Top 5 Political Satire Movies: "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"

January 13, 11:01 AMClassic TV ExaminerDoug Krentzlin

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      Rains & Stewart in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" 

With the upcoming inauguration and Congress returning to session, I thought this would be a good time to take a look at a genre that personifies the concept of freedom of speech: the political satire. Here is the second of five recommendations (in chronological order) of films that cast a critical eye on politicians and their business.

Brabantio: “Thou art a villain.”
Iago: “You are – a senator.”
-- William Shakespeare, “Othello,” Act I, Scene I

Although “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939) was one of the best films made by director Frank Capra, it was greeted with hostility when it had its premiere at the National Press Club here in D.C. It seems that the politicians in the audience were outraged at the film’s portrayal of political corruption in the Nation’s Capital, while the press was equally indignant at the suggestions that there are some reporters who have been known to have a drink or two.

Nonetheless, James Stewart had one of his most beloved roles as Jefferson Smith, a small town idealist who is taken under wing in Washington, D.C. by veteran Senator Joseph Harrison Paine (the great Claude Rains) as a replacement for a recently deceased senator from their state. When Smith stumbles on to information that Paine is on the take from party boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), he is framed and disgraced and his only hope of regaining his reputation is to stage a filibuster on the floor of the Senate.

Capra was the most patriotic of Hollywood filmmakers and the whole point of the movie was that this country is unique in that corrupt leaders can be denounced publicly and voted out of office by the people. Unfortunately, the film’s screenwriter Sidney Buchman was exposed as a Communist by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in the early 1950s, which led to Capra’s eventual investigation and ruin by HUAC as well.