This is probably (except for WITHOUT LOVE ?) the most forgotten of the Tracy - Hepburn film parings. As has been pointed out it has not been revived that frequently, and as a result people barely remember it. But it has a terrific cast (the two leads, Angela Lansbury, Van Johnson, Adolphe Menjou, Charles Dingle, Raymond Walburn, Irving Bacon, even Carl "Alfafa" Switzer), and for all the dated references to politics in 1947 - 48, it still has amazing relevance. Therefore, if it is not up to the best Capra films of the late 1930s to IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, it does help lead the second tier with POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES and A HOLE IN THE HEAD.
Tracy's character (as pointed out by another poster on this thread) is suggested by Wendell Wilkie. Wilkie is another figure who once loomed largely in America, but who is now as faded as old wall paper. He headed the largest privately owned utilities company in the U.S., which had to be broken up after the New Deal got underway. This was really ironic, because Wilkie was a life-long Democrat. Coming out of Indiana he had gone a long way (F.D.R.'s acid tongued Interior Secretary, Harold Ickes, referred to him - with a look towards an old poem by John Greenleaf Whittier - as "The barefoot boy from Wall Street.").
Wilkie got involved in politics in the late 1930s, with respect to his suspicions about where the New Deal was headed. He turned Republican, and in 1940 surprised the nation by beating out Thomas Dewey and Senator Robert Taft for the Republican nomination for President at Philadephia. It has been pointed out that in the movie, I MARRIED A WITCH, the slogan "Win With Wilkie" is used as a reference for gubernatorial candidate Wooley (Frederic March) as "Win With Wooley". A Bugs Bunny cartoon about "gremlins" (little mechanical problems in war machines) has the "gremlin" shout that he isn't Wendell Wilkie. F.D.R. won, but his sizable victories in 1932 and 1936 were not repeated. Wilkie actually demonstrated that the Republican Party was far from dead.
Unfortunately Wilkie never repeated this success politically. An independent, most of the party leaders felt he wasn't Republican enough. He took a trip around the globe to visit the battlefronts, and wrote an account ONE WORLD, which became a best seller - and helped prepare the American people for the successful creation of a United Nations. In 1944 FDR was approached by some advisers to consider Wilkie as his running mate for Vice President. Roosevelt was less than happy with the idea. In the end it did not matter - Wilkie died.
Keeping that in mind, Tracy's character Grant Matthews makes sense. He is a wealthy independent person. He is married but he has extra-marital affairs (as did Wilkie, which was one of the reasons his campaign did not use FDR's affair with Lucy Mercer against him). If you recall, Tracy tells a stunned Adolphe Menjou his idea of bringing democracy to the world through a United States of the world (like Wilkie's "One World").
Tracy's relationship with Hepburn is that of a good man who has fallen into a trough in his home-life. Apparently at one point they shared a great deal, but Tracy's ego takes off when manipulated by Lansbury, as opposed to Hepburn who is more down-to-earth. It is only when she bitterly throws her own opinions aside and makes a hated speech for his campaign that he realizes how much she compromised her ideals for him, and how much he's compromised - and for what? His Presidency would owe a lot to the likes of Walburn, Dingle, and Florence Auer: a questionable Southern Republican, a crooked labor leader (who thinks John L. Lewis and William Green are anathema), and a woman's whose power base is due to prejudice against certain foreign groups. He'd also owe Menjou (more about him later) and Lansbury would expect free access to the Oval Office.
The most interesting of the group is actually Menjou. One of American's best political managers he is bitter. His Connover is not a bad man (actually he is quite tolerable), but he has been shunned because of a connection he could not avoid with the "Ohio Gang" that put Warren Harding in the White House in 1920, and then stole millions (Connover didn't). He'd like to get the Chairmanship of the Republican Party to get back at his foes - not a nice thing but it is understandable. In the end he does not get too upset when plans go awry. He's kept on the payroll as a political editor for Lansbury. Actually one feels good for him.
Similarly one feels good for Van Johnson. A cynic, like Lionel Stander in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, he regains his ideals observing Hepburn's reactions to the political crap, and is involved in finally turning Tracy around. Lansbury is aware of this, and fires him. He smiles with happiness to be well out of the job for her.
The best moment to me in the film is a nice moment when Tracy is contemplating the run for the White House offered by Lansbury and Menjou. He stands in front of the White House next to an actor named Maurice Cass, who is only in this scene in the movie. Cass is rhapsodizing about how wonderful it is that every President since John Adams has lived in the White House. Tracy says it needs a paint job. Cass takes him to task for only seeing that. Tracy sticks to his guns about the paint job, but he lists all of the great figures who fought for freedom (including Crispus Attucks, by the way) and how the White House is their monument. At the end he and Cass go off for a drink together. A simple moment - pure Capra-corn, but really worth it.
Tracy's character (as pointed out by another poster on this thread) is suggested by Wendell Wilkie. Wilkie is another figure who once loomed largely in America, but who is now as faded as old wall paper. He headed the largest privately owned utilities company in the U.S., which had to be broken up after the New Deal got underway. This was really ironic, because Wilkie was a life-long Democrat. Coming out of Indiana he had gone a long way (F.D.R.'s acid tongued Interior Secretary, Harold Ickes, referred to him - with a look towards an old poem by John Greenleaf Whittier - as "The barefoot boy from Wall Street.").
Wilkie got involved in politics in the late 1930s, with respect to his suspicions about where the New Deal was headed. He turned Republican, and in 1940 surprised the nation by beating out Thomas Dewey and Senator Robert Taft for the Republican nomination for President at Philadephia. It has been pointed out that in the movie, I MARRIED A WITCH, the slogan "Win With Wilkie" is used as a reference for gubernatorial candidate Wooley (Frederic March) as "Win With Wooley". A Bugs Bunny cartoon about "gremlins" (little mechanical problems in war machines) has the "gremlin" shout that he isn't Wendell Wilkie. F.D.R. won, but his sizable victories in 1932 and 1936 were not repeated. Wilkie actually demonstrated that the Republican Party was far from dead.
Unfortunately Wilkie never repeated this success politically. An independent, most of the party leaders felt he wasn't Republican enough. He took a trip around the globe to visit the battlefronts, and wrote an account ONE WORLD, which became a best seller - and helped prepare the American people for the successful creation of a United Nations. In 1944 FDR was approached by some advisers to consider Wilkie as his running mate for Vice President. Roosevelt was less than happy with the idea. In the end it did not matter - Wilkie died.
Keeping that in mind, Tracy's character Grant Matthews makes sense. He is a wealthy independent person. He is married but he has extra-marital affairs (as did Wilkie, which was one of the reasons his campaign did not use FDR's affair with Lucy Mercer against him). If you recall, Tracy tells a stunned Adolphe Menjou his idea of bringing democracy to the world through a United States of the world (like Wilkie's "One World").
Tracy's relationship with Hepburn is that of a good man who has fallen into a trough in his home-life. Apparently at one point they shared a great deal, but Tracy's ego takes off when manipulated by Lansbury, as opposed to Hepburn who is more down-to-earth. It is only when she bitterly throws her own opinions aside and makes a hated speech for his campaign that he realizes how much she compromised her ideals for him, and how much he's compromised - and for what? His Presidency would owe a lot to the likes of Walburn, Dingle, and Florence Auer: a questionable Southern Republican, a crooked labor leader (who thinks John L. Lewis and William Green are anathema), and a woman's whose power base is due to prejudice against certain foreign groups. He'd also owe Menjou (more about him later) and Lansbury would expect free access to the Oval Office.
The most interesting of the group is actually Menjou. One of American's best political managers he is bitter. His Connover is not a bad man (actually he is quite tolerable), but he has been shunned because of a connection he could not avoid with the "Ohio Gang" that put Warren Harding in the White House in 1920, and then stole millions (Connover didn't). He'd like to get the Chairmanship of the Republican Party to get back at his foes - not a nice thing but it is understandable. In the end he does not get too upset when plans go awry. He's kept on the payroll as a political editor for Lansbury. Actually one feels good for him.
Similarly one feels good for Van Johnson. A cynic, like Lionel Stander in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, he regains his ideals observing Hepburn's reactions to the political crap, and is involved in finally turning Tracy around. Lansbury is aware of this, and fires him. He smiles with happiness to be well out of the job for her.
The best moment to me in the film is a nice moment when Tracy is contemplating the run for the White House offered by Lansbury and Menjou. He stands in front of the White House next to an actor named Maurice Cass, who is only in this scene in the movie. Cass is rhapsodizing about how wonderful it is that every President since John Adams has lived in the White House. Tracy says it needs a paint job. Cass takes him to task for only seeing that. Tracy sticks to his guns about the paint job, but he lists all of the great figures who fought for freedom (including Crispus Attucks, by the way) and how the White House is their monument. At the end he and Cass go off for a drink together. A simple moment - pure Capra-corn, but really worth it.