Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 film which tells the story of an idealistic young man who is sent to Washington to fill the unexpired term of a deceased Senator. There, he is taken under the wing of a corrupt senator whom he naively admires because he was his late father's best and oldest friend. As time goes on, however, the young Mr. Smith becomes increasingly dismayed by the corruption he finds in the halls of government.

The film stars Claude Rains as the senior senator and James Stewart as the new recruit. Also appearing are Jean Arthur, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Charles Lane, and Thomas Mitchell.

The film was directed by Frank Capra, who also directed James Stewart in It's a Wonderful Life, and was written by Lewis R. Foster and Sidney Buchman.

It has been deemed "culturally significant" by the Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

The film premiered in Washington, D.C. on October 17, 1939. It was also made into a television series of the same name that ran during the 1962-63 season, starring Fess Parker and Red Foley. In 1977, Tom Laughlin remade the film in the Billy Jack series of movies titled Billy Jack Goes to Washington. It was loosely remade in 1992 as The Distinguished Gentleman, starring Eddie Murphy.

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Cultural Effects

When it was first released, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was attacked as an anti-American pro-Communist film for its portrayal of corruption in American Government.

In 1942 when a ban on American films was imposed in Nazi-occupied France, the title theaters chose for their last movie before the ban was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. One Paris theater owner reportedly screened the film around the clock for 30 consecutive days prior to the ban.

According to rumor, Ronald Reagan was Frank Capra's original choice to play the role later given to James Stewart. Upon hearing of Capra's intentions, a furious Harry Cohn, then head of Columbia Pictures, sent a telegram saying "only the damnedest of fools would ever believe Ron Reagan could stick up for the little guy."

In the spring of 2005, U.S. media attention over the "nuclear option" focused extra attention on what was already the melodramatic climax of the film, when Smith launches a lengthy and defiant filibuster.

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