Interesteg What makes it different from others?

StunnaKrypto Self-important, over-dramatic, uninspired.

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Curapedi I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

HotToastyRag When State of the Union started, I was at the edge of my seat. Angela Lansbury, newspaper tycoon, has handpicked the next Republican candidate for president, and she sells the idea to Adolphe Menjou, a top political adviser, and Van Johnson, a campaign manager. The man she wants has no political background. He's a successful businessman and a millionaire, and he connects with the common man because he's not a typical politician. Sound familiar? Here's the even better part: It turns out Angela is having an affair with the candidate, and when his wife shows up to squelch infidelity rumors and promote a good family image, Angela sneaks into their bedroom and places her reading glasses on the nightstand, knowing the wife will find and question them. Exciting, isn't it? Well, that's as exciting as it gets. The rest of the film tries to show the dirtiness of politics, but to anyone who's ever paid attention to the political realm, it doesn't even scratch the surface. Spencer Tracy is cast as the likable, honest politician, but he comes across as neither. He seems angry and stupid, even though that's not how his character is written. Fredric March would have been a better casting choice, in my opinion. He pontificates and gets in his own way—and on the audience's nerves—while his wife, Katharine Hepburn pretends to argue but really always goes along with whatever the politicians tell her to do. Normally, she's a fantastic actress, but in this film, she rushes her lines and says them without much feeling. It felt like a rehearsal the actors didn't know was being filmed. She does say one funny line, though: "No woman could ever run for President. She'd have to admit to being over thirty-five!" Boring and corny to the very end, this is a movie to skip unless you're a die-hard Tracy-Hepburn fan. As for me, whenever I see them on screen together, I can't help but remember how mistreated Kate was. I don't think they're movie-magic, and I don't see sparks flying off the screen. I see an angry, arrogant man and his abused partner.DLM Warning: If you suffer from vertigo or dizzy spells, like my mom does, there's a scene in this movie that will not be your friend. When Spencer Tracy pilots his airplane, the camera swirls excessively and it will make you sick. In other words, "Don't Look, Mom!"

dazfiddy State of the Union is one of the best Hollywood films about American politics, especially the behind the scenes dealings during a presidential election.Spencer Tracy plays Grant Matthews a successful businessman who builds aeroplanes. He is touted as the potential Republican nominee for President. Katherine Hepburn is his wife Mary,who believes in him and his ideals.Her problem is that his mistress,Kay Thorndyke (an icy Angela Lansbury)is a powerful newspaper mogul who also is one of his supporters. She believes that she can make him President and be the power behind the throne. Which woman will gain control of his heart and his political soul? The film shows how Matthews gradually loses his way as compromises have to be made with various interests from unions to farmers. Ambition leads to expediency.Mary watches as the man she loves becomes a shell of his former self as he gives in to special interests. His lofty speeches become standard stump speeches just like any other politician.Adolph Menjou is great as Jim Conover, the fixer who loves the back room dealing and horse trading.His character is so cynical about the process,you wonder if he believes in anything apart from process.Angela Lansbury is a revelation, as this role is a million miles away from cosy Jessica Fletcher in Murder, she wrote. Kay can only be described as ruthlessly ambitious. She can stand her ground in a room full of men and is not afraid to tell them who is boss. If she can't run for President herself, she can at least make one. Only Mary stands in her way. The personal and political become intertwined. I love the scene when the two meet near the end of the film and eye each other up.Special mention has to go to Van Johnson, as Spike Macmanus the campaign manager who provides relentless comic relief.I noticed a couple of things in this film, which shows how chaste Hollywood was in the late 1940s. You never see the Matthews in bed together. Grant and Kay's affair is referred to, but very rarely are they seen together. How times have changed! This film is the perfect companion to The Candidate(1972) starring Robert Redford. There are lots of comparisons.Both films made over twenty years apart, ask the same questions: Can a politician remain idealistic once the process gets hold of him or her ?Is compromise inevitable?

mark.waltz Recently, I saw the Broadway revival of Gore Vidal's "The Best Man", a 1960 play about a presidential convention overrun with scandal concerning secrets of two candidates. The head of the women's division in that play was portrayed by Angela Lansbury who 64 years before played the head of a powerful newspaper manipulating, err.. supporting Spencer Tracy for the Republican Nomination. (That was before the term "Republican" became a dirty word...) In between this movie (based upon a hit Broadway play that was still running when this movie was released) and that Broadway play, she played another political power, albeit a viperously evil one, in John Frankenheimer's extremely controversial "The Manchurian Candidate". So the world of politics has really turned for this magnificent actress who wouldn't become the huge star she is today until a certain Broadway musical and later a smash hit TV series made her a house-hold name.It is insinuated that Lansbury has been "the other woman" in the marriage of Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, the model couple with two adorable children. Once, in fact, it is said that Hepburn threw Lansbury out of their house. So now Lansbury, as the deviously intelligent Kay Thorndyke, has taken over her late father's newspaper, and convinces political bigwig Adolph Menjou that Tracy is their puppet..I mean, man. Knowing that an underlying element of scandal is afoot concerning Lansbury and Tracy, Menjou insists that Hepburn support her husband, becoming more of an Eleanor Roosevelt than a Bess Truman. Tracy is the honest sort, an older version of director Frank Capra's previous heroes Mr. Deeds and Mr. Smith, although Lansbury is extremely close to Jean Arthur's Babe in "Mr. Deeds" and Barbara Stanwyck's Ann Mitchell, perhaps a bit more crafty and self-serving. Hepburn comes off like Donna Reed's wife in "It's a Wonderful Life", exploding when she needs to, particularly a wonderful drunken bit at a party where she must try and be cordial to Lansbury.The wonderful supporting cast can't be topped; In addition to those I've mentioned, there are wonderful performances by Lewis Stone (in a cameo as Lansbury's dying father), Van Johnson (as the typical grinning "fair-haired" boy, Lansbury's ace reporter with mixed loyalties), Charles Lane, and the wonderful Margaret Hamilton who shines as the flirtatious maid with a crush on Johnson. Some other less known faces have magnificent moments too, particularly Maidel Turner as a judge's wife with a taste for booze; Raymond Walburn (a Capra regular) as the buffoon judge; and Florence Auer as a larger-than-life supporter of Tracy's campaign (as long as her agenda is met). Irving Bacon is hysterically funny as the bartender in the party sequence with a justified mistrust of Lansbury.Most Capra films were often dramas with bits of comedy thrown in (to take away the sentimentality of the plots, hence the term "Capra-Corn") and this film is no exception. Probably one of the best known sequences of this film is the aviation scene where Tracy and a pilot pal show off their flying skills. Johnson prepares to get sick as the plane does loopty-loops while Hepburn simply knits. This adds a more human touch to Tracy's character so when he starts to get sidetracked by Lansbury's manipulations, you'll root for him to find his way back.In this year of an election, some might call these political dramas of a different time quite dated. Yes, if you take away the cell phones, blogs, tweets, over-abundance of social media that can destroy a candidate before they even have a chance to defend themselves, they are dated. But seeing them is a reminder of while they were still ruthless and sometimes deadly, there was still more truth and honesty than there is today. Tracy's speech towards the end is up there with his beautiful soliloquy at the end of "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner". Hepburn, the Meryl Streep of her day, proves that while she may be known to everybody else as just a wife and mother, she's got a lot more in her than everybody (especially Lansbury) believed. I think this is perhaps Lansbury's finest screen performance while at MGM (certainly her best photographed), but the Oscars tended not to acknowledge villains all that much. Lansbury's well-dressed viper is up there along with Gale Sondergaard for her sometimes quiet calculated cat-like manner. She would be a check-mark on my ballot box for this performance any day.

Michael_Elliott State of the Union (1948) *** (out of 4) Political drama from Capra has an honest Grant Matthews (Spencer Tracy) being selected to run for President but soon his honest ways are thrown out by a newspaper woman (Angela Lansbury) and a political spinner (Adolphe Menjou). The two of them plan on riding him into the White House but his wife (Katharine Hepburn) begins to have second thoughts on what their turning her husband into. Of all the Tracy/Hepburn teamings this one here is probably the least known, which is a little bit surprising considering Capra directed it and the wonderful supporting cast but on second thought it might be understandable as this isn't the typical film that they'd appear in together. The movie features some terrific performances but a few questionable bits a comedy keep it from being a bigger hit. There were some scenes that I would have left on the cutting room floor including an extremely silly sequence where plane-tag is played. With a few more of the comedic moments edited out you would have been left with a major hit but as is this film still manages to be quite powerful. What really makes the film go is Hepburn and it's funny to learn she got the role by accident after another actress pretty much walked off after certain demands of hers couldn't be met. Hepburn steals the film from Tracy as she really digs in and gives the movie all of its heart and soul and I think the actress really should get this film mentioned more when people discuss her wonderful career. Tracy is once again Tracy meaning that he turns in the expected great performance. The supporting cast includes nice work from Lewis Stone, Van Johnson, Charles Dingle and even Carl "Alfafa" Switzer in a small role. Menjou and Lansbury are very good in their supporting roles of what would turn out to be good villains. Capra pretty much handled this type of material earlier in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON but he makes it all seem fresh again here. The ending has a nice punch to it even though you'll certainly see it coming from a mile away. It's rather funny to see how political movies from the 1930s and 40s still hold up perfectly well today but then it's rather sad to see how nothing much has changed in the political world.