Frank Capra came to the United States from Italy at the age of five and, after many twists and turns, found his way into the film industry just as sound was changing everything. With skilled screenwriters, he created a series of socially conscious comedies based on wordplay and chemistry between actors, such as It Happened One Night (1934), which won five Oscars. In Capra’s oeuvre, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a turn towards a darker and more hopeless world, but one in which it is still possible for an individual to make a difference. Loosely based on real events, it tells the story of a naive but outspoken new senator who ends up fighting a corrupt government.
In their second Capra film together, the brilliant screwball comedienne Jean Arthur and James Stewart, who had just risen to stardom, come together in a feast of perfect expression, in which the tragicomic characters become deeper and feel familiar, and tension lingers until the very end. The film is regarded as one of the best in the world.
Capra’s films were not sold to Stalin’s Soviet Union, but a few copies found their way there during the Second World War. Through cuts, montage, and dubbing, they were transformed into horror stories of Western exploitative capitalism, in which human dignity is unknown. In the Soviet Union, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington was known as The Senator.
Mia Öhman