| name | Frank Capra |
|---|
| birth name | Francesco Rosario Capra |
|---|
| birth date | May 18, 1897 |
|---|
| birth place | Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy |
|---|
| death date | September 03, 1991 |
|---|
| death place | La Quinta, California, U.S. |
|---|
| occupation | Director, producer, writer |
|---|
| years active | 1922–1961 |
|---|
| spouse | Helen Howell (1923-1927)Lu Capra (1932-1984); 4 children}} |
|---|
Frank Russell Capra (May 18, 1897September 3, 1991) was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s. His rags-to-riches story, having worked his way through college, has led film historians like Ian Freer to consider Capra the "American dream personified."
Capra became one of America's most powerful directors during the 1930s, winning three Oscars as Best Director. Among his leading films was ''It Happened One Night'' (1934), which became the first film to win all five top Oscars, including Best Picture. Other leading films included ''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), ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946) and ''State of the Union'' (1948). Because of his early fame as a director, his name was listed "above the title" of his films when they were publicized. People "flocked to the theaters" during the 1930s and 1940s to see films directed by Frank Capra.
After World War II, however, Capra's career declined as his subjects were more out of tune with the mood of audiences. Critics described his films as being "simplistic" or "overly idealistic". However, the public nonetheless loved his films, especially during the Great Depression years, when audiences needed uplifting themes of inspiration. His pictures let viewers witness "a triumph of the individual over corrupt leaders", and experience "inherent qualities of kindness and caring for others." Most of his best works have been revived, and are today considered timeless fables filled with love and respect for the struggles of the common man.
Outside of directing, Capra was also active within the film industry, engaging in various political and social issues. He served as President of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, worked alongside the Screenwriters Guild, and was head of the Directors Guild of America. He enlisted in the Army during World War I after graduating college, and again in World War II at the peak of his career, when he directed 11 documentary war films for the U.S. government's ''Why We Fight'' series, winning an Academy Award for one and a Distinguished Service Medal when the war ended.
Capra was born
Francesco Rosario Capra in
Bisacquino,
Sicily, a village near
Palermo. He was the youngest of seven children of Salvatore Capra, a fruit grower, and the former Sarah Nicolas. Capra's family was Roman Catholic.
The name "Capra", notes Capra's biographer Joseph McBride, represents his family's closeness to the land, and means "she-goat". He notes that the English word "capricious" derives from it, "evoking the animal's skittish temperament", adding that "the name neatly expresses two aspects of Frank Capra's personality: emotionalism and obstinacy."
Capra immigrated to the United States with his family in 1903, when he was six. They were placed in the steerage section of the boat, which was the cheapest way to gain passage. For Capra, the journey, which took 13 days, remained in his mind for the rest of his life as one of his worst experiences:
However, Capra remembers the ship's arrival into New York Harbor, where he saw "a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter." He recalls his father's exclamation at the sight:
They eventually settled in an Italian ghetto in Los Angeles, where Capra's father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for the next 10 years, until he graduated high school. Instead of finding full-time employment after graduating, as his parents wanted, he refused to end his education and instead enrolled in college. He worked his way through college at the California Institute of Technology, playing banjo at nightclubs and taking odd jobs, which included working at the campus laundry facility, waiting tables, and cleaning engines at a local power plant. He studied chemical engineering and graduated in the spring of 1918. Capra later wrote that his college education had "changed his whole viewpoint on life from the viewpoint of an alley rat to the viewpoint of a cultured person."
Soon after graduating college, Capra enlisted in the army as a second lieutenant, having already worked on the campus
ROTC. In the army, he taught mathematics to artillerymen at
Fort Scott, San Francisco. His father died the following year, 1919. In the army, Capra caught the
Spanish flu, and was later medically discharged to return home to live with his mother. He became a
naturalized U.S. citizen in 1920, taking the name
Frank Russell Capra.
Living at home with his siblings and mother, Capra was the only member of the family with a college education, yet was the only one who remained chronically unemployed. After a year without work, seeing how his siblings all had steady jobs of some sort, he felt he was a failure, which led to bouts of depression and abdominal pains, later discovered to have been an undiagnosed burst appendix.
After recovering at home, Capra then moved out and spent the next few years living in flophouses in San Francisco and hopping freight trains, wandering around the Western U.S. To support himself, he took odd jobs working on farms, as a movie extra, playing poker, or selling local oil well stocks. When he was 25, he took a sales job selling books written and published by American philosopher, Elbert Hubbard.
Capra recalled that he "hated being a peasant, being a scrounging new kid trapped in the Sicilian ghetto of Los Angeles ... All I had was cockiness—and let me tell you that gets you a long way."
During his book sales efforts, and nearly broke, Capra read a newspaper article about a new movie studio opening up in San Francisco. Capra phoned them saying he had moved from Hollywood, and falsely implied that he had some experience in the budding film industry. Capra's only prior exposure to films, however, was in 1915 while attending Manual Arts High School. The studio's founder, Walter Montague, was nonetheless impressed by Capra and offered him $75 to direct a one-reel silent film. Capra, with the help of a cameraman he knew, made the film in two days and cast it with only amateurs.
After that first serious job in films, Capra then began focusing his efforts to finding similar openings in the film industry. He took another position with another minor San Francisco studio, and subsequently received an offer to work with producer Harry Cohn, at his new studio in Los Angeles. During this period, he worked as a property man, film cutter, title writer, and assistant director.
Capra later became a gag writer for Hal Roach's ''Our Gang'' series and then writer for slapstick comedy director, Mack Sennett, where he began writing scripts for comedian Harry Langdon. According to Capra, it was he who invented Langdon's character as an innocent fool living in a "naughty world."
When Langdon eventually left Sennett in order to make longer, feature-length movies with First National Studios, he took Capra with him to be his personal writer and director. They made three feature films together during 1926 and 1927, all of them becoming successful with the critics and the public. The films made Langdon a recognized comedian in the caliber of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton. Capra and Langdon later had a falling out, and Capra was fired. During the following years, however, Langdon's films went into decline without Capra's assistance. After splitting with Langdon, Capra directed a picture for First National, ''For the Love of Mike,'' (1927). This was a silent comedy about three bickering godfathers, a German, a Jew, and an Irishman, starring a budding actress, Claudette Colbert. The movie was considered a failure, however.
;Early sound films
Capra returned to Harry Cohn's studio, now renamed
Columbia Pictures, which had then been producing short films and two-reel comedies used as "fillers", which played between main features. Columbia was one of the many start-up studios located on "
Poverty Row" in Los Angeles, and like the others, was unable to compete with the larger studios which often had their own production facilities, distribution and theaters. Cohn rehired Capra in 1928 to help his studio produce new, full-length feature films, in order to compete against the major studios. By the end of his career, Capra would eventually do twenty films for Cohn's studio, including all of his classics.
Fortunately, because of Capra's engineering education, he adapted more easily to the new sound technology than most directors. He welcomed the transition to sound, recalling, "I wasn't at home in silent films." Most of the other studios were unwilling to invest in the new sound technology, assuming it was a passing fad. There were many in Hollywood who considered sound a threat to the industry and hoped it would pass quickly. However, McBride notes that "Capra was not one of them." When he saw Al Jolson singing in ''The Jazz Singer'' in 1927, considered the first talkie, Capra recalled his reaction:
Few of the studio heads or crew were aware of Capra's engineering background until he began directing ''The Younger Generation'' in 1929. The chief cinematographer who worked with Capra on a number of films, was likewise unaware. He describes this early period in sound for film:
During his first year with Columbia, Capra directed nine films, some of which became highly successful. After the first few, Harry Cohn said "it was the beginning of Columbia making a better quality of pictures." According to Barson, "Capra became ensconced as Harry Cohn's most trusted director." His films soon established Capra as a "bankable" director known throughout the industry, and Cohn raised Capra's initial salary of $1,000 per film to $25,000 per year. Capra also directed a film for MGM during this period, but soon realized he "had much more freedom under Harry Cohn's benevolent dictatorship", where Cohn also put Capra's "name above the title" of his films, a first for the movie industry. Capra wrote of this period and recalled the confidence that Cohn placed in Capra's vision and directing:
Capra directed his first "real" sound picture, ''The Younger Generation'', in 1929. It was a rags-to-riches romance comedy about a Jewish family's upward mobility in New York City, with their son later trying to deny his Jewish roots in order to keep his rich gentile girlfriend. According to Capra biographer Joseph McBride, Capra "obviously felt a strong identification with the story of a Jewish immigrant who grows up in the ghetto of New York... and feels he has to deny his ethnic origins to rise to success in America." Capra, however, denied any connection of the story with his own life.
Nonetheless, McBride insists that ''The Younger Generation'' "abounds with parallels to Capra's own life." McBride notes the "devastatingly painful climactic scene", where the young social-climbing son, embarrassed when his wealthy new friends first meet his parents, passes his mother and father off as house servants. That scene, notes McBride, "echoes the shame Capra admitted feeling toward his own family as he rose in social status."
During his years at Columbia, Capra worked often with screenwriter Robert Riskin (husband of Fay Wray,) and cameraman Joseph Walker. In many of Capra's films, the wise-cracking and sharp dialogue was often written by Riskin, and he and Capra went on to become Hollywood's "most admired writer-director team."
Capra's films in the 1930s enjoyed immense success at the
Academy Awards. ''
It Happened One Night'' (1934) became the first film to win all five top Oscars (
Best Picture,
Best Director,
Best Actor,
Best Actress, and
Best Screenplay). Written by
Robert Riskin, it is one of the first of the "screwball comedies", and with its release during the period of the
Great Depression, critics considered it an escapist story and a variation of the "American Dream". The film established the names of Capra, Columbia Pictures, stars
Claudette Colbert and
Clark Gable, in the movie industry. The film has been called "
picaresque", and was one of the earliest "road movies" which inspired variations on its theme by other filmmakers.
The film was followed by ''Broadway Bill'' (1934), another screwball comedy, this one about horse racing. The film became a turning point for Capra, however, as he began to conceive of an additional dimension to his movies. He started using his films to convey messages to the public. Capra explains his new thinking:
This added goal was inspired after meeting with a Christian Scientist friend who told him to view his talents in a different way:
Capra began to embody messages in his subsequent films, many of which conveyed "fantasies of goodwill." The first of those was ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936), for which Capra won his second Best Director Oscar. Critic Alistair Cooke observed that Capra was "starting to make movies about themes instead of people."
In 1938 he won his third Director Oscar in 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''). On May 5, 1936, Capra was also host of the 8th Academy Awards ceremony.
Although ''
It's a Wonderful Life'' is his most well-known film, Friedman notes that it was ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939) which most represented the "Capra myth." That film expressed Capra's patriotism more than any of his others, and "presented the individual working within the democratic system to overcome rampant political corruption."
The film, however, became Capra's most controversial. In his research before filming, he was able to stand close to President Roosevelt during a press conference after the recent acts of war by Germany in Europe. Capra recalls his fears:
When the filming was completed, the studio sent preview copies to Washington. Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. ambassador to the UK, wrote to Columbia head Harry Cohn, "Please do not play this picture in Europe." Politicians were concerned about the potential negative impact the film might have on the morale of the allies, as World War II had begun. Kennedy wrote to president Roosevelt that "in foreign countries this film must inevitably strengthen the mistaken impression that the United States is full of graft, corruption and lawlessness." Many studio heads agreed nor did they want negative feelings about Hollywood to be instilled in political leaders.
Nonetheless, Capra's vision about the film's significance was clear:
Capra pleaded with Cohn to allow the film to be distributed and remembers the intensity of their decision making:
Cohn and Capra chose to ignore all the negative publicity and demands, and released the film as planned. It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards. It failed to win any Oscars partly because of the number of other major pictures that were nominated that year, including ''The Wizard of Oz'' and ''Gone with the Wind''. Hollywood columnist Louella Parsons called it a "smash patriotic hit" and most other critics agreed, seeing that audiences left the theaters with "an enthusiasm for democracy" and "in a glow of patriotism."
The significance of the film's message was established further in France, shortly after World War II began. When the French public were asked to select which film they wanted to see most, having been told by the Vichy government that soon no more American films would be allowed in France, the overwhelming majority chose it over all others. To France, soon to be invaded and occupied by Nazi forces, the film most expressed the "perseverance of democracy and the American way."
In 1941 Capra directed ''
Meet John Doe'' (1941), considered by some to be Capra's most controversial movie. The film's hero, played by Gary Cooper, is a former baseball player now bumming around lacking any goals. He is selected by a news reporter to represent the "common man", used to capture the imagination of ordinary Americans. The film was released shortly before America became involved in World War II, and citizens were still in an isolationist mood. According to some historians, the film was made to convey a "deliberate reaffirmation of American values", although ones which seemed uncertain with respect to the future.
Film author Richard Glazer speculates that the film may have been autobiographical, "reflecting Capra's own uncertainties." Glazer describes how "John's accidental transformation from drifter to national figure parallels Capra's own early drifting experience and subsequent involvement in movie making ... ''Meet John Doe'', then, was an attempt to work out his own fears and questions."
Within four days after the Japanese
Attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Capra quit his highly successful directing career in Hollywood and enlisted as a
major in the
United States Army. He also gave up his presidency of the
Screen Directors Guild. Being 44 years of age, he was not asked to enlist, but, notes Friedman, "Capra had an intense desire to prove his patriotism to his adopted land."
Capra recalls some of his personal reasons for enlisting:
During the next four years of
World War II, he directed or co-directed eleven documentary war information films. Capra's job was to head a special section on morale in order to explain to soldiers "why the hell they're in uniform", writes Capra, and were not "propaganda" films like those created by the Nazis and Japan.
Capra was assigned to work directly under Chief of Staff George C. Marshall, the most senior officer in command of the Army, who would later create the Marshall Plan and be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize. Marshall chose to bypass the normal documentary film-making department, Signal Corps, as he felt they were not capable of producing "sensitive and objective troop information films." One colonel explained the importance of these future films to Capra:
During his first meeting with General Marshall, Capra was told his mission:
The completed films included the seven-episode ''Why We Fight'' series—consisting of ''Prelude to War'' (1942), ''The Nazis Strike'' (1942), ''The Battle of Britain'' (1943), ''Divide and Conquer'' (1943), ''The Battle of Russia'' (1943), ''The Battle of China'' (1944)— plus ''Know Your Enemy: Japan'' (1945), ''Tunisian Victory'' (1945), and ''Two Down and One to Go'' (1945) that do not bear the ''Why We Fight'' banner; as well as the African-American related, ''The Negro Soldier'' (1944).
After completion of the first few documentaries, government officials and Army staff found them to be powerful messages and excellent presentations of why it was necessary for the U.S. to fight in the war. All footage used came from military and government sources, many newsreels secretly found from enemy sources during earlier years. Animated charts were created by Walt Disney and his animators. A number of Hollywood composers wrote the background music, including Alfred Newman and Russian-born composer Dimitri Tiomkin. After the first completed film was viewed by General Marshall along with Army staff, Marshall approached Capra: "Colonel Capra, how did you do it? That is a most wonderful thing."
Officials made efforts to see that the films were also shown in theaters throughout the U.S. They were translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Chinese for use by other countries. Winston Churchill ordered that ''all'' of them be shown to the British public in theaters. They are still often broadcast on television and used as a teaching aid.
The ''Why We Fight'' series is widely considered a masterpiece of war information documentaries, and won an Academy Award. ''Prelude to War'' won the 1942 Academy Award for Documentary Feature. When his career ended, Capra regarded these films as his most important works. As a colonel, he received the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945.
After the war ended, Capra, along with directors
William Wyler and
George Stevens, founded
Liberty Films. Their studio became the first independent company of directors since United Artists in 1919 whose goal was to make films without interference by studio bosses. However, the only picture completed by the studio was ''
It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946). It was considered a box office disappointment, but was nonetheless nominated for five
Academy Awards.
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. It would become Capra's last important film and, although he directed five more films over the next 14 years, his successful years were now behind him.
For ''State of the Union'' (1948) Capra changed studios, working for the first and only time for MGM Pictures. Although the project had an excellent pedigree with stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, the film was not a success, and Capra's eyebrow-raising statement, "I think ''State of the Union'' was my most perfect film in handling people and ideas", has few adherents today.
In January, 1952, Capra was requested by the U.S. Ambassador to India to represent the U.S. film industry at the International Film Festival to be held in India. A State Department friend of Capra asked him and explained why his trip would be important:
After two weeks in India, he discovered that Bowles' fears were warranted, as many film sessions were used by Russian and Chinese representatives to give long political speeches. At a lunch with fifteen Indian directors and producers, he stressed that "they must preserve freedom as artists, and that any government control would hinder that freedom. A totalitarian system— and they would become nothing but publicity men for the party in power." Capra had a difficult time communicating this, however, as he noted in his diary:
When he returned to Washington to give his report, Secretary of State Dean Acheson gave Capra his commendation for "virtually single-handedly forestalling a possible Communist take-over of Indian films." Amassador Bowles also conveyed gratitude to Capra for "one helluva job."
Although ''It's a Wonderful Life'' and ''State of the Union'' were successful shortly after the war ended, Capra's themes were becoming more out of step with changes within the film industry and with the public mood. Friedman finds that while Capra's ideas were popular to depression-era and pre-war audiences, they became less relevant to attitudes of a prospering post-war America. Capra had become "disconnected from an American culture that had changed" during the previous decade. Biographer
Joseph McBride argues that Capra's disillusionment was more related to the negative effect that the
House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) had on the film industry in general. The HUAC interrogations during the early 1950s ended many Hollywood careers. Capra himself was not called to testify, although he still became a prime target of the committee due to his past associations with many
Hollywood blacklisted screenwriters.
Capra, however, blames his early retirement from films on the rising power of stars, which forced him to continually compromise his artistic vision. He also claims that increasing budgetary and scheduling demands were constraining his creative abilities. Film historian Michael Medved agrees with and understands Capra's impressions, noting that he walked away from the movie business because "he refused to adjust to the cynicism of the new order." In his autobiography written in 1971, Capra expressed of his feelings about the shifting film industry:
Capra added that in his opinion, "practically all the Hollywood filmmaking of today is stooping to cheap salacious pornography in a crazy bastardization of a great art to compete for the 'patronage' of deviates and masturbators."
Capra remained employable in Hollywood during and after the HUAC hearings, but chose nonetheless to demonstrate his loyalty by attempting to re-enlist in the Army at the outbreak of the Korean War, which began in 1950. He was rejected due to his age, however. He was later invited to join the Defense Department's newly-formed Think Tank project, VISTA, but was denied the necessary clearance. According to Friedman, "these two rejections were devastating to the man who had made a career of demonstrating American ideals in film", along with his directing award-winning documentary films for the Army. By 1952, at the age of 55, Capra effectively retired from Hollywood filmmaking and spent his later years working with Caltech, his alma mater, to produce educational films on science topics.
Capra directed two films at
Paramount Pictures starring
Bing Crosby, ''
Riding High'' (1950) and ''
Here Comes the Groom'' (1951). From 1952-1956, Capra produced four science-related television specials in color for
The Bell Laboratory Science Series: ''
Our Mr. Sun'' (1956), ''
Hemo the Magnificent'' (1957), ''
The Strange Case of the Cosmic Rays'' (1957), and ''
Meteora: The Unchained Goddess'' (1958). These educational science documentaries were popular favorites for showing in school science classrooms. It was eight years before he directed another theatrical film, ''
A Hole in the Head'' (1959) with
Frank Sinatra, which was his first feature film in color.
Capra's final theatrical film was with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, named ''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), a remake of his 1933 film ''Lady for a Day''. In the mid-1960s he worked on pre-production for an adaptation of Martin Caidin's novel ''Marooned'' but budgetary constraints made him eventually shelve it.
Capra's final film, ''Rendezvous in Space'' (1964), was an industrial film made for the Martin Marietta Company and shown at the 1964 New York World's Fair. It was exhibited at the New York Hall of Science after the Fair ended.
Capra's directing style relied on improvisation to a great extent. He was noted for going onto the set with no more than the master scenes written down. He explained his reasoning:
According to some experts, Capra used great, yet unobtrusive craftsmanship when directing, and felt it was bad directing to distract the audience with fancy technical gimmicks. Film historian and author William S. Pechter described Capra's style as one "of almost classical purity." He adds that his style relied on editing to help his films sustain a "sequence of rhythmic motion." Pechter describes its effect:
Film critic John Raeburn discusses an early Capra film, ''American Madness'' (1932), as an example of how he had mastered the movie medium and expressed a unique style:
As for Capra's subject matter, film author Richard Griffith tries to summarize Capra's common theme:
Capra's personality when directing gave him a reputation for "fierce independence" when dealing with studio bosses. On the set he was said to be gentle and considerate, "a director who displays absolutely no exhibitionism."
Because Capra's films often carry a message about basic goodness in human nature, and show the value of unselfishness and hard work, his wholesome, feel-good themes have led some to term his style "Capra-corn." However, those who hold his vision in higher regard prefer the term "Capraesque".
Capra's basic themes of championing the common man, as well as his use of spontaneous, fast-paced dialogue and goofy, memorable lead and supporting characters, made him one of the most popular and respected filmmakers of the 20th century. His influence can be traced in the works of many directors, including Robert Altman, Ron Howard, Masaki Kobayashi, Akira Kurosawa, John Lasseter, David Lynch, John Milius, Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Oliver Stone and François Truffaut
Capra married actress Helen Howell in 1923 but they divorced in 1928. He married again in 1928 to Lucille Warner, with whom he had a daughter and three sons, one of whom died in infancy.
He was four times president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and three times president of the Directors Guild of America, which he helped found. Under his presidency he worked to give directors more artistic control of their films. During his career as a director, he retained an early ambition to teach science, and after his career declined in the 1950s he made some educational TV films related to science subjects.
Physically, he was short, stocky, and vigorous, and enjoyed outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, and mountain climbing. In his much later years, he spent time writing short stories and songs, along with playing guitar.
His son Frank Capra, Jr. — one of the four children born to Capra's second wife, Lucille Capra — was the president of EUE Screen Gems Studios, in Wilmington, North Carolina, until his death on December 19, 2007. His grandson, Frank Capra III, is a Hollywood director and worked as an assistant director in the 1995 film ''The American President'', which referred to Frank Capra in the film's dialogue.
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 Public Cemetery in
Coachella, California.
He left part of his ranch in Fallbrook, California, to Caltech. Capra's personal papers and some of his film related materials are contained in the Wesleyan University Cinema Archives, which allows scholars and media experts from around the world full access.
During the golden age of Hollywood, Capra's "fantasies of goodwill" made him one of the two or three most famous and successful directors in the world. Film historian
Ian Freer notes that at the time of his death in 1991, his legacy still remained intact:
Director/actor John Cassavetes contemplating Capra’s contribution to the art of film quipped: “Maybe there really wasn’t an America, it was only Frank Capra.” Capra’s films were his love letters to an idealized America— a cinematic landscape of his own invention. The performances his actors gave were invariable portrayals of personalities developed into recognizable images of popular culture, “their acting has the bold simplicity of an icon…”
Like his contemporary, director John Ford, Capra defined and aggrandized the tropes of mythic America where individual courage invariably triumphs over collective evil. Film historian Richard Griffith speaks of Capra's “…reliance on sentimental conversation and the ultimate benevolence of ordinary America to resolve all deep conflicts.” “Average America” is visualized as "…a still tree lined street, undistinguished frame houses surrounded by modest areas of grass, a few automobiles. For certain purposes it assumed that all ''real ''Americans live in towns like this, and so great is the power of myth, even the born city-dweller is likely to believe vaguely that he too lives on this shady street, or comes from it, or is going to.”
NYU Professor of Humanities and Performing Arts, Leonard Quart writes:
“There would be no enduring conflicts—harmony, no matter how contrived and specious, would ultimately triumph in the last frame…In true Hollywood fashion, no Capra film would ever suggest that social change was a complex, painful act. For Capra, there would be pain and loss, but no enduring sense of tragedy would be allowed to intrude on his fabulist world.”
Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty, by vote of the city council, declared May 12, 1962 as "Frank Capra Day." George Sidney, President of the Directors Guild, stated that "This is the first time in the history of Hollywood, that the city of Los Angeles has officially recognized a creative talent." At the event ceremony, director John Ford announced that Capra had also received the Order of British Empire (OBE) on the recommendation of Winston Churchill. Ford suggested publicly to Capra:
;Academy Awards
Capra won a total of six Academy Awards. He was nominated six times for Best Director and seven times for Outstanding Production/Best Picture. Out of six nominations for Best Director, Capra received the award three times. He briefly held the record for winning the most Best Director Oscars when he won for the third time in 1938, until this record was matched by John Ford in 1941, and then later surpassed by Ford in 1952. William Wyler also matched this record upon winning his third Oscar in 1959.
;American Film Institute
Life Achievement Award (1982)
;Directors Guild of America
Best Director Nomination for ''A Hole in the Head'' (1959)
Life Achievement Award (1959)
Best Director Nomination for ''Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961)
;Golden Globe Award
Best Director Award for ''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946)
;Venice Film Festival
Mussolini Cups for best foreign film Nomination for ''It Happened One Night'' (1934)
Mussolini Cups for best foreign film Nomination for ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'' (1936)
Golden Lion (1982)
;American Film Institute recognition
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
AFI's 10 Top 10
*Fantasy
**''It's a Wonderful Life''...# 3
*Romantic Comedies
**''It Happened One Night''...# 3
;United States National Film Registry
''The Strong Man'' (1926)
''It Happened One Night'' (1934)
''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939)
''Why We Fight'' Series of seven films (1942)
''It's a Wonderful Life'' (1946)
{|class="wikitable"
|-
! style="width:40px;"|Year
! style="width:300px;"|Film
! style="width:150px;"|Oscar Nominations
! style="width:150px;"|Oscar Wins
! style="width:300px;"|Performances Nominations
|-
| 1933
| ''
Lady for a Day''
| style="text-align:center;"|4
| style="text-align:center;"|0
|
Best Actress for
May Robson (nom)
|-
| 1934
| ''
It Happened One Night''
| style="text-align:center;"|5
| style="text-align:center;"|5
|
Best Actor for
Clark GableBest Actress for
Claudette Colbert
|-
| 1936
| ''
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town''
| style="text-align:center;"|5
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|
Best Actor for
Gary Cooper (nom)
|-
| 1937
| ''
Lost Horizon''
| style="text-align:center;"|7
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|
Best Supporting Actor for
H. B. Warner (nom)
|-
| 1938
| ''
You Can't Take It With You''
| style="text-align:center;"|7
| style="text-align:center;"|2
|
Best Supporting Actress for
Spring Byington (nom)
|-
| 1939
| ''
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''
| style="text-align:center;"|11
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|
Best Actor for
James Stewart (nom)
Best Supporting Actor for
Harry Carey (nom)
Best Supporting Actor for
Claude Rains (nom)
|-
| 1941
| ''
Meet John Doe''
| style="text-align:center;"|1
| style="text-align:center;"|0
|
|-
| 1942
| ''
Prelude to War''
| style="text-align:center;"|1
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
|-
| 1943
| ''
The Battle of Russia''
| style="text-align:center;"|1
| style="text-align:center;"|0
|
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
|-
| 1946
| ''
It's a Wonderful Life''
| style="text-align:center;"|5
| style="text-align:center;"|0
|
Best Actor for
James Stewart (nom)
|-
| 1951
| ''
Here Comes the Groom''
| style="text-align:center;"|2
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|
|-
| 1959
| ''
A Hole in the Head''
| style="text-align:center;"|1
| style="text-align:center;"|1
|
|-
| 1961
| ''
Pocketful of Miracles''
| style="text-align:center;"|3
| style="text-align:center;"|0
|
Best Supporting Actor for
Peter Falk
|}
The Bell Laboratory Science Series
Frank Capra at the First International Film Festival of India, 1952
;Notes
;Citations
;Bibliography
Barney, Richard A. Conversations with Filmmakers Series).''">''David Lynch: Interviews (Conversations with Filmmakers Series).'' Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2009. ISBN 978-1604732375.
Barson, Michael. ''The Illustrated Who's Who of Hollywood Directors: The Sound Era .'' New York: Noonday Press, 1995. ISBN 0-374-52428-9.
Beauchamp, Cari. ''Joseph P. Kennedy Presents: His Hollywood Years.'' New York: Vintage, 2010. ISBN 978-0307475220.
Capra, Frank. ''Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-30680-771-8.
Chandler, Charlotte. ''The Girl Who Walked Home Alone: Bette Davis, A Personal Biography''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006. ISBN 0-78628-639-3.
Dickstein, Morris. ''Dancing in The Dark: A Cultural History of The Great Depression.'' New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. ISBN 978-0393072259.
Dixon, Wheeler W. ''The Early Film Criticism of Francois Truffaut.'' Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1993. ISBN 978-0253207715.
Freer, Ian. ''Movie Makers: 50 Iconic Directors from Chaplin to the Coen Brothers.'' London: Quercus Publishing Plc, 2009. ISBN 978-1847245120.
Kotsabilas-Davis, James and Myrna Loy. ''Being and Becoming''. New York: Primus, Donald I Fine Inc., 1987. ISBN 1-55611-101-0.
Lazere, Donald. ''American Media and Mass Culture: Left Perspectives.'' Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1987. ISBN 978-0520044968.
Medved, Michael. ''Hollywood vs. America: Popular Culture and the War on Traditional Values.'' New York: HarperCollins, 1992. iSBN 978-006016882.
McBride, Joseph. ''Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success''. New York: Touchstone Books, 1992. ISBN 0-671-79788-3.
Oderman, Stuart. ''Talking To the Piano Player: Silent Film Stars, Writers and Directors Remember''. Albany, Georgia: BearManor Media, 2005. ISBN 1-59393-013-5.
Poague, Leland. ''Frank Capra: Interviews'' (Conversations With Filmmakers Series). Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi, 2004. ISBN 78-1578066179.
Pendergast, Tom and Sara, eds. ''St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, Vol. 1.'' Detroit: St. James Press, 2000. ISBN 1-55862-348-5.
Stevens, George Jr. ''Conversations with the Great Moviemakers of Hollywood's Golden Age.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. ISBN 978-1400040544.
Wakeman, John, ed. ''World Film Directors: Volume One, 1890-1945.'' New York: H.W. Wilson Co., 1987. ISBN 78-0824207571.
Wiley, Mason and Damien Bona. ''Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards''. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. ISBN 0-345-34453-7.
Capra Smith and Doe: Filming the American Hero from American Studies at the University of Virginia
Retrieved on May 19, 2009
Retrieved on May 19, 2009
Bibliography
Capra before he became "Capraesque" BFI Sight & Sound magazine November 2010 article on Capra's early career, by Joseph McBride
"Sentimental Hogwash?: On Capra's ''It's A Wonderful Life''", ''Humanitas'', Vol. XVIII, No's 1&2, 2005
work=Motion picture director, writer, producer|author=A. J. Mack|date=January 1, 2001|accessdate=July 1, 2011}}
;10th annual
AFI Life Achievement Award ceremony, 1982
;Misc documentaries
;War documentaries
Producer
Producer
Producer
Co-Supervising Producer
;Movie trailers and interviews
;Feature Films
Category:1897 births
Category:1991 deaths
Category:American anti-communists
Category:American film directors
Category:American Roman Catholics
Category:American military personnel of World War I
Category:American military personnel of World War II
Category:Best Director Academy Award winners
Category:Best Director Golden Globe winners
Category:Presidents of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Category:Presidents of the Directors Guild of America
Category:California Institute of Technology alumni
Category:California Republicans
Category:Cardiovascular disease deaths in California
Category:Deaths from myocardial infarction
Category:American film directors of Italian descent
Category:Italian emigrants to the United States
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:People from the Province of Palermo
Category:Propaganda film directors
Category:Recipients of the Distinguished Service Medal (United States)
Category:American people of Sicilian descent
Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients
Category:Burials at Coachella Valley Public Cemetery
Category:American screenwriters
Category:American film producers
Category:United States Army Air Forces officers
Category:First Motion Picture Unit personnel
Category:United States Army officers
ar:فرانك كابرا
an:Frank Capra
bn:ফ্রাংক কাপরা
be:Фрэнк Капра
be-x-old:Фрэнк Капра
bg:Франк Капра
bs:Frank Capra
ca:Frank Capra
da:Frank Capra
de:Frank Capra
el:Φρανκ Κάπρα
es:Frank Capra
eo:Frank Capra
eu:Frank Capra
fa:فرانک کاپرا
fr:Frank Capra
gl:Frank Capra
ko:프랭크 카프라
hy:Ֆրենկ Կապրա
hr:Frank Capra
id:Frank Capra
it:Frank Capra
he:פרנק קפרה
la:Franciscus Capra
hu:Frank Capra
nl:Frank Capra
ja:フランク・キャプラ
no:Frank Capra
pl:Frank Capra
pt:Frank Capra
ro:Frank Capra
ru:Капра, Фрэнк
sah:Фрэнк Капра
sq:Frank Capra
scn:Frank Capra
sr:Френк Капра
fi:Frank Capra
sv:Frank Capra
ta:பிராங்க் காப்ரா
th:แฟรงก์ คาปรา
tr:Frank Capra
uk:Френк Капра
zh:法蘭克·卡普拉
