Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Frank Capra considered this his best film and many would agree. James Stewart is Jefferson Smith, an idealistic young man appointed to fill out the term of a deceased senator, only to find the place a hotbed of corruption... and he's expected to fall in line. Considered by many to be the pre-eminent political satire, this marvelous comedy-drama remains as relevant today as it was then. Jean Arthur plays a hard-boiled/soft-centered reporter, and the cast was one of the greatest Capra ever assembled: Claude Rains, Edward Arnold, Harry Carey, Thomas Mitchell, Guy Kibbee, Eugene Pallette, Beulah Bondi, H.B. Warner, Charles Lane, Jack Carson, and Porter Hall. Sidney Buchman wrote the script; the original story, by Lewis Foster, won the film's only Oscar®. As Capra later wrote, "Never make your greatest film the same year as GONE WITH THE WIND." As with Capra's MR. DEEDS, it spawned a 60's sitcom and a remake (BILLY JACK GOES TO WASHINGTON).