Monday 17 October 2016

filibuster

Consulting the extensive archives of Doctor Caligari’s Cabinet, we learn on this day in 1939, Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington had its premiere, first shown in the US capital.


Our faithful chronicler provides the additional anecdote that when American films were banned in occupied France a couple years later, many cinemas screened the Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur movie as their last picture show before the ban went into effect. One theatre even played it continuously for a month leading up to the prohibition. (More here via Messy Nessy Chic on the entertainment scene of Paris under the Nazis.) You can watch the entire classic at the link up top but I’d suggest that movie theatres might treat audiences to a healthy dose of Democracy before that country votes.