Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) | |
| Director(s) | Frank Capra |
| Producer(s) | Frank Capra (uncredited) |
| Top Genres | Drama |
| Top Topics | Integrity, Justice, Politics, Romance (Drama), Washington D.C. |
Featured Cast:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Overview:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) was a Drama - Black-and-white Film directed by Frank Capra and produced by Frank Capra.
SYNOPSIS
Capra's enduring favorite has Stewart as the idealistic, yet naive, politician sent to Washington as junior senator who runs afoul of the political corruption in his state. Capra favorite Arthur plays his cynical secretary and Rains the powerful senior senator who expects Smith to be nothing more than a rubber stamp. As with the best of Capra's films, the sentiment and moralizing are kept in check by wonderful acting and genuine emotion. Based on Lewis R. Foster's novel The Gentleman from Montana.
(Source: available at Amazon AMC Classic Movie Companion).
.Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was inducted into the National Film Registry in 1989.
Academy Awards 1939 --- Ceremony Number 12 (source: AMPAS)
| Award | Recipient | Result |
| Best Actor | James Stewart | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actor | Harry Carey | Nominated |
| Best Supporting Actor | Claude Rains | Nominated |
| Best Art Direction | Lionel Banks | Nominated |
| Best Director | Frank Capra | Nominated |
| Best Film Editing | Gene Havlick, Al Clark | Nominated |
| Best Music - Scoring | Dimitri Tiomkin | Nominated |
| Best Picture | Columbia | Nominated |
| Best Writing | Lewis R. Foster | Won |
| Best Writing | Sidney Buchman | Nominated |
BlogHub Articles:
Quotes from
Jefferson Smith: I wouldn't give you two cents for all your fancy rules if, behind them, they didn't have a little bit of plain, ordinary, everyday kindness and a little looking out for the other fella, too.
Jefferson Smith: I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don't know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once, for the only reason any man ever fights for them; because of just one plain simple rule: 'Love thy neighbor. And in this world today, full of hatred, a man who knows that one rule has a great trust. You know that rule, Mr. Paine, and I loved you for it, just as my father did. And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any other. Yes, you even die for them.
read more quotes from Mr. Smith Goes to Washington...
Facts about
The film was banned in Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Soviet Russia and Falangist Spain. According to Frank Capra, the film was also dubbed in certain European countries to alter the message of the film so it conformed with official ideology.
In his autobiography, Frank Capra states that after the film's general release, he and Harry Cohn received a cablegram from Joseph P. Kennedy, the U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain, saying that the film would damage "America's prestige in Europe" and should therefore be withdrawn from European distribution. In response, they mailed favorable reviews of the film to Kennedy and, while in a letter to Capra Kennedy stated that he maintained doubts about the film, he did not pursue the matter any further. According to the New York Times, "the Boy Scouts of America objected to having any part in Mr. Capra's reform movement," and Capra therefore had to use the fictitious name of the Boy Rangers.
read more facts about Mr. Smith Goes to Washington...
