Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
by Frank Capra

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, James Stewart, Jean Arthur
Director: Frank Capra
Cinematographer: Joseph Walker
Producer: Frank Capra
Editor: Al Clark
Editor: Gene Havlick
Writer: Lewis R. Foster
Writer: Myles Connolly
Writer: Sidney Buchman
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); Portuguese (Subtitled); Georgian (Subtitled); Thai (Subtitled); Portuguese (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-02-22
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Sony Pictures

Movie Reviews of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Movie Review: Political Story With Some Good Messages
Summary: 4 Stars

When I first watched this famous classic film about 15 years ago on VHS, I found it to be a good movie, a very powerful one, but yet one I have not watched mulitiple times.

I can't criticize it. Jimmy Stewart is interesting as always, in the lead as "Jefferson Smith." Jean Arthur is the most fun of all the actors to watch in here and actually her "Clarissa Saunders" might be the lead character, not Stewart's. Claude Rains is so good that you want to punch his character, "Sen. Joseph Paine" right in the nose!

I will say it's very dated, but some of that corny stuff adds to the enjoyment of the story. Some of it is refreshing, too, like the unashamed overt promotion of solid values, for instance . You don't see that much patriotism or values-first themes in movies anymore.

It's a good movie, but at 130 minutes a bit long and one that I would advise to rent first instead of purchasing blind because of its high reputation.

Summary of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Political heavyweights decide that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an obscure scoutmaster in a small town, would be the perfect dupe to fill a vacant U.S. Senate chair. Surely this naive bumpkin can be easily controlled by the senior senator (Claude Rains) from his state, a respectable and corrupted career politician. Director Frank Capra fills the movie with Smith's wide-eyed wonder at the glories of Washington, all of which ring false for his cynical secretary (Jean Arthur), who doesn't believe for a minute this rube could be for real. But he is. Capra was repeating the formula of a previous film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, but this one is even sharper; Stewart and Arthur are brilliant, and the former cowboy star Harry Carey lends a warm presence to the role of the vice president. Bright, funny, and beautifully paced, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Capra's ode to the power of innocence--an idea so potent that present-day audiences may find themselves wishing for a new Mr. Smith in Congress. The 1939 Congress was none too thrilled about the film's depiction of their august body, denouncing it as a caricature; but even today, Capra's jibes about vested interests and political machines look as accurate as ever. --Robert Horton

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