MovieChat Forums > Wild Boys of the Road (1933) Discussion > NRA in closing credits?

NRA in closing credits?

posted 19 years ago by Plumpien
23 replies | jump to latest

I know this will be difficult to answer -- the movie does not seem to be available on DVD or VHS, and I know of TV stations' bad habit to cut the credits. However, I give it a try.

In the closing credits, shortly before the end, there is a shield/seal/sign (sorry, not sure what the appropriate term is) and the letters 'NRA' to be seen.

The only 'NRA' I could think of right away is the National Rifle Assoc. Now, I'm not that familiar with this group's shield/seal/sign, so I went online to check their shield/seal/sign. It seems to be the same.

My question: does anybody have any clue why they could've been involved in the making of this film? Or if I'm totally wrong and it's a different kind of association?

Thank you very much in advance.

Just a curious German, trying to understand things. :-)

[–] rpniew 19 years ago

NRA is the National Registry Association; essentially a form of copyright.

[–] jbacks3 12 years ago

What? It's the symbol for FDR's National Recovery Administration!

[–] maxman-5 8 years ago

What? It's the symbol for FDR's National Recovery Administration!

Correct!

[–] ccheski 19 years ago

Actually, NRA stood for the National Recovery Administration. It was part of President Franklin Roosevelt's plan for pulling the U.S. out of the Great Depression in the early 1930s. The Warner Brothers were great supporters of Roosevelt and also supported the NRA.

The NRA logo was an eagle with a machine cog in one claw and lightning bolts in the other.

The legislation that created the NRA was found unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1935.

There's an article on Wikipedia that seems pretty comprehensive: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Recovery_Act. I'm not sure if there are major errors to be found here.

[–] rpniew 19 years ago

Open mouth...insert foot. Thanks for setting me straight.

[–] Chesterfield_Invincible 16 years ago

Let's not forget that opponents of the NRA said that the letters stood for "No Recovery Allowed"!

[–] sherylshannon 16 years ago

"NRA" was on a big wooden seal behind and over the judge's bench when the kids were being sent before the court.

[–] uhriaheap69 16 years ago

If they would have waited long enough the economy would have fixed its self, no need for government intervention.

[–] Flickers-4 16 years ago

But then we wouldn't have had Hoover Dam and Orson Welles.

[–] Local Hero 16 years ago

Jesus Christ. Talk about learning nothing from history!

[–] uhriaheap69 15 years ago

Calm down Local Hero, the comment I posted above was complete sarcasm !
Herbert Hoover can take credit for saying that.

[–] Local Hero 15 years ago

Phew! Please forgive me! In a sane world, I would have assumed that you weren't being serious, but I just got finished reading the posts of two others in another thread in this same message board that WERE claiming that government should have refrained from interfering in the Depression, and they seem to think this film was conveying that idea!

[–] jbacks3 11 years ago

Ww2 ended the Great Depression. Looking back on it, is that something you could've predicted in 1933? The Great Depression had it's roots in near non-existent trading rules governing margin trades and the crash was exacerbated 100 fold by the Smoot-Hartley Tariff Act (passed by a republican congress) which sent shock waves across the globe.
You should also remember that the depression was still with us until Pearl Harbor... Things had gradually improved after a terrible 1937 downturn, but it took The cataclysmic event of WW2 to end it.

[–] jbacks3 11 years ago

Ww2 ended the Great Depression. Looking back on it, is that something you could've predicted in 1933? The Great Depression had it's roots in near non-existent trading rules governing margin trades and the crash was exacerbated 100 fold by the Smoot- Hawley tariff Act (passed by a republican congress) which sent shock waves across the globe.
You should also remember that the depression was still with us until Pearl Harbor... Things had gradually improved after a terrible 1937 downturn, but it took The cataclysmic event of WW2 to end it.

[–] Flickers-4 16 years ago

The version I saw this morning on TCM, as the camera tilted upward, it started to show the NRA logo behind the judges chair but cut away before you could fully see it.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Diosprometheus 16 years ago

The DVD is currently available in the latest Forgotten Hollywood collection. The NRA in the movie has nothing to do with the National Rifle Association. It is really too bad that you did not learn about this in school. The NRA in at the end of the movie stands for the National Recovery Administration created in 1933. It was one of FDR's New Deal programs. It was Warner Studio way of saying that they supported the New Deal. (By the way, the director William Wellman did not like this ending and had filmed another one.)

The NRA's purpose was basically to control the economic output of the country with codes of "fair competition, unfair competition, setting up a system of wage controls, and price controls. In 1935, the Supreme Court declared the NRA unconstitutional. The idea for the NRA came out of experiences controlling the economy during World War 1. The idea behind was that the economic activities of the nation could be planned. Not so ironically, six months after the NRA went into effect, the national industrial production dropped 25%, and the cost of business increased 40%.

[–] iwals 15 years ago

I thought the judge's speech was a very blatant commercial for FDR's "New Deal" programs, including the NRA. Not that I didn't like the scene overall, I just thought that last part was a little too much propaganda. Good movie. I think it should be seen by more people to get a feeling of what it was like in that depression era.

Nobody gets to be a cowboy forever.

[–] nellybly-3 15 years ago

The judge even looked and sounded like FDR! About as subtle as a sledge hammer.

[–] tarmcgator 15 years ago

Darryl F. Zanuck was production head at Warner Brothers when "Wild Boys" was made. He later went on to head Twentieth Century-Fox, where in 1939-40 he closely supervised the production of "The Grapes of Wrath." That film features the most blatant "non-FDR" FDR impersonator in any movie of the depression era -- Grant Mitchell's "Caretaker" at the USDA migrant camp. Hardly inappropriate, though.

[–] Ethereal-Cloud 14 years ago

I'm glad that the great patrons of IMDB cleared this up. I was wondering why there was an NRA plaque behind the judges head in the courtroom. While the National Rifle Association is a great organization, it seemed odd that a plaque would be in a courtroom instead of 'In God We Trust' or the 'Scales of Justice'

National Recovery Act, I never would have guessed that one.

[–] g_dekok 11 years ago

It's the National Recovery Act, set up by President FDR.

[–] alifeatthemovies 10 years ago

But I still wonder what it means when this logo appears in a film. Does it mean the studio donated some proceeds of the profits to the NRA? I find that unlikely. Or was it just a way for the studio to show support for the the initiative?