Something for the Birds

In Washington, a woman is trying single-handedly to lobby for the protection of an endangered bird. Nobody listens. Then a professional lobbyist appears, a man who knows the business, knows everyone and lies when he has to. The two start working together. The subject is not birds but how getting anything done in the capital actually works. She thinks being right will be enough; he knows that being right opens no doors. The film proves both of them wrong at some point. The form is the studio comedy of its period: fast dialogue, official settings, misunderstandings. Robert Wise is working here in a light register far from the genres he would become known for. The film was made in years when conservation was not yet a subject heading in American cinema, which is why what makes it interesting today is less its comedy than the earliness of its topic. Edmund Gwenn, then known for paternal roles, is in the cast. Victor Mature plays the lobbyist and Patricia Neal the woman. Who it is for: viewers who like fifties Washington comedy and light studio work. Who it is not for: anyone expecting sharp political satire; the film softens its criticism in the final stretch.