Gee whiz! James Stewart is great as always, but the rest of the movie is fairly straight forward and predictable. Guess it doesn’t help that global politics are such a big mess these days that corruption like this doesn’t feel all that shocking. Real life is way worse if you ask me.

This was forced on me during 7th grade civics class, and I remember it feeling hamfisted and idealistic. Upon rewatch, I was shocked how much I loved it. The most surprising note for me was the interiority of Stewart's performance--I remembered the big filibuster sequence, but really appreciated the quiet of his performance in the first half of the film. This is accentuated by some lovely direction by Capra, especially in the hat-dropping scene. Supporting actors are uniformly excellent: Jean Arthur continues to be such a revelation for me, Claude Rains' avuncular senior senator is also quietly wonderful, and Thomas Mitchell somehow cranking out the third classic in the same year.

But what also struck me was how cynical and realistic this was. Yes, of course the system is brought to heel by an apple-pie outsider, but the movie does a wonderful job of displaying the machinery of graft present in Congress along with a shockingly modern sequence of media manipulation that was painful to watch. I've never been a big Capra fan, but was pleasantly surprised here.

**Decent, but very dated. Possibly worth watching once.**

Jimmy Stewart is great here as per usual. Jean Arthur’s character was the best though. Unfortunately, the storyline is a confusing mess and the shoddy editing only makes that worse.
>Clarissa: “I wasn’t given a brain to tell a boy ranger what time it is.”

a fight for lost causes. Great!

This is an incredibly solid movie. The storyline is full of character depth and development, with turns one might not expect. The script is excellent with wonderfully written dialogue that flows incredibly well. Overall the movie shows a powerful representation of US Politics, something that is still applicable today.

This isn't a fictional story. This is a Documentary on how corrupt the Government really is. We need Term limits on House and Senate seats.

Jimmy Stewart is great and this is still relevant to today's politics which is sad.