MOVIEmeter
SEE RANK
Down 2,210 this week

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

 -  Drama  -  19 October 1939 (USA)
8.3
Your rating:
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 -/10 X  
Ratings: 8.3/10 from 49,884 users  
Reviews: 218 user | 64 critic

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.

Director:

Writers:

(screenplay), (story), 1 more credit »
Watch Trailer
0Check in
0Share...

User Lists

Related lists from IMDb users

a list of 1269 titles created 5 months ago
 
a list of 250 titles created 20 Mar 2011
 
a list of 2007 titles created 6 days ago
 
a list of 1083 titles created 11 months ago
 
a list of 30 titles created 05 Jun 2011
 

Connect with IMDb


Share this Rating

Title: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) on IMDb 8.3/10

Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.

Take The Quiz!

Test your knowledge of Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Top 250 #113 | Won 1 Oscar. Another 4 wins & 10 nominations. See more awards »

Videos

Photos

Learn more

People who liked this also liked... 

All About Eve (1950)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.4/10 X  

An ingenue insinuates herself in to the company of an established but aging stage actress and her circle of theater friends.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Stars: Bette Davis, Anne Baxter, George Sanders
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8.2/10 X  

A poor Midwest family is forced off of their land. They travel to California, suffering the misfortunes of the homeless in the Great Depression.

Director: John Ford
Stars: Henry Fonda, Jane Darwell, John Carradine
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.7/10 X  

Henriette and Louise, a foundling, are raised together as sisters. When Louise goes blind, Henriette swears to take care of her forever. They go to Paris to see if Louise's blindness can be... See full summary »

Director: D.W. Griffith
Stars: Lillian Gish, Dorothy Gish, Joseph Schildkraut
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.3/10 X  

A young woman marries an older millionaire and then falls in love with a handsome nobleman on her honeymoon.

Director: Sam Wood
Stars: Rudolph Valentino, Gloria Swanson, Edythe Chapman
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

Sadie Thompson arrives in Pago-Pago to start a new life, but when extremist missionary Davidson lashes out against her lifestyle and tries to force her back to San Francisco, she may lose ... See full summary »

Director: Raoul Walsh
Stars: Lionel Barrymore, Blanche Friderici, Charles Lane
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

Brick, an alcoholic ex-football player, drinks his days away and resists the affections of his wife, Maggie. His reunion with his father, Big Daddy, who is dying of cancer, jogs a host of memories and revelations for both father and son.

Director: Richard Brooks
Stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Paul Newman, Burl Ives
Queen Kelly (1929)
Certificate: Passed Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

Prince Wolfram is the betrothed of mad Queen Regina V of Kronberg. Supreme ruler, her word is law and he is a playboy. On maneuvers as punishment for partying with other women, he sees ... See full summary »

Director: Erich von Stroheim
Stars: Gloria Swanson, Walter Byron, Seena Owen
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 8/10 X  

After opening a convent in the Himalayas, five nuns encounter conflict and tension - both with the natives and also within their own group - as they attempt to adapt to their remote, exotic surroundings.

Directors: Michael Powell, Emeric Pressburger
Stars: Deborah Kerr, Flora Robson, Jenny Laird
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

Cary, Shep, Bill, and Francis are pilots during World War I. Cary and Shep's plane is shot down, and they barely survive; they're released from the hospital on Armistice Day... See full synopsis »

Director: William Dieterle
Stars: Richard Barthelmess, David Manners, Johnny Mack Brown
Coquette (1929)
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 6.5/10 X  

A flirtatious southern belle is compromised with one of her beaus.

Director: Sam Taylor
Stars: Mary Pickford, Johnny Mack Brown, Matt Moore
Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.5/10 X  

A young woman comes to Hollywood with dreams of stardom, but achieves them only with the help of an alcoholic leading man whose best days are behind him.

Director: William A. Wellman
Stars: Janet Gaynor, Fredric March, Adolphe Menjou
Downstairs (1932)
Certificate: Passed Drama
    1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7.2/10 X  

At the wedding of Albert and Anna, Karl, the new chauffeur, arrives. Albert is the head butler, second generation to the Baron. Karl soon seems out of place as a servant, and Albert tells ... See full summary »

Stars: John Gilbert, Paul Lukas, Virginia Bruce
Edit

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
...
...
...
...
Guy Kibbee ...
Gov. Hubert Hopper
...
...
Chick McGann
...
Ma Smith
...
Senate Majority Leader - Agnew
...
President of the Senate - Henry
Astrid Allwyn ...
Susan Paine
Ruth Donnelly ...
Mrs. Emma Hopper
...
Sen. MacPherson
Porter Hall ...
Sen. Martin Monroe
Pierre Watkin ...
Senate Minority Leader, Barnes
Edit

Storyline

Naive and idealistic Jefferson Smith, leader of the Boy Rangers, is appointed on a lark by the spineless governor of his state. He is reunited with the state's senior senator--presidential hopeful and childhood hero, Senator Joseph Paine. In Washington, however, Smith discovers many of the shortcomings of the political process as his earnest goal of a national boys' camp leads to a conflict with the state political boss, Jim Taylor. Taylor first tries to corrupt Smith and then later attempts to destroy Smith through a scandal. Written by James Yu <jamestyu@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu>

Plot Summary | Plot Synopsis

Taglines:

Capra at his greatest! See more »

Genres:

Drama

Certificate:

Approved | See all certifications »

Parents Guide:

 »
Edit

Details

Country:

Language:

Release Date:

19 October 1939 (USA)  »

Also Known As:

Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington  »

Box Office

Budget:

$1,500,000 (estimated)
 »

Company Credits

Show detailed on  »

Technical Specs

Runtime:

| (TV)

Sound Mix:

(Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1
See  »
Edit

Did You Know?

Trivia

James Stewart knew this was the role of a lifetime, one that could place him near the top of the Hollywood heap. Jean Arthur later remembered his mood at the time: "He was so serious when he was working on that picture, he used to get up at five o'clock in the morning and drive himself to the studio. He was so terrified something was going to happen to him, he wouldn't go faster." See more »

Goofs

Jeff Smith is accused of putting forward his bill on Boys Camp for his own benefit, as the supposed owner of the land on which the two contending bills lay claim. Yet if he did own this land and was concerned about selling it overpriced "at $500 an acre", he would in fact support the bill backed by the corrupt Senators, since he would make a profit from the sale of "his" land whatever the State decided to build there, Boys Camp or a dam. See more »

Quotes

Jefferson Smith: I guess this is just another lost cause, Mr. Paine. All you people don't know about lost causes. Mr. Paine does. He said once they were the only causes worth fighting for. And he fought for them once, for the only reason any man ever fights for them; because of just one plain simple rule: 'Love thy neighbor.'... And you know that you fight for the lost causes harder than for any other. Yes, you even die for them.
See more »

Connections

Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Who Framed Roger Rabbit/Aria/The Great Outdoors (1988)
A clip of the climactic Senate speech is shown in the segment about the Film Preservation Act. See more »

Soundtracks

"When Johnny Comes Marching Home"
(1863) (uncredited)
Music by Louis Lambert
In the score when Smith goes sightseeing
See more »

Frequently Asked Questions

See more (Spoiler Alert!) »

User Reviews

Want to Get Your View Across? Why Not Filibuster?
30 April 2004 | by (United States) – See all my reviews

The media and those in Washington, D.C. cringed in 1939 when Frank Capra (Oscar-nominated for directing) come out with "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Capra, fresh off amazing successes like "Lady for a Day", "It Happened One Night", "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", "Lost Horizon" and "You Can't Take It With You", used his power to slap some bigwigs in the face with a powerful medium---the motion picture. The result was an immediate backlash by publications and politicians, but cheers from critics and the audience. As with society, the critics and the masses won out as the movie is a masterpiece in every way. A U.S. Senate vacancy leads to a dilemma. Who should be put in office? Everyone believes the apparently naive and gullible James Stewart (Oscar-nominated) is the logical choice because he will be easy to manipulate and he won't rock the boat. Stewart, the leader of the Boy Rangers (a local camp association for youngsters), gets blind-sided by many high-ranking officials who have alterior motives (Oscar nominees Harry Carey and Claude Rains in particular) when his idea for a national boys' camp goes by the wayside. Thus the only thing left for Stewart is to beat those in charge by beating them at their own game---creating a filibuster (a never-ending governmental argument for his cause). Stewart is solid as always here and the supporters (love interest/reporter Jean Arthur and drunk newspaper man Thomas Mitchell included with the aforementioned players) are all terrific throughout. The Oscar-winning screenplay is deceptively intelligent and Capra just had the uncanny ability to mix comedy, drama and interpersonal characterizations together to make consistently wonderful American film experiences. 5 stars out of 5.


47 of 55 people found this review helpful.  Was this review helpful to you?

Message Boards

Recent Posts
Sentimentalist rubbish siluad2
Jefferson Smith: liberal or conservative gbromberg
Mr Smith punching people? luks-11
Would like to see a colorized version of this film cadams-5
Does Mr. Smith become a President gbromberg
I don't understand something... Angel_Buffy
Discuss Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) on the IMDb message boards »

Contribute to This Page

Create a character page for:
?