Frank Capra Movies
The most honored and well-liked director of his generation, Sicilian-born Frank Capra graduated from the California Institute of Technology as a Chemical Engineering major. Down on his luck after service during World War I, he bluffed his way into the movie business and learned films from the bottom up, from the film lab to the prop department to the editing department. He settled in as a gagman during the 1920s, and soon became a director specializing in comedy. After a stint with Mack Sennett, Capra moved to Columbia Pictures, where he came into his own as a filmmaker.Displaying a good feel for drama as well as comedy, and a common touch with which ordinary viewers could resonate, Capra quickly became the star among the tiny studio's stable of directors. His pictures, starting with American Madness in 1932, displayed themes that audiences regarded as important and uplifting during the worst days of the Great Depression, and Capra, despite the relatively modest budgets with which he had to work, became one of the most popular serious filmmakers of the '30s. After It Happened One Night, a comedy starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable that earned an armload of Oscars and nominations, his career was made. Some critics regarded the messages of movies such as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington -- often dealing with the rights and dignity of the common man -- as corn (the phrase "Capra-corn" was an often-used derision), but the public loved them. Capra finished the '30s as one of Hollywood's most honored filmmakers, with three Best Director Oscars to his credit. With the rise of fascism, he turned more serious at the end of the decade and attempted to address this in Lost Horizon and his first independent production, Meet John Doe. He returned to pure comedy just prior to entering the army, with Arsenic and Old Lace, and, during his wartime service, directed the U.S. Army's Why We Fight series. After the war, he made the most ambitious and personal of his movies, It's a Wonderful Life, which originally didn't find its audience -- only during the '70s and early '80s, when it temporarily passed out of copyright protection (a situation since remedied by its owner), did the wide showings of this poignant comedy-fantasy turn the movie into a piece of definitive film-Americana.
Capra's subsequent movies, including State of the Union and A Hole in the Head, though successful, lacked the urgency and immediacy of his pre-war work, and he fell increasingly out of touch with the changing tastes and attitudes of both audiences and movie studios during the 1950s and early '60s. He made several industrial films during this period, but his career in feature films had effectively ended after the 1961 release of Pocketful of Miracles, a very sentimental (and big-budget widescreen) remake of his 1933 hit Lady for a Day. Capra died in 1991. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
A documentary, volume 2, that focuses on "The War Years" from Frank Capra. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bernard Miles
- 1925
This film from 1925 features Billy Bevan trying to deal with radio-controlled Model-T Fords. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1926
When baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon left Mack Sennett Studios to make features for First National, he wisely brought along the two Sennett staffers who helped make him a star: gag writer Frank Capra and director Harry Edwards. Langdon's first feature-length comedy at his new studio was Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, which not only ranks as one of Harry's best efforts, but also one of the funniest comedies ever made. Our hero plays a bumbling cobbler's son who enters a cross-country walking race sponsored by shoe manufacturer John Burton (Edwards Davis). This he does partly to save his dad's business, but mainly out of love for Burton's daughter Betty (Joan Crawford), whom Harry knows only from her appearances on the Burton Shoe advertising billboards. As our hero tramp, tramp, tramps along, one mishap after another befalls him. At one point he is arrested and placed on a chain gang, leading to pantomimic tour de force in which the hapless Harry tries his best to make little rocks out of big ones. He also runs afoul of a belligerent herd of sheep, nearly plummeting off a cliff as a result. The climax finds Harry being literally swept off his feet by an outsized cyclone -- a surprisingly convincing special-effects sequence staged entirely within the studio! Miraculously, Harry wins the race and Betty's hand in marriage (According to Frank Capra, leading lady Joan Crawford was so amused by Langdon's antics that she couldn't film her big scene with him without collapsing into laughter; as a result, the scene had to be shot with Crawford's back to the camera). An amusing coda featuring a "baby" Langdon in his bassinette caps this well-nigh-perfect film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Joan Crawford, (more)
- 1926
The Strong Man was the second starring feature of silent screen comedian Harry Langdon--not to mention first feature-length directorial effort of Frank Capra. Langdon plays a Belgian soldier who, during World War I, is captured by German conscript Arthur Thalasso. Almost immediately, the armistice is declared. Having nowhere else to go, Langdon sticks with Thalasso, who in civilian life is a popular circus strong man. When Thalasso gets the opportunity to tour the US, Langdon is delighted; at last he will meet minister's daughter Priscilla Bonner, with whom he has been carrying on a romance-by-correspondence. Arriving in New York, Harry wanders around the street with a photo of Bonner, asking passers-by if they know the girl. Jewel thief Gertrude Astor, hoping to use Langdon as a dupe in order to evade the cops, claims that she is the girl he's looking for. A marvelous comic set piece ensues, beginning with Langdon's clumsy efforts to carry the unconscious Astor up a long flight of stairs, and ending with Astor's athletic "seduction" of the confused little immigrant. When Langdon finally finds the real Bonner, he discovers she is blind--just as well, he reasons, since she regards him as something of a strong, strapping hero-type, which he most decidedly is not. Subsequent plot complications involve a corrupt element that has taken over Priscilla's town, and a wild climactic sequence wherein puny Langdon must try to pass himself off as strong man Thalasso...and through plain dumb luck, gets away with it! Far better seen than described, The Strong Man is one of the sweetest, funniest comedies of the 1920s. Harry Langdon would never again have a vehicle so perfectly suited to his "grown up baby" screen persona; if you've never seen this unique comedy genius in action, catch this film when the opportunity arises. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Priscilla Bonner, (more)
- 1926
Baby-faced comedian Harry Langdon plays a timorous fireman in His First Flame. Much of the action involves Langdon's efforts to impress the unimpressable Ruth Hiatt. She is so resistant to his "charms" that she can't even act grateful when he rescues her from a burning house. Filmed during Langdon's last year at Mack Sennett's studio, His First Flame was originally a three-reeler. It was expanded into a feature (using stock footage and outtakes) after the success of Langdon's official feature-film debut in First National's Tramp, Tramp, Tramp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Natalie Kingston, (more)
- 1927
Recently fired by comedian Harry Langdon, young director Frank Capra found it difficult to line up any new projects. He was finally afforded the opportunity to direct a New York-based production originally titled Hell's Kitchen, but eventually released as For the Love of Mike. The story is the old bromide about three men -- Irishman O'Malley (Hugh Cameron), German Schultz (Ford Sterling) and Jewish Katz (George Sidney) -- who adopt an orphaned lad named Mike (played as an adult by Ben Lyon) and finance his education. Once he gets into Yale, Mike nearly falls in with a bad crowd but in the end is redeemed by the love of pert coed Mary (Claudette Colbert, in her movie debut). Despite a strong supporting cast and worthwhile production values, For the Love of Mike was sabotaged by distribution problems and ended up a failure -- and worst of all, Frank Capra was never paid for his participation. Completely on the outs in Hollywood, Capra was forced to take a job at bottom-barrel Columbia Pictures, which in the long run turned out to be immeasurably beneficial for both director and studio. As for newcomer Claudette Colbert, she too managed to survive the For Love of Mike debacle, eventually winning an Academy Award for her work in the Frank Capra-directed It Happened One Night. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Claudette Colbert, Ben Lyon, (more)
- 1927
Few comedies of the 1920s were as bizarre and surreal as Harry Langdon's Long Pants. Having recently come of age, small-town-boy Langdon aspires to become a great lover, drawing inspiration from the romantic novels he's been reading since childhood. Falling hard for a "vamp" (Alma Bennett), Harry vows to rid himself of his childhood sweetheart (Gladys Brockwell) in the traditional literary manner by taking her into the woods and shooting her! Of course, he fails in this effort and flops even worse with the Vamp, who turns out to be a gangster's moll. After a bloody gangland shootout in which the Vamp is killed, a sadder-but-wiser Harry returns to the arms of his hometown girl, who has never quite figured out that she'd previously been a candidate for extermination. Written by future director Arthur Ripley, Long Pants is as kinky as any of Ripley's film noirs of the 1940s. Long Pants represents the second and final collaboration between star Harry Langdon and director Frank Capra, who was fired when Langdon wrong-headedly decided to become his own director, resulting in a series of career-destroying flops. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harry Langdon, Gladys Brockwell, (more)
Director Frank Capra's first feature for Columbia Pictures, the silent That Certain Thing stars Viola Dana and Ralph Graves. Dana plays a poor girl who falls in love with wealthy Graves, the son of a millionaire restaurateur. When Graves declares that he has no intention of going into the family business, his father cuts him off without a dime. With nary a dime between them, Graves and Dana hit upon a moneymaking plan: they'll manufacture box lunches in Dana's kitchen, then sell them to construction workers from the back of her Model T. The box-lunch enterprise blossoms into a big business, driving dad's chain of restaurants into bankruptcy. All is forgiven when Father becomes Graves' junior partner. Lensed for less than $20,000 (the "prop" box lunches saved catering costs!), That Certain Thing was a hit, launching a long and rewarding association between Capra and Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aggie Herring, Viola Dana, (more)
- 1928
For many years considered a "lost" Frank Capra silent, The Matinee Idol was restored in the mid-1990s to very nearly its entire 60-minute length. Johnnie Walker is cast as brash Broadway star Don Wilson, who out of boredom takes a leave of absence from his latest show and heads to the boonies. Here he stumbles across a threadbare theatrical stock company run by Ginger Bolivar (Bessie Love) and her father, Col. Jaspar Bolivar (Lionel Belmore). Smitten by Ginger, Don assumes a phony name and takes a job as a bit player in the Bolivar Stock Company's latest production, a dreadful Civil War drama. Amused by the sincerity of the provincial actors, Don secretly arranges for the troupe to be hired to perform in his own Broadway revue. On the night of their New York debut, the troupe's "high drama" is greeted with hoots of derisive laughter and celebrated as the comedy hit of the year. But Ginger, understandably humiliated, walks off the stage -- and upon finding out Don's true identity and his complicity in the proceedings, she walks out on him as well. Realizing that he's carried the joke too far, the now-contrite Don breaks his Broadway contract and seeks out Ginger's forgiveness, which of course she provides in abundance during the climactic clinch. Frank Capra later claimed that Matinee Idol represented the first time he was able to successfully combine broad comedy with a tender romance, though the film works far better on a comic level than it does as a love story (especially amusing are the close-ups of the Bolivar Stock Company's hayseed audience). Matinee Idol was remade in 1936 as The Music Goes 'Round and 'Round. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bessie Love, Johnnie Walker, (more)
- 1928
Banker John Caswell (Francis X. Bushman), a wealthy widower, decides to leave his scheming mistress Irene (Margaret Livingston) and marry the upper-class Helen (Helene Chadwick) instead. Seeking revenge, Irene starts an affair with Caswell's son Doug (Arthur Rankin). Caswell learns of their relationship and tells Doug the truth. The two men go to confront Irene only to discover that she has been shot to death in her apartment. Caswell puts the abandoned revolver in Irene's hand to make the shooting look like suicide. Police Detective Mitchell (Alphonz Ethier) pressures a confession from Doug, but he knows that the young man is innocent and instead accepts the notion that Irene killed herself, even though he has found one of Helen's earrings at the crime scene and knows that she is the murderer. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- 1928
No relation to the 1953 Grace Moore biopic of the same name, So This is Love was another early Frank Capra production for fledgling Columbia Pictures. The hero, dress designer Jerry McGuire (William Collier Jr.), is tired of being considered a wimp. After business hours, Jerry secretly takes boxing lessons, enabling him to knock the stuffings out of his burly rival Spike Mullins (Johnnie Walker). Jerry's newfound pugilistic skills wins him the affections of store clerk Hilda Jensen (Shirley Mason), who's just car-razy about "cave men." Filmed in a fast three weeks, So This is Love? was completed before Frank Capra's Matinee Idol but released afterward. Leading lady Shirley Mason was the sister of Viola Dana, who starred in Capra's initial Columbia effort, That Certain Thing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley Mason, William Collier, Jr., (more)
- 1928
Recorded sound effects punctuate this silent drama, the first big-budget release from the then-Poverty Row studio Columbia. Navy man Jack Reagon (Jack Holt) falls for dance-hall girl Bessie (Dorothy Revier) and they marry, but she can't adjust to the bonds of matrimony. A love affair starts between Bessie and Reagon's longtime Navy pal Bob Mason (Ralph Graves), who later becomes trapped underwater in a sunken submarine. Bessie admits her unfaithfulness to Reagon but reassures him of Mason's honorableness, and Reagon succeeds in rescuing his best friend. So successful was Submarine that director Frank Capra would reteam with (Jack Holt) and (Ralph Graves) for two more romantic-triangle rescue dramas: his early talkies Flight (1929) and Dirigible (1931), in which the men fought over Lila Lee and Fay Wray, respectively. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, (more)
- 1928
Presently unavailable for public reappraisal, the biting and cynical melodrama Power of the Press would seem to be a precursor to such Frank Capra talkies as Platinum Blonde and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Cub reporter Clem Rogers (Douglas Fairbanks Jr.) wants a "big scoop" more than anything else in life. Alas, he stumbles onto a hot news story that implicates his sweetheart Jane Atwill (Jobyna Ralston), daughter of mayor candidate Atwill (Edwards Davis), in a murder. Putting his job and his future on the line, Clem endeavors to help Jane prove her innocence, and together they begin to see a connection between the murder of the district attorney and the political ambitions of her father's political rival. Curiously, Capra never mentions Power of the Press in his autobiography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., Jobyna Ralston, (more)
- 1928
This silent gangster tale centers on a scarred racketeer, ironically called Handsome Williams (Mitchell Lewis), who has been robbing the liquor shipments of bootlegger Tiger Louie (William Norton Bailey). Handsome also runs a café where Dan (Theodor Von Eltz) works as a pianist. Outside his café, Handsome dodges the bullets of his enemies but the sudden violence so startles the blind street violinist Nora (Alice Day) that she faints. Handsome brings her inside, but when the grateful girl asks to feel his features, he instead lets her touch Dan's genuinely handsome face. Tiger Louie kidnaps Nora to try to stop Handsome's raids, but the gangster descends on his hideout with all his men. Dan rescues both Nora and Handsome from the shootout, and as they drive away Nora feels Handsome's face and recoils in shock. Giving up his deceit, Handsome stops the car and lets Dan and Nora escape as the police close in on him. ~ Nicole Gagne, All Movie Guide
- 1929
This early Frank Capra talkie stars popular screen action team Jack Holt and Ralph Graves as US marines stationed in Nicaragua. The "two guys fighting over one gal" throughline is there because the audience expected it -- and besides, leading lady Lila Lee is awfully cute. But the meat of the story lies in the fact that Holt and Graves are pilots, required to fly their Curtis fighter-bomber on dangerous missions. The flight scenes, shot without the benefit of special effects or back projection, are truly awe-inspiring, and served as stock footage for countless Columbia films in future years. Released in both silent and sound versions, Flight was a major success for the tiny Columbia studios. Its effectiveness is all the more remarkable when one realizes that star Jack Holt had a lifelong fear of flying! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1929
This comedy-mystery is famed director Frank Capra's first all-talking film. It tells the story of a bungling police inspector who tries to re-enact a murder scene with disastrous results. The first killing occurred within a darkened dining room. Unfortunately, when the inspector resets the scene, someone else is murdered. The poor inspector is terribly embarrassed, but this does not stop him from trying one more time. The original guests assist him and the murderer is finally captured. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Dorothy Revier, (more)
- 1929
In this sentimental drama, the son of a Jewish pushcart vendor abandons his roots as he builds himself a successful new life and moves his family to a posh Fifth-Avenue apartment. Though he loves his parents, he is deeply embarrassed by their humble provincial ways and introduces them as his servants when the rich parents of the woman he wants to marry drop by for a chat. His father is terribly hurt. The thoughtless son then boots his sister out because she remains faithful to her lover, an aspiring composer, in spite of his being arrested for burglary. By the story's end, the family has a tearful reconciliation as they gather around the dying patriarch. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean Hersholt, Lina Basquette, (more)
- 1930
Reformed gold-digger Barbara Stanwyck falls in love with a womanizing and wealthy aspiring artist and tries to convince him that she has really changed in this romantic Frank Capra drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, Marie Prevost, (more)
- 1930
Legendary Broadway comedian Joe Cook, who was capable of reducing audiences to paroxysms of helpless laughter by telling them what he wasn't going to do that evening, was invariably better than the shows in which he appeared. Fully aware of this, director Frank Capra brought Cook's 1928 stage musical Rain or Shine to the screen, cutting all of its songs and concentrating almost exclusively on the star. The mere wisp of a plot focuses on the tinker-toy travelling circus owned by heroine Joan Peers. Advance-man Cook does his best to stir up business and to avoid the sheriffs and process-servers, but it's an uphill battle. The climactic tent-fire scene is a cinematic tour de force for Capra, who'd improve upon it one year later in The Miracle Woman (1931). While Joe Cook's non-sequitur patter seems more bizarre than funny at times, he is always worth watching, as are his perennial stooges Tom Howard (who looks astonishingly like Robert Woolsey of Wheeler & Woolsey fame) and Dave Chasen (yes, the same Dave Chasen who later became a celebrated Hollywood restaurateur). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Cook, Louise Fazenda, (more)
- 1931
Columbia spent the 1920s and 1930s dusting off its reliable "two guys/one girl" military plotline and dressing it up in a variety of uniforms. Dirigible was the 1931 edition of this old chestnut, with navy pilots Jack Holt and Ralph Graves battling over the affections of Fay Wray. The film picks up tremendously during an experimental dirigible flight over the Antarctic, which crashes upon a remote iceberg. The in-flight footage during this scene and the subsequent rescue is remarkable, making up for the banality of the romantic subplot. Much of Dirigible was filmed at Lakehurst, New Jersey, where the era of passenger airships would come to a fiery end six years later with the Hindenberg. Reportedly, Boris Karloff shows up unbilled as one of the Navy crewmen in the crash scene; try to find him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Holt, Ralph Graves, (more)
- 1931
A minister's daughter finds fame as an evangelist but struggles with her own lack of faith in Frank Capra's impassioned drama. Inspired by the true story of Aimee Semple McPherson, the film follows the rise to prominence of Florence Fallon (Barbara Stanwyck). Disillusioned by the mistreatment of her dying father by his church, Florence grows cynical about religion. She nevertheless retains an intimate knowledge of the Bible and natural flair for preaching, talents put to use by promoter Bob Hornsby (Sam Hardy) in a series of phony revival meetings, complete with staged healings and other stunts. Florence plays along, but she soon comes to take her religious mission more seriously, especially after a blind songwriter John Carson (David Manners) claims that her preaching saved his life. Guilt-ridden Florence decides to go straight, but Hornsby sets out to stop her, seeing her new-found morality -- and her budding romance with John -- as a threat to his lucrative business. Foreshadowing many of his better-known classics, Capra addresses issues about the manipulation of the public and the importance of truth while also presenting an unlikely romance. The film's treatment of religion was considered controversial on its initial release; it now seems justifiably complex but far from critical. The film's most notable element is the intense lead performance from Stanwyck, whose combination of fiery charisma and vulnerability is magnetic and convincing, providing Capra's ambitious drama with a gripping emotional core. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Stanwyck, David Manners, (more)
A rather bleak comedy-drama from Frank Capra, Platinum Blonde basically starts where Capra's later and much more buoyant It Happened One Night (1934) ends: the marriage between a brash newspaperman and a society dame. But where the latter comedy was enhanced by the director's patented optimism, Platinum Blonde, produced at the height of the Great Depression, expresses no faith in a common ground between the classes. Star reporter Stew Smith (Robert Williams) falls in love with the sister (Jean Harlow) of his latest victim (Donald Dillaway). They marry despite the misgivings of Ann Schuyler's blue-nosed mother (Louise Closser Hale) and Stew's cynical colleagues ("Ann Schuyler's in the blue book. You're not even in the phone book!"). Unable to stand life in a gilded cage for long, Stew upsets the Schuyler mansion by inviting his friends to a wild and woolly party. Returning home unexpected in the middle of the drunken revelry, Ann lays down the law and Stew bolts -- right into the arms of girl reporter Gallagher (Loretta Young), whom he has loved all along without realizing it. Jean Harlow is surprisingly realistic as the callous society girl but Robert Williams' wisecracking reporter comes across as rather grating. An up-and-coming comic lead, Williams died after an operation for appendicitis on November 3, 1931, less than a month after Platinum Blonde had premiered to mostly positive reviews. Ironically, Loretta Young, who received top billing, had demanded to star in this film when it was still known as "Gallagher," the name of her character. Harlow, needless to stay, stole the limelight completely and Capra changed the title much to Young's chagrin. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loretta Young, Robert Williams, (more)
- 1932
Bank president Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston) has instituted a lending policy that shows great faith in ordinary people but which also irritates his board of directors, as does his claim that an increased money supply will help end the Depression. Elsewhere in the bank, criminal Dude Finlay (Robert Ellis) has coerced head cashier Cluett (Gavin Gordon) into cooperating with a robbery by threatening to reveal Cluett as a habitual gambler. Dickson's neglected wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson), upset that Thomas has forgotten their anniversary, agrees to go out with Cluett, but they're spotted by head teller Matt Brown (Pat O'Brien). Matt goes to Cluett's apartment and convinces Phyllis to leave with him just as the robbery takes place back at the bank. Because he was responsible for locking the vault, Matt is assumed to be in league with the robbers, and he's arrested. News of the robbery leads to frantic depositors demanding their money back from the bank; Dickson cannot talk them out of it, and the bank is running out of money. This gives the board of directors the leverage over Dickson that they've been seeking, and they try to force his resignation. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien, (more)
