Joe and Ethel Turp Call on the President (1939) User Reviews

Quaint and sentimental story about getting the President to right an injustice.

[liage · 7/10 · 19 May 2000]

I saw this movie only once -- as a boy. It was a long time ago, and I have often reflected on it, for I was immediately struck then by the way in which the movie, against the backdrop of the Oval Office and the weighty matters of State, portrays an ordinary man and wife. They are, of course, beset with their own everyday trials and tribulations and partake of the common household petulance married folk practice against each other every day -- even though in the White House. I didn't know it then, but these ordinary citizens in their ordinary garbs and demeanors contrast to the more formal and staid affairs of the Presidency was an instance of irony. I laughed then at these juxtapositions; the scenario was funny. The business that brings this couple to seek the aid of the President, however, was sad. Their neighborhood mail carrier had lost his job because he had presumed to withhold a registered letter from one of the residents on his route. The reason he withholds the letter involves issues of the heart. He cared for this resident, a woman he had once loved -- perhaps still does. The letter contained news about the woman's son, who was a constant source of grief for her. Knowing the news was bad, the mail carrier destroys the letter and loses his job. Joe and Ethel Turp then call on the President to set things right. I'd like to see this movie again and hope that some day it will come out on DVD or video tape. Ah, well . . .

This is what happens when Louis B. Mayer promotes Lewis Stone from judge to president.

[mark.waltz · 2/10 · 24 July 2018]

Maybe it's the cynical world we live in in 2018, but I found the idea of two ordinary Brooklyn mugs going to Washington DC and dropping in on the president without so much as a security issue to be completely absurd. It all deals with their desire to free an ordinary Postman Walter Brennan charged destroying US mail, and comparing it with what was going on over in Germany in 1939. Brennan is being bullied by a thug who happens to be the son of the woman he loves (Marsha Hunt), having years before stolen Brennan's mailbag. William Gargan and Ann Sothern are the Turps, pretty much on the outside of the story, having been young Brooklyn kids when Brennan was courting Hunt before she decided to marry someone else.

Told through flashbacks after a lengthy prologue where Gargan and Sothern try to find local justice then go to D.C. where with little effort they end up in the oval office. Well meaning but completely unrealistic, this situation wouldn't get the Turps in their city councilman's office let alone the president's. They bully D.C. cops and White House staff in their attempts to get in to see Stone, sitting down the entire time to represent FDR (his character has no name other than president) who treats them as if they didn't disturb his more important appointments. I can't believe this story came from the mind of Damon Runyeon let alone made it past the writers building at MGM in