Letterboxd
What an odd duck.
It is sort of an argument for a strong man authoritarianism form of government. I was a little chilled about how prescient it was about the next great war (ok, there were no "death rays" or whatever, and chemical warfare was much less prevalent, and the airplane bomber did not render the battleship obsolete, but still). You sometimes forget how much people worried about the next big war after the first one.
It was also kind of wild to see a prohibition (and pre-code) film. I thought the idea of a "alcohol dispensary" was kinda wild, but it turns out those actually existed! Evidently some states allowed the sale of alcohol (for medicinal purposes). So points to this movie for motivating me into learning about my countries history.
Anyway, I didn't like the premise of a "spirit" taking over the president. I didn't like some of the proposed solutions. I didn't like the strong man arguments. And it wasn't a particularly captivating film.
However, it did give me some insight to some of the mindset that people had after the greatest war the world had every known. And I think that is worth something.