'Frank Capra' (
18 May 1897 –
3 September 1991) was an
Academy Award winning
Italian-American film director and a major creative force behind a number of highly popular films of the 1930s and 1940s, including ''
It's a Wonderful Life'' and ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'', among others.
Early life
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, California, 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.
Film career
Like other prominent directors of the 1930s and '40s, Capra began his career in silent films, initially as a "prop man" and worked his way up to the director's chair
[1], 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.
For the 1934 film ''
It Happened One Night'',
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.
[2]After Loy,
Miriam Hopkins and
Margaret Sullavan also each rejected the part.
[3] Constance Bennett wanted to, but only if she could produce it herself. Then
Bette Davis wanted the role,
[4] but she was under contract with
Warner Brothers and
Jack Warner refused to loan her to Columbia Studios.
[5] 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.
[6] Harry Cohn suggested
Claudette Colbert to play the lead role. Both Capra and
Clark Gable enjoyed making the movie, Colbert did not. After the 1934 film ''
It Happened One Night'', Capra directed a steady stream of films for Columbia intended to be inspirational and humanitarian.
The best known are ''
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'', the original ''
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''. 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".
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,
Best Picture,
Best Director,
Best Actor,
Best Actress and
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.
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 who never voted for President
Franklin D. Roosevelt, admired
Franco and
Mussolini, and later during the
McCarthy era served as a secret
FBI informer.
[7]
World War II
Between 1942 and
1948, when he produced ''
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.
Postwar
''
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
Best Director and
Best Picture,
Best Actor,
Best Sound Recording and
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.
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).
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.
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 Telephone System, such as "The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays".
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.
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.
Capra in the media
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".
[7]
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.
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 ranch in
Fallbrook, California to
Caltech.
[9]
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.
Quotes
★ "There are no rules in filmmaking, only sins. And the
cardinal sin is dullness."
AFI 100 Years... series
★
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition)
★
★ ''
It's a Wonderful Life''...# 20
★
★ ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''...# 26
★
★ ''
It Happened One Night''...# 46
★
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers
★
★ ''
It's a Wonderful Life''...# 1
★
★ ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''...# 5
★
★ ''
Meet John Doe''...# 49
★
★ ''
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town''...# 83
★
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs
★
★ ''
It Happened One Night''...# 8
★
★ ''
Arsenic and Old Lace''...# 30
★
★ ''
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town''...# 70
★
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions
★
★ ''
It's a Wonderful Life''...# 8
★
★ ''
It Happened One Night''...# 38
★
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
★
★ 50 greatest movie heroes
★
★ ''
It's a Wonderful Life''...
George Bailey ...# 9
★
★ ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''...Jefferson Smith ...# 11
★
★ 50 greatest movie villains
★
★ ''
It's a Wonderful Life''...
Mister Potter ...# 6
United States National Film Registry
★ It Happened One Night (1934)
★ Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
★ Prelude to War (1942)
★ It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Filmography
References
1. Capra 1971, p. 17, 20.
2. Kotsabilas-Davis, James and Loy, Myrna. ''Being and Becoming''. New York: Primus, Donald I Fine Inc., 1987, p. 94. ISBN 1-55611-101-0.
3. 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.
4. It Happened One Night - Frank CapraErik Weems, UPDATED JUNE 22, 2006
5. 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.
6. moviediva ItHappenedOneNight
7. Gewen 1992
8. Gewen 1992
9. The Caltech Y History
★ 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.''
It Wasn't Such a Wonderful Life Access date: May 2, 2007.
Oderman, Stuart. ''Talking To the Piano Player: Silent Film Stars, Writers and Directors Remember''. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media, 2005. ISBN 1-59393-013-5.
External links
★
★
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