Monday, January 23, 2012

This scene is from Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". I was not a huge fan of the film. I found it slow. I did enjoy this scene when Jimmy Stewart's character, Jefferson Smith, meets Senator Paine's daughter, Susan, played by Astrid Allwyn, for the second time. Their first encounter was in Washington's train station when Susan is meeting her father and Jefferson is carrying homing pigeons, which have the purpose of flying home to his mother and delivering messages. It is country boy meet city girl. Here is their second meeting when Jefferson visits the Senator's house.
Jefferson is clearly nervous and fidgets with his hat throughout the scene. I am not sure many directors have captured sequences like these quite like Capra.
Here the hat falls.
Their small talk is focused on the pigeons. Jefferson explains that they are trying to find their bearings and on their way to Kentucky like a "bat out of...like a rifle shot".
Jefferson picks up his hat and again begins fidgeting.
He drops the hat again when asked by Susan if he has a girl.
Jefferson picks up the hat and attempts to put it on his head.
Susan asks, "Don't you think I should hold this for you?" Jefferson tells her that "I think I should go tonight," as he runs into a lamp. "Gee, I'm sorry".
"At the expense of the furniture Susan I do believe you've made another conquest"

No comments:

Post a Comment