In addition to being a leading director of the 1930s and early 1940s, his success helped propel one-time minor Columbia Pictures into the ranks of the majors. It is fair to say that HARRY COHN’s Columbia Pictures would have been a mere footnote in Hollywood history had it not been for the 13-year association between the studio and its greatest director. In retrospect the reasons for the mass appeal of Capra’s films are obvious.
When most other directors made films about “bigger-thanlife” heroes, he made films about people with whom the audience could identify—cynics, idealists, working people, out-of-work John Does, and small-town folk with unfulfilled dreams. There is no mistaking Capra’s best films for those of any other director; his good humor, proletarian point of view, sentimentalism, and rollicking pace are unique. His stature and success in the business are evidenced by the fact that even before CECIL B. DEMILLE, ALFRED HITCHCOCK, or any other studio director, Frank Capra earned the distinction of having his name above the titles of his films.
Born in Sicily, he immigrated with his poor family to America when he was six years old. Settling in California, his father worked in the fields picking fruit. Young Capra was an extremely bright young man and he struggled to get a college education, graduating with a degree in chemical engineering from the prestigious California Institute of Technology in 1918.
After a stint in the army during World War I, Capra led a rudderless existence. When he found himself in desperate need of a job, he talked a small film company into letting him direct a short called Fultah Fisher’s Boarding House (1922). His fascination with the film medium was born, and he spent the next several years learning everything he could about the movie business, working in a film lab and taking on jobs as a propmaster and editor. Perhaps his most important training came when he worked as a gagman on the Our Gang silent comedies for HAL ROACH and then as a gagman for HARRY LANGDON at the MACK SENNETT studio.
Capra’s understanding of comedy was displayed in his direction of Langdon’s first three, touching and very funny feature films, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1926), which Capra coscripted, The Strong Man (1926), and Long Pants (1927). Capra’s importance to Langdon’s career is particularly apparent because the comedian’s art deteriorated after he decided he was a comic genius, firing Capra and then directing himself into oblivion.
Out of a job, Capra went to New York to direct CLAUDETTE COLBERT in her movie debut, For the Love of Mike (1927), but the film was not a success. He went back to work for Sennett for a short while before Harry Cohn made the smartest decision of his long career at Columbia, hiring Capra in 1928 by what was then a very special arrangement. Capra agreed to be paid the relatively paltry sum of $1,000 per picture in exchange for the right to coscript, direct, and produce his own films without any interference from Cohn. While the amount of money Capra earned would ultimately skyrocket, the other terms of the agreement remained in force for 13 years.
His first film at Columbia was a delightful comedy, That Certain Thing (1928). He worked quickly during the next several years, easily making the transition to sound while continuing to learn his craft in a number of minor but increasingly popular films such as Say It with Sable (1928), Submarine (1928), Dirigible (1931), Platinum Blonde (1931), American Madness (1932), and The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933). Capra was a hitmaker, but his early success at Columbia was nothing compared to what was to come. In 1934 he made the blockbuster of the year, It Happened One Night, with Claudette Colbert and CLARK GABLE. It became the first film to sweep all five top Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Robert Riskin), Best Actor, and Best Actress.
Neither Gable (on loan to Columbia as punishment) nor Colbert (who had worked with Capra without success in her movie debut) wanted to be in the film. The critical and boxoffice reaction was so strong that this single picture not only turned the two actors into superstars, but Capra also became the hottest director in Hollywood, turning Columbia into a highly respected institution overnight.
Emboldened by his success, Capra went on to make a series of films for which he is justly best remembered. His social comedies, beginning with Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and continuing with You Can’t Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and Meet John Doe (1941), are sometimes known as “Capracorn” for their strong belief in the goodness of man. Despite their apparent naïveté, these films were biting indictments of greed, corruption, and selfishness in their time.
In fact, Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which premiered in the nation’s capital with an audience full of members of Congress, was roundly booed and criticized by the elected officials for even suggesting that one of their number might be on the take. Nonetheless, Mr. Smith was nominated for Best Picture and Capra was nominated as Best Director for the film. The late 1930s were often years of awards for Capra. He won the Best Director Academy Award for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and both a Best Picture and Best Director Oscar for You Can’t Take It with You. In addition, his fantasy film, Lost Horizon (1937), was nominated for Best Picture.
During World War II, Capra distinguished himself still further when he joined the service and made the Why We Fight series, a stirring explanation of America’s role in the war. He won a Best Documentary Oscar in 1942 for his efforts and went on to make a number of excellent films for the army. Before he left Hollywood, he made Arsenic and Old Lace, which was released in 1944 to keep his work in front of the American public. It was yet another huge box-office success, despite its macabre humor.
After the war, however, Capra seemed to lose his touch— not as a filmmaker, but as a hitmaker. Perhaps his greatest film, It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), while much loved and revered today as the quintessence of Capracorn and arguably the greatest Christmas movie of them all, was a box-office disappointment when it was released. State of the Union (1948) fared somewhat better, but Riding High (1950) and Here Comes the Groom (1951) were likeable Bing Crosby vehicles that were not on a par with Capra’s earlier work.
After a long hiatus, Capra made his last two films, the underrated A Hole in the Head (1959) and the overrated Pocketful of Miracles (1961). He subsequently retired from directing, eventually publishing an intriguing and informative autobiography, Frank Capra: The Name above the Title, in 1971.
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1. Abbot and Costello were very popular during the sound era
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