Adventures in 20th Century Cinema
When we think of Frank Capra films we inevitably think of It's a Wonderful Life, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, It Happened One Night or Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and why not? They're all classics. But they all draw to some extent on an earlier Capra film, 'American Madness' (1932).
American Madness features as it's centrepiece a run on a bank, almost 15 years before Capra made Wonderful Life. It champions the little man against the big corporate machine and espouses small town values as superior to corrupt big city dealing. It's hero contemplates suicide, genuine drama underscoring it's crafted comedy. It's classic Capra.
And that's not surprising, it was scripted by Robert Riskin, who scripted many of Capra's triumphs. When we think of Capra's values we are usually thinking of Riskin's; it is he, not Capra, who is the liberal, Capra was a lifelong Republican. This odd teaming of ideological opposition is arguably what made their films so good. So good in fact that when Capra was making his first post war project, without Riskin, he resorted to many of his old collaborator's ideas and made It's a Wonderful Life, the film that has come to define him.
Even at the time there was a conflict in ownership over the Capra/Riskin collaborations, with Capra appealing to the Writer's Guild to get co-author credit on his films. Capra was an insecure man, genuinely afraid that his contribution would be overlooked (or perhaps afraid that he had made no real contribution). And with good reason; the script for American Madness is very detailed, superlative sequences such as the spread of the rumour and the run on the bank are laid out there almost exactly as they appear on the screen.
But that should take nothing away from Capra; he recognised what a good thing he had and was smart enough not to change things for change's sake. He also executed the sequences flawlessly. The run is a masterpiece of a scene, from silence to chaos in seconds flat, while the spread of the rumour bears testament to Capra's time as a silent film director; superb visual storytelling. The bank robbery early in the story is another masterful peice of direction, again almost silent, dark and dramatic, Capra's films were never less than black comedies (despite his reputation for cornball humour). And in this scene credit goes solely to Capra, it is one of the few additions the director is known to have made to Riskin's script, and it's a very important one.
I can't sell American Madness as the equal of Capra's other triumphs, but it is still a great film, and an often overlooked one.
In other news, the film Papillon is on Friday at 10.30 on BBC2. Its slow paced and McQueen maybe a bit out of it's depth, but it's better than it's reputation suggests. Give it a try.
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6 Comments
There is a DVD which has two versions of Scarface. I watched these last night. The first vesrions is directed by Howard Hawks and written by Ben Hecht. The film begins with a moral statement about Prohibition and the Mafia.
I found the film oddly relevant to today and this comment seemed to be missing in the re-make byv De Palma.
The little man against the big corporate machine you mention in reference to American Madness has been spun out many times since in the cinema, with and without a comedic slant. My personal favourite is "The Castle" (not well known outside Australia), which teams corporate power, government and the legal system together against the individual. Beyond this, it is a masterpiece of cultural observation... so much so in fact, that it has now filtered into mainstream Aussie culture.
Back to Capra, both Mr. Deeds and It Happened One Night are on TV this week.
I did not watch 'Papillon as I have seen it a few times and the companies allways cut the sides off which is annoying as I am interested in photography.
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