Jean Arthur's husky voice makes a sharp reply sound as though kindness might still be possible. Her quick, practical heroines are a pleasure, particularly when Frank Capra needs someone to keep his sentiment in check.
Fi1m perspective
Jean Arthur can make a quick reply sound like impatience with everyone who needs longer. As Clarissa Saunders in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), she gives Sidney Buchman's dialogue the speed and bite that stop Frank Capra's film becoming too solemn. James Stewart works at a different tempo, and she makes that difference funny without making Saunders seem merely rude. We delighted in her briskness, because she makes Smith's innocence seem like extra work for everyone else.
Her emergence in the mid-1930s put a peculiar voice to good use: husky, sometimes squeaky, capable of sounding tough and sweet within a few words. The Whole Town's Talking (1935) brought the breakthrough; Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), opposite Gary Cooper, helped establish her as a star. By You Can't Take It with You (1938), the everyday heroine was central to their work together. Secretaries and reporters suited an actor who could make knowing how things worked part of the comedy.
Saunders is the clearest reason to seek her out. Our reservation about Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is its generous faith in personal decency, which asks for some indulgence. Arthur helps it earn that indulgence by making Saunders's scepticism persuasive rather than treating it as something to dismiss. The delivery matters as much as the words: she keeps an exchange lively without pretending that Saunders and Smith understand the world in the same way.
George Stevens gave her another opportunity to combine comic timing and vulnerability in The More the Merrier (1943), following their first collaboration on The Talk of the Town (1942). The career then became sparse: after leaving Columbia in 1944, she made only two further films. One was Billy Wilder's comedy A Foreign Affair (1948); the other was her final film role, as Marian Starrett in Stevens's Western Shane (1953). That non-comic part is worth remembering before reducing her to a screwball voice. Start with Saunders, though, and listen to how much sense Arthur can put into a quick reply.
Biography
Jean Arthur, born Gladys Georgianna Greene, was an American actress. She made her screen debut in a bit part in the silent film Cameo Kirby (1923) and appeared in numerous uncredited and supporting roles through the 1920s.
Arthur rose to prominence in the mid-1930s. She starred as Clarissa Saunders in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and in other films directed by Frank Capra, including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and You Can't Take It with You (1938). She received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress for The More the Merrier (1943). Later credits include Shane (1953) as Marian Starrett. She also appeared on television in an episode of Gunsmoke (1955) and the series The Jean Arthur Show (1966).
