"Scriptwriting is the toughest part of the whole racket... the least understood and the least noticed."
FRANK CAPRA
(1897-1991) Born May 18, Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Comedy, Comedy Drama, Romance, Americana, Drama, Romantic Drama, Romantic Comedy, Screwball Comedy, Comedy of Manners, Slapstick, Message Movie, Melodrama
Key Collaborators: Joseph Walker (Cinematographer), Robert Riskin (Screenwriter), Stephen Goosson (Production Designer), Gene Havlick (Editor), Harry Cohn (Producer), Barbara Stanwyck (Leading Actress), Jo Swerling (Screenwriter), Maurice Wright (Editor), Dimitri Tiomkin (Composer), H.B. Warner (Character Actor), Walter Connolly (Leading Character Actor), Thomas Mitchell (Leading Character Actor)
"Frank Capra's populism charmed Depression audiences, won industry acclaim, and impressed a generation of film historians... The archetypal Capra scenario found an idealistic hero from the sticks triumphing over city slickers mired in cynicism, corruption and too many big words. Written by Robert Riskin with vernacular verve and a reverence for republican rhetoric, Capra's comedies proved strong vehicles for the gauche young James Stewart and Gary Cooper, and the spunky heroines of Jean Arthur and Barbara Stanwyck." - Richard Armstrong (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Like Chaplin, Frank Capra began his film career as a simple, effective comic talent and progressed to 'message movies'. And, as with Chaplin, the populism of his later films demonstrated both a decline in humour and disturbing political ambiguities." - Geoff Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989)
"Many of Capra's most famous films can be read as excessively sentimental and politically naive. These readings, however, tend to neglect the bases for Capra's success - his skill as a director of actors, the complexity of his staging configurations, his narrative economy and energy, and most of all, his understanding of the importance of the spoken word in sound film." - Charles Affron (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1991)
"Nowadays, the mere mention of Capra's name is enough to make literate and learned film-writers dip their pens in bile. But when, between director and actor, you actually pump the breath of life into impossibly idealized Everymen, as Gary Cooper, James Stewart, or Barbara Stanwyck did, a powerful emotional current is given out from the screen. The fact that they have nothing to do with the real world has absolutely no bearing on that." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Illustrated Guide to Film Directors, 1999)
"Capra is a master of the socially significant film. His work is full of optimism, humor, love, patriotism, and respect for traditional values." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)
"In his best films during the 1930s and 1940s, Capra was able to humanize on the screen the ideal of the American character. His films showed ordinary people from small towns triumphing over evil and powerful forces by doing what was right and sensible. "Let others make films about the grand sweeps of history. I'd make mine about the bloke that pushes the broom," he wrote in his autobiography." - Dian G. Smith (Great American Film Directors, 1987)
(1897-1991) Born May 18, Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy
Key Production Country: USA
Key Genres: Comedy, Comedy Drama, Romance, Americana, Drama, Romantic Drama, Romantic Comedy, Screwball Comedy, Comedy of Manners, Slapstick, Message Movie, Melodrama
Key Collaborators: Joseph Walker (Cinematographer), Robert Riskin (Screenwriter), Stephen Goosson (Production Designer), Gene Havlick (Editor), Harry Cohn (Producer), Barbara Stanwyck (Leading Actress), Jo Swerling (Screenwriter), Maurice Wright (Editor), Dimitri Tiomkin (Composer), H.B. Warner (Character Actor), Walter Connolly (Leading Character Actor), Thomas Mitchell (Leading Character Actor)
"Frank Capra's populism charmed Depression audiences, won industry acclaim, and impressed a generation of film historians... The archetypal Capra scenario found an idealistic hero from the sticks triumphing over city slickers mired in cynicism, corruption and too many big words. Written by Robert Riskin with vernacular verve and a reverence for republican rhetoric, Capra's comedies proved strong vehicles for the gauche young James Stewart and Gary Cooper, and the spunky heroines of Jean Arthur and Barbara Stanwyck." - Richard Armstrong (The Rough Guide to Film, 2007)
"Like Chaplin, Frank Capra began his film career as a simple, effective comic talent and progressed to 'message movies'. And, as with Chaplin, the populism of his later films demonstrated both a decline in humour and disturbing political ambiguities." - Geoff Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989)
"Many of Capra's most famous films can be read as excessively sentimental and politically naive. These readings, however, tend to neglect the bases for Capra's success - his skill as a director of actors, the complexity of his staging configurations, his narrative economy and energy, and most of all, his understanding of the importance of the spoken word in sound film." - Charles Affron (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1991)
"Nowadays, the mere mention of Capra's name is enough to make literate and learned film-writers dip their pens in bile. But when, between director and actor, you actually pump the breath of life into impossibly idealized Everymen, as Gary Cooper, James Stewart, or Barbara Stanwyck did, a powerful emotional current is given out from the screen. The fact that they have nothing to do with the real world has absolutely no bearing on that." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Illustrated Guide to Film Directors, 1999)
"Capra is a master of the socially significant film. His work is full of optimism, humor, love, patriotism, and respect for traditional values." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)
"In his best films during the 1930s and 1940s, Capra was able to humanize on the screen the ideal of the American character. His films showed ordinary people from small towns triumphing over evil and powerful forces by doing what was right and sensible. "Let others make films about the grand sweeps of history. I'd make mine about the bloke that pushes the broom," he wrote in his autobiography." - Dian G. Smith (Great American Film Directors, 1987)
Recommended
Lost Horizon (1937), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Worth a Look
It Happened One Night (1934)
IMDb profile
Lost Horizon (1937), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)
Worth a Look
It Happened One Night (1934)
IMDb profile
