From the Internet Archive -
"This drama illustrates the contribution of free enterprise, technology, and Westinghouse products to the American way of life. The Middleton Family at the New York World's Fair pits an anti-capitalist bohemian artist boyfriend against an all-American electrical engineer who believes in improving society by working through corporations. The Middletons experience Westinghouse's technological marvels at the Fair and win back their daughter from her leftist boyfriend.
Memorable moments: the dishwashing contest between Mrs. Modern and Mrs. Drudge; Electro, the smoking robot; and the Westinghouse time capsule."
In 1939 we were nearing the end of the Great Depression, things were looking pretty bleak in Europe with Hitler and the Nazi's on the rise - invading Czechoslovakia and Poland, and attacking Finland. It's a bit troubling that the bad boyfriend is a leftist/Marxist/artist rather than a Nazi or a fascist considering the events that were unfolding in Europe.
Corporations then, as now, were not in the business of ensuring freedom, democracy or human rights - so the threat to a capitalist consumer economy is not a fascist but those pesky Marxist's spouting off about class consciousness and the exploitation of workers.
FDR talked about the need to keep an eye out for fascism in a speech in 1942 promoting the strengthening of anti-trust laws -
"The first truth is that the liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate the growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power."
The movie literally and figuratively is not black and white. It has some points about what technology brings us in the way of freedom from drudgery, and how bright and shiny the future was looking, with all the swell electrical devices Westinghouse was developing. There's a good dig at serious intellectuals when the daughter tells her radical boyfriend that her dad told him he liked Karl Marx because he thought they were talking about one of Harpo and Groucho's brothers. The boyfriend tells her he doesn't know who the Marx Brothers are. I'm always a little worried about people without a sense of humor since I think it may be easier for them to fall into being True Believers.
I don't think Westinghouse had designs to take over the government in 1939 or was particularly evil. The same is true of corporations today - they aren't inherently evil but they are not intended to be watchdogs of freedom, human rights or democratic ideals. We balance the power of corporate capitalism with labor unions, a free press and freely elected government officials who are charged with looking out for the interests of all people and not just the powerful moneyed elite. It's all about balance I suppose...
It's an interesting piece of history in any event and the robot demonstration at 33:54 is a classic. "Electro" says he has a brain made of "48 electrical relays" which might explain why he's not intelligent enough to object to smoking a cigarette while the crowd laughs at him. Talk about exploitation.
