Tribute to Frank Capra

Source: http://goo.gl/0FAH18

The following is an excerpt from my book about It's a Wonderful Life, which is currently looking for a home with a publisher:

An Italian immigrant, Frank Capra discovered at a young age “what would later become one of the most important themes of his movies: ‘One nation. . .with liberty and justice for all’” (Stewart 82). Capra often made movies about the little man doing great things, representing ideals and qualities that made the little man great. Those qualities included, common sense, family values, a religious (though not overt) dedication, fidelity, family values, and Americanism.

Capra’s films have been referred to as “Capracorn” because of their perceived “corny,” unbelievable, or over-the top endings. The crowning example of this is the closing scene of It’s a Wonderful Life, because it can be misconstrued as being sappy and too-happy of an ending for such a dark film.

Initially, this characterization hurt Capra’s feelings because he felt strongly about his films and the messages they carried. However, he later took this critical jab and turned it into a positive by calling most of his films “Capracorn” himself. To him, Capracorn came to mean

… a brew of the comic, the sentimental, the rhetorical, the 

idealistic, and the melodramatic in which the values of the 

man on the street were raised above those of official authority 

in which, even at the cost of gliding over specific plot points, 

there was inevitably a happy ending. (Dewey 268).

Capra has 58 film directing credits to his name, which reads like an American Film Institute Top 100 list.

Capra was born May 18, 1897 in Italy. He died Sept. 3, 1991, at age 94, but not before the Mayor of Los Angeles and the city council declared May 12, 1962 to be Frank Capra Day (Capra 488).

He is buried in Coachella Valley Public Cemetery, Riverside County, CA. If he was still alive, he would be 118 years old.

Source: Find A Grave

-----

Sources:

Capra, Frank. Frank Capra: the Name Above the Title, an Autobiography. New York: DaCapo Press, 1997.

Dewey, Donald. James Stewart: A Biography. Atlanta: Turner Publishing, Inc., 1996.

Stewart, Jimmy. “Frank Capra’s Merry Christmas to All.” Reader’s Digest Dec. 1991: 81-85.

   

Blogging From A to Z - Y is for You Can't Take it With You

Welcome to the It's A Wonderful Blog's Blogging From A to Z April (2015) Challenge. For this challenge, I will post every day in April (except for Sundays) about topics related to the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life.

You Can't Take it With You:

You Can’t Take it With You was the first of three films made by the film team of Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart.

Source: http://imdb.to/1Fh2rDx

While Capra borrowed several techniques, ideas and themes from many of his films, a great deal of them began in this film. There are so many connections that it will require one very long blog entry, or several shorter entries. I will work on those at some point.

One major connection to that You Can't Take it With You has with It’s a Wonderful Life is the list of talent.

• Jimmy Stewart played George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life. He played Tony Kirby in You Can’t Take it With You.

• Samuel S. Hinds played Pa Bailey in t’s a Wonderful Life. He played Paul Sycamore in You Can’t Take it With You.

• H.B. Warner played Mr. Gower in t’s a Wonderful Life. He played Ramsey in You Can’t Take it With You.

• Lionel Barrymore played the much-hated Henry F. Potter in t’s a Wonderful Life. He played the much-loved Martin Vanderhof in You Can’t Take it With You.

For now, I want to focus on Peter Bailey.

During the bank run, George takes a phone call from Potter. After that discussion, George turns to a framed picture of his father on the office wall. Three characters from You Can’t Take it With You are reunited in this scene.

As George turned to his father for advice as a child, he continues to do so as an adult, looking for the guidance and strength that Peter represented in life. It is the same picture that will hang on the wall at George and Mary’s future home. Both at home and at work, this picture can always be seen over George’s shoulder whenever he meets opposition or is faced with trouble.

At work, though, there is a quotation beneath the picture that says, “All you can take with you is that which you’ve given away.” In this way, Capra brings the message of You Can’t Take it With You into t’s a Wonderful Life, and makes a reference to his previous film at the same time. This quotation was not hanging under the photo when George took over the business, but it is there during the bank run.

All you can take with you is that which you have given away.
Source: http://brainrow.com/2010/12/19

This quotation is more than just Peter’s epitaph. Raymond Carney, author of American Vision: The Films of Frank Capra, points out that “George’s father represents a sense of responsibility and obligation to the larger community and a belief in the value of self-sacrifice for the common good that almost all of the earlier (Capra) films advocated” (386). George has gained his father’s values, and the audience is led to believe by the end of the film that these values will in turn be passed down to George and Mary’s children.

The quotation also helps to enforce the film’s message of civic-mindedness. It contradicts the ideology of the period that capitalism is about personal gain despite negative consequences for others, as Potter represents. By showing the Baileys as civic-minded capitalists, Capra has challenged America’s post-World War II ideology in t’s a Wonderful Life. He works to affirm an ideology of civic-minded capitalism throughout the film through the photograph of Peter, through George’s struggles, and in the contrast between the Baileys and Potter.

As author Greg Asimakoupoulos puts it, “When you make deposits in the lives of others, you aren’t always aware of the compounding interest that is taking place. But the bottom line reveals a wealth that exceeds your expectations.”

Sources:
Asimakoupoulos, Greg. “Finding God in It's A Wonderful Life.” iBooks. https://itun.es/us/d0e1H.l

Carney, Raymond. American Vision: The Films of Frank Capra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.

Blogging From A to Z - F is for Frank and Faith

Welcome to the It's A Wonderful Blog's Blogging From A to Z April (2015) Challenge. For this challenge, I will post every day in April (except for Sundays) about topics related to the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life.

Frank Capra:
Frank Capra used the same themes in many of his films:

Frank Capra.
Source: http://alsolikelife.com/shooting/2009/
12/991-123-lost-horizon-1937-frank-capra/

• Fighting for the little man - Whether the main character was the little man or was the one who did the fighting for the little man, the important part was that they were protected somehow.
• Each person's life touches so many other lives - We saw it in It's a Wonderful Life, You Can't Take it With You, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and many more. There is an argument to be made that this message can be found in just about every film ever made by anyone. After all, we don't live in a vacuum.
• No man is a failure - We each struggle, but if we persevere, we can't fail. Failure is a condition of a disease. The disease is called quitting. It reminds me of that saying that "everyone is special." We are. Not everyone ate the same piece of food, sat in the very same chair and looked in the same directions. Even twins are unique.
• There are so many more that will explore them in future blog posts.
• Get The Premiere Frank Capra Collection and watch those. You will see what I mean.

Faith
If you don't see the faith aspect in It's a Wonderful Life, you need to go watch it again. Faith is EVERYWHERE.

The Frank Capra Collection
Source: http://www.dvdactive.com/news/
releases/frank-capra-collection.html

• It starts with prayer
• Then it moves to Heaven and a discussion among angels.
• George's guardian angel is sent to help him.
• George prays for redemption.
• It is everywhere. Don't fight it. Embrace it. I fought it for a long, long time. I didn't start paying attention to it until January, 2015. You don't have to be religious to see it or appreciate it. Capra's vision of angels and Heaven isn't exactly Biblical. There is some creative license in there. So breathe easy and enjoy it.

Capra's vision of Heaven.

Blogging From A to Z - B is for People, Places and Things

Welcome to the It's A Wonderful Blog's Blogging From A to Z April (2015) Challenge. For this challenge, I will post every day in April (except for Sundays) about topics related to the Frank Capra/Jimmy Stewart film, It's a Wonderful Life.

Buffalo Gals:

Every couple needs a love song. Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You" seems to be pretty popular. For George and Mary in It's a Wonderful Life, their song was "Buffalo Gals," which became their song while walking home from a particularly aquatic school dance.

It's interesting to note that at some point I read that the song is about....well, shall we say, ladies from the red light district with questionable reputations? I don't have the time or space to explore that idea here, but check out the song lyrics and some of the song's history here, or listen to Dimitri Tiomkin's musical intro to the film here:

Source:
http://fogsmoviereviews.com/2012/12/24/movies-that-everyone-should-see-its-a-wonderful-life/

Bridge: 
While George was wandering (or drunkenly stumbling) down the street, he came across the bridge. It becomes a symbolic location in many ways. First he contemplates suicide on the bridge. Later, he prays to God to return to his life in Bedford Falls, complete with all of its challenges, risk and fear. It is at the bridge that George crosses from life to death, and from death to life.

The bridge also is symbolic in that it is a starting-over point for the film. The first time we meet George is when he is sledding as a child with is brother and his friends. When his brother falls through the ice, George selflessly jumps in the river to save him. When Clarence jumps off of the bridge later in the film, an adult George follows him into the river to save him. In that way, it resets the film and prepares us for the events in Pottersville.

Ben Franklin:

Benjamin Franklin is the large constellation on top,
shaped like a stomach.
Source: http://cinema-fanatic.com/2010/12/20/oscar-vault-
monday-its-a-wonderful-life-1946-dir-frank-capra/

Yes, THAT Ben Franklin. Glasses, kite, Old Farmer's Almanac. That Ben Franklin. He is a character in the film. Really. And he has lines.

No, really. I mean it.

When we travel to Heaven, we meet three stellar bodies. One is Clarence. One is Joseph. The other is never named in the film. Most of us naturally assume it is God, since this constellation makes decisions and gives directions. All scripts, however, indicate that the stellar body is named Franklin. Initial consideration could lead anyone with a knowledge of the film’s time period to believe this might be a reference to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As the 32nd President of the United States, Roosevelt served from 1933 until his untimely death in 1945, just before World War II ended.

Capra worked for the government, filming the Why We Fight propaganda films during the war. Although Capra served his patriotic duty to his country, he did not support Roosevelt’s New Deal program, so consequently this reference is unlikely.

Benjamin Franklin
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Franklin

Early script for It’s a Wonderful Life, reveal even more about this character’s identity than the final script. Originally, an early script called for Joseph and Franklin to be physical beings instead of constellations. In that script, we learn that “Joseph comes to Ben Franklin’s workshop and office” (Basinger 325).

Benjamin Franklin is an American icon who represented the American Dream. He was an inventor and capitalist. He owned his own publishing business and published Poor Richard’s Almanac. He was a self-made, self-educated man who wrote an autobiography and was instrumental in forming America’s identity as a signer of the Declaration of Independence.

In Capra’s notes, which include questions and minor details to work out about It’s a Wonderful Life, Capra wrote, “Franklin. Still flies kites in Heaven. Still reads Sat. Eve Post” (Basinger 21). This is a reference to Franklin flying the kite with the key tied to it during an electricity experiment. The reference to the Saturday Evening Post is a reference to an American magazine that was popular in the early 20th Century, and that was descended from Ben Franklin’s Pennsylvania Gazette.

Source:
Basinger, Jeanine (in Collaboration with the trustees of the Frank Capra Archives), Interviews by

                Leonard Maltin. The It’s a Wonderful Life Book. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1996.