Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

“Romance, drama, laughter and heartbreak... created out of the very heart and soil of America!”

A senator has died, and the governor (Guy Kibbee) needs a name to put in his seat, so he picks the earnest Jefferson Smith (James Stewart). Smith arrives in Washington wide-eyed and unprepared, and his secretary Clarissa Saunders (Jean Arthur) quickly sees that the men around him are not what they seem. Frank Capra keeps the comedy light in the early scenes and lets it thin out as the corruption comes into view.