State of the Union

State of the Union

source: State of the Union

This political drama is based on a play, and it sure looks like it. There are scenes after scenes with characters engaging in long conversations, mostly about politics. It basically looks like a filmed stage play and it soon becomes tiresome. Capra tries to break up the monotony by including a scene featuring planes barnstorming, but it looks out of place and feels tacked on just to make it cinematic. This is one of the weakest entries in the Tracy-Hepburn series, but the stars are not to blame. They try their best, but are let down by the material. Lansbury is fine in a role that's a precursor to "The Manchurian Candidate." Johnson provides the comic relief.

Okay, this is a great film with great actors, a great director, a great script, and so on. I own the DVD and enjoy watching it very much. Tracy and Hepburn are terrific together, as always. And their chemistry really shines, as always. And that is what causes one little problem for me. I never believe for an instant that Tracy would cheat on Hepburn for Lansbury. Lansbury's character is too cold and calculating and quite frankly just not very attractive, while Hepburn is at her most charming and attractive best. There is no chemistry between Tracy and Lansbury and I just cannot help thinking that there's no way in heck that he'd go for her over Hepburn. Actingwise, Lansbury can more than hold her own with either Tracy or Hepburn, and that is saying quite a lot, but she just doesn't have that indefinable something that would make her a great catch for someone like Tracy's character who already has Hepburn.

Although the political references are dated (Hoover, Harding,FDR, Truman) this film is wonderful. If you just cued to the speeches about cutting taxes and the American Dream it could be an editorial out of the magazine The Nation. In 1948 Hollywood was able to take incredible actors and actresses, record more words in five minutes than a movie today speaks in an hour, and still appeal to the "common folk" politically. Hokey but sophisticated, patriotic but cynical, State of the Union grapples with the corruption behind political machines. Its main weakness is the presentation of a powerful woman as someone who belongs "in a kennel" and the good woman the mother with two kids who kneels and sews a loose thread in her husband's suit (even though she knows he is cheating on her). Hepburn manages to be powerful, strong willed, but a typical mid-century hausfrau-there for her man. You may not agree with its presentation of women, but its politics are as astute anything you will read on a blog today.

It's ironic that this is probably the least well-known of the Tracy/Hepburn collaborations--and yet, it's among their best as far as performances and overall content is concerned. Everyone, including KATHARINE HEPBURN and SPENCER TRACY, looks good in this film. VAN JOHNSON has one of his most engaging roles as the good guy who sees through the manipulations of corrupt ANGELA LANSBURY and ADOLPHE MENJOU. And so, dirty politics is the theme of this film taken from the stage play by Howard Lindsey and Russel Crouse that starred RALPH BELLAMY and RUTH HUSSEY. Unfortunately, as directed by Frank Capra, it has a certain staginess about the proceedings with actors making entrances and exits as if on cue in rather static situations. But it's a pretty polished script and it's amusing to see the wonderful ANGELA LANSBURY (all of 23) playing a sophisticated woman in her 40s with such ease and perfection. Spencer has a role tailor-made for his abilities, a man whose integrity is so challenged that he refuses to play by the rules of the game and play party politics. Hepburn, as the wife aware of his affair with Lansbury, is forthright and honest in her performance and, thankfully, less mannered than usual. Still timely in the way it talks about Republicans and Democrats, it's worth seeing for the marvelous cast and what they manage to do with the stage material. The title, of course, refers to politics as well as the marital union of Tracy and Hepburn.

Its a wonderful old film that is definitely worth a look. Unfortunately, and I find this to be ironic, considering how tempermental Kate Hepburn was about the spelling of her first name, the opening film credit has her listed as Katherine Hepburn when she always spelled her name Katharine.

In the 1980 New Hampshire primary, an exasperated Ronald Reagan blurted out the famous line "I'm paying for this microphone!" when a moderator threaten to turn off the microphones at an unruly debate. It was a hugely successful and defining moment for Reagan, nailing down his image as a man of rugged independence who refused to suffer fools gladly -- to say nothing of his ability to craft a clever quip. However, given his Hollywood roots, it seems more likely he consciously or unconsciously lifted this line from Spencer Tracy's character in "State of the Union."

It never ceases to amaze me how one can see a film about politics made in the '30s, '40s, '50s - doesn't matter when it was made, it always seems like it was made yesterday. "State of the Union," a 1941 Frank Capra film, is another political film that comes off as very fresh. A plain speaking, likable man, Grant Matthews (Spencer Tracy) is convinced to run for President by the publisher of a newspaper, Kay Thorndyke (Angela Lansbury) who is also his mistress, and before he knows it, his words and intentions are no longer his own. Because he wants to win, he compromises and lies down with the dogs. When he stands up, he's got fleas. Katharine Hepburn costars as Grant's wife Mary in a role intended for Claudette Colbert, and she's excellent. She got the part by sheer happenstance - she was with Tracy when Capra called to say that Colbert was out. Colbert wanted to be filmed from the left only and didn't want to work after 5. Because the studio wanted the film out before the actual 1948 Presidential election, there wasn't the time or budget to accommodate her. All the performances in this film are marvelous. Van Johnson is very funny and charming as a newspaperman who becomes Grant's campaign manager. Adolphe Menjou is perfect as Kaye's mouthpiece who wants to go after the money people and court big business and the union heads. Lansbury is fantastic as the ambitious, cutthroat Kaye, who took over the paper from her father and knows how to use and abuse power. By today's standards, "State of the Union" is probably too talky - Capra often has big monologues in his films, but they're always delivered powerfully. Here is no exception. A rousing film about the breakdown of idealism before political realities.