Frank Capra's final film for Liberty Films which was sold to Paramount in the middle of production (tax laws really didn't help things which even David O. Selznick had to deal with after the success of Gone with the Wind) could be described as generically Frank Capraesque except for the scene where the central character describes his vision of the world under his authority (I'm going to assume it comes from the source play, but if it didn't get changed, I'm going to imply Capra wasn't that opposed to it). It's also one in a long series of films that Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn made together, Tracy recommending Hepburn after Capra fired Claudette Colbert. It's a solidly good portrait of the little guy fighting the corrupt institutions, but it's definitely not top-tier Capra.
Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury), the daughter of a newspaper magnate who has recently died and granted her ownership of the newspaper to her, wants to use the fractured nature of the Republican Party in 1948 to back a dark horse candidate to face off against Harry Truman in the presidential election. She brings in the political fixer Jim Conover (Adolphe Menjou) and shares with him the idea of backing her lover, the airplane manufacturer Grant Matthews (Tracy), as the outsider who can storm in and sweep aside the established, tired order within the GOP. The only real barrier is Grant's wife, Mary (Hepburn), who knows about the affair with Kay which has caused a rift between them. The affair must be kept quiet, and she must be on board to make it work.
Where this film tends to work best is in the relationship between Grant and Mary. Since Tracy and Hepburn were a real couple, it doesn't really surprise that they have an easy chemistry that works when they're bickering or when they're on good terms. They really do seem like they belong together. The relationship in the film is a strenuous one that navigates the ebbs and flows of an affair with another person that may be over but probably isn't, as well as Grant's efforts to keep things honest in his speeches. He gains popularity in the beginning, really catching Conover's attention by speaking his mind, but Conover and Thorndyke aren't backing him to be himself but to have their own candidate that they can control, mostly through the efforts of their speechwriter, the journalist Spike McManus (Van Johnson).
One of the funny things about this is that it's a film about a campaign that never even gets to a primary vote. It's all about securing the support of delegates because, as Conover says, primary voters are too lazy to vote and its dictated by those who can deliver little pockets of voters like union leaders. Grant ends up in a conflict between Mary who wants him to speak his mind and Kay who wants him to follow Conover's advice and be more milquetoast, normal politician, with the pro's advice winning out, and the scene where Grant outlines his worldview is just...weird. I don't often bring up political specifics here because that's not what this is for, but I have to do it here.
There's a strange subset of thinkers who see the failure of one level of government, pointing out its corruption and inefficacies in dealing with larger issues and decide that the only solution is...a higher level of government with even more power (I'm pretty sure it's one of Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Papers that lays this out as an explanation for why the federal government is needed because state governments are...corrupt and inefficient). It's a reaction to the two worst wars in human history happening a generation apart, but the way Grant asserts that it's what the people wants and the only reason he can't say it is because the local labor leaders will balk, or something, is just shoehorning in these ideas and sticking out like a sore thumb. I'm going to assume that Capra had no problem with the viewpoint, and it kind of sours me on him slightly.
Anyway, the dramatic conflict (back to that) is that Grant is essentially selling himself out to the political operatives, and he knows it. He sees it as a necessary evil to get into power, but it becomes increasingly obvious that he's giving away his ability to govern his own way since Kay and Conover keep negotiating things like patronage without his input (he delegates, they don't take it) to the point where he will never be able to govern as he sees best. I have no problem with the idea that the ruling parts of the political parties of America being corrupt and self-interested in power over policy without any concern for the needs of the American people, but it's the specifics of Grant's vision that makes it a bit weird (though he doesn't get a chance to explain his desire for a world government to the people, which is tipping the rhetorical and dramatic scales in his favor).
So, the romantic side works pretty well. The portrait of a moribund party getting railroaded by a straight-talking outsider feels right. The specifics of Grant's philosophy are...weird. Performances are solidly good, as one would expect from a Capra film, but this is something of a letdown from Capra's masterpiece, It's a Wonderful Life, and the final film of his experiment in independent filmmaking before he became a Paramount contract director as dictated in the contract of the sale of Liberty to the major studio. It's good, standard Capra but not the classic that he seemed so easily capable of.
Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury), the daughter of a newspaper magnate who has recently died and granted her ownership of the newspaper to her, wants to use the fractured nature of the Republican Party in 1948 to back a dark horse candidate to face off against Harry Truman in the presidential election. She brings in the political fixer Jim Conover (Adolphe Menjou) and shares with him the idea of backing her lover, the airplane manufacturer Grant Matthews (Tracy), as the outsider who can storm in and sweep aside the established, tired order within the GOP. The only real barrier is Grant's wife, Mary (Hepburn), who knows about the affair with Kay which has caused a rift between them. The affair must be kept quiet, and she must be on board to make it work.
Where this film tends to work best is in the relationship between Grant and Mary. Since Tracy and Hepburn were a real couple, it doesn't really surprise that they have an easy chemistry that works when they're bickering or when they're on good terms. They really do seem like they belong together. The relationship in the film is a strenuous one that navigates the ebbs and flows of an affair with another person that may be over but probably isn't, as well as Grant's efforts to keep things honest in his speeches. He gains popularity in the beginning, really catching Conover's attention by speaking his mind, but Conover and Thorndyke aren't backing him to be himself but to have their own candidate that they can control, mostly through the efforts of their speechwriter, the journalist Spike McManus (Van Johnson).
One of the funny things about this is that it's a film about a campaign that never even gets to a primary vote. It's all about securing the support of delegates because, as Conover says, primary voters are too lazy to vote and its dictated by those who can deliver little pockets of voters like union leaders. Grant ends up in a conflict between Mary who wants him to speak his mind and Kay who wants him to follow Conover's advice and be more milquetoast, normal politician, with the pro's advice winning out, and the scene where Grant outlines his worldview is just...weird. I don't often bring up political specifics here because that's not what this is for, but I have to do it here.
There's a strange subset of thinkers who see the failure of one level of government, pointing out its corruption and inefficacies in dealing with larger issues and decide that the only solution is...a higher level of government with even more power (I'm pretty sure it's one of Alexander Hamilton's Federalist Papers that lays this out as an explanation for why the federal government is needed because state governments are...corrupt and inefficient). It's a reaction to the two worst wars in human history happening a generation apart, but the way Grant asserts that it's what the people wants and the only reason he can't say it is because the local labor leaders will balk, or something, is just shoehorning in these ideas and sticking out like a sore thumb. I'm going to assume that Capra had no problem with the viewpoint, and it kind of sours me on him slightly.
Anyway, the dramatic conflict (back to that) is that Grant is essentially selling himself out to the political operatives, and he knows it. He sees it as a necessary evil to get into power, but it becomes increasingly obvious that he's giving away his ability to govern his own way since Kay and Conover keep negotiating things like patronage without his input (he delegates, they don't take it) to the point where he will never be able to govern as he sees best. I have no problem with the idea that the ruling parts of the political parties of America being corrupt and self-interested in power over policy without any concern for the needs of the American people, but it's the specifics of Grant's vision that makes it a bit weird (though he doesn't get a chance to explain his desire for a world government to the people, which is tipping the rhetorical and dramatic scales in his favor).
So, the romantic side works pretty well. The portrait of a moribund party getting railroaded by a straight-talking outsider feels right. The specifics of Grant's philosophy are...weird. Performances are solidly good, as one would expect from a Capra film, but this is something of a letdown from Capra's masterpiece, It's a Wonderful Life, and the final film of his experiment in independent filmmaking before he became a Paramount contract director as dictated in the contract of the sale of Liberty to the major studio. It's good, standard Capra but not the classic that he seemed so easily capable of.