Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
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The movie opens with the governor of an unnamed state, Governor Hubert “Happy” Hopper (Guy Kibbee), about to pick a replacement to fill the unexpired term of a deceased Senator. His corrupt political boss, Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), wants him to choose his handpicked stooge. Popular committees want him to name a reform candidate. The governors children want him to select Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), the head of the Boy Rangers. The governor, unable to make up his mind between the reformer and the political crony, decides to flip a coin. When it lands on its side – and next to a newspaper opened to a story on one of Smiths accomplishments to boot – he chooses Smith, calculating that his clean image will please the people while his naivete will make him malleable to the political machine.
Smith is taken under the wing of the publicly esteemed, but secretly crooked, Senator Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), whom he admires because he was his late fathers oldest and best friend. He gets an immediate crush on the Senators daughter Susan Paine. The presses in Washington quickly vilify Smith as being a bumpkin, having no business in Washington. Paine, to keep Smith busy, suggests he propose a bill.
The bill “Jeff” Smith proposes would authorize a Federal Government loan to buy some land in his home state for a national boys camp, to be paid back to the U.S. Treasury from donations from youngsters across America. Donations pour in immediately. The proposed boys camp site is on the same piece of land in Terry Canyon that is part of a graft scheme by the Taylor machine and supported by Senator Paine to build the Willet Creek Dam.
The machine, using Paine as its weapon, accuses Smith of trying to profit from his bill by producing fraudulent evidence that Smith owns the land and would greatly profit from any sale. When Smith is given the opportunity to defend himself, he is too shocked by Paines betrayal and runs away. However, his cynical aide and secretary Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur) has come to believe in him and talks him into launching a filibuster on the Senate floor just before the vote to expel him. While Smith talks, his constituents try to rally around him. But the entrenched political opposition is too powerful and all attempts are crushed. On Taylors orders, newspapers and radio stations in Smiths home state refuse to report what Smith has to say, and even