Evelyn Venable 3/5

Note: This week we are looking over some movies with Evelyn Venable. After her really hot period in 1934 and 1935, dimwit producers got it in their minds she wasn’t star material so the remainder of her career was in B-movies whose mere titles are turn-offs (North to Nome, Female Fugitive). She retired to raise a family and later became a Latinist at UCLA.

The County Chairman
1935 / 1:18
Tagline: “He Knew Every Family Skeleton by its First Name”
[internet archive]

In the 1930s, Hollywood occasionally indulged in nostalgia for the Gay Nineties and rural life, evoking a simpler time before urbanization, industrialization, and economic expansion reshaped American society. This light comedy, set in rural Wyoming, captures that sentiment. It’s a world where people laugh at automobiles and their drivers - much like how folks chuckled at cell phones and their early adopters in the 1990s (see Twister, 1994).

Will Rogers stars as Jim Hackler, a seasoned lawyer and political operator. His young law partner, Ben Harvey (Kent Taylor), is running for county district attorney. Hackler touts Harvey’s qualifications with dry wit: he’s never been jailed, he’s an orphan, and he once won an oratory contest.

The film portrays old-fashioned campaigning as a tedious grind. Harvey trudges through the countryside, kissing grubby children and courting low-information voters. Hackler, meanwhile, schmoozes ornery yokels who refuse to commit either way. The campaign leans into the charm and flirtation of politics - Harvey even woos a quirky young woman to win her influential father’s vote. Hackler mocks political clichés, advising Harvey to “just point with pride and view with alarm.” When their opponent starts pontificating, Rogers mutters, “Same old sheep dip.” And if Harvey loses? Hackler’s advice: “Call fraud.”

The rival candidate, Elias Rigby (Berton Churchill), is a classic crooked politician. Complicating matters, Harvey is romantically involved with Rigby’s daughter, Lucy (Evelyn Venable). Harvey tries to keep the campaign civil, but when Rigby publicly attacks Hackler, Harvey retaliates by airing rumors that Rigby swindled a disabled man out of a railroad settlement. Lucy, disillusioned, breaks things off and turns to a smug newspaper editor - the guy with the car.

Venable, from a family of educators, convincingly plays a primary school teacher. She exudes warmth, intelligence, and integrity. In one standout scene, Lucy struggles to reconcile Hackler’s manipulative use of truth with her idealism. Hackler subtly accuses her of hypocrisy for teaching “to err is human, to forgive divine” in the penmanship lesson yet refusing to forgive Harvey. With gentle condescension of the old and treacherous, Hackler suggests that wealthy men with automobiles are more appealing than poor country lawyers, using psychological sleight of hand to sway her.

Among the schoolchildren is Mickey Rooney, whose energetic presence has long divided audiences. At 15, he still convincingly plays a grade-schooler, though his over-the-top personality and small stature raise questions about possible hormonal or chromosomal issues.

Comic relief also comes from Sassafras, played by - steel yourself, dear movie-goer - Stepin Fetchit. The film’s climax hinges on his inability to count votes - a gag rooted in outdated humor about cognitive disabilities. One joke lands: when Rogers wakes him from a nap near a sheep farm, Sassafras says, “I started counting them sheep being dipped and done dozed off.” Still, Fetchit’s stereotyped portrayal - shuffling gait, mumbling speech - has aged poorly. Listening via Bluetooth, I found his monologues are more intelligible, but not necessarily more enjoyable.

Despite its political setting, the film doesn’t feel like satire. It doesn’t aim to expose the absurdities of campaigning or critique democratic processes in our free and happy country. Instead, it presents political rivalry as a natural part of life. For example, in 2024, many lamented how politics divides families, as if that were new. But in this film, such divisions are simply accepted. The tone is grounded, not exaggerated.

The writers maintain a subtle undercurrent of Division Street America. Older voters dismiss young Harvey as a “squirt.” Rural folks distrust town merchants. Sheep farmers and cattlemen openly dislike each other. Hackler and Rigby embody long-standing small-town feuds. Hackler quips, “He's been talking like that 20 years and he hasn't said anything yet.” Their mutual hatred is frank and enduring.

Watching Rogers again after many years - my last memory being the excellent State Fair - I was struck by his natural style and distinctive voice. His portrayal is unmistakably rural, but not gruff like Ward Bond, smarmy like Buddy Ebsen, or volatile like Walter Brennan. This was the second film Rogers and Venable made together. On the set of David Harum, Venable met her future husband, Hal Mohr, an Oscar-winning cinematographer known for A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935) and The Phantom of the Opera (1943). They married, had two daughters, and remained together until his death in 1974..