Editing Frank Capra (section)

=== 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" />