Frank Capra | Biography

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DIRECTOR OF "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE" AND "IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT" and others

PUBLISHER:
Another Frank Capra offers a new interpretation of the great hollywood director beyond the patriotic sentimentalist or the cynical opportunist that he has been taken for. Often cast as a cinematic simpleton or primitive, Capra's exploitation of the stylistic and narrative resources of cinema was, in fact, extremely self-conscious and adventurous in ways typical of artistic modernism. His modernism is also evident in his repeated and strong identification with female characters. Informed by recent work in genre theory and feminist psychology, Another Frank Capra shows Capra to be a "proto-feminist" director whose feminism has been entirely neglected by previous critics.

[Above: Still image from the rooftop suicide scene from Meet John Doe.]

Last update this page October 24, 2007

Articles on or about Frank Capra
Born May 18, 1897 in Bisacquino, Sicily, Italy
Died September 3, 1991 in La Quinta, California

Biographical Timeline of Capra's Life 1897 - 1930

REVIEW: It Happened One Night from
May 1934 New Republic Magazine

REVIEW: It Happened One Night from
April 1935 The Nation Magazine

REVIEW: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town from
May 1936 National Board of Review Magazine

REVIEW: Lost Horizon from
March 1937 National Board of Review Magazine

Letter About Directing written by Frank Capra from
1939 New York Times Newspaper

A page on Frank Capra's son, Frank Capra, Jr., (1934-2007)
who had a long career as a film producer.

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(Capra was asked where he would have ended up
if he had not become a film director):

With [Dr. Edwin] Hubble. As an astronomer. I could study the stars and the planets forever. I always wanted to know why, why... Pictures changed my mind. I was too far along in the movie business. But when I go back to [Capra's college] Caltech now and hear about things I'm not familiar with, like black holes, goddamn! I get mad. How the hell I ever refused that I don't know... But it seems like motion pictures have a terrible hold on me. I don't know what it is...

(From Joseph McBride's book Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, page 655.)

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For A List of Capra Films, go HERE

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This web site is Copyright ©1998 - 2007 Erik Weems.
Individual images and quotes are copyright to their
respective owners. This web site is not associated with
the Frank Capra family - it is an endeavor of research
and web site design. Contact erik[at]eeweems.com
with questions or comments. All rights & lefts reserved.

http://www.eeweems.com/capra/bio.html

PROJECTOR

CAPRA FILM PAGES:
It's A Wonderful Life (1946)
Arsenic and Old Lace (1941)
Meet John Doe (1941)
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
You Can't Take It With You (1938)
Lost Horizon (1937)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Broadway Bill (1934)
It Happened One Night (1934)
The Bitter Tea of General Yen (1933)
Lady for A Day (1933)
American Madness (1932)
Forbidden (1931)
The Miracle Woman (1931)
Platinum Blonde (1931)
Ladies of Leisure (1930)
COMPLETE LIST

LADY FOR A DAY
DVD from $17.98
PURCHASE DVD
Read about
LADY FOR A DAY here.

PLATINUM BLONDE
DVD from $12.99
PURCHASE DVD
Read about
Platinum Blonde here

DVD
PURCHASE ARSENIC AND OLD LACE DVD

THE NAME ABOVE
THE TITLE
BOOK from $6.99
PURCHASE BOOK
Read about the book here.