My hand is still in a cast, but in a couple of weeks I should be able to write in this blog regularly again. Last night we watched Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", 1939, and it's patriotic and clear eyed at the same time. Jimmy Stewart is a bit hysterical throughout, but then he does anxiety so well. Jean Arthur is Saunders, his secretary when he comes to D.C. as a newly minted Senator, his perfect foil, so calm and pragmatic and depressed she's bound to fall for him and does. Claude Rains is terrific as the senator Smith worships, and Harry Carey wonderful as the President of the senate. Thomas Mitchell plays a reporter in love with Arthur and everyone does their bit to make the film vivid.
Seeing boy pages is fascinating. Now they are twenty somethings the senators sleep with. All the boy scout stuff is baloney, but fun, and the year this film was made shows in the reminders of what America stands for, versus the looming Europe of Hitler. It's a great history lesson, vastly romanticized. It sends my heart soaring, and I'm glad I will be visiting D.C. next month, as I've loved the city since childhood. If you're in the mood, all the speechifying is inspiring, and you almost believe all over again that good can triumph over greed and corruption. Almost. Except for the Supreme Court, making money the only coin of the realm.
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