State of the Union


Cast Grant Matthews Mary Matthews Spike McManus Kay Thorndyke Jim Conover Sam Thorndyke Sam Parrish Lulubelle Axelander Judge Alexander Bill Hardy Grace Orval Draper Senator Lauerback Norah Buck Joyce Grant, Jr. Bellboy Barber Waiter Blink Moran Leith Jenny First Reporter Blonde Girl Wrestler Senator Pilot Politician Joe Crandall Rusty Miller Broder Bradbury Crump Josephs Editor Credits Director Producer Associate Producer Screenplay by Based on the play by Director of Photography Art Direction by Associate Art Director Set Decorator Film Editing by Sound Recordist Musical Score Costume Design by Special Effects Assistant Director	Name Spencer Tracy Katharine Hepburn Van Johnson Angela Lansbury Adolpe Menjou Lewis Stone Howard Smith Maidel Turner Raymond Walburn Charles Dingle Florence Auer Pierre Watkin Margaret Hamilton Irvin Bacon Patti Brady Georges Nokes Carl Switzer Tom Pedi Tom Fadden Charles Lane Art Baker Rhea Mitchell Arthur O’Conell Marion Martin Tor Johnson Stanley Andrews Dave Willock Russell Meeker Frank L. Clarke David Clarke Dell Henderson Edwin Cooper Davidson Clark Francis Pierlot Brandon Beach Name Frank Capra Frank Capra Anthony Veiller Anthony Veiller, Myles Connolly Howard Lindsay, Russel Crouse George J. Folsey Cedric Gibbons Urie McCleary Emile Kuri William Hornbeck Douglas Shearer Victor Young Irene A. Arnold Gillespie Arthur S. Blake Jr.

VHS / DVD

Film data

Liberty Film Production
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
124 minutes
Produced: September 29-December 6, 1947

Premiere: April 4, 1948

Synopsis

Mary Matthews joins her estranged husband-candidate Grant to bolster his political chances for the Republican nomination by pretending they enjoy a happy marriage. Pushed by people like Kay Thorndyke, a shrewd newspaperman's daughter, who also loves him, and Jim Conover, a sharp old-line politician, Grant gradually sacrifices all of his principles in favor of his 'White House fever'.

Trailer

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Critics' reviews

John McCarten – The New Yorker – 1948
"When "State of the Union most closely follows the Lindsay Crouse play from which it derives, if is a fairly enjoyable business, but then it lights out on its own, it becomes a manages to say as if she meant them such lines as 'Grant likes to get up on the mountains and slap the hurricanes down.'"

Dave Kehr – Chicago Reader
"A wheezy populist parable from Frank Capra's declining years. Spencer Tracy is running from national office, playing along with a group of questionable backers (led by Angela Lansbury) until wife Katharine Hepburn convinces him to stand up for his principles. The public humiliation scene – always an integral part of Capras’ comedies – seems unusually sadistic this time, and most of the gags are drowned by the pompous political sermonizing. A footnote to the Hepburn-Tracy myth, better left to the hard-core."

Geoff Andrew – Time Out
"An over-long and over-emphatic political satire, in which Tracy's presidential candidate enlists the help of his estranged wife (Hepburn) in order to present a happy, respectable front to the voters (as always with Capra, seen as gullible little people, here in danger of being duped by corrupt industrialists). It's the usual Capra recipe of homespun sentiment and mindless optimism, enlivened a little by the performances (though one can only dream of what Cukor might have done with Hepburn and Tracy), but turned unusually bitter by Cold War cracks. Horrible dated, too."

What Kate had to say

In treatment

What fellow actors, the director and friends had to say

Angela Lansbury
"I remember her saying, "I can't stand having to wear high heels but I have to wear them with these skirts." She wore space shoes when nobody else did. You went to a special man and he took a cast of your feet. A lot of rather strange long-haired intellectuals wore them, but Katharine wore them, too."

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