Exactly, I am glad you are one of those who know that that the recovery started in 1933/34 and by 1937 GDP was about at the 1929 level. Then the Fed increased the tax on finanical intermediation causing a second recession in the same decade. It was of course very short lived although it was a steep recession.
By almost any definnition 1937 and certainly 1933 were before WWII government spending came along. Good of you to point that addition problem with popular cultural myths of the 20th Century.
I read a book about FDR that slammed him, a rarity, I'm sure, In the book, it is said that FDR was asked to declare a bank holiday and he refused. The author claims that that refusal was one of the major causes of the depression. Do you know the name of the book, someone borrowed it from me and of course I never got it back.
Back to movies, how about DEAD END with Humphrey Bogart, Sylvia Sydney and the Dead End Kids, although they were probaby the East Side Kids at the time.