State of the Union (1948)

User Rating:

7.5/10   

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Howard Lindsay (play) and
Russel Crouse (play) ...

Release Date:

30 April 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Tagline:

How's the State of the Union? It's GREAT!

Plot:

An industrialist is urged to run for President, but this requires uncomfortable compromises on both political and marital levels.

Plot Keywords:

Politician | Industrialist | Compromise | Political | Senator

Cast

Spencer Tracy	...	Grant Matthews
Katharine Hepburn	...	Mary Matthews (as Katherine Hepburn)
Van Johnson	...	'Spike' McManus
Angela Lansbury	...	Kay Thorndyke
Adolphe Menjou	...	Jim Conover (as Adolph Menjou)
Lewis Stone	...	Sam Thorndyke
Howard Smith	...	Sam I. Parrish
Charles Dingle	...	Bill Nolard Hardy
Maidel Turner	...	Lulubelle Alexander
Raymond Walburn	...	Judge Alexander
Margaret Hamilton	...	Norah
Art Baker	...	Radio Announcer
Pierre Watkin	...	Sen. Lauterback
Florence Auer	...	Grace Orval Draper
Irving Bacon	...	Buck Swanson

Also Known As:

The World and His Wife (UK)

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:A (original rating) | UK:PG (re-rating) (2005) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | USA:Approved | USA:Passed | Finland:S | Sweden:Btl

Filming Locations:

Detroit, Michigan, USA

Company:

Liberty Films (II)

Trivia:

Gary Cooper was originally chosen for the role of Grant Matthews.

Goofs:

Continuity: A newspaper, meant to be for the current date in the movie, is shown with the date Monday, April 5, 1948. Later, another newspaper, also meant to be for what is now the current date, is shown, and the date is Friday, March 26, 1948.

Quotes:

Jim Conover: ...the most beautiful plank in your husband's platform.
Mary Matthews: That's a heck of a thing to call a woman!

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Angela Lansbury: A Balancing Act" (1998)

Actors' Equity . . . Or, "Caught Acting" . . .

What Frank Capra did here was take a stage script, assemble the finest actors available, add a couple of scenes not seen onstage, and deliver a thoroughly entertaining still politically-relevant showcase.

Tracy and Hepburn, as always, are solid and fascinating. Did anybody ever "catch" Spencer Tracy "acting?" That's the advice Burt Reynolds said Spence gave him on acting: "Don't let 'em catch you at it." There, in seven words, is the most profound advice ever given to actors. And Tracy absolutely embodied it throughout his long career.

The single "stagiest" moment in "State of the Union" is Tracy's long speech to the old man at the wrought-iron fence in front of the rear-projection White House. An utterly impossible catalogue of history's "heroes," fictional and non-, who "spiritually" inhabit the White House -- "that noble edifice." The speech is a mouthful and pedantic to boot. But somehow, Tracy manages to pull it off.

Hepburn, as always, is thoroughly captivating, both as a performer and in the character. Yet, as always, there are moments you "catch" her acting. Say, in her "drunken" transition from laughter to tears in the broadcast sequence that concludes "State of the Union." Hepburn's best and bravest work, perhaps, was in "Long Day's Journey Into Night." Her silliest and phoniest? "Bringing Up Baby." (Yet even there, she's still delightful!) Who else in "State of the Union" do you catch "acting?" Van Johnson. Margaret Hamilton. Taken as "comic relief," however, they're fine -- in a stagy sort of overplayed way.

Certainly not Angela Lansbury or Adolphe Menjou. Both fine actors who long understood the different demands for stage and film. And delivered.

What's alarming is the shoddy "continuity" early on. Perhaps for budgetary reasons, Capra couldn't reshoot the initial scene in Kay Thorndyke's (Angela Lansbury's) office. Or perhaps the continuity girl was home sick that day. Or the actors' couldn't remember their positions from setup to setup. Or Capra didn't care.

Whatever. Virtually every cut in that office scene finds the participants (except Tracy, tellingly) in significantly different postures than from a split-second ago. Lansbury leans back in her chair behind her desk. CUT: she's sitting forward, leaning over papers on her desk. Etc., etc. It's jarring and sloppy.

The highlight, among many highlights, of "State of the Union" is the near-end entry of Judge and Lulubelle Alexander at the home-broadcast of Tracy's pre-election address to the nation. Played by Raymond Turner and Maidel Walburn. You don't catch them acting, either. Maidel Walburn is particularly impressive as the jolly matronly alcoholic wife of a Louisiana politician. Walburn is the very definition of "supporting actor" here. She and Hepburn play off each other with seeming spontaneity and obvious great humor.

Amazingly, one knows more about "Lulubelle" from this brief sequence -- her background, her humor as self-protection, her shallowness, her heartbreak, her essential goodness, her need for alcohol -- than one knows about the backstories of either Spencer Tracy's or Katharine Hepburn's characters. And it's not in the writing. It's in Walburn's effortless performance.

Then "State of the Union" devolves into a Capra-esquire feel-good ending featuring a crowd of extras singing "for-he's-a-jolly-good-fellow" bromides as the wife and children huddle for a closeup. Better done in "It's a Wonderful Life" because Christmas was thrown into the mix. But still effective. In a cheaply manipulative kind of way.

Great scenes. Wonderful performers. A rare gem.

And you still can't catch Spencer Tracy acting.