It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)

Oh yes, here we go–R.C. is reviewing It’s a Wonderful Life, another Frank Capra movie and we just know he’s going to love it. No, I’d never seen it before–really. As I watched I knew I had not, in fact, seen anything more than a famous shot from the end that plays on a television […]

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Containing my joy at this film may or may not prove difficult. I suspected long ago that it would appear to my sensibilities, as it’s the kind of manipulation I am inevitably happy to fall prey to. It is the essence of what being American means to Frank Capra and the essence of what Capra […]

You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

Quintessentially “Capraesque,” You Can’t Take It with You won Best Picture in 1939, also earning Frank Capra yet another Best Director Oscar, and managed to continue a streak of winning films (yes, there were films between, I know!) Capra made for Columbia Pictures in the 30s, the run ending the next year with Mr. Smith […]

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

I’ve gotta say one stupid thing first–how on earth did one man end up making two films with titles that are formatted as “Mr. [So-and-so] Goes to [Such-and-Such]”? It’s not a simple issue of two nouns joined by a conjunction, or a subject and an intransitive verb, or something else similarly simple–or even a person […]

It Happened One Night (1934)

“YES! But don’t hold that against me, I’m a little screwy myself!” I’m still going about my Frank Capra watching in a strange fashion, It’s a Wonderful Life still way down my list–though moreso because it’s not a part of the box set that this film was (The Premiere Frank Capra Collection) than anything else. […]

American Madness (1932)

I last saw Walter Huston (father of John Huston, who directed The Maltese Falcon–the version that matters–and had his father in an uncredited cameo in it) as Jerry Cohan, father of George M. Cohan in Yankee Doodle Dandy. As with most films from those few decades, I feel there was definitely a sense that even […]