Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

What Mr. Deeds Goes to Town did for New York swells, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington did for the U.S. government. In fact, the film was originally conceived as a sequel to Deeds, but when Gary Cooper was unavailable Frank Capra changed the story and struck gold with casting James Stewart as the naively idealistic Senator who takes on the Washington establishment.

Seventy-one years later, this film is still exciting and moving, and unfortunately sharply relevant. It begins with a senator from a Western state (Frank Capra Jr. identifies it as Montana, but it is never specified) dying. In shades of the Blagojevich scandal, the governor, Guy Kibbee, must make a replacement, but he is in the pocket of the local political boss (Edward Arnold, in a terrifically malevolent performance). After being lobbied by his children, Kibbee decides to nominate the leader of a Boy Scout-like group, a wide-eyed patriot, Jefferson Smith (Stewart). The state's other senator, Claude Raines, who is presidential timber but also in Arnold's pocket, realizes he knew Stewart's father, when he was young and idealistic. Stewart reminisces with him how his father, who was murdered while trying to expose a corrupt mine syndicate, believed "lost causes are the only causes worth fighting for."

Stewart arrives in D.C., and eludes his handlers for a day of sightseeing, especially communing with the statue of Lincoln at the Memorial. He gets choked up watching other tourists standing reverently, reading the Gettsyburg Address etched in stone, and any American should feel the same way. But he quickly finds that cynicism drenches the culture, as his assistant (Jean Arthur) tells him how difficult it is to pass a bill. Stewart will only be a senator for a few months, but he wants to at least do something, so tries to pass a bill establishing a national boy's camp.

When it's discovered that the location of the camp interferes with a dam site that will line Arnold's pockets, Stewart is asked to play ball. He does not, and Arnold and Raines both come after him with both barrels, trying to ruin him and get him expelled. But in a rousing finale Stewart, with Arthur's guidance, launches a filibuster in the hope it will clear his name.

The film was controversial at the time. The Hays office initially warned Capra about making the government look too bad, but eventually approved the script (an Oscar-winner). I remember the first time I saw this film I was surprised by how vitriolic it was. Post-Watergate, it was easy to assume that all politicians were crooks, but I didn't think this was so in 1939. Of course, political scandal is as old as the republic, and as Woody Allen said in Annie Hall, a politician's reputation is a notch below child molester.

What amazed me on my viewing yesterday was that though I knew how it was going to turn out I was still caught up in it, and wondered how Smith would triumph (of course he will) when there were only five minutes to go in the film. Capra has an unerring eye for building suspense, especially in the filibuster scene. He also has an exquisite knack for comedy, as in a scene when Stewart talks with Raines' pretty daughter and Capra focuses on him fumbling with his hat.

The acting is top-notch. Raines and Harry Carey, who plays the sympathetic President of the Senate (presumably the Vice President) were nominated for Oscars, as was Stewart, who famously lost to Robert Donat for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (and thus won a make-up Oscar the next year for The Philadelphia Story). I'm amazed that Arthur wasn't nominated, as her role--a familiar one, it's almost identical to that in Deeds, as a jaded career girl (Stewart tells her she's done very well for herself, considering she's a woman) whose eyes are opened by a genuinely honest man--is expertly played. There are also many other familiar character actors on hand: Thomas Mitchell, Eugene Pallette, and William Demarest, just to name a few.

As corny as it may be, there's something tremendously endearing about the film's belief that one man, true to his beliefs, can stand up to the corruption of government and by appealing to America's value system can defeat it. It may be a fantasy, but it's pleasant to contemplate.