Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

☆ ☆ ☆ ☆  ½

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) – F. Capra

Been a long time since I watched this but I felt in need of some political uplift!  Jimmy Stewart plays the naïve but sincere and morally right boys’ club leader who suddenly finds himself the junior senator from his rural state when the incumbent dies and the governor (a puppet for a evil machine) picks him as a pushover.  The machine run by news magnate Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) already has the state’s senior senator (played by Claude Rains with perfect ambivalence) in his pocket and together they are pushing through some major graft – trying to get federal approval for a dam after they have conveniently bought up all the surrounding land, putting the deeds in dummy names.  Of course, Senator Jefferson Smith (Stewart) puts a crimp in their plans, first accidentally but then with moral purpose – but the machine uses all their evil power against him.  The highlight of the film is Smith’s long filibuster to stop himself from getting ejected from the Senate and to defeat the bill.  Director Frank Capra can be Capracorny at times but there are so many great supporting actors here (Jean Arthur, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Beulah Bondi, Eugene Pallette, Harry Carey, etc.) that he can’t really go wrong, despite the total emotional manipulation at play.  Of course, the film ends abruptly on a high note, with little chance to contemplate the realities of the situation.  But hey, this sort of fable where corruption is defeated by those who advocate that the government should care for the people is just what I needed!