Let's be realistic.

A lot of fun.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

Director Charles Reisner's battle of the sex's comedy "Politics" concerns a 52-year old woman's mayoral campaign in her hometown after she exposes the current candidate's corruption. Although Zelda Sears and Malcolm Stuart Boylan penned the screenplay based on Wells Root's adaptation, with Robert E. Hopkins providing the dialogue, the basis of this comedy is the famous Greek play Lysistrata about women who denied their husbands sex unless they outlawed warfare. At one point during her campaign, single-mother Hattie Burns (Marie Dressler of "Mim and Bill") advises her followers to stop doing anything for their husbands. Mind you, nothing about this early MGM comedy is subversive, though the source of all the trouble is a shooting in a speakeasy where the an innocent girl dies from a gunshot wound.After this initial burst of gangland violence, Reisner focuses on matronly Hattie Burns. She defies Mayor Tom Collins (Tom McGuire of "Steamboat Bill, Jr.") at a ladies campaign rally when he refuses to round up all the criminals who own the nightclubs and put them behind bars. The moment that she does this, Hattie wins the support of all the women. Meantime, what Hattie doesn't know could derail her campaign. As it turns out, Hattie's well-meaning daughter, Myrtle (Karen Morley of "Scarface"), has been secretly dating a guy, Benny Emerson (William Bakewell of "Gone with the Wind"), but her mother doesn't know anything about their romance. Benny and Myrtle are sitting quietly in the Lake City Park one evening when a beat patrolman spots them, and they discreetly leave before he can run them off the premises. As they are leaving, Benny and Myrtle encounter one of Myrtle's friends, Daisy Evans (Joan Davis of "Anna Karenina"), and she wants to accompany them on her way home. Benny has to drop in over at a speakeasy run by notorious gangster Jim Curango (John Miljan of "Apache Warrior"), who is Tom Collins' biggest supporter. Daisy tags along with Benny and Myrtle into Little Club. Curango has given orders to one of henchmen, Nifty Morgan (Kane Richmond of "Traffic in Crime"), to gun Benny down. Unfortunately, Daisy gets in the way of the bullet meant for Benny, and Nifty's second slug wounds Benny. Myrtle and Benny escape, and Myrtle decides to stash her boyfriend in the attic of her mother's boarding house without informing her mother of his presence. Curango orders Nifty to turn himself over to the police and tell them that he saw Benny shoot Daisy. The men of Lake City get fed up with Hattie's mayoral campaign because the ladies are more involved with Hattie than their husbands. Initially, the husbands ruin Hattie's first campaign rally after Hattie's campaign chairperson Ivy Higgins (Polly Moran of "Adam's Rib") bows to the wishes of her stuttering husband Peter (Roscoe Ates of "Freaks") convinces Ivy to quit the rally. The other wives rejoin their husbands and leave, too. Nevertheless, things turn out swell for Hattie in the long run. This 73 minute movie doesn't squander a second.

Hard to believe that this dowdy old woman was one of the biggest box office draws in movies during those Depression Days. But ex- vaudevillian Marie Dressler was a very funny woman, especially when aided and abetted by Polly Moran as she is in Politics.Dressler is a widow with daughter Karen Morley and her neighbor is Polly Moran and her husband Roscoe Ates. When a gangland shooting at a local speakeasy results in the death of a young woman hit with a stray bullet, Dressler goes on the warpath. It's good to remember that the 19th Amendment giving woman the right to vote was only 11 years old at the time and women were just starting to flex some political muscle.Marie declares herself a candidate for mayor to replace pompous old windbag Tom McGuire. And the women get behind her candidacy and start a Lysistrata like effort to put her over.The subplot here is that Karen Morley is in love with William Bakewell who was fingered falsely for the shooting. Bakewell was also slightly wounded and Morley has him stashed in her house attic to heal. I think I can safely say that that situation is also cleared up nicely and all is right with Dressler's corner of the world.Politics is a wonderful satire on same and I think it could easily be remade today. Just think of the funny women of today as to who could replace Marie Dressler and Polly Moran.

There was no one like Marie Dressler. She could make you laugh, cry and do just about everything. What a range in acting ability this woman had. Had she lived longer, she would have really conquered the heights.She is just wonderful in "Politics," where as a plain, ordinary woman, circumstances become such that she runs for mayor, thus challenging the idea of a woman as an elected official, and trying to fight the mob in Chicago of the 1930s.The beginning of the film is full comedy and Miss Dressler is ably supported in that regard by Polly Moran and Roscoe Ates, both of whom provide comedy relief. The film makes a sudden turn to drama when the innocent Daisy takes a bullet meant for another young hood, who is the boyfriend of Dressler's daughter, nicely played by Karen Morley.Yes, Happy Days are Here Again is played in this movie, and that was even before FDR's successful run in 1932.

Women were still strongly represented in the guild of screen writers in the early thirties, and their influence shows in this proto-feminist comedy drama about a matron (Marie Dressler) who decides to clean up city hall by running for office in an effort to dispatch the corrupt incumbent (Tom McGuire). She coordinates her campaign with a housewives strike and snubs the local mafioso (John Miljan), who arrives at her home with a big bouquet of flowers. Though the film is mildly pro-Prohibition, its politics are clearly in the progressive LaFollette tradition, and modern day viewers will find it in turns refreshing and depressing. Some things never change! In addition to its enlightened screenplay, the film also looks terrific and was beautifully lensed by Clyde De Vinna, whose next film would be MGM's first swipe at Tarzan the Ape Man. Strongly recommended for all.