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 |
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Quotes from
Jefferson Smith: Dad always used to say the only causes worth fighting for were the lost causes.
Senator Joseph Paine: Let me go! I'm not fit to be a senator! I'm not fit to live! Expel me, not him! Willet Dam is a fraud! It's a crime against the people who sent me here - and I committed it! Every word that boy said is the truth! Every word about Taylor and me and graft and the rotten political corruption of my state! Every word of it is true! I'm not fit for office! I'm not fit for any place of honor or trust! Expel me, not that boy!
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Facts about
In 1942, when a ban on American films was imposed in German-occupied France, the title theaters chose Mr. Smith Goes to Washington for their last movie before the ban went into effect. One Paris theater reportedly screened the film nonstop for thirty days prior to the ban.
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.
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