An Election Drama: Frank Capra’s ‘State of the Union’ (1948)

The 2024 presidential election has finally come for American voters. Some people love talking politics, while others avoid the topic, considering it unpleasant and even dangerous.
During the Golden Era of Hollywood, movies tended to follow the rule of polite conversation, and included no politics or religion. That’s not to say that old movies never discussed or featured political or religious situations. However, they tried to avoid offending people by not mentioning specifics of policy or theology. It also was common practice to avoid mentioning characters’ political parties, since this was sure to cause offense.
There are just a few problems with Grant as a nominee, however. Grant is estranged from his wife, Mary (Hepburn), and is rumored to be having an affair with Kay. Besides that, Grant has no interest in politics. He’s talked into pursuing the nomination by the two women in his life. Kay wants to be the power behind the throne, but Mary wants him to become president because the White House is the only place Kay can’t reach him.
“State of the Union” was based on the 1945 play of the same name by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay. Both playwrights won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama the next year for this play.
Although the characters in this story are fictional, there are references to real political figures that would have been obvious to 1940s audiences. Most notably, the character of Grant Matthews was heavily inspired by Wendell Willkie, the presidential candidate who ran against Franklin D. Roosevelt in his bid for a third term in 1940.
While the writers of the play and the film never identified it as a take on Willkie’s political career, the similarities between the real-life facts and the story are more numerous than in many self-proclaimed biopics. Like Matthews, Willke was a successful businessman who became a dark-horse Republican candidate against the current Democrat president.
When the idea of his candidacy is first pitched to Matthews, he laughs at it. As a businessman with no experience in politics, he considers himself unqualified, but Kay argues that’s why he’s the perfect candidate. She and Conover convince him to go on a tour of his plants, making speeches along the way, in hopes that he’ll catch the presidential bug at the same time as the public.
The plan works, and it gets Mitchell on the road to the nomination. His outspoken, honest, unapologetic criticism of labor, industry, and the other greedy monopolies that control the country evokes dramatic responses. Conover is beside himself as he sees Matthews alienating the industry leaders and political delegates who could secure his candidacy.
However, the common people flood Matthews with love, admiration, and respect for his refreshing candor. Thorndyke uses her wiles to make him read a safe political speech instead of his firebrand approach. Matthews delivers what she wants.
The politics-free approach on which the Matthews platform was based quickly disappears in favor of political double-talk , which is “for everything except sin.” Matthews begins dealing with corrupt wheeler-dealers who trade their support for promises of post-election power. Perhaps the most loathsome of these characters is the female expert on foreign relations, a harridan who proclaims that “these people don’t vote for things; they vote against.” Thorndyke controls everything behind the scenes by telling these vultures to deal directly with her instead of Grant, threatening to destroy them in her newspapers if they don’t.
“State of the Union” is one of the few Capra films that wasn’t a dramatic critical and financial success. It did, however, influence an important presidential election. This outcome probably wasn’t the intention of Frank Capra, a staunch Republican. In fact, I’m sure Capra wasn’t trying to sway the election either way. He was just telling people to wake up to the corruption in organized politics and to stay true to the principles on which America was founded, no matter what trials face our nation.