Here's one way to celebrate the anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birthday on February 6th, 1911--pop a DVD of Storm Warning (1951) into your new high-tech HDTV flat-screen system. We caught it last night from Netflix, where it is listed on their Doris Day page. I asked myself after watching, why hadn't I heard more about this film before? Someone I know stumbled upon it because it is listed as a Doris Day film, featured on her website. But the real stars are Ginger Rogers (in a part written for Lauren Bacall) and Ronald Reagan (in a role that seems to be written for Humphrey Bogart), playing a visiting dress model and a local district attorney who confront the Ku Klux Klan in a small town. Steve Cochran plays a Klansman who looks like a cross between Marlon Brando and Elvis Presley. He's a wife-beater and attempted rapist, who comes up against Ronald Reagan's crusade for justice. Guess who wins? It's an antidote to D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation.It's well written, credit Blackboard Jungle screenwriter Richard Brooks who is listed as co-author; well-acted, and well-directed. Ronald Reagan plays, well, Ronald Reagan--standing up to the mob, pursuing justice despite boos and catcalls, and coming to the rescue in the last scene. No wonder he was elected President. No wonder he won the Cold War.
You can buy the DVD from Amazon as part of a boxed set, here:Happy Birthday, Mr. President!
