FILM 1168: THE MANCHURIAN CANDIDATE

TRIVIA: The army psychiatrist in this movie was the first black actor cast in a part that wasn't specified as a black character.

Angela Lansbury was thirty-six at the time of filming, only three years older than Laurence Harvey, who played her son.

Senator Iselin's plane in real life was owned by Frank Sinatra.

A scene where Laurence Harvey jumps in Central Park lake was shot on February 12, the coldest day in 30 years. They had to break the foot-thick ice on the lake with a bulldozer before the scene could be shot.

Frank Sinatra broke one of his fingers during the fight sequence with Henry Silva. Due to ongoing filming commitments, he could not rest or bandage his hand properly, causing the injury to heal incorrectly. It caused him chronic discomfort for the rest of his life.

FILM 1162: MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON

TRIVIA: In 1942, when a ban on American films was imposed in German-occupied France, the title theaters chose Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) for their last movie before the ban went into effect. One Paris theater reportedly screened the film nonstop for thirty days prior to the ban.

To make his voice hoarse for the filibuster scene, James Stewart dried out his throat with bicarbonate of soda. However, both Frank Capra and Stewart revealed in interviews that his throat was periodically swabbed with mercuric chloride.

Bitterly denounced by Washington insiders angry at its allegations of corruption, yet banned by fascist states in Europe who were afraid it showed that democracy works.

Jean Arthur's left side was considered her best side, so the sets had to be constructed in a way that whenever she entered, she would be photographed on that side.

The state that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) and Sen. Joseph Harrison Paine (Claude Rains) come from is never mentioned.

This film is one of five times that Beulah Bondi portrayed James Stewart's mother. The others are: It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Of Human Hearts (1938) and Vivacious Lady (1938), and once on his television series, The Jimmy Stewart Show (1971).