State of the Union
Director: Frank Capra
Genre: Black-and-white, Romance Film, Drama
Year: 1948
Country: United States of America
Language: English Language
Starring: Spencer Tracy, Katharine Hepburn, Howard Smith, Margaret Hamilton, Charles Lane, Angela Lansbury, Van Johnson, Adolphe Menjou, Raymond Walburn, Lewis Stone, Florence Auer, Irving Bacon, Maidel Turner, Art Baker, Charles Dingle, Pierre Watkin
State of the Union is a 1948 film adaptation written by Myles Connolly and Anthony Veiller of the Russel Crouse, Howard Lindsay play of the same name. Directed by Frank Capra and starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, the film is Capra's first and only project for MGM Pictures. The screenplay deviated most from the play in its absence of the play's sardonic wit and more controversial themes.
Originally, actress Claudette Colbert was cast as Mary, the wife of Grant Matthews (played by Spencer Tracy), but rumors of disagreements with Capra and a reported "back" injury led to the weekend casting of Hepburn, Tracy's longtime companion. Other behind the scenes tensions were between Adolphe Menjou, a onetime member the McCarthyist group Motion Picture Alliance for the Preservation of American Ideals, and his former co-star Katharine Hepburn, as well as Hepburn and the much younger Angela Lansbury.
The film was produced entirely by Capra's own company, Liberty Films. In order to cast MGM contract player Tracy in the film, the latter studio bought the distribution rights. In fact, many of the major actors in the film were under contract with MGM also.
Capra bought the film after its
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