back in the day. I can't see why except, perhaps, by the 1930s, Cohan was a bit of a has-been...a relic of the past who was popular about twenty years earlier. Regardless, it's well worth your time and quite clever.
George plays two different people in this story. Theodore K. Blair is a rich guy who's in line to possibly be the next President. However, he's not very good at public speaking. But, when his campaign folks find a very charismatic medicine show man who looks EXACTLY like Blair, they get Peeter Varney to impersonate Blair on the campaign trail. Naturally, they want to keep this sort of thing out of the papers and don't even tell Varney's buddy (Jimmy Durante) nor Blair's girlfriend (Claudette Colbert)...which leads to all sorts of mix-ups.
While Varney's help should be much appreciated, through the course of the film you start to see what sort of a skunk Blair is. In fact, instead of rewarding Varney for helping him become President, Blair plans on sending him off to a hellish reward near the North Pole! What's to become of this evil plan? See the film.
While the music seemed a bit corny to me, I did enjoy the script and the film ended on a marvelous note. It's surprising, then, that this movie was a huge money-loser back in the day. I can't see why except, perhaps, by the 1930s, Cohan was a bit of a has-been...a relic of the past who was popular about twenty years earlier. Regardless, it's well worth your time and quite clever.
helpful•30
- planktonrules
- Mar 17, 2018
Details
- Runtime1 hour 18 minutes
- Color
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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Top Gap
By what name was The Phantom President (1932) officially released in Canada in English?
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