Sunday, February 4, 1973
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Rage Three,
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Cap ro
By RICHARD GLATZER
Who is Frank Capra? Even
people who've never heard the
name have probably been influ-
enced by him. The great Holly-
wood film director almost put an
end to the undershirt business
when he allowed Clark Gable to
go without in the Walls of Jerico
scene in It Happened One Night.
His Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
put the words doodled and 'pix-
ilated' into the dictionary. Clark
Gable, Claudette Colbert, Jean
Arthur, James Stewart and. Bar-
bara Stanwyck all got big breaks
in Capra films. And certain Cap-
ra scenes and images - a young
idealistic Senator (James Ste-
wart) philibustering, Claudette
Colbert teaching Gable how to
hitchhike, Jean Arthur and Gary
Cooper singing "Swanee River"
on a park bench, a remote Him-
alayan kingdom of peace a n d
harmony called Shangri-la, even
Hemo the Magnificent teaching
kids science in the Bell Tele-
phone Science Series -stick with
people long after the last mem-
ories of more esoteric, less in-
volving films have been erased
completely.
And the appeal of a Capra
movie only seems to grow with
age. Cinema II recently showed
It Happened One Night to two
full houses - both of whom
applauded the film solidly for
several minutes.
Capra is an American myth-
maker whose success entertain-
ing and moving an entire na-
tion is unequalled in our film
history. His observations of the
U.S. of the '30's and '40's is
often frank, almost hard-hitting.
Yet Capra is primarily a comic
genius who has always retained
a certain innocence, a sincere
faith in the possibilities of life
and the power of the human
spirit to overcome all obstacles.
Some of his films are the most
convincing and joyous affirma-
tions of life I have ever ex-
perienced.
Capra's world view is perhaps
never expressed as succinctly as,
when Jean Arthur finds herself
falling for one of Capra's naive,
idealistic, almost silly heros,
turns to a fellow cynic (I be-
lieve it's Thomas Mitchell in
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington)
and drunkenly muses, "Maybe
it's a curse to go through life all
wised up."
But I could ramble on { about
Capra indefinitely. For anyone
who's interested, Capra's auto-
biography, The Name Above the
Title, is filled with fascinating
anecdotes, and Mr. Capra will
be available for discussion at
Cinema Guild following the 7:00
show on Feb. 11th, and the 9:00
show on the 12th.
The Strong Man
and
The Negro Soldier
MON., FEB. S
Silent comedian Harry Lang-
don shot to fame in several Cap-
ra shorts and in The Strong Man
(1926), Capra's first feature-
length, "one man, one film". I
haven't seen the movie, but two
very distinguished critics -
James Agee and Kevin Brownlow
- recommend it quite highly.
There is something of a run-
ning controversy going among
ilm reviewers as to whether
Langdon's success is entirely a
result of Capra's directorial gen-
ius (Langdon's films on which
Capra did not work are gene:-
ally considered dismal failures)
or whether Capra merely brough:
out Langdon's fragile, unique tal-
ent and displayed it properly,
At any rate, one can seen in
The Strong Man nascent themes
of Capra's later work. Langdon
plays Paul Bergot, a baby-faced
Belgian soldier in World War I,
who, for some perverse reason,
has God on his side (and not too
much else). Bergot gets captured
by the enemy (in particular, one
Zandow the Great). The armis-
tice is signed, and the pair then
go off to the U.S. enabling Ber-
got to search for Mary Brown,
an American girl who had writ-
ten him faithfully during r h a
war years. Bergot, of course,
gets involved with several shady
characters and strange dilem-
mas before he finally finds Mary.
(Donald Sosin will be accompany-
ing the film on the piano).
When Capra enlisted in the
Army in 1942, the War Depart-
ment put him to the best use
they could - making moralo
building movies. Capra's b e s t
known World War II work is the
Why We Fight series, but T h e
Negro Soldier, made shortly af-
ter this series, should be equal-
ly interesting. Capra believes this
to be the first legitimate at-
tempt to document the black's
role in American history. One
must admire the courage of a
man who would make a film of
this sort while the Army was still
segregated, but I wonder h o w
liberal attitudes of the '40's will
strike us today. By the way,
Capra's role in making the film
is quite ambigious. In his auto-
biography, the director seems
to see the movie as primarily his
creation, though other sources
give credit to Stuart Heisler as
director and merely list Capra
as production supervisor.
Platinum Blonde
TUES., FEB. 6
Platinum Blonde (1931), a pre-
cursor of It Happened O n e
Night, follows ace reporter Stew
Smith (Robert Williams), his ro-
mantic interest in heiress Anne
Schuyler (Jean Harlow), and his
relationship with colleague Gal-
lagher (Lorretta Young). As m
most of his comedies of the ear-
ly thirties, Capra here shows a
liking for slick urban folk; a
liking that, after it It Happened
One Night and Broadway B I 11
(1934) was to transform into a
disenchantment with city cynics
and a decided preference for
naive country yokels.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
WED., FEB 7
In Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,
Capra created his own genre. No
longer were the city dwellers
and their affectationsyw o r t h
emulating; it is a very marked
outsider, Longfellow Deeds (Gary
Cooper) who sets a money-obses-
sed metropolis straight with his
common sense, non-materialis-
tic values. Gary Cooper h a s
never been more wining or more
at ease. And Mr. Deeds gave a
huge boost to the career of one
of our finest comediennes, Jean
Arthur.
You Can't Take It
With You
THURS., FEB. 8
You Can't Take It with You
tells of a wacky New York City
family who merely sit at home,
do exactly what they want to do,
and constantly bring home addi-
tions to their clan who are tired
with the rat race out there. The
Sycamores, though ostensibly
New Yorkers, are again outsiders
political comedy and a thorough-
ly impasioned plea for liberty
and justice. The movie's indict-
ment of crooked national poli-
tics had Washington in an up-
roar when the film was first
released - Joseph Kennedy,
then U.S. Ambassador to Eng-
land, even wrote to Harry Cohn
(the film's producer) asking
that the movie be pulled off the
market. It wasn't. And when, in
France, the Vichy government
placed a ban on all English lang-
uage films, theatres all across
the country chose to show Mr.
Smith the night before the ban
went into effect.
The film is a Mr. Deeds on a
grander scale, filled with Cap-
ra's patriotism and love of free-
festival salute s comic
ren us
ing film about the possibility of
American fascism: It Could Hap-
pen Here. This is Capra's finest
treatment of crowds - m o r e
stunning than the crowd treat-
ments in American Madness
(1932) or Mr. Smith. The climac-
tic rally, filmed in Wrigley Field,
is turly overwhelming. The film
suffers from a lack of a con-
vincing ending (Capra realized
this himself and filmed f i v e
different, unsatisfying denoue-
ments). Yet even while the last
scene's logic fails, the mise-en-
scene - atop a city office build-
ing on a quiet, snowy Christmas
Eve - is nevertheless quite ef-
fective.
Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in Capra's "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town."
"DEAL IN UNNATURAL
SHADES FROM THE PSYCHE . .
A GOTHIC MYSTERY."
-Time Magazine
as far as modern urban values
are concerned, and, like Deeds,
their non-materialistic, flamboy-
antly individualistic outlook on
life is seen in direct contrast
with the more conventional suz-
cess of robber baron Anthony
P. Kirby (played brilliantly by
Edward Arnold), who tries to
buy the Sycamore's house to per-
petrate some sleazy industrial
scheme. The film, by the way,
won Capra his third Best Direc-
tor and second Best Picture
Oscars.
Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington
FRI., FEB. 9
Over the years, Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington (1939) gained a
reputation as a classic American
dom. Naive Jefferson S m i t h
(James Stewart) stumbles into a
Senate seat and goes to our Cap-
itol only to have his ideals shat-
tered by a head-on clash w i t h
the corruption and graft that
made Washington what it is to-
day.
Meet John Doe
SAT., FEB. 10
To reveal the premise of Meet
John Doe (1941) would be to
spoil one of the cleverest open-
ings of any Capra film. What
Capra did here was to study the
mass American movements of
Huey Long and Father Coughlin,
all the while keeping Hitler and
Nazi Germany very much in the
back of his mind, and to come up
with a still timely and frighten-
--ALSO-
The stars of "Goodbye
Columbus" the comedy
"MADE FOR
EACH OTHER"
Next: "The Emigrants"
O P
1973 SUMMER FLIGHTS
0 FULL DINNER WITH WINE " CONTINENTAL BREAKFAST 0 COMPLIMEN-
the ann arbor film cooperative
THIRD ANNUAL
8 mm FILM FESTIVAL
CULTURE! CALEN DARk
FILM-Cinema Guild presents Cry, Dr. Chicago, Cry at 7
and Dr. Chicago at 9, Sun., and begins Capra Festival
with The Strong Man and The Negro Soldier, Mon. at 7
and 9:05 in Arch. Aud; Cinema II shows Claire's Knee
Sun. at' 7 and 9 in Aud. A; The Ann Arbor Film Co-op
brings the 8mm Film Festival winners Sun. at 8 in East
Quad Aud.
SCHOOL OF MUSIC-Deborah Hinderer plays oboe at S. M.
Recital Hall 2:30 Sun.; John McCollum, tenor; Nancy
Hodge; piano; and Robert Courte, viola, perform in
Rackham Aud. 4:30 Sun.
CONCERTS-U. of M. Folklore Society presents Sandy &
Caroline Paton Sun. Feb. 4 at 9 in the Ark; Earl Robinson
comes to the Ark Mon. night.
It's a Wonderful Life
SUN., FEB. 11
It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
is Capra's favorite film, so it
is quite fitting that he appear
after the 7:00 show to discuss the
film with the Cinema Guild aud-
ience. This is Capra's most ser-
ious and reflective film, a post-
War recollection of an era and
the study of a man's spoiled
dreams and eventual dissillus-
ionment. The movie is at times
tremendously powerful, and
James Stewart's performance
(the actor's favorite of all his
roles) includes some of the fin-
est acting ever done in Holly-
wood. The love scene with Ste-
wart, Donna Reed, and a tele-
phone, is absolutely classic.
The Bitter Tea of
General Yen
and
Lady For a Day
MON., FEB. 12
Very atypical. This 1933 film
is Capra's try at artiness. Me-
gan Davis (Barbara Stanwyck)
journeys to China to marry her
missionary childhood sweetheart,
Dr. Strike (Gavin Gordon) -
that is until she meets the amor-
al, sexy Chinese warlord, Gen-
eral Yen (Nils Asther). Bitter
Tea is sensual, erotic, lush, von
Sternbergian. This is a rare print
of the film that Columbia Pic-
tures dug up for us out of their
vaults.
Capra is bringing us his own
personal print of this 1933 film
not ordinarily available for pub-
lic viewing. This is the original
Pocketful of Miracles, the story
of an old poor apple-vendor who
passes as an aristocrat. I have
not seen the film, but it w a s
very well received when Capra
showed it at Yale and at Co-
lumbia. Mr. Capra will discuss
the movie after the double fea-
ture.
TARY FRUITS, SNACKS
PRIVILEGES * DEPOSIT
STOP JET
* COMPLIMENTARY OPEN BAR * CANCELLATION
HOLDS SEAT " FINANCING ARRANGEMENTS * NON-
Dates
5/3-6/5
5/4-6/22
5/11-6/26
5/17-8/12
5/23-7/3
5/30-7/30
6/3-7/7
6/10-8/12
6/18-7/16
6/27-8/30
7/1-8/1
7/7-8/14
7/3-9/4
7/8-7/26
7/15-8/29
7/22-8/26
8/1-8/30
8/14-9/6
8/30
5/15-7/3
5/27-8/15
6/20-7/23
7/9-8/2
7/18-8/31
8/7-9/4
8/26-9/5
Routing
D/Bru/D
D/Par/D
D/Bru/Par/D
D/Bru/D
D/Bru/D
D/Ams/D
D/Bru/D
D/Bru/Par/D
D/Ams/Lon/D
D/Ams/Par/D
D/Ams/Lon/D
D/Ams/D,
D/Bru/D
D/Bru/Lon/D,
D/Bru/Ams/D
D/Par/D
D/Ams/Lon/D
D/Par/D
D/Ams
NY/Ams/NY
NY/Ams/
Lon/NY
NY/Ams/NY
NY/Ams/
Par/NY
NY/Par/NY
NY/Ams/NY
NY/Bru/NY
Carrier (s)
SAB
AF
SAB/AF
SAB
SAB
MAR
SAB
SAB/AF
ONA
MAR/AF
ONA
MAR
SAB
SAB/ONA
SAB/MAR
AF
ONA
AF
MAR
ONA/MAR
ONA
MAR
MAR/AF
AF
MAR
SAB
Air-
Craft
DC-8
B-707
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
B-707
DC-8
B-707
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
DC-8
B-707
DC-8
DC-8
Seats
180
164
180
180
180
180
180
180
250
180
252
180
180
180
180
164
252
164
180
250
252
180
180
164
180
180
Cost
$170
$175
$175
$200
$170
$200
$175
$210
$205
$210
$210
$210
$210
$200
$210
$210
$210
$210
$100
$160
$170
$170
$175
.$175
$170
$170
Admin.
Chrge.
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
$20
Total
$190
$195
$195
$220
$190
$220
$195
$230
$225
$230
$230
$230
$230
$220
$230
$230
$230
$230
$120
$180
$190
$190
$195
$195
$190
$190
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