Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

I do love Jimmy Stewart, and I was fun to see him so young in this film. Likewise, I do adore Claude Rains, so this film had two advantages off the bat. I believe that most American civics students are shown this film as a sort of lesson about filibustering and the process of how bills go through the houses of Congress, etc., etc., but for those who don't know, it's a moralistic tale about a green Jr. Senator who singlehandedly takes on the Washington political machine, and a graft bill sponsored by his Sr. Senator. David vs. Goliath in the senate, and instead of a slingshot we have the filibuster. The movie does seem like a guise to be a civics lesson and tends to be preachy about political corruption but it's a fun watch. It does have a major plot hole in that no one moves for a vote of cloture, which would be the legal, and plausible way to end Jefferson Smith's filibuster, however that wouldn't make for a good Hollywood story.