Review by Gary Tooze

Production:

Disc:

Video:

Audio:

• The Frank Capra I Knew - Jeanine Basinger (13:05)
• Original theatrical trailer (1:43)
• Rare international trailer which includes footage deleted from the final film (3:55)

Code for digital download

Bitrate:

 

Description: Jean Arthur, James Stewart and Claude Rains star in Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, the award-winning 1939 classic about an idealistic, small town senator who heads to Washington and suddenly finds himself single-handedly battling ruthless politicians out to destroy him. When Frank Capra decided to film the novel "The Gentleman From Montana", he ran into an obstacle Director Rouben Mamoulian owned the rights to the story. Unwilling to sell, Mamoulian eventually traded the material to Columbia on the condition that he be allowed to direct Golden Boy. As Capra began working on the film, now called MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, it was suggested that Gary Copper, the star of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, take the lead. Capra selected Jimmy Stewart instead and the film solidified Stewart's movie career, garnering him his first Academy AwardŽ nomination. Receiving a total of eleven 1939 OscarŽ nominations (including Best Picture and Best Director), and winning one (Best Motion Picture Story), MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON is considered one of Capra's, Stewart's and Columbia's finest films. It also marked the end of an era. It was Capra's final film for the studio.

 

 

The Film:

Excerpt from TimeOut located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington gets a new 4K Blu-ray transfer from Sony on the film's 75th Anniversary. This is dual-layered with a reasonable bitrate for the 2-hour+ film. Yes, this is significantly ahead of the old DVDs (3 captures compared below.) Much of the frame-specific damage is gone (see top of 2nd compared capture set) as are some of the speckles and dirt. This 1080P contrast exhibits healthy, rich black levels. This Blu-ray has some appealing depth that really separates the image quality from the flat SDs.  Some close-ups are downright impressive and the visuals look grand and larger-than-life while in-motion. This Blu-ray looks un-manipulated, rich with texture and consistent. Wonderful.

More Blu-ray Captures

Subtitle Sample

Commentary Subtitle Sample

 

 

 

 

 

 

No boost going on here - we get a DTS-HD Master original mono track at 892 kbps pushing through the centre channel.  It's predictably flat but shows some depth - gavel, Jeff's whistle and gun - all jolting you to attention.  The Dimitri Tiomkin (Angel Face, Strangers on a  Train, The Men, Dial M For Murder, The Thing From Another World etc. etc.) score sounds noble and uplifting - balancing perfectly with the narrative. The uncompressed audio is very clean and crisp. My Oppo has identified it as being a region FREE disc playable on Blu-ray machines worldwide.

Extras :

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
I loved revisiting this film in 1080P and got a lot more out of it as it looks so much more film-like. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is definitely in the upper-tier of Capra films - making it an easily-labeled masterpiece. This is infinitely superior to its SD counterparts and a must-own film to have on Blu-ray, in my opinion. The extensive package is certainly appreciated and we give this a very strong recommendation! 

Gary Tooze

November 25th, 2014