Movie Minx

Starring: James Stewart, Jean Arthur
Directed by: Frank Capra

Plot: A naive man is appointed to fill a vacancy in the US Senate. His plans promptly collide with political corruption, but he doesn’t back down.

But is it any good?

This is an absolute gem of a movie, and I’d never even heard of it. This is why I’m (slowly) working my way through the top 100.

Stewart is utterly convincing as the naive young southern man wetting his feet in the US Senate. He’s so full of goodness, and so struck by the memorials to politicians of the past, that he initially fails to see the corruption staring him in the face. “Oh boy!” and “Golly gee whizz” spill out of this mouth as easily as the lies do from his fellow Senators.

It’s a Frank Capra movie, so there’s enough corn here to fill a field. But that doesn’t detract from the admiration you feel for Mr Smith as he fights the screwball politicans controlling the Senate (and the media). It’s an inspiring story that would not work today (he wants to build a giant boys’ camp in the woods? What is he, Michael Jackson?) but captures a freshness and innocence that would be dulled in the years to come. This was 1939, after all.

Jean Arthur is also great as his brittle secretary, hardened by what she’s seen in the political world and put in charge of steering Smith clear from the Senate while they vote to take the land he so desperately wants for his camp. Initially disgusted by Smith’s round-eyed wonder, she falls hard for his ambitious desire to help people and ends up guiding him through the movie’s biggest scene, as Smith holds the floor in Congress and won’t back down until his name is cleared. “You know, for a woman you’ve done pretty well,” Smith says in one scene, a comment that these days would earn him a smackdown but then was probably a massive compliment.

It’s a sign of the times that there are only two women and no black people in the entire movie. But put in context, it’s a stirring and powerful film about standing up to The Man and fighting for The People. It’s a shame Stewart was only an Oscar nominee the following year.

IMDb’s rating: 8.4/10
My rating: 8.5/10

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