... since James Stewart is really not a lead in "Philadelphia Story". Instead he was more of a supporting actor there. But the Academy probably felt they should have given Stewart the Best Actor trophy for this film and were just correcting a bit of history, which they have often done over the years. But I digress.
In an unnamed state - because if Capra had named it they would have sued - a sitting senator dies. The corrupt state political machine ends up appointing babe-in-the-woods Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) to fill the seat because they see him as so naive that they can control him. His dad, a newspaper editor, was murdered when he was fighting for a lost cause. Smith's dad's lifelong friend happens to be his state's senior senator, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains).
It so happens that Paine is in on the plan to put forth a bill that will build an unneeded damn on land that has been bought up by state machine puppet master Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold) so that he can get a big payout from the federal government. Paine has justified this and a hundred other corrupt acts over the years by the thousand ways he has served his state honestly. Selling oneself to the devil is seldom done in a single transaction. The problem is that Smith wants to use the same land to build a summer camp for boys, and in the process he learns of the corrupt land deal he was never supposed to know about. Complications that involve famous cinematic history ensue.
Today, post Watergate, it's hard to believe that somebody such as Jefferson Smith could exist as an adult who knows so much about American history but nothing about corruption in government to the point he is flabbergasted by it. Lots has been said about Stewart's performance, with him rising from playing in all kinds of inane and minor MGM films to a leading man in an American classic in just a couple of years. But consider Claude Rains's performance. Rains portrays a complex character who struggles with his conscience and past choices and it is killing him that he has to betray the son of his best friend the way that he does. He is an essential gray character in a bunch of black and white ones.
Apparently this received lots of backlash during its release for portraying US Senators as folks capable of being corrupted through money. Maybe that was unrealistic for the 1930's, but in 2023, this film is practically a documentary.
