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The following biography
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Frank Capra (May 18, 1897
– September 3, 1991) was an Academy Award winning Italian-American film director
and a major creative force behind a number of highly popular films of the 1930s
and 1940s, including the classics It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington, among others.
****
Born: May 18, 1897
Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy
Died: September 3, 1991
La Quinta, California,
USA
Occupation: Film director
Spouse: Helen Howell
(1923-1927)
Lou Capra (1932-1984)
****
Early
life
Born Francesco Rosario
Capra in Bisacquino, Sicily, Capra moved to the United States in 1903 with his
father Salvatore, his mother Rosaria Nicolosi and his siblings Giuseppa,
Giuseppe, and Antonia. In California they met up with Benedetto Capra, (the
oldest sibling) and settled in Los Angeles, California, where Frank Capra
graduated from Throop Institute (later renamed the California Institute of
Technology) with a B.S. degree in chemical engineering. On October 18, 1918, he
joined the United States Army. While at the Presidio, he got Spanish influenza
and was discharged on December 13. In 1920, he became a naturalized citizen of
the United States.
Career
Like other prominent
directors of the thirties and forties, Capra began his career in silent films,
notably by directing and writing silent film comedies starring Harry Langdon and
the Our Gang kids. In 1930 Capra went to work for Mack Sennett and then moved to
Columbia Pictures where he formed a close association with screenwriter Robert
Riskin (husband of Fay Wray) and cameraman Joseph Walker. In 1940, however,
Sidney Buchman replaced Riskin as writer.
After the 1934 Oscar
winning romantic comedy It Happened One Night, which also won best acting awards
for Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, Capra directed a steady stream of films
for Columbia intended to be inspirational and humanitarian. The best known are
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the original Lost Horizon, You Can't Take It with You
and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. His ten-year break from screwball comedy ended
with the comedy classic Arsenic and Old Lace. Among the actors who owed much of
their early success to Capra were Barbara Stanwyck, Jimmy Stewart, Gary Cooper
and Jean Arthur.
Capra`s films in the
1930`s enjoyed great success at the Academy Awards. It Happened One Night was
the first film to win all five top oscars, Best Picture, Best Director, Best
Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. In 1936 Capra won his second Best
Director oscar for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and in 1938 he won his third Best
Director oscar in just five years for You Can't Take It with You which also won
Best Picture.
Between 1942 and 1948,
when he produced State of the Union, Capra also directed or co-directed eight
war documentaries including Prelude to War (1942), The Nazis Strike (1942), The
Battle of Britain (1943), Divide and Conquer (1943), Know Your Enemy Japan
(1945), Tunisian Victory (1945) and Two Down and One to Go (1945). His Academy
Award-winning documentary series, Why We Fight, is widely considered a
masterpiece of propaganda. Capra was faced with the task of convincing an
isolationist nation to enter the war, desegregate the troops, and ally with the
Russians, among other things.
It's a Wonderful Life
(1946) is perhaps Capra's most widely known and long-lasting film to date.
Although it was initially considered a box office disappointment, it was
nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. The
film gained a second life on television, where for a number of years it was
shown multiple times during the Christmas season. A lapse in its copyright
protection caused the film to appear to fall into the public domain, and TV
stations believed they were allowed to show it without paying royalties. With
the new exposure, It's a Wonderful Life became a Christmas classic.
Even though the copyright
on the film itself lapsed, it was still protected by virtue of it being a
derivative work of all the other copyrighted material used to produce the film
such as the script, music, etc. whose copyrights were renewed. In 1993, Republic
Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved the movie Rear Window) to enforce its
claim of copyright; while the film's copyright had not been renewed, it was a
derivative work of various works that were still copyrighted. As a result, the
film is no longer shown as much on television (NBC is currently the only one
licensed to show the film on U.S. network television).
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.
Capra's final theatrical
film was 1961's Pocketful of Miracles, with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis. He had
planned to do a science fiction film later in the decade but never even got
around to pre-production. Capra did end up producing several science-related
television specials for the Bell Telephone System.
Capra films usually carry
a definite message about the basic goodness of human nature and show the value
of unselfishness and hard work. His wholesome, feel-good themes have led his
works to be called 'Capra-corn'. It may be argued that much of the 'feel-good'
type of cinema that has somewhat become a genre of its own, for better or for
worse, is largely Frank Capra's legacy.
Capra
in the media
In 1971, Capra published
his autobiography, The Name Above the Title. Uncompromising in its details, it
offers a compelling self-portrait. It is, however, not considered to be entirely
reliable as regards dates and facts. As with many autobiographies it represents
the writer's own version of his life and tells his story as he wanted it told.
Capra was also the
subject of a 1991 biography by Joseph McBride entitled Frank Capra: The
Catastrophe of Success. McBride challenges many of the impressions left by
Capra's autobiography.
Death
and legacy
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 Cemetery in Coachella, California.
He left part of his
1,100-acre ranch in Fallbrook, California [1] to Caltech.
His son Frank Capra, Jr.
- one of the three children born to Capra's second wife, Lou Capra - is
president of Screen Gems, in Wilmington, North Carolina. Frank Capra's grandson
is Frank Capra III.
Quotes
"There are no rules in
filmmaking, only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness."
Filmography
The Strong Man (1926)
For the Love of Mike
(1927)
Long Pants (1927)
The Power of the Press
(1928)
Say It with Sables (1928)
So This Is Love (1928)
Submarine (1928)
The Way of the Strong
(1928)
That Certain Thing (1928)
The Matinee Idol (1928)
Flight (1929)
The Donovan Affair (1929)
The Younger Generation
(1929)
Rain or Shine (1930)
Ladies of Leisure (1930)
Dirigible (1931)
The Miracle Woman (1931)
Platinum Blonde (1931)
Forbidden (1932)
American Madness (1932)
The Bitter Tea of General
Yen (1932)
Lady for a Day (1933)
It Happened One Night
(1934)
Broadway Bill (1934)
Opera Hat (1935)
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)
State of the Union (1948)
Riding High (1950)
Here Comes the Groom
(1951)
A Hole in the Head (1959)
Pocketful of Miracles
(1961)
****
References
1. http://www.caltechy.org/about/history/75years/
****
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