Line #14 Theatre/StateOfTheUnion


1	[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/sotu1948.jpg]]
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3	-> ''"You politicians have stayed professionals only because the voters have remained amateurs."''
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5	Originally a 1945 stage play written by Russel Crouse and Howard Lindsay, ''State of the Union'' was adapted into a 1948 feature film by Creator/FrankCapra (the second and last film he directed for Liberty Films), starring Creator/SpencerTracy, Creator/KatharineHepburn, and Creator/VanJohnson.
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7	Grant Matthews (Tracy) is an industrialist with an aircraft manufacturing business. His lover, newspaper magnate Kay Thorndyke (Creator/AngelaLansbury), convinces him to run for the Republican nomination for President. While Thorndyke, political guru Jim Conover (Adolphe Menjou), and campaign manager Spike [=McManus=] (Johnson) are initially nervous about just how Matthews' semi-estranged wife Mary (Hepburn) is going to react, she proves surprisingly enthusiastic about Grant's campaign, and grows even more so when Grant comes out shooting from the hip on the campaign trail, telling hard truths to labor interests and capital interests and whoever else will listen. This proves wildly popular with the common folk, but Conover and Thorndyke, who are worried about getting the nomination for Grant at the Republican convention, wind up convincing him to cast his principles aside and make a series of sleazy backdoor promises in order to win the nomination and the White House.
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9	The original story was inspired by businessman and attorney Wendell Willkie's surprise candidacy that won the Republican nomination in 1940.
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11	----
12	!!Tropes:
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14	* AbhorrentAdmirer: Conver's maid Norah (played by Creator/MargaretHamilton, aka the [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Wicked Witch of the West]]) keeps casting moony glances at Spike, much to Spike's horror.
15	* AgeLift: Katherine "Kay" Thorndyke is a divorcée "in her late thirties," according to the play script. The film version cast Creator/AngelaLansbury in her early twenties and added a new opening scene to establish ''Miss'' Thorndyke as a young heiress.
16	* AmbitionIsEvil: Played with. Simply wanting to be President isn't inherently wrong, as Grant's goals are noble and Mary is proud to support him. But the compromises Grant feels he has to make to win the nomination corrupt him.
17	* ArmorPiercingQuestion: See ChekhovsGunman below.
18	* BlondeRepublicanSexKitten: Kay Thorndyke, the movie version at least, might be the TropeMaker. She's blonde, she's very sexy, and she's a Republican power broker, bitter that her father was abandoned by the party, determined to elect Grant to the White House with her pulling the strings.
19	* ChekhovsGunman: During the buildup to Grant's big televised speech, the camera takes care to show a random crewman who keeps looking intently at Grant as he's waiting to go on. When Grant veers wildly off script, attacking all the corrupt politicians and cynical power brokers who have been manipulating him, the random crewman steps forward to ask his ArmorPiercingQuestion, "Are you any better than they are?" Grant then admits that no, he's actually worse, because all the venal political hacks around him were after whatever they could get, while he was a {{Hypocrite}} who acted like he was working for the greater good.
20	* TheCorrupter: Kay and Conover, who light the fire of ambition in Grant and get him to throw away his principles and become another weaselly politician.
21	* DeadpanSnarker: Spike [=McManus=], the reporter hired by Conover to work for Matthews, gets off a lot of excellent lines.
22	--> '''Grant''': When I was a kid my dad took me on a two-day trip just to look at President Taft.\
23	'''Spike''': On a clear day you could see him for a couple of hundred miles.
24	* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: In the opening scene where Kay meets her dying father, he talks about something "eatin' my guts away", and he says a little bit later that he can't stand the pain anymore. The word "cancer" is not mentioned.
25	* DoubleMeaningTitle: Besides the political meaning, "Union" also describes Grant and Mary's marriage, as shown when Mary disavows a reconciliation with Grant by saying "the state of our union is strictly political."
26	* DrinkBasedCharacterization: Spike tells the Matthews' butler what drinks should be served: Judge Alexander (a Southerner) will "probably stick to straight bourbon"; his LadyDrunk wife requests Sazeracs and a lot of them.
27	* DrivingADesk: Flying a desk, and very noticeable in the scene where Grant is supposedly doing barrel rolls and inverting his plane, and stuff that should be falling to the ceiling isn't.
28	* ElectionDayEpisode: Sort of. The whole plot is about campaigning for the Republican nomination, but Grant quits the race before the convention.
29	* GracefulLoser: When Grant's fiery speech and withdrawal from the race makes it clear that the game is up, Kay and Conover walk out without saying a word, Conover yammering in Kay's ear about some other political hopeful.
30	* INeedAFreakingDrink: Mary has been staying away from drinking throughout the story because she [[CantHoldHisLiquor gets easily drunk]]; however, when she learns Kay is the reason why Grant has thrown away his principles, she immediately asks for a drink.
31	-->'''Mary:''' If we're going to have a high tariff, I might as well get high myself.
32	* LoveTriangle: Between Grant, Grant's wife, and Grant's mistress.
33	--> '''Kay''': I'm the corner of this triangle that's going to take the beating.
34	* MaliciousMisnaming: When Conover expresses irritation with Spike for consistently botching the spelling of Conover's name, Spike tells him to be grateful he didn't spell it "Conniver".
35	* TheMistress: Kay is Grant's, even though both of them deny it.
36	* NoCelebritiesWereHarmed: Grant is based on Wendell Willkie, the 1940 Republican nominee for President, who had been a businessman and corporate lawyer before running for office. Specifically, Willkie's affair with book reviewer Irita Van Doren informs his relationship with Kay.
37	* NoPartyGiven: A notable aversion, as Grant is explicitly a Republican. Besides which, there's much discussion of real Republican politicians of the era like Thomas Dewey (the real-life nominee in 1948) and Harold Stassen.
38	* RedRightHand: Kay, the villain of the piece who is both corrupting Matthews politically and trying to take him away from Mary, has the standard white stripe in her hair.
39	* SexySilhouette: Grant is distracted by the curvaceous shadow cast by Mary as she's changing in the next room.
40	* SleazyPolitician: All the sleazebags who start swarming around Grant, each out for their special interests, each wanting payoffs and making demands, all out for themselves.
41	* SomeOfMyBestFriendsAreX: When Mrs. Alexander mentions that she's a Democrat like most Southerners, Grant says, "Some of my best friends are Democrats."
42	* TakeThat: "I haven't enjoyed myself this much since Huey Long died!"
43	* TitleDrop: Mary asks Jim "What's the state of the Union? What are you reports on Grant?"
44	* VicePresidentWho: An irritated Mary forces Grant to sleep on the floor, but not before sarcastically saying "Good night, Mr. President!" The play's Act One ends on that line, but in the movie, Grant shoots back with "You mean Mr. Vice President, don't you?"

Context Theatre / StateOfTheUnion