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If The President's Mystery has any real lasting value, it's because of the story behind its title rather than the quality of the film itself. In brief, President Roosevelt proposed a story about how a millionaire could effectively disappear and create a new life, and "Liberty Magazine" hired six authors to create a story based on this premise. Republic, meanwhile, created their own story to go with this set-up, and it's pretty basic. While the actual writing in Mystery is rather run-of-the-mill, the fact that it focuses a great deal of attention of local cooperatives is of historical and sociological interest and the bias it exhibits in favor of the cooperatives is also worth noting. The screenplay tends to traffic in stock figures, but every now and then a neatly turned phrase or a snappy line will ring out, giving the actors something to play off. Henry Wilcoxon is quite good in the leading role, believable as both the sharpie he starts out as and the sympathetic figure he becomes. Betty Furness is rather bland, but Sidney Blackmer is delightfully wicked and Evelyn Brent scores as Wilcoxon's wife. Phil Rosen's direction is uninspired.