Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) is Frank Capra's drama starring James Stewart, available to watch online on iFILM. When a senator dies, a corrupt political machine hands his seat to a man they take for a harmless fool: Jefferson Smith, leader of a boys' ranger troop.

Their math is simple. The starry-eyed dreamer will vote as told and ask no awkward questions. At first Smith really is overawed by the marble of the Capitol. But the moment he proposes a bill for a boys' camp on land the bosses have already earmarked for a graft scheme, the gentle naif becomes a thorn they can't pull out. His mentor, Senator Paine (Claude Rains), turns out to be bought and paid for, the press smears the newcomer, and his only ally is his secretary Saunders (Jean Arthur), who doesn't believe in him at all to start.

Capra drives it all toward the climax anyone who knows the word filibuster expects: Stewart talks himself hoarse and nearly to collapse just to be heard. Back in 1939, parts of Washington branded the picture a slander on the Senate, yet it outlived every critic and now sits in the National Film Registry. The idealism here isn't naive so much as stubborn. Stream Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) online on iFILM.