Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Jefferson Smith is the main character, representing the American values of freedom,
democracy, justice and morality over corruption
and evil in his emotional portrait of a naive, idealistic, patriotic
young politician who fights political corruption within his state's political
machine, and guards American values as a moral hero. The film has many traditional American
cultural icons, such as the monuments in the nation's capital, and a patriotic medley of flag-waving American
songs ("Yankee Doodle," "My Country 'Tis of Thee," "
The film opens with a news
reporter who phones in the latest news of Senator Samuel Foley, a western state
senator's unexpected death. Senior Senator Joseph Harrison Paine calls long-distance
for Governor Hubert "Happy" Hopper and tells him the news. Hopper calls party boss
and newspaper owner Jim Taylor, to
receive instructions on the choice of a successor (we can see that Hopper is
Paine is concerned that the Willet
Creek Dam project must not be exposed by the new appointment.
We've been quietly buying up all the land around that dam, and holding it in dummy names. If we drop it now or even delay it, it will bring about an investigation. The investigation will show that we're going to sell it to the state under phony names. Now it's my judgment, the smartest thing for us to do is to push this dam through just the way it's going and get it over with.
***(See Clip)***
Not knowing who to appoint, the weak-willed Governor Hopper is "attacked and belittled" by the advice of his bratty children that evening during a family dinner. They say he's in a "deuce of a pickle." They suggest the popular head of the state's Boy Rangers, Jefferson Smith. One of the other youngsters claims that Smith is an American patriot and publisher of the well-read Rangers' boys publication: "He's the greatest American we got too, Dad. He can tell you what George Washington said, by heart. And Boy's Stuff's got the swellest stuff in it."
To settle the matter between his two choices (Miller or Hill), Hopper flips a coin. When the coin stands on edge, he decides to appoint Smith – what he thinks is a harmless choice who can be easily controlled.
Wide-eyed innocent idealist, earnest youth
leader, and naive country boy, Jefferson Smith is appointed to Congress as a
junior Senator by his state's corrupt political machine to complete the few
months left in the dead senator's term. The appointment is a "political
surprise" to
...a big-eyed Patriot, knows Lincoln and Washington by heart, stands at attention in the Governor's presence, even collects stray boys and cats...a perfect man, never in politics in his life, wouldn't know what it was all about in two years, let alone two months. And the important thing - and this was the genius of the stroke - it means votes. A hero of 50,000 boys, and a hundred thousand parents.
Unaware of how he has been implicated in a crooked political scheme, Smith speaks his first tremulous words to the audience: "I-I can't help feeling that there's been a big mistake somehow." [His words are prophetic, since the political boss has underestimated the depth of his convictions. He remembers how his father Clayton Smith once claimed that Paine was "the finest man he ever knew":
Just to sit here with him is a very great honor for me, because I remember Dad used to tell me that Joe Paine was the finest man he ever knew. I don't think I'm gonna be much help to ya down there in Washington, Senator. I'll do my best. With all my might, I can promise ya one thing - I'll do nothing to disgrace the office of the United States Senate.
On the two-day train ride to
Dad always used to say the only causes worth fighting for were the lost causes.
Paine remembers Clayton Smith's struggles for justice as a newspaper
editor.
I suppose, Mr. Paine, when a fella bucks up against a big organization like that, one man by himself can't get very far, can he?
***(See clip)***
When the country bumpkin Smith gets off the train with Paine at Union
Station in
He begins gawking in wonder at the sights and is transfixed by a view of the Capitol Dome in the distance: "Look! Look! There it is!" The out-of-place hayseed tourist absent-mindedly wanders off.
Frog-voiced McGann phones Senator Foley's (and the new Senator Smith's) secretary Clarissa Saunders and tells her that Smith has disappeared. Husky-voiced Saunders tells her Irish press secretary Diz Moore about the hick in town:
Daniel Boone's lost...Lost in the wilds of
On his impromptu, whirlwind sightseeing bus
tour of the capital city's sites and monuments in a compiled montage of images,
Smith gazes at the words "EQUAL JUSTICE" carved on the Supreme Court
Building, the White House, Constitution and Pennsylvania Avenues. He is swept up in the glories of the nation's
capital - inside the
To locate Smith, Saunders sarcastically suggests to Senator Paine
on the phone: "Why don't they try the police? Call out some bloodhounds or
Indian guides." He requests that she remain a half hour longer at the
When Foley died, why didn't I clear out? How many times have you heard me say, 'I'm fed up with politics' ? No, I let 'em talk me into staying. Secretary to a leader of little squirts. Why? Because I need the job and a new suit of clothes.
The young Senator (nicknamed "Daniel Boone" by Saunders) stumbles into his new office building and Saunders is relieved but angry. Smith explains how he strayed away when magnetically attracted toward the Capitol Dome:
I don't think I've ever been so thrilled in my whole life, and that Lincoln Memorial! Gee Whiz! And Mr. Lincoln, there he is. He's just lookin' right straight at ya as you come up those steps. Just, just sitting there like he was waiting for somebody to come along.
A cynical
Saunders cringes at the thought of
innocent Senator Smith. She assumes Smith's corny political leanings are no better than the normal
In his interview with the reporters, Smith excitedly discusses his dream of a national boys camp:
Well, for the last couple of years, I thought it would be a wonderful idea to have a national boys camp out in our state...You see, if we could just get the poor kids off the streets, out of the cities for a few months in the summer and let them learn something about nature - American ideals...My idea is that the government just lends us the money for the camp and then the boys pay it back by sending pennies, nickels, nothing more than a dime...
Smith also reveals his crush on Senator Paine's daughter Susan, and then entertains them by performing well-practiced bird calls. Pictures and mocking headlines in the next day's newspapers ridicule the novice's antics.
As a professional, practical-minded operator
in
Saunders: Look Senator, I wasn't given a brain just to tell a Boy Ranger
what time it is.
Paine: Don't be a fool, Saunders. If certain things happen, I'm taking
everybody up with me and you'll get one of the biggest jobs in
Saunders: Look, when I came here, my
eyes were big blue question marks. Now they're big green dollar marks.
Paine: Smart girl, eh? Alright, finish this job properly and you get a handsome
bonus. And by properly, I mean keep Smith away from anything that smacks of
politics.
Saunders: Including Willet Creek Dam?
Paine: Including Willet Creek Dam. Now go back to your work!
As Senator Smith is led by one of the young pages to his Senate seat (once held by Daniel Webster), he is awed by the impressive size and magnitude of the U.S. Senate Chamber. High up in the balcony gallery, Diz congratulates Saunders on successfully getting the young Senator back on track:
Diz: See you got Daniel Boone in all right.
Saunders: Daniel in the lion's
den.
During the Senate's proceedings, Smith's credentials are presented, but one of
the veteran Senators blocks his confirmation to "high office,"
referring to Smith's disgraceful appearance in the
After being sworn in, Smith glimpses the
humiliating newspaper interview and angrily stalks through the streets of
Smith: Why don't you tell the truth
for a change?...
Sweeney (Jack Carson): How do you want it Senator? Dished out or in a bottle?
Smith: People in this country pick up their papers and what do they read?
Diz: Well, this morning, they read that an
incompetent clown had arrived in
Smith: If you thought as much about being honest as you know about being smart.
Diz: Honest? Why, we're the only ones who can afford to be honest in what we tell the
voters. We don't have to be re-elected like
politicians.
Sweeney: For instance, we tell 'em when phonies and
crack-pots come here to make their laws.
Reporter: If it's the truth you want, what are you doin'
in the Senate?
Reporter: What do you know about laws or making laws or what the people need?
Smith: I don't pretend to know.
Diz: Then what are you doing in the Senate?
Sweeney: What's he doing? Well, honorary appointments.
Reporter: The country needs men up there who know and have courage as it never
did before. He's just gonna decorate a chair and get
himself honored.
Reporter: And that he votes, sure, just like his colleague tells him to.
Diz: Yes sir, like a Christmas tiger, he'll nod his
head and vote 'YES.' You're not a Senator. You're an honorary stooge. You ought
to be shown up.
***(See clip)***
Smith blames himself personally and believes that he is politically unnecessary - he wants to leave the capital city if all he can do is discredit his country's respected institutions. He wavers with disillusionment, feeling that he is only "decorating a chair" and acting like a "Christmas tiger." At Senator Paine's home, Smith's feelings are soothed.
With renewed enthusiasm, Senator Smith begins
to draft a boys
Saunders: Do you mind if I give you a rough idea of what you're up
against?
Smith: No. Nope. Go ahead.
Saunders: Well, Senator has a bill in mind, like your camp...Now, what does he
do? He has to sit down first and write it up - the why, when, where, how, and
everything else. Now that takes time.
Smith: But this one is so simple.
Saunders: Oh I see, this one's simple.
Smith: Yeah, and with your help...
Saunders: Oh, I'm helping, yeah. Simple and I'm helping, so we knock it off in
record-breaking time of, let's say, three or four days.
Smith: Oh, a-a day.
Saunders (incredulous): A day?
Smith: Yes, just tonight.
Saunders: Tonight. I don't seem to be complaining Senator, but in all civilized
countries, there's an institution called dinner.
After eating dinner on trays like big executive-types and working all night on the bill, morning dawns and the bill must be introduced in the Senate.
Saunders: You get to your feet in the Senate, take a long breath, and
start spouting, but not too loud because a couple of the Senators might want to
sleep. Then a curly-headed page boy takes it up to the desk where a long-faced
clerk reads it, refers it to the right committee...
Smith: ...Why?
Saunders: Look, committees are small groups of Senators have to sit the bill
down, look into it, study it and report to the whole Senate. You can't take a
bill nobody ever heard about and discuss it among ninety-six men. Where would
you get?...Now days are going by, Senator. Days,
weeks! Finally, they think it's quite a bill. It goes over to the House of
Representatives for debate and a vote. But it has to wait it's
turn on the calendar...That's the order of business. Your bill has to stand way
back there in line unless the steering committee thinks it's important.
Smith: What's that?
Saunders: ...Do you really think we're getting anywhere?
Smith: Oh yes Miss Saunders. Now tell me, what's the steering committee?
Saunders: A committee of the majority party leaders. They decide when a bill is
important enough to be moved up toward the head of the list.
Smith: Well, this is!
Saunders: ...Where are we now?...Oh yeah, House. More
amendments, more changes and the bill goes back to the Senate. If the Senate
doesn't like what the House did to the bill, they make more changes. If the House doesn't like those changes, stymied.
Smith: So?
Saunders: So they appoint men from each House to go into a huddle called a
conference and they battle it out. Finally, if your bill is still alive after
all this vivisection, it comes to a vote. Yes sir, the big day finally arrives
(pause) and Congress adjourns. (The smile on Smith's face droops.) Catching on,
Senator?
Smith: Uh huh. Shall we start on it right away or order dinner first?
After deflating his patriotic zeal a bit with
the realities of political systems and processes, they begin the tireless work
of drafting the bill late that night in the
Smith: Did you ever have so much to say about something, you just couldn't
say it?
Saunders: Try sitting down.
Smith: I did - I got right back up again.
Saunders: Now look. Let's get down to particulars. How big is this thing?
Where's it gonna be? How many boys will it
accommodate? You've got to have all of that in it, you know.
Smith: Yeah, yeah, and something else, Miss Saunders. The uh,
the spirit of it. The idea - the - (He snaps his fingers) How do ya say it? (He walks to the window in which the lighted
Capitol Dome is seen) (He points out at the Dome) That's what's got to be in
it!
Saunders: What?
Smith: The Capitol Dome.
Saunders (quietly sarcastic): On paper? (She lifts her eyebrows a little)
Smith: I want to make that come to life for every boy in this land. Yes, and
all lighted up like that too! You see, you see, boys forget what their country
means by just reading 'the land of the free' in history books. And they get to
be men - they forget even more.
Saunders (uneasy): He did.
Smith: Yeah, yeah. We need a lot more like him, his kind of character, his ideals.
And as part of the "particulars,"
he dreamily describes the 200 acres in his state [
In his dictation of the draft of the bill for a boys' camp in his state, Smith happens to choose the same site that has already been earmarked for a corrupt dam project sponsored by Paine - the canyon surrounding Willet Creek. The revelation astonishes Saunders:
Smith: About 200 acres, uh, situated in Ambrose County, Terry Canyon,
running about a quarter of a mile on either side of Willet Creek...
Saunders: Uh! What?
Smith: Willet Creek. Willet. W-I-L-L-E-T.
It's just a little stream.
Saunders: In
Smith: Well yeah, yeah. You don't know it, do ya?
Saunders: No.
Smith: Well no, you couldn't. You've never been there, you said.
Saunders: You've discussed this with Senator Paine and everything, haven't you?
Smith: No, no why?
Saunders: Oh nothing.
***(See clip)***
In the Senate, the President of the Senate recognizes Smith. Smith begins to introduce his bill, his hands and voice shake tremulously. Paine and McGann both race from the Senate floor when they hear the words "Willet Creek" in his proposal for a boys camp. But Smith's proposal is cheered by young Boy Rangers in the balcony and applauded by the Senators who realize Smith's virtuous deed.
Senator Paine maneuvers to have his daughter Susan be a decoy by waylaying and distracting Smith and keeping him ignorant. The plan is to have him escort her to a reception during an important Senate session. Susan tells Saunders: "I'm elected to snatch Mr. Jefferson Smith from the Senate tomorrow...I'm to take him out and turn my glamour on for him." Savvy to Paine's manipulations and conspiracy, the tough, "wised up" Saunders is worried, jealous, motherly and endearingly protective of Smith:
Saunders: I don't mind who gets
licked in a fair fight, Diz. It's these clouts below the belt I can't take. Sic-ing that
horrible dame on him when he's goofy about her...Paine!
Diz: You'd better be nice to that gal. The latest
poll rates her old man the party choice for the White House. She may be the
next First Lady of the land.
Saunders: Imagine reading 'My Day' by Susan 'Pain' in the Neck. He's gonna be hurt enough as it is. She has to twist a knife in
him too. Regal jack-ass.
'I'll turn my glamour on him,' she says.
Diz: Oh forget it. What's it to you?
Saunders: Nothing, I was just saying...
Diz: OK, OK. Then stop worrying. I told you the dopes
are going to inherit the earth anyway.
Saunders: I wonder Diz, if this Don Quixote hasn't
got the jump on all of us. I wonder if it isn't a curse to go through life
wised up like you and me.
She and Diz have dinner and drinks together. She drunkenly agrees with Diz's proposal of marriage and decides that she's going to quit.
Having fallen for Smith herself, Saunders eloquently but grimly blows the whistle on Smith's ideals. She reveals everything by explaining how he was fooled, and how Paine's Deficiency Bill on the projected site for a boys camp is a front for party Boss Jim Taylor's own plans to appropriate funds.
After she tells him this, Smith talks to Senator Paine
and lets him know that he's heard about Taylor's involvement in the scheme.
Paine tries to talk Smith out of doing anything because it's all been decided.
Boy Ranger huh? Answer to a prayer? Manna from heaven. Didn't even know how to tell the time of day, huh?...He's about to blow the whole machine to smithereens and you with it, Mr. Governor.
Our steam-roller methods are getting too hard for your sensitive soul. Is that it? The Silver Knight is getting too big for us. My methods have been all right for the past twenty years, Joe. Since I picked you out of a fly-specked hole in the wall and blew you up to look like a Senator. And now you can't stand it.
In a confrontational scene,
***(See clip)***
In Senator Paine's office, decorated wall-to-wall with pictures, mementos, memorabilia and law books, Paine explains the reality of the situation, tells Jeff where he stands in relation to Taylor, and advises him to be less of an idealist. Invoking their friendship and the friendship Paine had with Smith's father, Senator Paine begs Jeff to avoid interfering with the Deficiency Bill on the Senate floor: "You stay away from it. Don't say a word. Great powers are behind it and they'll destroy you before you even get started."
The next day, Smith fidgets during the reading of the Deficiency Bill and rises to question Section 40 regarding Willet Creek Dam. When it appears that Paine's corruption will be exposed, he interrupts Smith's words in mid-sentence and shifts blame toward Smith to frame him. The new tactic of the conspirators is to shift blame to Smith, and to discredit and accuse him of their own crime. The phony land purchases are shifted to him (with falsified documents and evidence) to show that the boys camp bill is Smith's own pork barrel - introduced for his own profit. Smith is hissed and booed by the chamber --en masse, the young pages remove their Boy Ranger pins and throw them away.
In the committee hearings, trumped-up charges, false witnesses (Gov. Hopper and Sen. Paine testify falsely) and forged documents (a signed contract or deed to the land) are produced as evidence to show that Smith will enrich himself with the boys camp with "carefully laid plans to make an enormous profit out of the nickels and dimes scrapped together by the boys of this country." Smith stands silently for a moment looking at the seated Paine, who has his head bowed and refuses to acknowledge his presence face-to-face. Smith abruptly leaves the hearings, unable to prove his innocence.
Disillusioned, distraught, and disbelieving,
Jefferson Smith makes a late-night visit (with his suitcases) to the Lincoln
Memorial - his second (and presumably last) visit before leaving
Smith acknowledges her wisdom and cynical, Washington-wise savvy. Crushed and downtrodden, Smith is determined to leave town, defeated and finished. In the somber, dim light of the Memorial, Saunders comes to realize that he sincerely loves the democratic process. Revitalizing him with her own rebirth of idealism and reminding him of the "faith" of the Founding Fathers (who were "fools" but the "odds against 'em didn't stop those men"), she encourages him to stand fast, stay and fight the machine-controlled Senate and the corrupt dam scheme of the scoundrels Senator Paine and Taylor:
Saunders: I see. When you get home, what are you gonna
tell those kids?
Smith: I'll tell 'em the truth. Might as well find it out now as later.
Saunders: I don't think they'll believe you, Jeff. You know, they're liable to look up at you with hurt
faces and say, 'Jeff, what did you do? Quit? Didn't you do something about it?'
Smith: Well, what do you expect me to do? An honorary stooge like me against
the
Saunders: Your friend Mr. Lincoln had his Taylors and
Paines. So did every other man whoever tried to lift his
thought up off the ground. Odds against 'em didn't
stop those men. They were fools that way. All the good that ever came into this
world came from fools with faith like that. You know that Jeff. You can't quit
now. Not you! They aren't all Taylors and Paines in
Smith: What? Do what, Saunders?
Saunders: You just make up your mind you're not gonna
quit and I'll tell you what. I've been thinkin' about
it all the way back here. It's a forty foot dive into a tub of water, but I
think you can do it.
Smith: Clarissa, where can we get a drink?
Saunders (slapping his knee): Now you're talkin'! (As
they leave, he waves back at the seated, imposing figure of Mr. Lincoln.)
***(See clip)***
The next morning, Smith appears at his Senate desk to the disappointment of the others in the chamber. Saunders waves and clasps her hands for him from the gallery high above. She tells Diz: "Pray Diz, if you know how." The report from the committee hearings on Jefferson Smith's expulsion is read, recommending that the resolution be adopted to expel him. The President of the Senate chooses to recognize Senator Smith and he is allowed to speak, having "an equal claim on the attention of this chair." From the gallery, Saunders cries: "Let him speak!" (See clip)
Jefferson Smith begins his climactic, one-man filibuster scene (considered one of the virtuoso scenes of 1930s films), in part to stall a vote that would oust him from the Senate.
...I've got a few things I want to say to this body. I tried to say them once before and I got stopped colder than a mackeral. Well, I'd like to get them said this time, sir. And as a matter of fact, I'm not gonna leave this body until I do get them said.
In one of the film's unforgettable moments, the tension on the Senate floor is magnified. In a full shot of the chamber, Smith stands at his desk in the last row of Senators. In the same shot, Senator Paine in the first row rises and interrupts Smith, and without turning to face him, asks if the junior Senator will yield the floor. Smith refuses to yield to Senator Paine, knowing something about the rules of yielding (from instructions and coaching received from Saunders).
When he yields to a question from the dignified Senator Paine, Smith is reminded of the guilty charges brought against his character. Condemned, Smith responds:
Mr. President. I stand guilty as framed! Because Section 40 is GRAFT! And I was ready to say so, I was ready to tell you that a certain man of my state, a Mr. James Taylor, wanted to put through this dam for his own profit. A man who controls a political machine! And controls everything else worth controlling in my state! Yes, and even a man powerful enough to control Congressmen, and I saw three of them in his room the day I went up to see him...And this same man, Mr. James Taylor, came down here and offered me a seat in this Senate for the next twenty years if I voted for a dam that he knew and I knew was a fraud. BUT if I dared to open my mouth against that dam, he promised to break me in two. All right, I got up here and I started to open my mouth and the long and powerful arm of Mr. James Taylor reached into this sacred chamber and grabbed me by the scruff of the neck...
In a
point of order, Paine admits to being one of the Congressmen in the room
with Mr. Taylor, and accuses Smith of deliberately trying to "plant
damaging impressions" of his conduct. In the meeting with
Gentlemen, I have lost all patience with this brazen character. I apologize to this body for his appointment. I regret I ever knew him. I'm sick and tired of this contemptible young man and I refuse to stay here and listen to him any longer. I hope every member of this body feels as I do.
Few in the Senate support Smith's requests to listen:
I want a chance to talk to people who'll believe me. The people of my state. They know me. And they know Mr. Taylor. And when they hear my story, they'll rise up and they'll kick Mr. Taylor's machine to kingdom come. Now I want one week to go back there and bring you proof that I'm right. And in the meantime, I want this Senate's promise that I will not be expelled and that the Deficiency Bill will not be passed. (See clip)
When the chamber clears of Senators, Smith promises to endlessly speak in a classic filibuster. Prepared, he removes a supply of food and drink from his coat:
And I'll tell you one thing, that wild horses aren't gonna drag me off this floor until those people have heard everything I've got to say, even if it takes all winter. ***(See clip)***
With hand gestures suggesting what to do, Saunders provides heroic support from the balcony. During the 23-hour filibuster, Smith tries to gain time with a "call to quorum" while the results of his own investigation into corruption can reach him. Diz phones in his own story angle:
This is the most titanic battle of modern times. A David without even a slingshot rises to do battle against the mighty Goliath Taylor machine, allegedly crooked inside and out.
With Boss Taylor in control of the media,
newspapers, and radio, the truthful distribution of Smith's message is doomed
to fail.
But Senator Paine doesn't have the
"stomach" to do anything more. His guilt-stricken conscience slowly
softens him.
Banner headlines in the newspapers blast Smith's "cowardly" filibuster.
Criminal in Vicious Attack on Beloved Senator Paine
SMITH STOPS RELIEF!
Blocks Deficiency Bill - Starves Country to Save Hide
JAILBIRD DEFIES NATION
'Let The Poor Starve,' He Shouts
Senators meet outside the Senate chamber after leaving to protest Smith's filibuster. The President of the Senate says he can't take the floor away from Smith because he has followed the rules. Paine threatens to quit, saying his honor has been questioned. Another Senator, sympathetic to Paine, says:
I didn't like this boy from the beginning. But most of us feel that no man who wasn't sincere could stage a fight like this against these impossible odds.
From the Senate itself, H. V. Kaltenborn (Himself) announces the Senate proceedings to the CBS radio audience: