It's not just any political film, however. Red Salute is a Golden Age Hollywood Red Baiting Romantic Screwball Comedy Road Film. This black-and-white film was directed by Sidney Lanfield (Ritz Brothers, Bob Hope, The Hound of the Baskervilles) and stars Barbara Stanwyck as Drue Van Allen, a rich, spoiled and rebellious general's daughter in love with Communist agitator Leonard Arner (Hardie Albright). It also stars Robert Young as Jeff, a rowdy, chauvinistic right-wing soldier who's such a red-blooded American that he doesn't even need a last name.
Drue's father General Van Allen (Purnell Pratt) sends her on a Mexican vacation against her will. She meets Jeff, sparks fly and wacky hijinks ensue. Jeff goes AWOL, steals a military vehicle, and crosses the border illegally with Drue. They bicker with romantic tension as they travel cross-country in a homemade trailer after kidnapping the owner Rooney (Cliff Edwards), an affable fellow who spends most of his screen time either singing or complaining about his wife. Meanwhile, Drue wants to return to Washington, DC to attend a lecture that Arner is delivering at a college. However, Arner is a Commie so Jeff is the hero and Leonard is the villain. I won't reveal which one Drue chooses, just in case you've never seen a screwball comedy before.
The movie is essentially a second-rate It Happened One Night with a silly plot and jingoistic politics. Drue is portrayed sympathetically but the film dismisses her opinions as flighty rebelliousness (in stark contrast to the portrayal of Barbara Streisand's leftist activist in The Way We Were, for example). Despite the movie's superficial patriotism, it doesn't show much respect for important American values like freedom of speech. However, the film is not completely devoid of interest. Some of the humor is intentionally amusing and the cast is generally good. Stanwyck brings her sexy, sarcastic charm and big time movie star charisma, even though this movie was actually an independent production by Edward Small's Reliance Pictures that was released by United Artists. Also, the movie is only 78 minutes, which automatically makes it twice as good as Biutiful (no, I'm never going to stop ragging on that film).
By the way, there were protests against Red Salute because of its political message and several protesters were jailed for unlawful assembly. Many of the protesters were students who were members of the Communist Party-led National Student League and the Student League for Industrial Democracy. I'm not sure if this proves that the film's jingoism was considered heavy handed even for its time, that real-life student activists were treated as disrespectfully as their film counterparts, or that Communists were as humorless as portrayed in the movie.