Good movie to watch in an election year and any other time too but it fits right in with politics. Loretta Young, complete with Swedish accent, won the Best Actress Oscar for her role as Kathrin “Katie” Holstrom. Charles Bickford was nominated for the Best Supporting Actor as Joseph Clancy. The winner was Edmund Gwenn for “Miracle On 34th Street.”
Also sporting Swedish accents as Katie’s brothers are James Arness (Peter), Keith Andes (Sven) and Lex Barker (Olaf). Also showing up in small parts are Cy Kendall as Sweeney and Charles McGraw as a hood.
Katie is leaving the family farm for two years. She’s planning on taking a nursing course in Capitol City. Giving her a lift is house painter Adolph Petree (Rhys Williams). His only interest is getting her drunk and into a motel. He pretends he can’t start his Jeep until she’s on to his trick. He gets so mad he backs into a car and causes damage. Now they have to stay in town overnight. To add insult to injury she has to pay for everything including two rooms..
The next morning Katie looks for him but he’s long gone….with her money. She hitches into Capitol City and finds him and demands her money back. He laughs at her and there’s nothing she can do. No nursing course so she gets a job as a maid in the home of Congressman Glenn Morley (Joseph Cotton). Her supervisor is butler Joseph Clancy (Charles Bickford). Also living there is Glenn’s mother Agatha (Ethel Barrymore).
Katie speaks up during a victory party for Congressman Wilbur Johnson (Thurston Hall). Two reporters are played by character actors Don Beddoe and Charles Lane. Katie makes no bones that she doesn’t like Johnson.
Glenn is linked with political reporter Virginia Thatcher (Rose Hobart) but he’s getting more attracted to Katie. Glenn goes to Europe and Katie uses the time to take night courses including politics. Johnson dies and the party chooses Anders Finlay (Art Baker). Katie doesn’t like him and lets everyone know it. The opposition party asks her to run against him.
Katie is gaining ground enough to worry Finlay and the opposition. It’s two days before the election. It doesn’t look good. Then….Adolph shows up with a story about a stay at a motel.
It’s all far fetched but it’s still very entertaining and is definitely worth watching.
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