Review of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) by Meredith B — 10 May 2008
This is the usual Capra Scheme: there is a young naive man, who is projected in something bigger than him, usually corrupted, where a girl (who is part of the system) starts laughing at him, then she falls in love with him. Usually this girl is Jean Arthur. In Mr Deeds goes to town Gary Cooper inherited a fortune, and Jean Arthur was a journalist who misled him. Here Jean Arthur is the press secretary of Mr Jeff Smith (Jimmy Stuart), a new Senator appointed because he is the chief of boy-scouts, and the kids of a prominent man in the Party, suggest Smith as a good Senator.
The party wants to use Smith just as an useful idiot, voting everything is asked to him to vote. But Smith is an idealist, and he venerate the US Constitution. Then after a plot to dismiss him from the Senate because he wants to organize a boy camp in the land where businessmen related to his party want to build, he protests with a oratorical marathon, and don t quit till his fellow Senator, a friend of his father, confesses the plot and says -This is a great man, I have voted shite for 20 years in order to have an high life-style, oh wretched me. Leave him alone-.
In addiction to idealism, I noted that Frank Capra is obsessed with Press.
This review of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) was written by Meredith B on 10 May 2008.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington has generally received very positive reviews.
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