Just a fair story with some notable actors

Lying and making all sorts of insincere promises...in other words, a typical election!

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Will Rogers in Steamboat Round the Bend (1935)

Wally Albright, Florence Desmond, Rochelle Hudson, Zasu Pitts, Cleora Robb, Glorea Robb, and Will Rogers in Mr. Skitch (1933)

Will Rogers, Kent Taylor, and Evelyn Venable in The County Chairman (1935)

Mickey Rooney, Berton Churchill, and Louise Dresser in The County Chairman (1935)

William V. Mong and Will Rogers in The County Chairman (1935)

Kent Taylor and Evelyn Venable in The County Chairman (1935)

Will Rogers in The County Chairman (1935)

Hal Mohr, Edward Peil Sr., John G. Blystone, John Webb Dillion, Franklyn Farnum, John Ince, Will Rogers, and Carl Stockdale in The County Chairman (1935)

Will Rogers and Evelyn Venable in The County Chairman (1935)

Will Rogers

Evelyn Venable

Kent Taylor

George Ade

Gladys Lehman

Sam Hellman

Based on George Ade&apos;s play which, in part, was based on an incident in a 1902 election in Wyoming, with women&apos;s-right-to-vote playing a large role. Here, Jim Hackler, local party-boss in a Wyoming county, has to decide to do what&apos;...

John G. Blystone

The County Chairman

&quot;The County Chairman&quot; is one of Will Rogers&apos; last films and it is very unusual because instead of playing the usual nice-guy, he is a cynic who is adept at playing dirty tricks in an election campaign.

The story begins with Jim Hackler (Rogers) heading a political party meeting and they are trying to pick a man to run for Prosecutor. After it appears neither leading candidate will get a majority, they pick a dark horse...an unknown who comes as a suprise to everyone. Young Ben Harvey is an honest man and agrees to run ONLY if it&apos;s a clean and honest campaign...and soon the campaign consists of Harvey lying and making all sorts of promises...all at the insistence of Hackler. But, in the process, Ben has become estranged from his fiancee, Lucy, as she&apos;s the daughter of Ben&apos;s opponent! What is the outcome? And, what is Hackler&apos;s motivation to wage such a dirty campaign? See the film and find out for yourself.

In real life, Will Rogers was largely apolitical and made it a point to make fun of both parties. But underneath it all, he also had a certain cynicism and contempt for politicking...which is why he plays such an odious character in this film. In other words, the film&apos;s intention is to expose the truth about all the untruths in politics...even small town politics like you see in this Wyoming county.

So is the film any good? Well, the bad of it is that like many of Rogers&apos; movies, it also features Stepin Fetchit...the most awful stereotype of the lazy black man...something acceptable back in the 1930s but which will horrify most viewers today. To make it worse, you can barely understand what Fetchit says...and the film really needed captions (the YouTube versions I found didn&apos;t). On the positive side, Rogers made acting seem so natural and simple...he really had a way with the camera. Additionally, the story is a nice cynical civics lesson. Overall, it&apos;s well worth seeing...warts and all.

"The County Chairman" is one of Will Rogers' last films and it is very unusual because instead of playing the usual nice-guy, he is a cynic who is adept at playing dirty tricks in an election campaign.

The story begins with Jim Hackler (Rogers) heading a political party meeting and they are trying to pick a man to run for Prosecutor. After it appears neither leading candidate will get a majority, they pick a dark horse...an unknown who comes as a suprise to everyone. Young Ben Harvey is an honest man and agrees to run ONLY if it's a clean and honest campaign...and soon the campaign consists of Harvey lying and making all sorts of promises...all at the insistence of Hackler. But, in the process, Ben has become estranged from his fiancee, Lucy, as she's the daughter of Ben's opponent! What is the outcome? And, what is Hackler's motivation to wage such a dirty campaign? See the film and find out for yourself.

In real life, Will Rogers was largely apolitical and made it a point to make fun of both parties. But underneath it all, he also had a certain cynicism and contempt for politicking...which is why he plays such an odious character in this film. In other words, the film's intention is to expose the truth about all the untruths in politics...even small town politics like you see in this Wyoming county.

So is the film any good? Well, the bad of it is that like many of Rogers' movies, it also features Stepin Fetchit...the most awful stereotype of the lazy black man...something acceptable back in the 1930s but which will horrify most viewers today. To make it worse, you can barely understand what Fetchit says...and the film really needed captions (the YouTube versions I found didn't). On the positive side, Rogers made acting seem so natural and simple...he really had a way with the camera. Additionally, the story is a nice cynical civics lesson. Overall, it's well worth seeing...warts and all.

Based on George Ade's play which, in part, was based on an incident in a 1902 election in Wyoming, with women's-right-to-vote playing a large role. Here, Jim Hackler, local party-boss in a Wyoming county, has to decide to do what's right and lose the election, or what's wrong and win it.

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