Editing Frank Capra (section)

== Career ==
=== Silent film comedies ===
During his book sales efforts—and nearly broke—Capra read a newspaper article about a new movie studio opening in San Francisco. Capra phoned them saying he had moved from Hollywood and falsely implied that he had experience in the budding film industry. Capra's only prior exposure in films 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, made the film in two days and cast it with amateurs.<ref name="Wakeman p. 96" />

After that first serious job in films, Capra began efforts to finding similar openings in the film industry. He took a 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 time, he worked as a property man, film cutter, title writer, and assistant director.<ref name="Wakeman p. 97">Wakeman 1987, p. 97.</ref>

Capra later became a gag writer for [[Hal Roach]]'s ''[[Our Gang]]'' series. He was twice hired as a writer for a [[Slapstick film|slapstick comedy]] director, [[Mack Sennett]], in 1918 and 1924.<ref>{{cite book|last1=McBride|first1=Joseph|title=Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success|date=2001|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-839-1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMkLpTFBEtUC&pg=PA143|access-date=February 9, 2018}}</ref> Under him, Capra wrote scripts for comedian [[Harry Langdon]] and produced by [[Mack Sennett]], the first being [[Plain Clothes (1925 film)|''Plain Clothes'']] in 1925. According to Capra, it was he who invented Langdon's character, the innocent fool living in a "naughty world"; however, Langdon was well into this character by 1925.<ref name="Wakeman p. 97" />

When Langdon eventually left Sennett to make longer, feature-length movies with [[First National Pictures|First National]] Studios, he took Capra along as his personal writer and director. They made three feature films together during 1926 and 1927, all of them successful with critics and the public. The films made Langdon a recognized comedian in the caliber of [[Charlie Chaplin]] and [[Buster Keaton]]. Following the production of ''[[Long Pants]]'' (1927), Capra argued with Langdon over the direction his next project would take. Langdon's other confidant was writer-director [[Arthur Ripley]], a fellow Sennett alumnus, and Langdon followed Ripley's suggestions. Capra quit, and the split was disastrous for Langdon, who took matters into his own hands and directed his films himself, to poor reception.

After Capra split with Langdon, he directed a picture for First National, ''[[For the Love of Mike (1927 film)|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 and is a [[lost film]].<ref name="Wakeman p. 97" />

=== Columbia Pictures ===
Capra returned to Harry Cohn's studio, now named [[Columbia Pictures]], which was then producing short films and two-reel comedies for "fillers" to play between main features. Columbia was one of many start-up studios on "[[Poverty Row]]" in Los Angeles. Like the others, Columbia was unable to compete with 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, to compete with the major studios. Capra would eventually direct 20 films for Cohn's studio, including many of his classics.<ref name="Wakeman p. 97" />

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."<ref name="Wakeman p. 97" /> Most studios were unwilling to invest in the new sound technology, assuming it was a passing fad. Many in Hollywood considered sound a threat to the industry and hoped it would pass quickly; 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:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | It was an absolute shock to hear this man open his mouth and a song come out of it. It was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences.<ref>McBride 1992, p. 200.</ref>}}

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:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | It wasn't something that came up. You had to bluff to survive. When sound first came in, nobody knew much about it. We were all walking around in the dark. Even the sound man didn't know much about it. Frank lived through it. But he was quite intelligent. He was one of the few directors who knew what the hell they were doing. Most of your directors walked around in a fog—they didn't know where the door was.<ref>McBride 1992, p. 201.</ref>}}

During his first year with Columbia, Capra directed nine films, some of which were successful. After the first few, Harry Cohn said: "it was the beginning of Columbia making a better quality of pictures."<ref>McBride 1992, p. 189.</ref> According to Barson, "Capra became ensconced as Harry Cohn's most trusted director."<ref name=Barson /> 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.<ref name="Wakeman p. 97" /> Capra 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.<ref>McBride 1992, p. 197.</ref> Capra wrote of this period and recalled the confidence that Cohn placed in Capra's vision and directing:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | I owed Cohn a lot—I owed him my whole career. So I had respect for him, and a certain amount of love. Despite his crudeness and everything else, he gave me my chance. He took a gamble on me.<ref>McBride 1992, p. 199.</ref>}}

[[File:The Younger Generation poster.jpg|thumb|upright|''[[The Younger Generation]]'' (1929)]]
Capra directed his first "real" sound picture, ''The Younger Generation'', in 1929. It was a rags-to-riches romantic comedy about a Jewish family's upward mobility in New York City, with their son later trying to deny his Jewish roots to keep his rich, gentile girlfriend.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/1045|title=AFI{{!}}Catalog|website=catalog.afi.com|language=en|access-date=January 18, 2018}}</ref> According to Capra biographer [[Joseph McBride (writer)|Joseph McBride]], Capra "obviously felt a strong identification with the story of a Jewish immigrant who grows up in the ghetto of New York&nbsp;... 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.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DMkLpTFBEtUC&pg=PA202|title=Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success|last=McBride|first=Joseph|date=June 2, 2011|publisher=University Press of Mississippi|isbn=978-1-60473-839-1|pages=202|language=en}}</ref>

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".<ref>McBride 1992, p. 203.</ref>

During his years at Columbia, Capra worked often with screenwriter [[Robert Riskin]] (husband of [[Fay Wray]]), and cameraman [[Joseph Walker (cinematographer)|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".<ref name="Wakeman p. 98">Wakeman 1987, p. 98.</ref>

=== Film career (1934–1941) ===

==== ''It Happened One Night'' (1934) ====
[[File:Gable and Colbert - It Happened One Night Columbia 1934 Press Still 7.4 X 9.4 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright|[[Clark Gable]] and [[Claudette Colbert]] in ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934)]]
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 ([[Academy Award for Best Picture|Best Picture]], [[Academy Award for Best Director|Best Director]], [[Academy Award for Best Actor|Best Actor]], [[Academy Award for Best Actress|Best Actress]], and [[Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay|Best Adapted Screenplay]]). Written by [[Robert Riskin]], it is one of the first [[Screwball comedy film|screwball comedies]], and with its release in the [[Great Depression]], critics considered it an [[Escapism|escapist]] story and a celebration of the [[American Dream]]. The film established the names of Capra, Columbia Pictures, and stars [[Clark Gable]] and [[Claudette Colbert]] in the movie industry. The film has been called "[[Picaresque novel|picaresque]]". It was one of the earliest [[road movie]]s and inspired variations on that theme by other filmmakers.<ref name="Wakeman p. 99">Wakeman 1987, p. 99.</ref>

He followed the film with ''[[Broadway Bill]]'' (1934), a screwball comedy about horse racing. The film was a turning point for Capra, however, as he began to conceive an additional dimension to his movies. He started using his films to convey messages to the public. Capra explains his new thinking:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | My films must let every man, woman, and child know that God loves them, that I love them, and that peace and salvation will become a reality only when they all learn to love each other.<ref name="Wakeman p. 99" />}}

This added goal was inspired after meeting with a [[Christian Science|Christian Scientist]] friend who told him to view his talents in a different way:
{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | The talents you have, Mr. Capra, are not your own, not self-acquired. God gave you those talents; they are his gifts to you, to use for his purpose.<ref name="Wakeman p. 99" />}}

Capra began to embody messages in 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".<ref name="Wakeman p. 100">Wakeman 1987, p. 100.</ref>

In 1938, Capra won his third Director Oscar in five years for ''[[You Can't Take It with You (film)|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 hosted the [[8th Academy Awards]] ceremony.

==== ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington'' (1939) ====
[[File:Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939 poster).jpg|thumb|upright|''[[Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]]'' (1939)]]
Although ''[[It's a Wonderful Life]]'' is his best-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 others, and "presented the individual working within the democratic system to overcome rampant political corruption".<ref name=Friedman />

The film, however, became Capra's most controversial. In his research before filming, he was able to stand close to President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] during a press conference after the recent acts of war by Germany in Europe. Capra recalls his fears:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | And panic hit me. Japan was slicing up the colossus of China piece by piece. Nazi Panzers had rolled into Austria and Czechoslovakia; their thunder echoed over Europe. England and France shuddered. The Russian bear growled ominously in the Kremlin. The black cloud of war hung over the chancelleries of the world. Official Washington from the President down, was in the process of making hard, torturing decisions. "And here was I, in the process of making a satire about government officials; ...&nbsp;Wasn't this the most untimely time for me to make a film about Washington?<ref>Capra 1971, p. 259.</ref>}}

When the filming was completed, the studio sent preview copies to Washington. [[Joseph P. Kennedy Sr.]], U.S. ambassador to the UK, wrote to Columbia head Harry Cohn, "Please do not play this picture in Europe."<ref name=Friedman /> Politicians were concerned about the potential negative effect the film might have on the morale of the United States' 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 (politics)|graft]], corruption and lawlessness."<ref name=Beauchamp /> Many studio heads agreed, nor did they want negative feelings about Hollywood instilled in political leaders.<ref>Capra 1971, p. 261.</ref>

Nonetheless, Capra's vision of the film's significance was clear:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | The more uncertain are the people of the world, the more their hard-won freedoms are scattered and lost in the winds of chance, the more they need a ringing statement of America's democratic ideals. The soul of our film would be anchored in [[Abraham Lincoln|Lincoln]]. Our Jefferson Smith would be a young Abe Lincoln, tailored to the rail-splitter's simplicity, compassion, ideals, humor, and unswerving moral courage under pressure.<ref>Capra 1971, p. 260.</ref>}}

Capra pleaded with Cohn to allow the film to go into distribution and remembers the intensity of their decision making:

{{Blockquote | style=font-size: 100%; | Harry Cohn paced the floor, as stunned as [[Abraham]] must have been when the Lord asked him to sacrifice his beloved son [[Isaac]].<ref>Capra 1971, p. 289.</ref>}}

Cohn and Capra chose to ignore the negative publicity and demands and released the film as planned. It was later nominated for 11 Academy Awards, only winning one (for Best Original Story) partly because the number of major pictures that were [[12th Academy Awards|nominated that year]] was 10, including ''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' and ''[[Gone with the Wind (film)|Gone with the Wind]]''.<ref name=Barson>Barson 1995, pp. 56–63.</ref> Hollywood columnist [[Louella Parsons]] called it a "smash patriotic hit" and most critics agreed, seeing that audiences left the theaters with "an enthusiasm for democracy" and "in a glow of patriotism."<ref name=Beauchamp>Beauchamp 2010, pp. 364–365.</ref>

The significance of the film's message was established further in France, shortly after World War II began. When the French public was asked to select which film they wanted to see most, having been told by the [[Vichy France|Vichy government]] that soon no more American films would be allowed in France, the overwhelming majority chose it over all others. To a France soon to be invaded and occupied by Nazi forces, the film most expressed the "perseverance of democracy and the [[American way]]."<ref name=Friedman />

===Impasse===
Capra became enchanted with a German-made film biography of composer [[Frédéric Chopin]]. He purchased the film  himself as a basis for his new production, and recruited one of Columbia's leading writers, [[Sidney Buchman]], to fashion a screenplay. Capra spent a full year working on the Chopin project, and the film was ready to go into production. Capra wanted to make the film in the costly [[Technicolor]] process—a first for Columbia—but Columbia's New York office balked at the expense. As Cohn's biographer Bob Thomas recounted, "They were aghast at the prospect of trying to sell an expensive costume film about a piano player and a woman novelist who wore pants and smoked cigars. The opposition was strong enough to veto the project."<ref>Thomas, Bob. ''King Cohn: The Life and Times of Hollywood Mogul Harry Cohn'', Beverly Hills: New Millennium Press, 2000, p.148.</ref> The enraged Capra quit Columbia. Harry Cohn tried to lure him back with an unprecedented profit-sharing split of 50/50, but Capra accepted a million-dollar cash offer from [[Warner Bros.]] Columbia ultimately went ahead with the Chopin biography, in Technicolor, under the direction of [[Charles Vidor]]: ''[[A Song to Remember]]'' (1945).

==== ''Meet John Doe'' (1941) ====
[[File:Meet John Doe 1941.jpg|thumb|left|[[Walter Brennan]], [[Gary Cooper]], [[Irving Bacon]], [[Barbara Stanwyck]], and [[James Gleason]] in ''Meet John Doe'']]
Capra's first Warner project was ''[[Meet John Doe]]'' (1941). So important was the Capra name that Warner Bros. took its own name off the main title. Instead of the usual "Warner Bros. Pictures presents", ''Meet John Doe'' begins with "Presenting".

Some consider ''Meet John Doe'' to be Capra's most controversial movie. The film's hero, played by [[Gary Cooper]], is a former baseball player now bumming around, lacking goals. He is selected by a news reporter to represent the "[[Commoner|common man]]," 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 [[United States non-interventionism|isolationist]] mood. According to some historians, the film was made to convey a "deliberate reaffirmation of American values," though ones that 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 [[Vagrancy|drifter]] to national figure parallels Capra's own early drifting experience and subsequent involvement in movie making&nbsp;... ''Meet John Doe'', then, was an attempt to work out his own fears and questions."<ref name="Wakeman p. 101">Wakeman 1987, p. 101.</ref>