Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Besides a brilliantly written story, and brilliant acting by James Stewart, there is one element of this movie that can't be overlooked: Jean Arthur's acting.

With her voice and facial expressions, she pulls you through the storyline. The movie may be about Mr. Smith (Stewart), but much of it is seen through Saunder's (Arthur's) eyes. When she falls in love with Smith, we can't help but do it too.

This is Capra's opus, and contains not one, but two of the best acting performances I've ever seen.

Fmovies: From time to time, a movie comes along that holds up so well that it actually gets BETTER with age. "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington" is EXACTLY that type of movie.

For a basic plot summary, this movie tells the story of Jefferson Smith (Jimmy Stewart) a sort of "wide-eyed rube" who only gets promoted to U.S. Senator because of the political machine of Senator Joseph Payne (Claude Rains), whom the young Smith adores. Once in Washington, however, Smith gets a rude awakening as to the "real" politics of D.C. With the help of a female aide named Saunders (Jean Arthur), Smith must decide whether to fall in line or fight the deep- rooted corruption in the Capitol dome.

This movie remains an all-time classic for two primary reasons:

1. It strikes such a simple emotional chord in all of us. Even though, deep down, we know that corruption runs rampant in even the highest levels of government, we like to cling to the ideals that the nation was founded on. Well, that is exactly the journey that Stewart's Smith viscerally takes us on. We want him to succeed so badly because we all feel as if that is what WE would do in a similar situation.

2. I know I'll probably get a few down-votes for this statement alone, but I believe that our government is as corrupt now as it has ever been. Thus, while watching Stewart's impassioned pleas for honesty and common sense, my heart ached for the United States of America. So, not only does "Mr. Smith" stand the test of time, but it actually transcends it.

Basically, this movie does to politics what fellow Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" does to Christmas. If it were up to me, this movie would be shown in every American Government high school classroom and on television sometime the week before every major political election. It is THAT important in the message that it espouses.

`Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is not as well known of a movie as it should be. It is a very good movie that is very interesting and a very good way to learn how some things involving the Senate work. This reviewer absolutely loved this movie and wishes she could run out and buy it right now. It definitely grabs the audience's attention and keeps it there. While watching this movie, this reviewer was laughing, smiling, getting really, really angry, learning, and even getting a little teary-eyed. How can a movie that brings out all those different emotions in someone not be great, or even spectacular! `Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is definitely one of the best movies ever made despite the fact that it is mostly about politics! It's still interesting!

While watching this movie, the audience might be thinking that the acting isn't half bad and is actually quite realistic. They would be right too! All of the acting is really very good and it draws the audience in and keeps them in. This movie was so close to not having one single cheesy line or unbelievable acting job that it's really a shame that it did. At the very end of the movie Saunders, played by , stands up from her seat in the balcony and yells `Stop Jeff! Stop!' and then falls to the floor. The line and the way says it is very, very cheesy and something the audience might find themselves laughing at. That line is just about the only time in the entire movie where the acting was lacking. James Stewart was, of course, phenomenal. He is a very good actor and one that should be remembered for a very long time. He's awesome!

The only other not so great thing about `Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is the ending. It's a happy ending but, well, it just ends. It's an abrupt ending. It ends so abruptly that the audience isn't even expecting it to end when it does. It has one of those endings where the audience knows a bunch of things that will be happening, they just aren't shown happening. This reviewer doesn't really care for those kind, it is much better when you get to see the things carried out. Although the ending could have been better `Mr. Smith Goes to Washington' is still an awesome movie and the ending doesn't take away from that at all!

This movie is so great that every person in the world should be able to see it because it is definitely worth the time it takes to see it.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington fmovies. Frank Capra's knack for getting the best out of JAMES STEWART and JEAN ARTHUR is demonstrated here with both stars giving superb performances. Ironically, Stewart would not win the Oscar for this role but was awarded one the following year for a lesser role in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY.

As a bumbling, naive senator who is a lamb thrown to the wolves in Washington, D.C., Stewart does a fabulous job--although there are moments when his bumbling awkwardness looks a bit staged. Jean Arthur is a natural for the role of the wise secretary who at first scorns his innocent ways but soon comes to realize he's the real thing.

All of the supporting players are excellent--especially CLAUDE RAINS as a mentor to Stewart who finally has a conscience about deceiving him, and Harry Carey (the western actor) as the man with the gavel who soon realizes that Stewart is not to be underestimated. His reaction shots, grinning and sometimes stifling a grin, say more than words. He and Rains both deserved their supporting role nominations.

But, as usual in a Capra film, you have to be willing to forgive some obvious plot contrivances or overall schmaltz. The ending (when it finally comes after some excessive length in running time) is rather abrupt as though the director suddenly realized he'd gone overtime on the story. And some of the sentimentality (such as the scene where Arthur joins him at the Lincoln Memorial where she knew she'd find him), is hard to swallow until you remind yourself that--hey, this is Capra-corn.

Nevertheless, despite some flaws, it's the kind of comedy-drama about Washington, D.C. that only a director like Capra could make. And the replica of the Senate is amazingly detailed, as are all the interiors which were shot on a soundstage at Columbia. It's also a nice lesson in how the Senate works, how bills have to go through committees, the rules of behavior, filibustering, etc. It will leave you with a warm glow--somewhat like IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE in that respect.

Summing up: It's Stewart's show all the way. He's at his peak here.

Mr. Smith is as good as it's legend. Sometimes I'm disappointed when a universally acclaimed movie isn't as enjoyable as I thought it would be. But here, that is not the case. James Stewart is deservedly remembered most for this role. That's saying a lot given his impressive body of work. This is also Frank Capra's signature film along with Mr. Deeds. The idealism of Jefferson Smith might feel a bit anachronisitc today but, and I know this is a cliché, the world could use more people with his values. The supporting cast is also spot on. Jean Arthur plays the same type as she did in Mr. Deeds and Claude Rains is terrific as the mentor who betrays Smith. Strongly recommended, 9/10.

It was a lot of fun watching Mr. Smith Goes to Washington in a class where the professor noted how this was the sort of film that was of historical importance while not taking itself too seriously. And I think that's the way Frank Capra wanted it, in a sense. Perhaps in the time of 1939 America this film was seen as being of merit to the American Government's due (though according to the trivia, it was denounced at showing corruption and even banned for showing how democracy "works"). But the director is also wanting to make an entertaining movie, of the kind of Hollywood appeal that brings 8-to-80 years olds in attendance. What had me interested throughout, particularly in that climactic, rousing twenty-minute sequence in the Senate with Jimmy Stewart's constant, un-faltering filibuster, is how it really is a patriotic kind of bravura to be shown on the screen. Here is how it SHOULD be done, to an extreme perhaps, in getting things done in government. But at the same time, Capra keeps it entirely watchable with that group of kids up on the balcony, keeping the audience laughing and smiling all the way through the great lines that Stewart says. "Great principles don't get lost once they come to light. They're right here; you just have to see them again!" This is a kind of talent that I'm sure few other filmmakers at the time, or even after, could have pulled off.

The rest of the film isn't just Stewart's struggle to be heard as a young, new-in-town senator. It's also a witty, more often than not true look of how government tends to really work as opposed to how it should. Basically, the core of the story is the fish-out-of-water type, where Stewart's Jefferson Smith (one of his better Hollywood performances), leader of the Boy Rangers is called to be the senator of his state. He has a childhood hero in town in the form of a senior senator (Claude Rains, terrific as always). And there's even a woman (Jean Arthur) in the mix that's growing an interest in him, at first dubious. But despite the corruption that is almost thrust upon smith by Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold, as skilled a character actor as could be asked for), Smith fights it all the way to his final filibuster, which includes a reading from the Constitution, in-and-out cheers from the Boy Rangers, and general guffaws from the other senators. In other words, it's really much in that pure spirit of Frank Capra that 'Mr. Smith' is working in, and even at its cheesiest and sometimes most-dated moments, it's a very successful picture for what it wants to do. It's really an equal-opportunity kind of film about people in politics that should be able decades later to appeal to both the hopeful and the cynical, and it works as good as it does a comedy as it does a piece to show in history of film or American government course.