"State of the Union" won the Pulitzer Prize in Drama in 1946.
Frank Capra originally wanted Clark Gable to play Grant Mathews so that he and Claudette Colbert could be reunited after their enormous success in It Happened One Night, also directed by Capra.
Gary Cooper was originally chosen for the role of Grant Matthews.
Katharine Hepburn's , Adolphe Menjou's and George J. Folsey's names are misspelled in the opening credits because the distribution rights were originally owned by MGM, but only for seven years. The rights were then sold to another company, which had to create its own opening credits.
Claudette Colbert was originally cast to play Mary. Days before production began, Frank Capra fired her from the film because she refused to work into the evening. Capra then hired Katharine Hepburn after Spencer Tracy suggested her.
Adapted from a Broadway play by Howard Lindsay and Russel Crouse. "State of the Union", starring Ralph Bellamy and Ruth Hussey, which opened at the Hudson Theater in New York on Nov 14, 1945 and ran for 765 performances (about two years).
Although rarely listed as an aviation movie, there is a terrific flying sequence using a Lockheed 12 twin and AT6/SNJ. The aircraft are appropriate and the maneuvers within their capabilities.
Originally distributed by MGM, rights later reverted to its production company, Liberty Films. The opening was altered to black out the MGM logo (although Leo the Lion's roar can still be heard). The film then continues with the "Liberty Films Presents" logo.
When the film was made and released, President Harry Truman had not made his miraculous political comeback and was considered a sure loser in the 1948 Presidential election by nearly everyone, which is why both the Republican Presidential nomination is considered so valuable in the movie, and why Van Johnson's character is amused when a young woman tells him that she thinks Truman will be elected President in his own right in November.