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| − | '''Frank Capra''' (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] winning [[Italian-American]] [[film director]] and and the creative force behind a string of popular films in the 1930s and 40s. He is most remembered for his "feel-good" movies where average men overcome great injustice, such as 1939's ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' and ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' from 1946. | + | '''Frank Capra''' (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an [[Academy Awards|Academy Award]] winning [[Italian-American]] [[film director]] and the creative force behind a string of popular films in the 1930s and 40s. He is most remembered for his heart-warming movies where average men overcome great injustices, such as 1939's ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' and 1946's ''It's a Wonderful Life.'' |
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| | + | Capra films usually carry a message about the basic goodness of human nature, showing the value of un[[selfishness]] and hard work. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led his works to be called "Capra-corn" by critics, but his films are hailed by others as a major artistic expression of American values. Capra's personal life mirrored the course he often depicted in his films, as he rose from [[poverty]], struggled against the odds as an unknown talent in [[Hollywood]], and finally ascended to the pinnacle of success. He won three [[Academy Award]]s for best director and a [[Golden Globe Award]] for his work on ''It's a Wonderful Life,'' which is considered by many to be a classic of American filmmaking. |
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| | ==Early life== | | ==Early life== |
| | + | Born Francesco Rosario Capra on May 18, 1897, to Salvatore and Rosaria Nicolosi Capra in Bisacquino, [[Sicily]], Capra moved with his family to [[Los Angeles]] in 1903 where his older brother Benjamin was already living. Here, he began his schooling at Casteler Elementary school and later at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. Capra earned money through a number of menial jobs, including selling newspapers, working as a janitor, and playing in a two-man music combo at local [[brothel]]s for a dollar a night. His real passion, though, was pursued during school hours as a participant in the theater program, doing back-stage work such as lighting. |
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| − | Frank Capra, born Francesco Rosario Capra on May 19, 1897 to Salvatore and Rosaria Nicolosi Capra in Bisacquino, [[Sicily]]. Capra, along with his parents and siblings, moved to [[Los Angeles|L.A.]] in 1903 where his older brother Benjamin was already living. Here, Frank began his schooling at Casteler Elementary school and later Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. Capra earned money through a number of menial jobs, including selling newspapers, working as a janitor, and playing in a two-man music combo at local [[brothel]]s for a dollar a night. His real passion, though, was pursued during school hours as a participant in the theatre program, doing back-stage work such as lighting.
| + | Capra's family would have preferred that Frank drop out of school and go to work, but he was determined to get an education as part of his plan to fulfill the [[American Dream]]. He graduated from high school in 1915 and later that same year entered the Throop College of Technology (later called the [[California School of Technology]]) to study [[chemical engineering]]. It was here that he discovered the [[poetry]] and essays of [[Montaigne]] through the school's fine arts department, developing a taste for language that would soon inspire him to try his hand at writing. Despite the death of his father that year, Capra had the highest grades in his school and was awarded a $250 scholarship in addition to a six-week trip across the [[U.S.]] and [[Canada]]. |
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| − | Capra's family would have rather had Frank drop out of school and go to work, but he was determined to get an education as part of his plan to fulfill the American dream. Capra graduated from high school in 1915, and later that same year entered the Throop College of Technology (later the [[California School of Technology]]) to study [[chemical engineering]]. It was here that he discovered the poetry and essays of [[Montaigne]] through the school's fine art department, developing a taste for language that would soon inspire him to try his hand at writing. | |
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| − | Despite the death of his father that year, Capra had the highest grades in his school and was awarded a $250 scholarship in addition to a six-week trip across the [[U.S.]] and [[Canada]]. | |
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| − | On April 6, 1917, after congress declared war on [[Germany]] Capra tried to enlist in the [[U.S. Army|Army]] but was denied entrance as he had not yet become a naturalized citizen. Instead, he served in the [[Coastal Artillery]], working as a supply officer for the student soldiers at Throop. On September 15, 1918, Capra graduated from Throop and one month later was inducted into the army, with orders to ship out to the [[Presidio]] at [[San Francisco]]. While there, Presidio was one of tens of millions of people worldwide that year to become ill with the [[Spanish Influenza]]. In November the war had ended, and in December Capra was discharged so that he could recover from his illness.
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| − | While recuperating, Frank responded to a casting call for extras for [[John Ford]]'s film "The Outcasts of Poker Flat" (1919). He was given a part as a background laborer, and used this opportunity on set to introduce himself to the film's star, [[Harry Carey]], who Capra would later go on to cast in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" two decades later.
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| − | In his post-collegiate years, Capra worked a variety of odd jobs, including errand boy, ditch digger, live-in tutor, and orange tree pruner. He also continued to pursue jobs as extras for major pictures, and even got some work as a prop buyer for an independent studio. Capra wrote short stories during this time, but was unable to get them published.
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| − | By this point, the future director was consumed with dreams of show business. In August of 1919, Capra, along with former actor W.M. Plank and financial backer Ida May Heitmann, incorporate the Tri-State Motion Picture Co. in [[Nevada]]. The outfit produced three short films in 1920, "Don't Change Your Husband," "The Pulse of Life," and "The Scar of Love," all directed by Plank. The films flopped and Capra moved back to L.A. when "Tri-State" broke up, earning a job at CBC Film Sales Co. where he worked as an editor and director on a series called "Screen Snapshots." The job was unsatisfying and five months later, in August of 1920 he moved to [[San Francisco]] where he worked as a door-to-door salesman and learned to ride the rails with a hobo named Frank Dwyer.
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| − | The next year, San Francisco-based producer [[Walter Montague]] hired Capra for $75/week to help direct the short film, "Fulta Fisher's Boarding House," which was based on a [[Rudyard Kipling]] poem. The film sold for a small profit, and Montague's vision of producing films based off of poems was fueled. Capra quit working for the producer, however, when he announced that the next film would be based off of one of his own poems.
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| − | His next gigs, in 1921, were as an assistant at [[Walter Ball]]'s film lab and for the Paul Gerson Picture Corp. where he helped make their two-reel comedies as an editor. It was here that Frank began dating the actress [[Helen Edith Howe]], eventually marrying her on November 25, 1923. The couple soon moved to Hollywood where producer [[Hal Roach]] hired Capra in January of 1924 as a gag-writer for the comedy series "Our Gang". However, after seven weeks and five episodes, Frank quit when Roach refused to make him the director. Capra then went to work for [[Mack Sennett]] as one of six writers for silent movie comedian [[Harry Langdon]].
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| − | Langdon's popularity grew during this time and his production unit turned their focus to creating features for him to star in. Eventually, Langdon outgrew Sennet's team and left the group in September, 1925. Capra continued to work with Sennet for a short while, but was sacked and subsequently hired by Langdon as a gag writer, working on first on his succesful feature, "Tramp, Tramp, Tramp" (1924). For Langdon's next picture, "The Strong Man", Capra was promoted to director, earning a salary of $750/week.
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| − | Around this time, Frank's marriage to Helen began to come undone when it was discovered that she had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy that had to be terminated. In order to cope with the tragedy Capra became a workaholic and Helen turned to alcohol. The deterioration of his marriage paralleled the demise of his relationship with Langdon during the making of "Long Pants" (1927), which would be Capra's last with the star. Langdon, usually clashing with Capra's optimistic nature and siding with screenwriter [[Arthur Ripley]], decided to direct his own features. His next three films were disasters and Harry Langdon's career soon sank with the advent of sound technology in film.
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| − | In April of 1927, Frank and his wife separated, and Capra took the opportunity to move to New York in order to direct "For the Love of Mike" (1927) for the First National production company. The director and the film's star, [[Claudette Colbert]] did not get along, and to make matters worse production went over-budget resulting in First National's refusal to pay Capra.
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| − | Capra hitchhiked back to Hollywood and by September of 1927 he was working as a writer again for Mack Sennett briefly before receiving a directing job from Columbia Pictures President and Production Chief [[Harry Cohn]]. His first film there was "That Certain Thing", which Cohn was delighted with, doubling Capra's salary to $3,000 per picture. Capra's several next features were all succesful, including 1928's "Submarine". He then directed the high-budget "The Younger Generation" in 1929 which would be his first sound film. In the summer of that year, Capra was introduced to the widow, [[Lucille Warner Reyburn who would become his second wife.
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| − | That same year the director also met the transplanted stage actress [[Barbara Stanwyck]] and casted her for his next film "Ladies of Leisure" (1930). Stanwyck and Capra made a good team, and it was with her that he began to develop his mature directorial style. This was a result of Stanwyck's unpredictability as an actress, ususually deteriorating steadily after rehearsals or retakes. Knowing that her first scene was usually her best, Capra started blocking out scenes in advance, and preparing his other actors so that they could react to Stanwyck in the first shot so that they wouldn't disrupt continuity. In response to this semi-improvisatory style, the crew had to boost its level of craftmanship to beyond normal Hollywood productions, which were typically forged in more static and prosaic work conditions. Thus, the professionalism of Capra's crew became better than those of other outfits.
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| − | After "Ladies of Leisure" Capra was assigned to direct "Platinum Blond" (1931) starring Jean Harlow. Through the film's character, Stew Smith, came the debut of the prototypical "Capra" hero. Recognizing that he had something in his star director, Harry Cohn gradually took his lowly studio from out of Poverty Row by putting everything he had into Capra's control, including the left-over scripts and actors from some of the more major production companies, such as Warner Brothers and MGM.
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| − | Starting in 1932, with "American Madness", Capra shifted from his pattern of making flicks dealing with more "escapist" plot-lines, to creating motion pictures that were based more in reality, reflecting the social conditions of the day. It was also with "Madness" that Capra made a bold move against the cinematic "grammar" of his day, by fastening the pace of the plot by removing many of the actors entrances and exits in scenes, as well as by overlapping the actors' dialogue, eliminating the slow disolves in scene transitions, and other changes to shorten significantly the length of scenes. This created a sense of urgency which better held the attention of the audience. Except for on "mood pieces" Capra began to use this technique on all his future films and was heralded by directors for the "naturalness" of his directing.
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| − | By the release of his film, "Lady for a Day" (1933), Capra had established not only his technique as a director but his voice (themes and style) as one well. This style would later be dubbed by critics as "Capra-corn" for its sentimental, feel-good nature. "Lady for a Day" would be the first film of the young director's, as well as Columbia's, to attract the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, earning him four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing for an Adaptation ([[Robert Riskin]]), and a Best Actress nod to star [[May Robson]].
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| − | Though the nominations were a
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| − | From here', Capra became one of the most succesful directors in Hollywood, with follow-up hits "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" (1933),
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| − | Despair was what befell Frank Capra, personally, on the night of March 16, 1934, which he attended as one of the Best Director nominees for "Lady for a Day." Capra had caught Oscar fever, and in his own words, "In the interim between the nominations and the final voting.... my mind was on those Oscars." When Oscar host Will Rogers opened the envelope for Best Director, he commented, "Well, well, well. What do you know. I've watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Come on up and get it, Frank!"
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| − | Capra got up to go get it, squeezing past tables and making his way to the open dance floor to accept his Oscar. "The spotlight searched around trying to find me. 'Over here!' I waved. Then it suddenly swept away from me - and picked up a flustered man standing on the other side of the dance floor - 'Frank Lloyd' !"
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| − | 'Frank Lloyd' went up to the dais to accept HIS Oscar while a voice in back of Capra yelled "Down in front!"
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| − | Capra's walk back to his table amidst shouts of "Sit down!" turned into the "Longest, saddest, most shattering walk in my life. I wished I could have crawled under the rug like a miserable worm. When I slumped in my chair I felt like one. All of my friends at the table were crying."
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| − | That night, after Lloyd's "Calvacade," beat "Lady for a Day." for Best Picture, Capra got drunk at his house and passed out. "Big 'stupido,'" Capra thought to himself, "running up to get an Oscar dying with excitement, only to crawl back dying with shame. Those crummy Academy voters; to hell with their lousy awards. If ever they did vote me one, I would never, never, NEVER show up to accept it."
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| − | Capra would win his first of three Best Director Oscars the next year, and would show up to accept it. More importantly, he would become the president of the Academy in 1935 and take it out of the labor relations field a time when labor strife and the formation of the talent guilds threatened to destroy it.
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| − | The International Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences had been the brainchild of Louis B. Mayer in 1927 (it dropped the "International" soon after its formation). In order to forestall unionization by the creative talent (directors, actors and screenwriters) who were not covered by the Basic Agreement signed in 1926, Mayer had the idea of forming a company union, which is how the Academy came into being. The nascent Screen Writers Union, which had been created in 1920 in Hollywood, had never succeeded in getting a contract from the studios. It went out of existence in 1927, when labor relations between writers and studios were handled by the Academy's writers' branch.
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| − | The Academy had brokered studio-mandated pay-cuts of 10% in 1927 and 1931, and massive layoffs in 1930 and 1931. With the inauguration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt on March 4, 1933, Roosevelt took not time in attempting to tackle the Great Depression. The day after his inauguration, he declared a National Bank Holiday, which hurt the movie industry as it was heavily dependent on bank loans. Louis B. Mayer, as president of the Association of Motion Picture Producers, Inc. (the co-equal arm of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association charged with handling labor relations) huddled with a group from the Academy (the organization he created and had long been criticized for dominating, in both labor relations and during the awards season) and announced a 50% across-the-board pay cut. In response, stagehands called a strike for March 13th, which shut down every studio in Hollywood.
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| − | After another caucus between Mayer and the Academy committee, a proposal for a pay-cut on a sliding-scale up to 50% for everyone making over $50 a week; which would only last for eight weeks, was inaugurated. Screen writers resigned en masse from the Academy and joined a reformed Screen Writers Guild, but most employees had little choice and went along with it. All the studios but Warner Bros. and Sam Goldwyn honored the pledge to restore full salaries after the eight weeks, and Warners production chief Darryl F. Zanuck resigned in protest over his studio's failure to honor its pledge. A time of bad feelings persisted, and much anger was directed towards the Academy in its role as company union.
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| − | The Academy, trying to position itself as an independent arbiter, hired the accounting firm of Price Waterhouse for the first time to inspect the books of the studios. The audit revealed that all the studios were solvent, but Harry Warner refused to budge and Academy President Conrad Nagel resigned, although some said he was forced out after a vote of no-confidence after arguing Warner's case. The Academy announced that the studio bosses would never again try to impose a horizontal salary cut, but the usefulness of the Academy as a company union was over.
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| − | Under Roosevelt's New Deal, the self-regulation imposed by the National Industrial Relations Act (signed into law on June 16th) to bring business sectors back to economic health was predicated upon cartelization, in which the industry itself wrote its own regulatory code. With Hollywood, it meant the re-imposition of paternalistic labor relations that the Academy had been created to wallpaper over. The last nail in the company union's coffin was when it became public knowledge that the Academy appointed a committee to investigate the continued feasibility of the industry practice of giving actors and writers long-term contracts. High salaries to directors, actors, and screen writers was compensation to the creative people for producers refusing to ceded control over creative decision-making. Long-term contracts were the only stability in the Hollywood economic set-up up creative people,. Up to 20%-25% of net earnings of the movie industry went to bonuses to studio owners, production chiefs, and senior executives at the end of each year, and this created a good deal of resentment that fueled the militancy of the SWG and led to the formation of the Screen Actors Guild in July 1933 when they, too, felt that the Academy had sold them out.
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| − | The industry code instituted a cap on the salaries of actors, directors, and writers, but not of movie executives; mandated the licensing of agents by producers; and created a reserve clause similar to baseball where studios had renewal options with talent with expired contracts, who could only move to a new studio if the studio they had last been signed to did not pick up their option.
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| − | The SWG sent a telegram to FDR in October 1933 denouncing this policy, arguing that the executives had taken millions of dollars of bonuses while running their companies into receivership and bankruptcy. The SWG denounced the continued membership of executives who had led their studios into financial failure remaining on the corporate boards and in the management of the reorganized companies, and furthermore protested their use of the NIRA to write their corrupt and failed business practices into law at the expense of the workers.
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| − | There was a mass resignation of actors from the Academy in October 1933, with the actors switching their allegiance to SAG. SAG joined with the SWG to publish "The Screen Guilds Magazine," a periodical whose editorial content attacked the Academy as a company union in the producers' pocket. SAG President Eddie Cantor, a friend of Roosevelt who had bee invited to spend the Thanksgiving Day holiday with the president, informed him of the guild's grievances over the NIRA code. Roosevelt struck down many of the movie industry code's anti-labor provisions by executive order.
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| − | The labor battles between the guilds and the studios would continue until the late '30s, and by the time Frank Capra was elected president of the Academy in 1935, the post was an unenviable one. The Screen Directors Guild was formed at King Vidor's house on January 15, 1936, and one of its first acts was to send a letter to its members urging them to boycott the Academy Awards ceremony, which was three days away. None of the guilds had been recognized as bargaining agents by the studios, and it was argued to grace the Academy Awards would give the Academy, a company union, recognition. Academy membership had declined to 40 from a high of 600, and Capra believed that the guilds wanted to punish the studios financially by depriving them of the good publicity the Oscars generated.
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| − | But the studios couldn't care less. Seeing that the Academy was worthless to help them in its attempts to enforce wage cuts, it too abandoned the Academy, which it had financed. Capra and the Board members had to pay for the Oscar statuettes for the 1936 ceremony. In order to counter the boycott threat, Capra needed a good publicity gimmick himself, and the Academy came up with one, voting D.W. Griffith an honorary Oscar, the first bestowed since one had been given to Charlie Chaplin at the first Academy Awards ceremony.
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| − | The Guilds believed the boycott had worked as only 20 SAG members and 13 SWG members had showed up at the Oscars, but Capra remembered the night as a victory as all the winners had shown up. However, 'Variety' wrote that "there was not the galaxy of stars and celebs in the director and writer groups which distinguished awards banquets in recent years." 'Variety' reported that to boost attendance, tickets had been given to secretaries and the like. Bette Davis and Victor McLaglen had showed up to accept their Oscars, but McLaglen's director and screenwriter, John Ford and Dudley Nichols, both winners like McLaglen for The Informer (1935), were not there, and Nichols became the first person to refuse an Academy Award when he sent back his statuette to the Academy with a note saying he would not turn his back on his fellow writers in the SWG. Capra sent it back to him. Ford, the treasurer of the SDG, had not showed up to accept his Oscar, he explained, because he wasn't a member of the Academy. When Capra staged a ceremony where Ford accepted his award, the SDG voted him out of office.
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| − | To save the Academy and the Oscars, Capra convinced the board to get it out of the labor relations field. He also democratized the nomination process to eliminate studio politics, opened the cinematography and interior decoration awards to films made outside the U.S., and created two new acting awards for supporting performances to win over SAG.
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| − | By the 1937 awards ceremony, SAG signaled its pleasure that the Academy had mostly stayed out of labor relations by announcing it had no objection to its members attending the awards ceremony. The ceremony was a success, despite the fact that the Academy had to charge admission due to its poor finances. Frank Capra had saved the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and he even won his second Oscar that night, for directing "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." At the end of the evening, Capra announced the creation of the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award to honor "the most consistent high level of production achievement by an individual producer." It was an award he himself was not destined to win.
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| − | By the 1938 awards, the Academy and all three guilds had buried the hatchet, and the guild presidents all attended the ceremony: SWG President Dudley Nichols, who finally had accepted his Oscar, SAG President Robert Montgomery, and SDG President King Vidor. Capra also had introduced the secret ballot, the results of which were unknown to everyone but the press, who were informed just before the dinner so they could make their deadlines. The first Irving Thalberg Award was given to long-time Academy supporter and anti-Guild stalwart Darryl F. Zanuck by Cecil B. DeMille, who in his preparatory remarks, declared that the Academy was "now free of all labor struggles."
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| − | But those struggles weren't over. In 1939, Capra had been voted president of the SDG and began negotiating with AMPP President 'Joseph Schenck' , the head of 20th Century-Fox, for the industry to recognize the SDG as the sole collective bargaining agent for directors. When Schenck refused, Capra mobilized the directors and threatened a strike. He also threatened to resign from the Academy and mount a boycott of the awards ceremony, which was to be held a week later. Schenck gave in, and Capra won another victory when he was named Best Director for a third time at the Academy Awards, and his movie, "You Can't Take it With You," was voted Best Picture of 1938.
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| − | The 1940 awards ceremony was the last that Capra presided over, and he directed a documentary about them, which was sold to Warner Bros' for $30,000, the monies going to the Academy. He was nominated himself for Best Director and Best Picture for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," but lost to the "Gone With the Wind" juggernaut. Under Capra's guidance, the Academy had left the labor relations field behind in order to concentrated on the awards (publicity for the industry), research and education.
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| − | "I believe the guilds should more or less conduct the operations and functions of this institution," he said in his farewell speech. He would be nominated for Best Director and Best Picture once more with "It's a Wonderful Life" in 1947, but the Academy would never again honor him, not even with an honorary award after all his service. (Bob Hope, in contrast, received four honorary awards, including a lifetime membership in 1945, and the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian award in 1960 from the Academy.) The SDG (subsequently renamed the Directors Guild of America after its 1960 with the Radio and Television Directors Guild and which Capra served as its first president from 1960-61), the union he had struggled with in the mid-30s but which he had first served as president from 1939 to 1941 and won it recognition, voted him a lifetime membership in 1941 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1959.
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| − | Whenever Capra convinced studio boss Harry Cohn to let him make movies with more controversial or ambitious themes, the movies typically lost money after under-performing at the box office. "The Bitter Tea of General Yen" and Lost Horizon (1937) were both expensive, philosophically minded pictures that sought to reposition Capra and Columbia into the prestige end of the movie market. After the former's relative failure at the box office and with critics, Capra turned to making a screwball comedy, a genre he excelled at, with It Happened One Night (1934). Bookended with You Can't Take It with You (1938), these two huge hits won Columbia Best Picture Oscars and Capra Best Director Academy Awards. These films, along with "Mister Deeds Goes to Town," "Mister Smith Goes to Washington," and "It's a Wonderful Life" are the heart of Capra's cinematic canon. They are all classics and products of superb craftsmanship, but they gave rise to the canard of "Capra-corn." One cannot consider Capra without taking into account "The Bitter Tea of General Yen," 'American Madness," and "Meet John Doe," all three dark films tackling major issues, Imperialism, the American plutocracy, and domestic fascism. Capra was no Pollyanna, and the man who was called a "dago" by Mack Sennett and who went on to become one of the most unique, highly honored and successful directors, whose depictions of America are considered Americana themselves, did not live his cinematic life looking through a rose-colored range-finder
| + | On April 6, 1917, after Congress declared war on [[Germany]], Capra tried to enlist in the [[U.S. Army|Army]] but was denied entrance as he had not yet become a naturalized citizen. Instead, he served in the [[Coastal Artillery]], working as a supply officer for the student soldiers at Throop. On September 15, 1918, he graduated from Throop and one month later was inducted into the army. He was one of tens of millions of people worldwide that year to become ill with the [[Spanish Influenza]]. By November the war had ended, and in December, Capra was discharged so that he could recover from his illness. |
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| − | In his autobiography "The Name Above the Title," Capra says that at the time of "American Madness," critics began commenting on his "gee-whiz" style of filmmaking. The critics attacked "gee whiz" cultural artifacts as their fabricators "wander about wide-eyed and breathless, seeing everything as larger than life." Capra's response was "Gee whiz!"
| + | While recuperating, Frank responded to a casting call for extras for director [[John Ford]]'s film ''The Outcasts of Poker Flat'' (1919). He was given a part as a background laborer, and used this opportunity on set to introduce himself to the film's star, [[Harry Carey]], whom Capra would later go on to cast in ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington,'' two decades later. |
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| − | Defining Hollywood as split between two camps, "Mr. Up-beat" and "Mr. Down-beat," Capra defended the up-beat gee whiz on the grounds that, "To some of us, all that meets the eye IS larger than life, including life itself. Who ca match the wonder of it?"
| + | ==Early Career== |
| | + | In his post-collegiate/war years, Capra worked a variety of odd jobs, including errand boy, ditch digger, live-in tutor, and orange tree pruner. He also continued to pursue jobs as extras for major pictures, and even got some work as a prop buyer for an independent studio. Capra wrote short stories during this time, but was unable to get them published. |
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| − | Among the artists of the "Gee-Whiz:" school were Ernest Hemingway, Homer, and Paul Gaugin, a novelist who lived a heroic life larger than life itself, a poet who limned the lives of gods and heroes, and a painter who created a mythic Tahiti, the Tahiti that he wanted to find. Capra pointed to Moses and the apostles as examples of men who were larger than life. Capra was proud to be "Mr. Up-beat" rather than belong to "the 'ashcan' school" whose "films depict life as an alley of cats clawing lids off garbage cans, and man as less noble than a hyena. The 'ash-canners,' in turn, call us Pollyannas, mawkish sentimentalists, and corny happy-enders."
| + | By this point, the future director was consumed with dreams of show business. In August of 1919, Capra, along with former actor W.M. Plank and financial backer Ida May Heitmann, incorporated the Tri-State Motion Picture Co. in [[Nevada]]. The outfit produced three short films in 1920, "Don't Change Your Husband," "The Pulse of Life," and "The Scar of Love," all directed by Plank. The films flopped and Capra moved back to L.A. when "Tri-State" broke up, earning a job at CBC Film Sales Co., where he worked as an editor and director on a series called "Screen Snapshots." The job was unsatisfying and five months later, in August, 1920 he moved to [[San Francisco]] where he worked as a door-to-door salesman and learned to ride the rails with a hobo named [[Frank Dwyer]]. |
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| − | What really moves Capra is that in America, there was room for both schools, that there was no government interference that kept him from making a film like "American Madness." (While Ambassador to the Court of St, James, Joseph P. Kennedy had asked Harry Cohn to stop exporting "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" to Europe as it portrayed American democracy so negatively.) About Mr. Up-beat and Mr-Downbeat and "Mr. In-between," Capra says, "We all respect and admire each other because the great majority freely express their own individual artistry unfettered by subsidies or strictures from government, pressure groups, or ideologists."
| + | [[Image:Ogfolliesof38.jpg|thumb|200px|Capra wrote for the popular "Our Gang" series in the mid 1920s.]] |
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| − | In the period 1934 to 1941, Capra the created the core of his canon with the classics "It Happened One Night," "Mr Deeds Goes to Town" (1936), "You Can't Take it With You: (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and "Meet John Doe" (1941), wining three Best Director Oscars in the process. Some cine-historians call Capra the great American propagandist, he was so effective in creating an indelible impression of America in the 1930s. "Maybe there never was an America in the thirties," John Cassavetes was quoted as saying. "Maybe it was all Frank Capra."
| + | The next year, San Francisco-based producer [[Walter Montague]] hired Capra for $75 per week to help direct the short film, "Fulta Fisher's Boarding House," which was based on a [[Rudyard Kipling]] poem. The film made a small profit, and Montague began to develop a vision for producing more films based on poems. Capra quit working for the producer, however, when Montague announced that the next film would be based on one of his own poems. |
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| − | After the United States went to war in December 1941, Frank Capra rejoined the Army and became an actual propagandist. His "Why We Fight" series of propaganda films were highly lauded for their remarkable craftsmanship and were the best of the U.S. propaganda output during the war. Capra's philosophy, which has been variously described as a kind of Christian socialism (his films frequently feature a male protagonist who can be seen a Christ figure in a story about redemption emphasizing New Testament values) that is best understood as an expression of humanism, made him an ideal propagandist. He loved his adopted country with the fervor of the immigrant who had realized the American dream. One of his propaganda films, "The Negro Soldier," is a milestone in race relations.
| + | Capra's next job, in 1921, was as an assistant at [[Walter Ball]]'s film lab and for the Paul Gerson Picture Corp., where he helped make comedies as an editor. Here, Frank began dating the actress [[Helen Edith Howe]], eventually marrying her on November 25, 1923. The couple soon moved to [[Hollywood]], where producer [[Hal Roach]] hired Capra in January 1924, as a gag-writer for the comedy series "[[Our Gang]]." However, after seven weeks and five episodes, Frank quit when Roach refused to make him the director. Capra then went to work for [[Mack Sennett]] as one of six writers for silent movie comedian [[Harry Langdon]]. Eventually, Langdon outgrew Sennet's team and left the group in September 1925. Capra continued to work with Sennet for a short while, but was sacked and subsequently hired by Langdon, working on the first of his successful features, ''Tramp, Tramp, Tramp'' (1924). For Langdon's next picture, ''The Strong Man,'' Capra was promoted to director, earning a salary of $750/week. |
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| − | Capra, a genius in the manipulation of the first form of "mass media," was opposed to "massism." The crowd in a Capra film is invariably wrong, and he comes down on the side of the individual, who can make a difference in a society of free individuals. In an interview, Capra said he was against "mass entertainment, mass production, mass education, mass everything. Especially mass man. I was fighting for, in a sense, the preservation of the liberty of the individual person against the mass." | + | Around this time, Capra's marriage to Helen began to unravel, after it was discovered that she had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy that had to be terminated. Capra became a workaholic and Helen turned to alcohol. The deterioration of his marriage paralleled the demise of his relationship with Langdon during the making of ''Long Pants'' (1927). In April of 1927, Frank and his wife separated, and Capra took the opportunity to move to New York in order to direct ''For the Love of Mike'' (1927) for the First National production company. Capra and the film's star, [[Claudette Colbert]] did not get along, however, and to make matters worse, production went over-budget resulting in First National's refusal to pay Capra. |
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| − | Capra had left Columbia after "Mr. Smith" and formed his own production company. After the war, he founded Liberty Films with John Ford and made his last masterpiece, "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946). Liberty folded prior to its release (another Liberty film, William Wyler's masterpiece,The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) was released through United Artists) Though Capra received his sixth Oscar nomination as best director, the movie flopped at the box office, which is hard to believe now that the film is considered must-see viewing each Christmas. Capra's period of greatness was over, and after making three under-whelming films from 1948 to '51 (including a remake of his earlier "Broadway Bill"), Capra didn't direct another picture for eight years, instead making a series of memorable semi-comic science documentaries for television that became required viewing for most 1960's school kids. His last two movies, A Hole in the Head (1959) and Pocketful of Miracles (1961) his remake of Lady for a Day (1933) did little to enhance his reputation. | + | Capra hitchhiked back to Hollywood and by September of 1927 he was working as a writer again for Mack Sennett before receiving a directing job from [[Columbia Pictures]]' president [[Harry Cohn]]. His first film there was ''That Certain Thing,'' which met with Cohn's strong approval, and Cohn doubled Capra's salary to $3,000 per picture. Capra's next several features were all successful, including 1928's ''Submarine.'' He then directed the high-budget ''The Younger Generation'' in 1929, which would be his first sound film. In the summer of that year, Capra was introduced to the widow, [[Lucille Warner Reyburn]], who would become his second wife, a marriage that would last until her death in 1984. |
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| − | But a great reputation it was, and is. Capra's films withstood the test of time and continue to be as beloved as when they were embraced by the movie-going "masses" in the 1930s. It was the craftsmanship: Capra was undeniably a master of his medium. The great English novelist Graham Greene, who supported himself as a film critic in the 1930s, loved Capra's films due to their sense of responsibility and of common life, and due to his connection with his audience. (Capra, according to the 1938 'Time' article, believed that what he liked would be liked by moviegoers). In his review of "Mr Deeds Goes to Town," Greene elucidated the central theme of Capra's movies: "Goodness and simplicity manhandled in a deeply selfish and brutal world."
| + | [[Image:BarbaraStanwyckLadyofBurlesque16cropped.jpg|thumb|125px|left|Barbara Stanwyck, whose work with Capra influenced his innovative directing style]] |
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| − | But it was Capra's great mastery over film that was the key to his success. Comparing Capra to Dickens in a not wholly flattering review of "You Can't Take it With You," Green found Capra "'a rather muddled and sentimental idealist who feels - vaguely - that something is wrong with the social system' (807). Commenting on the improbable scene in which Grandpa Vanderhof persuades the munitions magnate Anthony P. Kirby to give everything up and play the harmonica, Greene stated:
| + | That same year Capra also met the former stage actress [[Barbara Stanwyck]] and cast her for his next film, ''Ladies of Leisure'' (1930). Stanwyck and Capra made a good team, and it was with her that he began to develop his mature directorial style. Knowing that her first scene was usually her best, Capra started blocking out scenes in advance. The crew also had to boost its level of craftsmanship and spontaneity as a result. |
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| − | "It sounds awful, but it isn't as awful as all that, for Capra has a touch of genius with a camera: his screen always seems twice as big as other people's, and he cuts as brilliantly as Eisenstein (the climax when the big bad magnate takes up his harmonica is so exhilarating in its movement that you forget its absurdity). Humour and not wit is his line, a humour that shades off into whimsicality, and a kind of popular poetry which is apt to turn wistful. We may groan and blush as he cuts his way remorselessly through all finer values to the fallible human heart, but infallibly he makes his appeal - to that great soft organ with its unreliable goodness and easy melancholy and baseless optimism. The cinema, a popular craft, can hardly be expected to do more."
| + | After ''Ladies of Leisure'' Capra was assigned to direct ''Platinum Blond''(1931) starring [[Jean Harlow]]. The film's character Stew Smith provided the type for the prototypical "Capra" hero. Harry Cohn gradually placed more and more material under Capra's control, including the left-over scripts and actors from some of the more major production companies, such as [[Warner Brothers]] and [[MGM]]. |
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| − | Capra was a populist, and the simplicity of his narrative structures, in which the great social problems facing America were boiled down to scenarios in which metaphorical boy scouts took on corrupt political bosses and evil-minded industrialists, created mythical America of simple archetypes that with its humor, created powerful films that appealed to the elemental emotions of the audience. The immigrant who had struggled and been humiliated but persevere due to his inner resolution harnessed the mytho-poetic power of the movie to create proletarian passion plays that appealed to the psyche of the New Deal movie-goer. The country during the Depression was down but not out, and the ultimate success of the individual in the Capra films was a bracing tonic for the movie audience of the 1930s. His own personal history, transformed on the screen, became their myths that got them through the Depression, and when that and the war was over, the great filmmaker found himself out of time. Capra, like Charles Dickens, moralized political and economic issues. Both were primarily masters of personal and moral expression, and not of the social and political. It was the emotional realism, not the social realism, of such films as "Mr Smith Goes To Washington" which he was concerned with, and by focusing on the emotional and moral issues his protagonists faced, typically dramatized as a conflict between cynicism and the protagonist's faith and idealism, that made the movies so powerful, and made them register so powerfully with an audience.
| + | Starting in 1932, with ''American Madness,'' Capra shifted from his pattern of making movies dealing with "escapist" plot-lines to creating films based more in reality, reflecting the social conditions of the day. It was also with ''Madness'' that Capra made a bold move against the cinematic "grammar" of his day, quickening the pace of the plot by removing many of the actors' entrances and exits in scenes, as well as by overlapping the actors' dialog, and eliminating the slow dissolves in scene transitions. This created a sense of urgency which better held the attention of the audience. Except for "mood pieces," Capra began to use this technique on all his future films and was heralded by directors for the "naturalness" of his directing. |
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| | + | ==Success in Hollywood== |
| | + | By the release of his film, ''Lady for a Day'' (1933), Capra had established not only his technique as a director but his voice (themes and style) as well. This style would later be dubbed by critics as "Capra-corn" for its sentimental, feel-good nature. ''Lady for a Day'' would be the first film by either Capra or Columbia to attract the attention of the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences]], earning the picture four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing for an Adaptation ([[Robert Riskin]]), and Best Actress ([[May Robson]]). |
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| | + | Though the nominations were a welcome honor for the young director, the actual night of the awards ceremony (March 16, 1934) would go down as one of Capra's most humiliating experiences. Capra, with high hopes of winning an [[Oscar]], had his mind set on nothing else. When host [[Will Rogers]] opened the envelope for Best Director, he commented, "Well, well, well. What do you know. I've watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Come on up and get it, Frank!" Capra sprang from his chair and squeezed past tables to make his way out to the open dance floor to accept his award. In his own words: "The spotlight searched around trying to find me. 'Over here!' I waved. Then it suddenly swept away from me—and picked up a flustered man standing on the other side of the dance floor—[[Frank Lloyd]]!" |
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| | + | [[Image:Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in It Happened One Night film trailer.jpg|thumb|250px|left|Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night," the first of several Academy-Award winning movies by Frank Capra]] |
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| − | Born Francesco Rosario Capra in Bisacquino, [[Sicily]], Capra moved to the [[United States]] in 1903 with his father Salvatore, his mother Rosaria Nicolosi, and his siblings Giuseppa, Giuseppe, and Antonia. In [[California]] they met up with Benedetto Capra, (the oldest sibling) and settled in [[Los Angeles]] where, in 1918, Frank Capra graduated from Throop Institute (later renamed the [[California Institute of Technology]]) with a B.S. degree in [[chemical engineering]]. On October 18, 1918, he joined the [[United States Army]]. While at the [[Presidio]], he got [[Spanish influenza]] and was discharged on December 13. In 1920, he became a [[naturalized citizen]] of the United States, registering his name as Frank Russell Capra.
| + | The next year would redeem Capra when he received the Best Director trophy for his romantic comedy ''It Happened One Night'' (1934). The following year, Capra was asked to become president of the [[Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences|Motion Picture Academy]] itself, a position he would serve well, as many have given him the credit of saving the institution from demise during his four-year term. There had been a mass [[boycott]] of the Academy undertaken by actors, writers, and directors in 1933, as part of the newly formed unions that would become the [[Screen Actors Guild]], [[Screen Writer's Guild]], and [[Screen Directors Guild]]. Capra was responsible for smoothing over the strife by deciding that the formerly anti-union Academy should stay out of labor relations. His other significant modifications to the program were: Democratizing the nomination process in order to eliminate studio politics, opening the [[cinematography]] and interior decoration awards to films made outside the U.S., and creating two new acting awards for supporting performances. By the 1937 awards ceremony, the Screen Actors Guild announced that it had no objection to its members attending. To add icing to the cake, that night Capra won his second Oscar for directing ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936), which also won the Best Picture award. |
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| − | ==Film career==
| + | In 1939, Capra was voted president of the Screen Director's Guild and began negotiating with new Academy president [[Joseph Schneck]] for the industry to recognize the SDG as the sole collective bargaining agent for directors. Schneck refused and Capra threatened a strike as well as to resign from the Academy personally. Schneck gave in, and one week later, at the Oscar awards ceremony, Capra won his third Best Director title for ''You Can't Take it With You'' (1938), which also took home Best Picture. In 1940, Capra's term as President of the Academy would end. |
| − | Like other prominent directors of the 1930s and '40s, Capra began his career in silent films, notably by directing and writing silent film comedies starring [[Harry Langdon]] and the ''[[Our Gang]]'' kids. In 1930 Capra went to work for [[Mack Sennett]] and then moved to [[Columbia Pictures]] where he formed a close association with screenwriter [[Robert Riskin]] (husband of [[Fay Wray]]) and cameraman [[Joseph Walker]]. In 1940, however, [[Sidney Buchman]] replaced Riskin as writer.
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| − | For the 1934 film ''[[It Happened One Night]]'', [[Robert Montgomery (actor)|Robert Montgomery]] and [[Myrna Loy]] were originally offered the roles, but each felt that the script was poor, and Loy described it is one of the worst she had ever read, later noting that the final version bore little resemblance to the script she and Montgomery were offered.<ref>Kotsabilas-Davis, James and Loy, Myrna. ''Being and Becoming''. New York: Primus, Donald I Fine Inc., 1987, p. 94. ISBN 1-55611-101-0.</ref>After Loy, [[Miriam Hopkins]] and [[Margaret Sullavan]] also each rejected the part.<ref>Wiley, Mason and Bona, Damien. ''Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987, p. 54. ISBN 0-345-34453-7.</ref> [[Constance Bennett]] wanted to, but only if she could produce it herself. Then [[Bette Davis]] wanted the role,<ref>[http://eeweems.com/capra/_it_happened_one_night.html It Happened One Night - Frank Capra]Erik Weems, UPDATED JUNE 22, 2006</ref> but she was under contract with [[Warner Brothers]] and [[Jack Warner]] refused to loan her to Columbia Studios.<ref>Chandler, Charlotte. ''The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography''. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006, p. 102. ISBN 0-78628-639-3.</ref> Capra was unable to get any of the actresses he wanted for the part of Ellie Andrews, partly because no self-respecting star would make a film with only two costumes.<ref>[http://www.moviediva.com/MD_root/reviewpages/MDItHappenedOneNight.htm moviediva ItHappenedOneNight]</ref> [[Harry Cohn]] suggested [[Claudette Colbert]] to play the lead role. Both Capra and [[Clark Gable]] enjoyed making the movie. After the 1934 film ''It Happened One Night'', Capra directed a steady stream of films for Columbia intended to be inspirational and humanitarian.
| + | In this period, between 1934 to 1941, Capra created the core of his canon with the timeless hits, ''It Happened One Night,'' ''Mr Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936), ''You Can't Take it With You'' (1938), ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939), and ''Meet John Doe'' (1941), winning three Best Director Oscars in the process. |
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| − | The best known are ''[[Mr. Deeds Goes to Town]]'', the original ''[[Lost Horizon (1937)|Lost Horizon]]'', ''[[You Can't Take It with You]]'', ''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'', and ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]''. His ten-year break from screwball comedy ended with the comedy ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace (film)|Arsenic and Old Lace]]''. Among the actors who owed much of their early success to Capra were [[Gary Cooper]], [[Jean Arthur]], [[James Stewart]], [[Barbara Stanwyck]], [[Cary Grant]] and [[Donna Reed]]. Capra credited Jean Arthur as "my favorite actress."
| + | Some historians call Capra the great American propagandist, as he had been so effective in creating an indelible impression of America in the 1930s. "Maybe there never was an America in the thirties," John Cassavetes was quoted as saying. "Maybe it was all Frank Capra." |
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| − | Capra's films in the 1930s enjoyed success at the [[Academy Awards]]. ''It Happened One Night'' was the first film to win all five top Oscars, [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Directing|Best Director]], [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]], [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]] and [[Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay|Best Screenplay]]. In 1936, Capra won his second Best Director Oscar for ''[[Mr. Deeds Goes to Town]]'' and in 1938 he won his third Best Director Oscar in just five years for ''[[You Can't Take It with You]]'' which also won Best Picture. In addition to his three directing wins, Capra received directing nominations for three other films (''[[Lady for a Day]]'', ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'', and ''It's a Wonderful Life''). He was also host of the 8th Academy Awards ceremony on 5 March 1936. | + | ==World War II and Retirement== |
| | + | [[Image:Transmitlies.jpeg|thumb|250px|Capra's "Prelude to War" exposed the "Big Lie" tactics of the Nazi propaganda machine.]] |
| | + | When the [[United States]] went to war again in December of 1941, Frank Capra rejoined the [[U.S. Army|Army]] as an official propagandist, creating a highly popular series called, ''Why We Fight.'' Capra would regard these films as his most important work, see them as his way to counter German filmmaker [[Leni Riefenstahl]]'s films, in particular, ''[[Triumph of the Will]].'' ''Prelude to War'' won the 1942 [[Academy Award for a Documentary Feature]]. |
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| − | Although these films, written by individuals on the political left, tend to exude the spirit of the [[New Deal]], Capra himself was a conservative [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] who hated President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] (never voting for him), admired [[Francisco Franco|Franco]] and [[Benito Mussolini|Mussolini]], and later during the [[McCarthyism|McCarthy era]] served as a secret [[Federal Bureau of Investigation|FBI]] informer.<ref>Gewen.</ref>
| + | When the war ended, he founded [[Liberty Films]] with John Ford and ultimately made his last classic there, ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]],'' in 1946. Despite its failure at the box office, the film was nominated for five academy awards including Frank's sixth nomination for Best Director. Capra did not win the Oscar for ''It's a Wonderful Life,'' but he did win the Golden Globe Award for it in 1947. The film went on to become a [[Christmas]] classic that remains highly popular during the holiday season today. |
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| − | ==World War II==
| + | After a relatively poor record over the following three years, Capra took an eight-year hiatus from feature films. During this time, he created a memorable series of semi-comic science documentaries for television that became required viewing for school children in the 1960's. These included "Our Mr. Sun" (1956), "Hemo the Magnificent" (1957), "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays" (1957), and "The Unchained Goddess" (1958). |
| − | Between 1942 and 1948, when he produced ''[[State of the Union (film)|State of the Union]]'', Capra also directed or co-directed eight war documentaries including ''[[Prelude to War]]'' (1942), ''[[The Nazis Strike]]'' (1942), ''[[The Battle of Britain]]'' (1943), ''[[Divide and Conquer]]'' (1943), ''[[Know Your Enemy Japan]]'' (1945), ''[[Tunisian Victory]]'' (1945) and ''[[Two Down and One to Go]]'' (1945). His Academy Award-winning documentary series, ''[[Why We Fight]]'', is widely considered a masterpiece of [[propaganda]]. Capra was faced with the task of convincing an isolationist nation to enter the war, desegregate the troops, and ally with the Russians, among other things. Capra would regard these films as his most important work, see them as his way to counter German filmmaker [[Leni Riefenstahl]]'s films, in particular [[Triumph of the Will]]. ''Prelude to War'' won the 1942 [[Academy Award for Documentary Feature]].
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| − | ==Postwar==
| + | Capra's final theatrical film was 1961's ''Pocketful of Miracles,'' with [[Glenn Ford]] and [[Bette Davis]]. The film was a minor success, with a decent box office draw and three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Peter Falk), Best Costume Design, and Best Original Song. |
| − | ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' (1946) is perhaps Capra's most widely known and long-lasting film to date. Although it was initially considered a box office disappointment, it was nominated for five [[Academy Awards]], including [[Academy Award for Directing|Best Director]] and [[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]], [[Academy Award for Sound|Best Sound Recording]] and [[Academy Award for Film Editing|Best Editing]]. The film gained a second life on television, where for a number of years it was shown multiple times during the [[Christmas]] season. A lapse in its copyright protection caused the film to appear to fall into the public domain, and TV stations believed they were allowed to show it without paying royalties. With the new exposure, ''It's a Wonderful Life'' became a Christmas classic. | |
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| − | Even though the copyright on the film itself lapsed, it was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of all the other copyrighted material used to produce the film such as the script, music, etc. whose copyrights were renewed. In 1993, [[Republic Pictures]], which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in ''[[Stewart v. Abend]]'' (which involved the movie ''[[Rear Window]]'') to enforce its claim of copyright; while the film's copyright had not been renewed, it was a [[derivative work]] of various works that were still copyrighted. As a result, the film is no longer shown as much on television ([[NBC]] is currently the only network licensed to show the film on U.S. network television).
| + | Capra remained quiet for the most part in his retirement years, until his autobiography, ''The Name Above the Title,'' was published in 1971. He was also the subject of a 1991 biography by [[Joseph McBride entitled]], ''Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success,'' in which many of the impressions left by Capra's biography were challenged. |
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| − | The [[American Film Institute]] named it one of the best films ever made, putting it at the top of the list of [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers]], a list of what AFI considers to be the most inspirational American movies of all time. The film also appeared in another AFI Top 100 list: it placed at 11th on [[AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies]] list of the top American films.
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| − | Capra's final theatrical film was 1961's ''[[Pocketful of Miracles]]'', with [[Glenn Ford]] and [[Bette Davis]]. He had planned to do a [[science fiction]] film later in the decade but never even got around to pre-production. Capra did end up producing several science-related television specials for the [[Bell System|Bell Telephone System]], such as "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays." | |
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| − | Capra films usually carry a definite message about the basic goodness of human nature and show the value of unselfishness and hard work. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led his works to be called 'Capra-corn'. However, many others who see the positive aspects of Capra's works prefer the term, "Capraesque." It may be argued that much of the 'feel-good' type of cinema that has somewhat become a genre of its own, for better or for worse, is largely Frank Capra's legacy.{{Fact|date=February 2007}}
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| − | At the [[Yale Law School]] Film Society weekend with Capra in 1972, Jean Arthur attended a small afternoon symposium at his invitation. Capra urged her to stay for the screening that night, and assured her the audience would be delighted and overwhelmingly enthusiastic. Arthur declined because, she said, she had to go home and feed her cats.
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| − | ==Capra in the media==
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| − | In 1971, Capra published his autobiography, ''The Name Above the Title''. Uncompromising in its details, it offers a compelling self-portrait. It is, however, not considered to be entirely reliable as regards dates and facts; one commentator asserts that it "appears to have been a lie practically from beginning to end".<ref>Gewen.</ref>
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| − | Capra was also the subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride entitled ''Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success''. McBride challenges many of the impressions left by Capra's autobiography.
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| | ==Death and legacy== | | ==Death and legacy== |
| − | Frank Capra died in [[La Quinta, California]] of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in his sleep in 1991 at the age of 94. He was interred in the Coachella Valley Cemetery in [[Coachella, California]]. | + | Frank Capra died in [[La Quinta, California]] of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] in his sleep, in 1991, at the age of 94. He was interred in the Coachella Valley Cemetery in [[Coachella, California]]. He left part of his 1,100-acre ranch in [[Fallbrook, California]] to [[Caltech]] University and its [[YMCA]], of which he was a lifelong supporter. |
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| − | He left part of his 1,100-acre ranch in [[Fallbrook, California]] to [[Caltech]].<ref name="caltechyhistory">[http://www.caltechy.org/about/history/75years/ The Caltech Y History]</ref>
| + | Capra's ''It's a Wonderful Life'' has become one of the most celebrated [[Christmas]] classics, broadcast on network television each holiday season. It was named by the [[American Film Institute]] as one of the most inspirational American films ever made. The film also placed eleventh on AFI's list of the top American films of all time. |
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| − | His son [[Frank Capra, Jr.]] — one of the three children born to Capra's second wife, [[Lou Capra]] — is president of [[Screen Gems]], in [[Wilmington, North Carolina]]. Frank Capra's grandson is [[Frank Capra III]].
| + | Capra won the Academy Award for Best Director three times: ''It Happened One Night'' (1934), ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936), and ''You Can't Take It with You'' (1938). He also won the [[Golden Globe Award]] for Best Director for ''It's a Wonderful Life'' in 1947. |
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| − | ==Quotes==
| + | His son Frank Capra, Jr.—one of the three children born to Capra's second wife, Lou Capra—is president of [[Screen Gems]], in Wilmington, [[North Carolina]]. Capra's grandson, Frank Capra III, has worked as an assistant director for a number of films and TV movies. |
| − | * "There are no rules in filmmaking, only sins. And the [[cardinal sin]] is dullness."{{Fact|date=May 2007}}
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| | ==Filmography== | | ==Filmography== |
| | {{col-begin}} | | {{col-begin}} |
| | {{col-break}} | | {{col-break}} |
| − | *''[[The Strong Man]]'' (1926) | + | *''The Strong Man'' (1926) |
| − | *''[[For the Love of Mike]]'' (1927) | + | *''For the Love of Mike'' (1927) |
| − | *''[[Long Pants]]'' (1927) | + | *''Long Pants'' (1927) |
| − | *''[[The Power of the Press]]'' (1928) | + | *''The Power of the Press'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[Say It with Sables]]'' (1928) | + | *''Say It with Sables'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[So This Is Love]]'' (1928) | + | *''So This Is Love'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[Submarine (movie)|Submarine]]'' (1928) | + | *''Submarine'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[The Way of the Strong]]'' (1928) | + | *''The Way of the Strong'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[That Certain Thing]]'' (1928) | + | *''That Certain Thing'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[The Matinee Idol]]'' (1928) | + | *''The Matinee Idol'' (1928) |
| − | *''[[Flight (1929 film)|Flight]]'' (1929) | + | *''Flight'' (1929) |
| − | *''[[The Donovan Affair]]'' (1929) | + | *''The Donovan Affair'' (1929) |
| − | *''[[The Younger Generation]]'' (1929) | + | *''The Younger Generation'' (1929) |
| − | *''[[Rain or Shine]]'' (1930) | + | *''Rain or Shine'' (1930) |
| − | *''[[Ladies of Leisure]]'' (1930) | + | *''Ladies of Leisure'' (1930) |
| − | *''[[Dirigible (film)|Dirigible]]'' (1931) | + | *''Dirigible'' (1931) |
| − | *''[[The Miracle Woman]]'' (1931) | + | *''The Miracle Woman'' (1931) |
| − | *''[[Platinum Blonde (film)|Platinum Blonde]]'' (1931) | + | *''Platinum Blonde'' (1931) |
| | {{col-break}} | | {{col-break}} |
| − | *''[[Forbidden (1932 film)|Forbidden]]'' (1932) | + | *''Forbidden'' (1932) |
| − | *''[[American Madness]]'' (1932) | + | *''American Madness'' (1932) |
| − | *''[[The Bitter Tea of General Yen]]'' (1932) | + | *''The Bitter Tea of General Yen'' (1932) |
| − | *''[[Lady for a Day]]'' (1933) | + | *''Lady for a Day'' (1933) |
| − | *''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934) | + | *''It Happened One Night'' (1934) |
| − | *''[[Broadway Bill]]'' (1934) | + | *''Broadway Bill'' (1934) |
| − | *''[[Mr. Deeds Goes to Town]]'' (1936) | + | *''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936) |
| − | *''[[Lost Horizon (film)|Lost Horizon]]'' (1937) | + | *''Lost Horizon'' (1937) |
| − | *''[[You Can't Take It with You]]'' (1938) | + | *''You Can't Take It with You'' (1938) |
| − | *''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' (1939) | + | *''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939) |
| − | *''[[Meet John Doe]]'' (1941) | + | *''Meet John Doe'' (1941) |
| − | *''[[Arsenic and Old Lace (film)|Arsenic and Old Lace]]'' (1944) | + | *''Arsenic and Old Lace'' (1944) |
| − | *''[[The Battle of China]]'' (1944) | + | *''The Battle of China'' (1944) |
| − | *''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' (1946) | + | *''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946) |
| − | *''[[State of the Union (film)|State of the Union]]'' (1948) | + | *''State of the Union'' (1948) |
| − | *''[[Riding High (1950 film)|Riding High]]'' (1950) | + | *''Riding High'' (1950) |
| − | *''[[Here Comes the Groom]]'' (1951) | + | *''Here Comes the Groom'' (1951) |
| − | *''[[A Hole in the Head]]'' (1959) | + | *''A Hole in the Head'' (1959) |
| − | *''[[Pocketful of Miracles]]'' (1961) | + | *''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961) |
| | {{col-end}} | | {{col-end}} |
| | | | |
| | ==References== | | ==References== |
| − | {{reflist}}
| + | * Capra, Frank. ''Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography.'' New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-30680-771-8 |
| − | * Capra, Frank. ''Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-30680-771-8. | + | * Gewen, Barry. "It Wasn't Such a Wonderful Life." ''[[The New York Times]].'' May 3, 1992. |
| − | * Gewen, Barry. "It Wasn't Such a Wonderful Life." ''[[The New York Times]], May 3, 1992.'' [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE2DF123AF930A35756C0A964958260 It Wasn't Such a Wonderful Life] Access date: May 2, 2007. | + | * McBride, Joseph. ''The Catastrophe of Success.'' New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2000. ISBN 0312263244 |
| | | | |
| | ==External links== | | ==External links== |
| − | *{{imdb name|id=0001008|name=Frank Capra}} | + | All links retrieved April 9, 2024. |
| − | *{{tcmdb name|id=28439|name=Frank Capra}}
| + | |
| | + | *{{imdb name|id=0001008|name=Frank Capra}}. ''www.imdb.com''. |
| | + | |
| | {{start}} {{s-awards}} | | {{start}} {{s-awards}} |
| | {{s-bef|before=[[Frank Lloyd]]<br/>for ''[[Cavalcade (film)|Cavalcade]]''}} | | {{s-bef|before=[[Frank Lloyd]]<br/>for ''[[Cavalcade (film)|Cavalcade]]''}} |
| Line 247: |
Line 160: |
| | {{s-ttl|title=[[Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture]]<br/>for ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]''|years=1947}} | | {{s-ttl|title=[[Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture]]<br/>for ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]''|years=1947}} |
| | {{s-aft|after=[[Elia Kazan]]<br/>for ''[[Gentleman's Agreement]]''}} | | {{s-aft|after=[[Elia Kazan]]<br/>for ''[[Gentleman's Agreement]]''}} |
| − | {{end}}
| |
| − |
| |
| − | {{start box}}
| |
| − | {{succession box|title=[[Oscars]] [[List of Academy Awards ceremonies|host]]|before=[[Irvin S. Cobb]] <br/> [[7th Academy Awards]]|after=[[George Jessel (actor)|George Jessel]] <br/> [[9th Academy Awards]]|years=[[8th Academy Awards]]}}
| |
| | {{end}} | | {{end}} |
| | | | |
| | {{Frank Capra Films}} | | {{Frank Capra Films}} |
| − | [[category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]] | + | [[Category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]] |
| − | [[Category:history and biography]] | + | [[Category:Biography]] |
| | {{Credit|130057933}} | | {{Credit|130057933}} |
| Frank Capra
|
|
| Birth name:
|
Frank Rosario Capra
|
| Date of birth: |
May 18, 1897
|
| Birth location:
|
 Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy
|
| Date of death:
|
September 3 1991 (aged 94)
|
| Death location:
|
 La Quinta, California, USA (heart attack in his sleep)
|
| Academy Awards:
|
Best Director
Won:
1934 It Happened One Night
1936 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1938 You Can't Take It with You
Nominated:
1933 Lady for a Day
1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1946 It's a Wonderful Life
Best Picture
Won:
1934 It Happened One Night
1938 You Can't Take It with You
Nominated:
1936 Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1937 Lost Horizon
1939 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
1946 It's a Wonderful Life
|
| Spouse:
|
Helen Howell (1923-1927) (divorced)
Lou Capra (1932-1984) (her death) 3 children
|
Frank Capra (May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was an Academy Award winning Italian-American film director and the creative force behind a string of popular films in the 1930s and 40s. He is most remembered for his heart-warming movies where average men overcome great injustices, such as 1939's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and 1946's It's a Wonderful Life.
Capra films usually carry a message about the basic goodness of human nature, showing the value of unselfishness and hard work. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led his works to be called "Capra-corn" by critics, but his films are hailed by others as a major artistic expression of American values. Capra's personal life mirrored the course he often depicted in his films, as he rose from poverty, struggled against the odds as an unknown talent in Hollywood, and finally ascended to the pinnacle of success. He won three Academy Awards for best director and a Golden Globe Award for his work on It's a Wonderful Life, which is considered by many to be a classic of American filmmaking.
Early life
Born Francesco Rosario Capra on May 18, 1897, to Salvatore and Rosaria Nicolosi Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, Capra moved with his family to Los Angeles in 1903 where his older brother Benjamin was already living. Here, he began his schooling at Casteler Elementary school and later at Los Angeles' Manual Arts High School. Capra earned money through a number of menial jobs, including selling newspapers, working as a janitor, and playing in a two-man music combo at local brothels for a dollar a night. His real passion, though, was pursued during school hours as a participant in the theater program, doing back-stage work such as lighting.
Capra's family would have preferred that Frank drop out of school and go to work, but he was determined to get an education as part of his plan to fulfill the American Dream. He graduated from high school in 1915 and later that same year entered the Throop College of Technology (later called the California School of Technology) to study chemical engineering. It was here that he discovered the poetry and essays of Montaigne through the school's fine arts department, developing a taste for language that would soon inspire him to try his hand at writing. Despite the death of his father that year, Capra had the highest grades in his school and was awarded a $250 scholarship in addition to a six-week trip across the U.S. and Canada.
On April 6, 1917, after Congress declared war on Germany, Capra tried to enlist in the Army but was denied entrance as he had not yet become a naturalized citizen. Instead, he served in the Coastal Artillery, working as a supply officer for the student soldiers at Throop. On September 15, 1918, he graduated from Throop and one month later was inducted into the army. He was one of tens of millions of people worldwide that year to become ill with the Spanish Influenza. By November the war had ended, and in December, Capra was discharged so that he could recover from his illness.
While recuperating, Frank responded to a casting call for extras for director John Ford's film The Outcasts of Poker Flat (1919). He was given a part as a background laborer, and used this opportunity on set to introduce himself to the film's star, Harry Carey, whom Capra would later go on to cast in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, two decades later.
Early Career
In his post-collegiate/war years, Capra worked a variety of odd jobs, including errand boy, ditch digger, live-in tutor, and orange tree pruner. He also continued to pursue jobs as extras for major pictures, and even got some work as a prop buyer for an independent studio. Capra wrote short stories during this time, but was unable to get them published.
By this point, the future director was consumed with dreams of show business. In August of 1919, Capra, along with former actor W.M. Plank and financial backer Ida May Heitmann, incorporated the Tri-State Motion Picture Co. in Nevada. The outfit produced three short films in 1920, "Don't Change Your Husband," "The Pulse of Life," and "The Scar of Love," all directed by Plank. The films flopped and Capra moved back to L.A. when "Tri-State" broke up, earning a job at CBC Film Sales Co., where he worked as an editor and director on a series called "Screen Snapshots." The job was unsatisfying and five months later, in August, 1920 he moved to San Francisco where he worked as a door-to-door salesman and learned to ride the rails with a hobo named Frank Dwyer.
Capra wrote for the popular "Our Gang" series in the mid 1920s.
The next year, San Francisco-based producer Walter Montague hired Capra for $75 per week to help direct the short film, "Fulta Fisher's Boarding House," which was based on a Rudyard Kipling poem. The film made a small profit, and Montague began to develop a vision for producing more films based on poems. Capra quit working for the producer, however, when Montague announced that the next film would be based on one of his own poems.
Capra's next job, in 1921, was as an assistant at Walter Ball's film lab and for the Paul Gerson Picture Corp., where he helped make comedies as an editor. Here, Frank began dating the actress Helen Edith Howe, eventually marrying her on November 25, 1923. The couple soon moved to Hollywood, where producer Hal Roach hired Capra in January 1924, as a gag-writer for the comedy series "Our Gang." However, after seven weeks and five episodes, Frank quit when Roach refused to make him the director. Capra then went to work for Mack Sennett as one of six writers for silent movie comedian Harry Langdon. Eventually, Langdon outgrew Sennet's team and left the group in September 1925. Capra continued to work with Sennet for a short while, but was sacked and subsequently hired by Langdon, working on the first of his successful features, Tramp, Tramp, Tramp (1924). For Langdon's next picture, The Strong Man, Capra was promoted to director, earning a salary of $750/week.
Around this time, Capra's marriage to Helen began to unravel, after it was discovered that she had a life-threatening ectopic pregnancy that had to be terminated. Capra became a workaholic and Helen turned to alcohol. The deterioration of his marriage paralleled the demise of his relationship with Langdon during the making of Long Pants (1927). In April of 1927, Frank and his wife separated, and Capra took the opportunity to move to New York in order to direct For the Love of Mike (1927) for the First National production company. Capra and the film's star, Claudette Colbert did not get along, however, and to make matters worse, production went over-budget resulting in First National's refusal to pay Capra.
Capra hitchhiked back to Hollywood and by September of 1927 he was working as a writer again for Mack Sennett before receiving a directing job from Columbia Pictures' president Harry Cohn. His first film there was That Certain Thing, which met with Cohn's strong approval, and Cohn doubled Capra's salary to $3,000 per picture. Capra's next several features were all successful, including 1928's Submarine. He then directed the high-budget The Younger Generation in 1929, which would be his first sound film. In the summer of that year, Capra was introduced to the widow, Lucille Warner Reyburn, who would become his second wife, a marriage that would last until her death in 1984.
Barbara Stanwyck, whose work with Capra influenced his innovative directing style
That same year Capra also met the former stage actress Barbara Stanwyck and cast her for his next film, Ladies of Leisure (1930). Stanwyck and Capra made a good team, and it was with her that he began to develop his mature directorial style. Knowing that her first scene was usually her best, Capra started blocking out scenes in advance. The crew also had to boost its level of craftsmanship and spontaneity as a result.
After Ladies of Leisure Capra was assigned to direct Platinum Blond(1931) starring Jean Harlow. The film's character Stew Smith provided the type for the prototypical "Capra" hero. Harry Cohn gradually placed more and more material under Capra's control, including the left-over scripts and actors from some of the more major production companies, such as Warner Brothers and MGM.
Starting in 1932, with American Madness, Capra shifted from his pattern of making movies dealing with "escapist" plot-lines to creating films based more in reality, reflecting the social conditions of the day. It was also with Madness that Capra made a bold move against the cinematic "grammar" of his day, quickening the pace of the plot by removing many of the actors' entrances and exits in scenes, as well as by overlapping the actors' dialog, and eliminating the slow dissolves in scene transitions. This created a sense of urgency which better held the attention of the audience. Except for "mood pieces," Capra began to use this technique on all his future films and was heralded by directors for the "naturalness" of his directing.
Success in Hollywood
By the release of his film, Lady for a Day (1933), Capra had established not only his technique as a director but his voice (themes and style) as well. This style would later be dubbed by critics as "Capra-corn" for its sentimental, feel-good nature. Lady for a Day would be the first film by either Capra or Columbia to attract the attention of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, earning the picture four nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing for an Adaptation (Robert Riskin), and Best Actress (May Robson).
Though the nominations were a welcome honor for the young director, the actual night of the awards ceremony (March 16, 1934) would go down as one of Capra's most humiliating experiences. Capra, with high hopes of winning an Oscar, had his mind set on nothing else. When host Will Rogers opened the envelope for Best Director, he commented, "Well, well, well. What do you know. I've watched this young man for a long time. Saw him come up from the bottom, and I mean the bottom. It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy. Come on up and get it, Frank!" Capra sprang from his chair and squeezed past tables to make his way out to the open dance floor to accept his award. In his own words: "The spotlight searched around trying to find me. 'Over here!' I waved. Then it suddenly swept away from me—and picked up a flustered man standing on the other side of the dance floor—Frank Lloyd!"
Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night," the first of several Academy-Award winning movies by Frank Capra
The next year would redeem Capra when he received the Best Director trophy for his romantic comedy It Happened One Night (1934). The following year, Capra was asked to become president of the Motion Picture Academy itself, a position he would serve well, as many have given him the credit of saving the institution from demise during his four-year term. There had been a mass boycott of the Academy undertaken by actors, writers, and directors in 1933, as part of the newly formed unions that would become the Screen Actors Guild, Screen Writer's Guild, and Screen Directors Guild. Capra was responsible for smoothing over the strife by deciding that the formerly anti-union Academy should stay out of labor relations. His other significant modifications to the program were: Democratizing the nomination process in order to eliminate studio politics, opening the cinematography and interior decoration awards to films made outside the U.S., and creating two new acting awards for supporting performances. By the 1937 awards ceremony, the Screen Actors Guild announced that it had no objection to its members attending. To add icing to the cake, that night Capra won his second Oscar for directing Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), which also won the Best Picture award.
In 1939, Capra was voted president of the Screen Director's Guild and began negotiating with new Academy president Joseph Schneck for the industry to recognize the SDG as the sole collective bargaining agent for directors. Schneck refused and Capra threatened a strike as well as to resign from the Academy personally. Schneck gave in, and one week later, at the Oscar awards ceremony, Capra won his third Best Director title for You Can't Take it With You (1938), which also took home Best Picture. In 1940, Capra's term as President of the Academy would end.
In this period, between 1934 to 1941, Capra created the core of his canon with the timeless hits, It Happened One Night, Mr Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can't Take it With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and Meet John Doe (1941), winning three Best Director Oscars in the process.
Some historians call Capra the great American propagandist, as he had been so effective in creating an indelible impression of America in the 1930s. "Maybe there never was an America in the thirties," John Cassavetes was quoted as saying. "Maybe it was all Frank Capra."
World War II and Retirement
Capra's "Prelude to War" exposed the "Big Lie" tactics of the Nazi propaganda machine.
When the United States went to war again in December of 1941, Frank Capra rejoined the Army as an official propagandist, creating a highly popular series called, Why We Fight. Capra would regard these films as his most important work, see them as his way to counter German filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl's films, in particular, Triumph of the Will. Prelude to War won the 1942 Academy Award for a Documentary Feature.
When the war ended, he founded Liberty Films with John Ford and ultimately made his last classic there, It's a Wonderful Life, in 1946. Despite its failure at the box office, the film was nominated for five academy awards including Frank's sixth nomination for Best Director. Capra did not win the Oscar for It's a Wonderful Life, but he did win the Golden Globe Award for it in 1947. The film went on to become a Christmas classic that remains highly popular during the holiday season today.
After a relatively poor record over the following three years, Capra took an eight-year hiatus from feature films. During this time, he created a memorable series of semi-comic science documentaries for television that became required viewing for school children in the 1960's. These included "Our Mr. Sun" (1956), "Hemo the Magnificent" (1957), "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays" (1957), and "The Unchained Goddess" (1958).
Capra's final theatrical film was 1961's Pocketful of Miracles, with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis. The film was a minor success, with a decent box office draw and three Academy Award nominations for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Peter Falk), Best Costume Design, and Best Original Song.
Capra remained quiet for the most part in his retirement years, until his autobiography, The Name Above the Title, was published in 1971. He was also the subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride entitled, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, in which many of the impressions left by Capra's biography were challenged.
Death and legacy
Frank Capra died in La Quinta, California of a heart attack in his sleep, in 1991, at the age of 94. He was interred in the Coachella Valley Cemetery in Coachella, California. He left part of his 1,100-acre ranch in Fallbrook, California to Caltech University and its YMCA, of which he was a lifelong supporter.
Capra's It's a Wonderful Life has become one of the most celebrated Christmas classics, broadcast on network television each holiday season. It was named by the American Film Institute as one of the most inspirational American films ever made. The film also placed eleventh on AFI's list of the top American films of all time.
Capra won the Academy Award for Best Director three times: It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), and You Can't Take It with You (1938). He also won the Golden Globe Award for Best Director for It's a Wonderful Life in 1947.
His son Frank Capra, Jr.—one of the three children born to Capra's second wife, Lou Capra—is president of Screen Gems, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Capra's grandson, Frank Capra III, has worked as an assistant director for a number of films and TV movies.
Filmography
- The Strong Man (1926)
- For the Love of Mike (1927)
- Long Pants (1927)
- The Power of the Press (1928)
- Say It with Sables (1928)
- So This Is Love (1928)
- Submarine (1928)
- The Way of the Strong (1928)
- That Certain Thing (1928)
- The Matinee Idol (1928)
- Flight (1929)
- The Donovan Affair (1929)
- The Younger Generation (1929)
- Rain or Shine (1930)
- Ladies of Leisure (1930)
- Dirigible (1931)
- The Miracle Woman (1931)
- Platinum Blonde (1931)
|
- Forbidden (1932)
- American Madness (1932)
- The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1932)
- Lady for a Day (1933)
- It Happened One Night (1934)
- Broadway Bill (1934)
- Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
- Lost Horizon (1937)
- You Can't Take It with You (1938)
- Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
- Meet John Doe (1941)
- Arsenic and Old Lace (1944)
- The Battle of China (1944)
- It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
- State of the Union (1948)
- Riding High (1950)
- Here Comes the Groom (1951)
- A Hole in the Head (1959)
- Pocketful of Miracles (1961)
|
References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Capra, Frank. Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-30680-771-8
- Gewen, Barry. "It Wasn't Such a Wonderful Life." The New York Times. May 3, 1992.
- McBride, Joseph. The Catastrophe of Success. New York: St. Martin's Griffin, 2000. ISBN 0312263244
External links
All links retrieved April 9, 2024.
- Frank Capra at the Internet Movie Database. www.imdb.com.
| Awards
|
Preceded by:
Frank Lloyd
for Cavalcade
|
Academy Award for Best Director
for It Happened One Night
1934
|
Succeeded by: John Ford
for The Informer
|
Preceded by:
John Ford
for The Informer
|
Academy Award for Best Director
for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
1936
|
Succeeded by: Leo McCarey
for The Awful Truth
|
Preceded by:
Leo McCarey
for The Awful Truth
|
Academy Award for Best Director
for You Can't Take It with You
1938
|
Succeeded by: Victor Fleming
for Gone with the Wind
|
Preceded by:
Billy Wilder
for The Lost Weekend
|
Golden Globe Award for Best Director - Motion Picture
for It's a Wonderful Life
1947
|
Succeeded by: Elia Kazan
for Gentleman's Agreement
|
| Films Directed by Frank Capra
|
| The Strong Man • For the Love of Mike • Long Pants • The Power of the Press • Say It with Sables • So This Is Love • Submarine • The Way of the Strong • That Certain Thing • The Matinee Idol • Flight • The Donovan Affair • The Younger Generation • Rain or Shine • Ladies of Leisure • Dirigible • The Miracle Woman • Platinum Blonde • Forbidden • American Madness • The Bitter Tea of General Yen • Lady for a Day • It Happened One Night • Broadway Bill • Mr. Deeds Goes to Town • Lost Horizon • You Can't Take It with You • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington • Meet John Doe • Arsenic and Old Lace • It's a Wonderful Life • State of the Union • Riding High • Here Comes the Groom • A Hole in the Head • Pocketful of Miracles
|
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