Surprisingly incoherent and boring

This movie was so-so. It had it's moments, but wasn't the greatest.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Where did this come from? Being unheard of for so many years I fully expected either a load of rubbish or a press & politically sabotaged surprise. It turns out to be both. Clearly based on a stage production (and a successful one) the movie also feels too much like a filmed play. Technically it's both big-budget-slick, and messy. It also looks as if it might have been tampered with after the completion of the initial edit - with some of the worst continuity cuts seen in a major release or maybe they had trouble with Tracy's drinking and lines?? The movie is politically on target as would be expected from Mr Capra and reminds us of the present day arena. Tends to suggest the Democrats remain as out for themselves as ever while the common worker gets shafted. This picture is not treated as 'idealistically' as earlier politically themed Capra shows but, it does suffer with going on for too long. It also suffers with some eye-rolling poor technical details - such as some hi-jinks in a light plane with Tracy in the pilot seat. Performances are all top notch with many classic faces from the era but the length makes the staginess seem even more apparent. Some knowledge of American political history would help keep up with the one liners and comments that flow freely. Seems Katharine Hepburn took over from Claudette Colbert at the last minute but, as she'd been assisting Tracy with his rehearsals was already up to speed. A 23 yr old Angela Lansbury makes for a formidable newspaper heiress out to ruin the aspirations of Tracy's candidature and would imagine that John Frankenheimer or his casting agent would have seen this performance before casting her in The Manchurian Candidate. 'Union' is harder to settle into than other Capra offerings, but interesting for its observations of the day and how some still hold true.

Capra did others including Mr Smith Went To Washington, but are they better than this one? Spencer Tracy is great in the role of the candidate for the Republican's in 1948 (the year the film is set in). Katherine Hepburn is solid as his wife (with 2 children). Angela Lansbury is great as the other woman Tracy has been kind of courted by as his marriage with Hepburn has had some tension as of late.Watch for Margaret Hamilton (Wicked Witch of the West) making eyes at Van Johnson in this movie. The script is fantastic as Tracy comes off as an independent Airplane Manufacturer who wants to help this country. He is an independent mind running and being crushed by establishment Republican Politicos in much the same way as the Democrats have crushed Independent Candidates in elections since 2000. Democrats and Republicans have both been Conservative since the Reagan era. This film paints them as the same party, and yes, they still are.Thing to watch is Tracys speech at the end, reminds me very much of speeches done by Bernie Sanders with an Idealistic view. This is a very good movie, well worth the viewing.

This movie is shocking from it's first few minutes. It presents politics as being as despicable, bitter, dirty and calculating as it is today. It's astonishing that in 1948, politics could be portrayed much more honestly than any movie or news outlet would even attempt today. Oddly, the plot involves the disclosure of a candidate as a big phony who's sold the country to power-brokers and big industry; not for his sexual entanglement with a woman who isn't his wife. Is this a thematic choice for the movie, or the oft-repeated rubric that this behavior was known before Kennedy, but held secret by a complicit press. Only Capra's ridiculous imposition of his cherished immigrant patriotism (which has nothing to do with the hateful foreground action) mucks things up. The political gamesmanship is NOT presented lightly or for comic value. And that part of the story (the much better part) whole-heartedly resists the preachy jingoism that Capra tries to paste on it.Hepburn is the estranged wife of Tracy. We meet her, only after Tracy's lady-friend has had a lengthy, forceful impact on the film. Lansbury plays a pathetic, scheming politicians daughter almost as evil and hateful as she is in Manchurian Candidate. It is not the usual Tracy/Hepburn vehicle. Capra is in John Doe mode and tries to sell a rotten ending that's just so much sentimental pap. He could never resolve his more complicated scripts. Thankfully his signature cuteness has been relaxed almost to non-existence. It's shot better than most Capra movies, and the DVD transfer is unbelievably crisp. This would make a very intelligent double-feature with "All the Kings Men" about Huey Long.

This is my favorite Tracy-Hepburn film and one of my favorite Frank Capra films. I recommend reading Capra's out-of-print biography, "The Name Above the Title" for the interesting story of the reaction to this film by official Washington in 1948.Quite reminiscent of "Meet John Doe," the story tests the character of a man against the political power-brokers who want to use him for their own purposes. Ideals battle pragmatism in ways that still ring true 50+ years later.Angela Landsbury is a wicked woman (can we call her a fem fa tale?) in an amazing performance foreshadowing her role in 1962's "Manchurian Candidate." Adolphe Menjou's sleazy political boss is about a greasy as they come.All in all there is nothing like a Capra film to make me what to stick to my principles and listen to the people who really love me. Add to Capra's theme of the inherent wisdom of the people this first rate group of actors and you have two hours of time well spent.