Frank Capra Interview | Cinema Showcase (January 30, 1979)
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The director of It’s a Wonderful Life, who won five Oscars in the 1930s for films that embodied the pre-World War II notion of American exceptionalism, was pushed into semi-retirement by the early 50s by changes in tastes and political priorities. Capra was brought back to the Hollywood director’s chair by Frank Sinatra in the 1960s, but Capra quickly became embittered by an industry that he felt had left him behind, and in 1971 published an autobiography airing grievances about an industry that he believed was “stooping to cheap salacious pornography in a crazy bastardization of a great art to compete for the 'patronage' of deviates and masturbators.”
SHOW NOTES:
Sources:
Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success by Joseph McBride
Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir by Victoria Riskin
“Profiles: Thinker in Hollywood,” Geoffrey T. Hellman The New Yorker, February 24, 1940
The American Cinema: directors and directions 1929-1968 by Andrew Sarris
“Sinatra, Sellers, Matthau: One Weekend, Fifty Stars!” by Kim Goodrich, American Movie Classics Magazine, July 1998
Hollywood: The Oral History by Jeanine Basinger and Sam Wasson
“Capra Production Packs Plenty of B.O. Appeal; Well-Acted” by Jack Moffitt, Hollywood Reporter, May 19, 1959
“Capra Once Again Shoots For Laughs” by Philip K. Scheuer, LA Times, November 28, 1958
Sinatra: The Chairman by James Kaplan
The Name Above the Title by Frank Capra
“Crusade Forgotten” by Peter Bogdanovich, Frontier, 1959
“Ford, Bette Davis in Upbeat Comedy” by Hedda Hopper, Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1961
“Film Rates Kudos as Uplifting Fare” Hollywood Citizen-News, December 26, 1961
“‘Miracles’ Another Frank Capra Ditto” by Kay Proctor, Los Angeles Examiner, December 26, 1961
“Capra’s Formula for Farce Again Enlivens Movie” by Dick Williams, LA Mirror, December 26, 1961
“Is Sweet Corn of Yore Palatable to Moderns?” by Dick Williams, Los Angeles Times, November 12, 1961
“TradeViews” by Don Carle Gillette, Hollywood Reporter, 11-15-61
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Frank Sinatra and Eleanor Parker in Frank Capra’s A Hole in the Head, 1959
Music:
The music used in this episode, with the exception of the intro, was sourced from royalty-free music libraries and licensed music collections. The intro includes a clip from the film Casablanca.
Excerpts from the following songs were used throughout the episode:
"Temperance” - Eltham House
"Au Coin de la Rue” - Marco Raaphorst
"Coquelicot” - Magenta
"House of Grendel” - Lemuel
“True Blue Sky” - Bitters
“Vdet” - Fjell
“Gusty Hollow” - Migration
“Guild Rat” - El Baul
“Base Camp” - K2
“Kalsted” - Lillehammer
“Levanger” - Lillehammer
“Vik Fence Haflak” - The Fence
“Rasteplass” - Oslo
This episode was written, narrated, edited and produced by Karina Longworth.
Our editor this season is Evan Viola.
Research, production, and social media assistant: Brendan Whalen.
Logo design: Teddy Blanks.
Frank Capra on The Dick Cavett Show in 1972. From Left to Right: Peter Bogdanovich, Dick Cavett, and Frank Capra