The film easily, if not quite naturally, reflects its Depression-era realities. Life is stark. And there’s lots of class anger to go around. But Wellman and screenwriters Robert Lord and Wilson Mizner aren’t about to buy into any isms. The communist is depicted as a buffoon. Later, when he gets rich from an invention that automates operations at the laundry, and Tom gets rich with him, the communist turns fervent capitalist, declaring that money is all, now that he has a lot of it. Thus, the film avoids confronting seriously any arguments for change by ridiculing the character who had advocated it, painting him as shallow and easily separated from his professed ideals.
Er, no, it sounds like the film accurately reflects human nature.
But there I go, getting mad at a dead guy…
