Department of History

A small town idealist, Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) answers the call to duty when he is unexpectedly named to fill a vacant seat in the U.S. Senate. Determined to do some good, he sponsors a bill to create a national boy's camp, unaware it threatens to undermine a graft scheme sponsored by his home state's crooked political machine. Framed and threatened with expulsion, Jefferson takes to the Senate floor, where he attempts to prove his innocence in one of the most rousing climactic scenes in screen history.