Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
| Mr. Smith Goes to Washington | |
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Theatrical release poster
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| Directed by | Frank Capra |
| Produced by | Frank Capra |
| Screenplay by | Sidney Buchman |
| Based on | "The Gentleman from Montana" by Lewis R. Foster |
| Starring |
James Stewart Jean Arthur Claude Rains Edward Arnold |
| Narrated by | Colin James Mackey |
| Music by | Dimitri Tiomkin |
| Cinematography | Joseph Walker, A.S.C. |
| Edited by |
Gene Havlick Al Clark |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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129 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $1.5 million |
| Box office | $9,000,000 |
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American political comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring James Stewart and Jean Arthur. The film is about a newly appointed United States Senator who fights against a corrupt political system, and was written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story "The Gentleman from Montana". The film was controversial when it was first released, but was also successful at the box office, and made Stewart a major movie star. The film features a bevy of well-known supporting actors and actresses, among them Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Guy Kibbee, Thomas Mitchell, Beulah Bondi, H.B. Warner and Harry Carey.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was nominated for 11 Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Story. Considered to be one of the greatest films of all time, the Library of Congress selected the film for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 1989, deeming it "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
The governor of an unnamed western state, Hubert "Happy" Hopper (Guy Kibbee), has to pick a replacement for recently deceased U.S. Senator Sam Foley. His corrupt political boss, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), pressures Hopper to choose his handpicked stooge, while popular committees want a reformer, Henry Hill. The governor's children want him to select Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), the head of the Boy Rangers. Unable to make up his mind between Taylor's stooge and the reformer, Hopper decides to flip a coin. When it lands on edge – and next to a newspaper story on one of Smith's accomplishments – he chooses Smith, calculating that his wholesome image will please the people while his naïveté will make him easy to manipulate.
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