Senator Joseph Harrison Paine is the secondary antagonist of the 1939 Frank Capra film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. He was a crusading reformer like Smith's father, who eventually got forced to work with Jim Taylor and his machine.
He was portrayed by the late Claude Rains.
Before the film[]
Joseph Paine used to work with Clayton Smith (Jefferson's father) as an editor, who would at an old rolltop desk, and wear a hat on his head to make himself look fierce. The two of them where good teammates, who always struggled for justice as newspaper editors, but one day, Clayton got murdered while fighting a syndicate, and dying for what he believed in. After that day, Paine continued to do his job, but eventually Jim Taylor discovered his work, and hired him to be part of his scheme, Paine wanted to decline, but he couldn't, since Taylor was responsible for him position.
During the film[]
Finding a Substitute Senator[]
Towards the beginning of the film, Senator Foley had recently died unexpectedly. Senator Paine called long-distance for "Happy" Hopper and relays the news. Then Hopper called party Boss/media magnate Jim Taylor, to receive instructions on the choice of a successor. He had to rely on the advice of the political boss' machine to suggest someone to serve as interim senator to complete Foley's term.
Meanwhile, Paine and Taylor were concerned that the Willet Creek Dam project shouldn't be exposed by the new choice.
Taylor has politically schemed to enrich his real estate holdings and profits with a scandalously crooked pork barrel bill that would skim real estate funds from the public purse. Under fake names, his political machine bought up the canyon surrounding Willet Creek in their state. A believer in pragmatic politics, Senator Paine and Taylor were scheming to introduce and pass a bill (the Deficiency Bill) to create an unnecessary dam. The land around the proposed dam would be sold back to the state.
Taylor's first suggestion for the appointment, Hon. Horace Miller was flatly rejected by the voter. A second candidate, Henry Hill is proposed, but Taylor rejects him as a "crackpot, that longhead." Not knowing who to appoint, Governor Hopper is "attacked and belittled" by the advice of his bratty children that evening during a family dinner. They suggest the popular head of the state's Boy Rangers, Jefferson Smith.
To settle the matter between his two choices (Miller or Hill), Hopper flips a coin, which stood on an edge, then and he happens to see an article praising Jeff Smith's heroics, resulting in Hopper ultimately deciding to appoint Smith.
When Hopper discussed the choice to the Senate, they were initially against the idea, since Smith had no political experience, but Hopper decided to use his lack of experience to their advantage.
Senator Paine, under Boss Taylor's machine, also wanted to use it to his advantage, as he's confident that Smith will be a yes-man and not conflict with their crooked legislation or ask any embarrassing questions while quietly sight-seeing during his brief stay in Washington, D.C.
Smith to be Senator[]
Initially, Jefferson Smith didn't know why he was chosen to be the next Senate, but he was glad he got to meet Senator Paine, whom he had idolized as a child. He recalled how his dad said he was the finest man he knew.
On the two-day train ride to Washington with Smith, Paine talks about how he knew Smith's father, and notices some similarities between Jefferson and his father.
When Smith gets off the train with Paine at Union Station in Washington DC, he follows the Senator like a foster-son. He is mobbed by young ladies seeking dollar contributions to the Milk Fund, including Paine's beautiful daughter, Susan. He amuses them with his country manners, awkwardly carrying a cage of home-ing pigeons and continually fumbling with his hat in his hands. Smith senses the pace is vastly different from back home and tells Paine's portly aide.
Later that day Smith then excitedly discusses his dream of a national boys camp, but when he entertains them by performing well-practiced bird calls. The newspaper editors made fun of him with pictures and mocking headlines the next day, ridiculing his antics.
Saunders admitted to a loss of idealism in her own outlook, expressing to Paine her desire to quit as Smith's secretary unless she is richly compensated for babysitting the newcomer. Paine flatters her with promises of power and money and is willing to bribe her to stay, if she will keep Smith away from their Willet Creek Dam bill as it moves through Congress.
During the Senate's proceedings, one of the veteran Senators blocks his confirmation and mocked Smith's disgraceful appearance in the Washington papers and before the press. Paine answers and comes to Smith's defense, shielding him from the critical appraisal.
Later, Smith went to Senator Paine's place, where Paine settled Smith down after his outburst from earlier and being taunted by the reporters. To placate Smith and keep him from resigning, Paine deflects his attention and convinces him to stay on and learn how the Senate works by writing, introducing, and supporting his own pet project - a bill to create a national boys' camp, one of his long-standing dreams, shortly after, Susan Paine enters the room and engages him in conversation.
Plans for Willet Creek[]
Saunders and Smith continued to plan out ideas for the boys camp. Smith decided to put the camp near Willet Creek, which also happened to be where Paine and Taylor were putting up their dam. Saunders was surprised when she realized what was happening, but she couldn't say anything about the dam plans.
Back in the Senate gallery, Smith was talking about bill a for the camp. Paine and McGann both race from the Senate floor when they hear the words "Willet Creek" in his proposal for a boys camp. But Smith's proposal is cheered by young Boy Rangers in the balcony and applauded by the Senators who realize Smith's virtuous deed. The President of the Senate suggests voice lessons. Immediately, letters with donations to support the boys camp pour into Smith's office.
Senator Paine maneuvers to have his daughter Susan be a decoy by waylaying and distracting Smith and keeping him ignorant. The plan is to have him escort her to a reception during an important Senate session. Susan tells Saunders he was elected to snatch Mr. Jefferson Smith from the Senate tomorrow she would take him out and turn her glamour on for him. Savvy to Paine's manipulations and conspiracy, the tough, "wised up" Saunders is worried, jealous, motherly and endearingly protective of her guileless charge.
Jefferson finds out[]
Saunders found out about the trick and suggests that Smith should go home. She reveals everything by explaining how he was duped, and how Paine's Deficiency Bill on the projected site for a boys camp is a front for Jim Taylor's own plans to appropriate funds.
Suspicious of the proposal for a dam in a useless, unnecessary location and under surreptitious circumstances, Smith tells Senator Paine that he fears something unethical. Senator Paine firmly calms him down, then Jefferson stuned Chick McGann and Senator Paine when he reveals his knowledge that Taylor's idea is "to get graft." Taylor is immediately phoned by McGann and summoned to Washington. Before he departs, Taylor mocks Hooper's earlier promises about Smith's appointment to his face.
Taylor comes to Washington to "pull that steamroller stuff." Senator Paine objects to Taylor's and the machine's strong-armed shenanigans and tactics as his conscience battles corruption. But Taylor, first surprised and then annoyed, refuses to stand by idly while Smith challenges his authority. Senator Paine didn't want any part in harming Smith, but Taylor reminds him that the machine's corrupt tactics from twenty years earlier are the reason Paine's in the position of respected power he is now. Taylor turns on Paine and challenges him with an ultimatum, suddenly threatening to drop him and ruin his career if he doesn't conform. Paine backs down and agrees to cooperate with Taylor's schemes.
Jim Taylor meets the concerned young Senator. Smooth-tongued and glib, Taylor tells Senator Smith about his "interest" in Willet Creek Dam and his persuasive boss-influence over all social institutions. He calmy attempts to buy Smith off by assuring him riches, political power and success if he remains silent about the Willet Creek Dam fraud. To his complete surprise, Jeff learns that his hero/idol Joseph Paine has expediently been in office for twenty years due to corruption.
Smith then went to Senator Paine's office, to conform that Paine was under Taylor's control. Paine explains the reality of the situation, tells Jeff where he stands in relation to Taylor, and advises him to be less of an idealist.
Invoking their friendship and the friendship Paine had with Smith's father, Senator Paine begs Jeff to avoid interfering with the Deficiency Bill on the Senate floor. Smith leaves Paine's office without a response, apparently left with no choice. He is unwilling to compromise and sacrifice his principles for a scheme involving graft, and he is feeling betrayed and let down by his sponsoring guide in the Senate. Moreover, he is overwhelmed by the realization that there is corruption in the men who were responsible for his appointment.
The next day, Smith fidgets during the reading of the Deficiency Bill and rises to question Section 40 regarding Willet Creek Dam. When it appears that Paine's corruption will be exposed, Paine interrupts Smith's words in mid-sentence and shifts blame toward Smith to frame him. The new tactic of the conspirators is to shift blame to Smith, and to discredit and accuse him of their own crime. The phony land purchases are shifted to him (with falsified documents and evidence) to show that the boys camp bill is Smith's own pork barrel - introduced for his own profit.
Forcing Smith to be investigated by the Senate and branded for expulsion, Paine diverts attention from his own fraudulent actions. Smith is hissed and booed by the chamber, and the young pages remove their Boy Ranger pins and throw them away.
In the committee hearings, trumped-up charges, false witnesses (Gov. Hopper and Sen. Paine testify falsely) and forged documents (a signed contract or deed to the land) are produced as evidence to show that Smith will enrich himself with the boys camp with "carefully laid plans to make an enormous profit out of the nickels and dimes scrapped together by the boys of this country." Smith stands silently for a moment looking at the seated Paine, who has his head bowed and refuses to acknowledge his presence face-to-face. Smith abruptly leaves the hearings, unable to prove his innocence.
The filibuster[]
Disillusioned, distraught, and disbelieving, Jefferson Smith makes a late-night visit to the Lincoln Memorial - his second visit before leaving Washington. Now a broken man, he sits down on his bags which are packed in readiness to leave and begins to weep. From the darkened shadows, Saunders emerges and gives him and inspirational speech. Crushed and downtrodden, Smith was determined to leave town. In the somber, dim light of the Memorial, Saunders comes to realize that he sincerely loves the democratic process. Revitalizing him with her own rebirth of idealism and reminding him of the "faith" of the Founding Fathers, she encourages him to stand fast, stay and fight the machine-controlled Senate and the corrupt dam scheme of Senator Paine and Taylor.
The next morning, back in the Senate gallery, Smith appears at his Senate desk to the consternation of the others in the chamber. Saunders waves and clasps her hands for him from the gallery high above. The report from the committee hearings on Jefferson Smith's expulsion is read, recommending that the resolution be adopted to expel him. The President of the Senate chooses to recognize Senator Smith and he is allowed to speak, having "an equal claim on the attention of this chair." From the gallery, Saunders demands Smith to be allowed to speak.
Jefferson begins his filibuster speech, partly to stall a vote that would get him kicked out of the Senate. The tension on the Senate floor is magnified. Smith stands at his desk in the last row of Senators. In the same shot, Senator Paine in the first row rises and interrupts Smith without turning to face him and asks if the junior Senator will yield the floor. Smith insolently refuses to yield to Senator Paine, knowing something about the rules of yielding from his training he did with Saunders.
When Smith yielded to a question from the dignified Senator Paine, Smith is reminded of the guilty charges brought against his character. Condemned, Smith responded that he was framed, and that Section 40 was fake. He reveals Paine and Taylor's scheme to the groups. With a point of order, Paine admits to being one of the Congressmen in the room with Mr. Taylor, and accuses Smith of deliberately trying to "plant damaging impressions" of his conduct. In the meeting with Taylor, they were there for the purpose of bringing evidence against Smith and asking him to resign to avoid tarnishing the state's reputation. Paine, with a show of raw power, denounces his junior Senator and then leaves the floor.
Unfortunately, hardly anyone supported Smith's claims, they thought he was trying to ask for a postponement of the passage of the Deficiency Bill.
The chamber emptied out almost completely, and Smith promises to endlessly speak in a classic filibuster. He removes a supply of food and drink from his coat. Saunders provides support from the balcony.
Meanwhile, Jim Taylor was trying to sabotage Smith's message. He confidently tells Senator Paine he'd blacken Smith. Taylor is relentless in seeking total victory over Smith, knowing the consequences if they fail. Senator Paine on the other hand, was unwilling to do anything more. His guilt-stricken conscience slowly softens him.
Taylor did radio announcements, and put up banner headlines and billboards to mock Smith and try to stop anyone's support for him.
Meanwhile, in the senate, Smith had finished reading from the Declaration of Independence, and preached to the Senate and offered home-spun insight on democratic ideals.
Nearly 7 1/2 hours passed since the filibuster began, and one of the Senators proposed a motion to call for a recess until the morning. In a three-way routine between the rostrum (the President), the gallery (Saunders), and the floor (Smith), the twinkle-eyed President slyly looks up at Smith's coach in the gallery. Saunders, who knows the political ropes of Washington, signals for the uncomprehending Smith to not accept the motion. She gestures and points down toward the President, suggesting: "Ask him." The tolerant, amused President hides a smile of tacit approval for her coaching, and then explains how Smith would lose control of the floor if he accepted the motion for recess.
At a moment of crisis, Senator Smith is cheered and buoyed up after receiving a note taken to him on the floor by a young page. The note is from Saunders in the gallery with the acknowledgement of a long-distance courtship in the postscript.
Smith faces media manipulation, false claims, and a "muzzling" of freedom of the press by the Taylor machine. Saunders transmits a dictation to Smith's mother that will be printed in the only free press left - Jeff's Boys Stuff publication. With the support of an army of faithful boys, the boys' paper is type-set with the headline: "JEFF TELLS TRUTH" - the only uncensored news available to Smith's constituents. With wagons and bicycles, the handbills are distributed in support of Smith, and the boys organize a parade. When the word that there is opposition reaches Taylor's headquarters, McGann sends the word out to confiscate and destroy the Boys Stuff newspaper and disrupt the parade, resulting in injuries to many of the boys. A carload of boys distributing newspapers is deliberately forced off the road by Taylor's forces, resulting in a gruesome crash and accident. Mrs. Smith phones Saunders, distressed by the repercussions and warns her that children got hurt towards the city, and Jeff should stop.
Eventually it had been 23 hours and 16 minutes, but Smith still wasn't giving in, even with an agonizingly-weakened voice. Smith imaginatively suggested re-positioning the lady of the Dome back to an ethical center where she belonged.
One final blow has been manufactured to defeat Smith - hundreds of "Taylor-made" phony telegrams from constituents in his state. Senator Paine is granted permission to bring in "evidence of the response" from his state. Baskets, wire barrels and bundles of stacks of 50,000 wired telegrams from constituents are deposited in the front of the Senate chamber. Paine holds up a fistful, telling Smith that they all demand that he yield the floor and give up his filibuster.
Jefferson staggers forward in disbelief to look at the telegrams, pawing through them and desperately looking for some evidence of support. In a symbolic crucifixion stance, he grabs two large fistfuls and holds them out. With his hoarse voice, he turns toward Senator Paine and delivers an impassioned speech about "lost causes" - accusing Paine face-to-face of betraying his ideals. Then with heart-stirring courage, the bone-tired Smith finishes his heroic speech with a croaking voice, right before he fainted and collapsed onto the floor. Sympathetically, Saunders screams from the gallery. Senator Paine rushed from the Senate floor and tried to commit suicide, but Paine was seen struggling with other Senators. They prevent him from killing himself, as he screams in a public confession admitting that everything Smith said that day was true, and saying the he wasn't fit for his job, saving Smith from getting thrown out of the Senate. It's currently unknown what happened to Paine or Taylor. Although it can be assumed the Taylor lost his job.