Evening star., 1939-10-20

build-up that here at last is the
picture about Washington that the
critical denizens of the Capital City
recognize as authentic.
There has been a lot said, too. In
polySyllabic words about the purpose
OF the director and his associates to
put over big idea, and about the
patriotic glow that the picture will
produce in all who see it,
The writer wouldn't for a minute
detract from the unquestionable
merits of Mr.. Smith" It's not so
good, to my way of thinking as Mr..
Capra's 1T Happened One Night"
which made no pretensions to teach
ing anybody anything, but it's still
a grand show. The acting is splen-
did, the tempo is fast. and the pic
ture is replete with all those little
human interest touches that the
movie-going public has come to ex-
pect from the gifted Mr.. Capra.
Correctness of Detail.
Thanks to the passion of the direc-
tor for correctness in detail and to
the ministrations of Jim Preston
formerly for many years the super
intendent of the Senate press gall
lery, the reproductions of the Senate
chamber and of various curiosa
about the Capitol are amazingly ac-
curate. The layman is bound to
wonder, though, why Mr. Capra went
to the trouble and expense of re-
producing such items as the his.
torlc scratches on Senator'S desks,
the exact details of picture frames
in the Capitol, the busts of Vice
Presidents, and, as We are assured,
all the curlycues of the Senate
chambers decorations down to the
last sixteenth of an inch. Nearly
all these little meticulous niceties,
which in the aggregate cost a tre-
mendous sum, are swallowed up, and
even if they were sharply visible.
it is doubtful whether they would
add anything to essential accuracy
or contribute to ones enjoyment of
the story. This, however, is an
esoteric matter about which the
present writer is not qualified to
speak. How the movie directors
spend money is their own and their
stockholders business.
On the credit side are also the
fine photography of the film and
some vastly moving scenes. like that
In the Lincoln Memorial, which are
calculated to warm the democratic
cookies of the heart.
No Epic of Democracy.
The film is not, however. an epic
OF democracy or even, except in its
foot-rule attention to physical de-
tails, true picture either of politics
in general or of what goes on In
the Senate at Washington. It's good
entertainment, or hokum, or thea
ter or whatever is the word, but
that's all.
Senators don't riot on the floor or
call out wisecracks against a new
member no political boss could pos
sibly silence all the newspapers of
his State or keep the news of the
airwaves: the newspaper writers of
Washington, while not pugilistically
inclined, are not given to being
slapped down by Senators, and
neither, with all their human er-
rancies, are they quite so bibulous
and irresponsible as the newspaper
characters in the film.
Good Entertainment.
Mr.. Capra is entitled to his ar
tistic license. If he chooses for en-
tertainment purposes to portray the
Senators and the scribes as he has
done in."Mr. Smith," it's only the
oversensitive souls among them who
will take exception. But Mr.. Smith"
ought not to be acclaimed for what
it isn't. 1t decidedly is not a mas
terpiece with a message or, except
in highly superficial sense, a cor
rect picture of Washington. It's
simply good entertainment.
No doubt it cost. as the press
agents tell us, a million dollars, and
no doubt the inkwells and the Quill
pens in the Senate are faithfully
limned, but the picture that will
give you the lights and shades OF
politics and journalism at the Capt.
tai remains 20 be produced.