Lost Horizon

Frank Capra, 1937 (8.2*)
Exotic, unspoiled locales around the world have always appealed to the more daring individuals of more populous regions, such as Europe; just look at the nationalities of all the famous explorers. In 1923, Frenchwoman Alexandra David-Neel was the first known westerner to enter the forbidden Tibetan city of Lhasa. She then published her accounts in her 1932 book Magic and Mystery in Tibet.

Shortly thereafter, novelist James Hilton wrote a short novel about a flight of western travelers that crashes in the Himilayas, and the survivors are rescued and taken to a fictitious hidden city in a mountain valley, called Shangri-La. Basically, this is a story of an exotic utopia untouched by civilization and the ills of modern society. The westerners are treated like welcome guests, and their’s is an adventure of a lifetime.

Frank Capra went out of character for this film of adventure and fantasy, starring Ronald Colman, Jane Wyatt, and Edward Everett Horton as the crash survivors, and Sam Jaffe miscast as a Tibetan spiritual master. It's contains none of Capra's homespun humor, nor is it a glimpse at classic Americana. A newer partially restored version has the entire soundtrack, but some scenes are filled in with only still images. It looks like the Hays Commission deleted scenes where people were simply talking, but within their bedrooms - innocent enough unless you're under the cloud of censorship.

The story may also be taken as a metaphor of a spiritual quest to find one’s center within, away from the distractions of the material world. Often we get a peek at this realm, and find it difficult to return due to life circumstances. Like the beautiful Australian film Walkabout, this utopia may exist in one’s past, and you can either remember it nostalgically, or make the physical effort to return to the same location where you once found bliss.

Since the late 1800’s, there have been many accounts by westerners of this little-explored region of earth and it’s philosophies, until during the 60’s it blossumed into an international cultural movement, generally called The New Age. The allure of the Himilayas and it’s mountain people have had a profound effect on western civilization, whether intentional or not. This story was an early entry that added fuel to that fire.

Nominated for 7 Academy Awards for 1937, including picture (a year when there were 10 nominations, the winner being The Life of Emile Zola), it won two, for film editing and art direction.

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Arsenic and Old Lace

Frank Capra, 1944, bw (8.3*)
Pleasant trifle in which Cary Grant has a field day of double-takes and other physical humor as Mortimer Brewster, the doting nephew of two elderly aunts, the kind with whom you share tea, and discuss family history. Unfortunately, these aunts are not so kindly, as Mortimer begins to discover bodies hidden in furniture around the house, and at the same time there seem to be some missing elderly gents who were former friends.

Priscilla Lane is around for romantic interest and eye candy, or else it would be just Grant and two old ladies, plus you need an outside catalyst to drive the action, someone who could discover the family secret.

Adapted by the Epstein Brothers from a play by Joseph Kesselring. This is one of Capra’s best comedies, as it doesn’t try to do too much but entertain, one that takes homicidal insanity with a nonchalant attitude, as if bodies are empty liquor bottles, something to discard without the neighbors seeing - after all, it’s 1944 and the middle of mass psychosis.

This just recently fell out of the IMDB top 250.

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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Frank Capra, 1939, bw (9.1*)
The perfect film for an inauguration and new era of optimism, Mr. Smith is Frank Capra’s idealistic tribute to the spirit of democracy. Jimmy Stewart is a populist Senate candidate, one who vows to bring government back to the citizens and fight for what’s right, even standing up to his own party in Congress. He is appointed to office, and his political naivity is tested by the corruption he uncovers.

Naturally he becomes hated in Washington by those in power but at the same time he’s also a hero of the people, and especially his girlfriend, played by Jean Arthur, who helps him legally in his fight. We need more films like this, and Capra was the master of this type of optimistic Americana. Sadly, Capra's Magic Town, about a town used by pollsters to predict elections, is not available on dvd, but it's another political satire as well as a great look at small town America, self-awareness, and the nature of voters and the media. Mr. Smith is #128 on our top ranked films survey.

Note: according to Robert Osborne on Turner Classic Movies, the US Congress saw an advanced showing of this film and tried to ban it by offering Columbia 30% over the cost for the movie so they could destroy it, as it attacks political corruption in the Senate. Capra talked Columbia into showing it, that this was exactly the type of corruption the film was about, politicians who answer to special interests for money and not to the welfare of the citizens. Ironically, the movie was banned after release in Nazi Germany and communist USSR, so the US Congress was trying to side with those fascist governments re censorship! Live and learn people, our 'enemies' ideas are alive and well in the minds of those easily bought out for money, the same type of fascism prevails in all those that would censor individual expression and call it 'national security' or 'treason' or some such nonsense. They forget we were founded by 'treasonous revolutionaries' who risked death for our version of liberty, seven million laws and all, regulating everything we eat, drink, think, take as medicine, see in the media, or are allowed to say at work, school, or in public. Did I miss anything? Oh yeah: all travel is controlled by 'papers' (visas, passports, etc), and enforced by armed guards at all borders, and then inside those borders as well. It's a giant prison planet - where does freedom exist nowdays?

[Updated: 7.28.09]

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You Can't Take It With You

Dir: Frank Capra, 1938 (8.3*)

Best Picture (AA)

This is one's of Frank Capra's signature films: a depression era anti-capitalist, pro avg joe type film. The story centers on businessman James Stewart, the uninterested, unmotivated inheritor of dad Edward Arnold's capitalist empire, the type of guy who's always so busy making deals he never takes time to know those closest to him. Stewart falls for peppy secretary Jean Arthur, whose lovably eccentric family is led by Capra favorite Lionel Barrymore, in probably his most appealing role, Spring Byington as his daughter, Ann Miller (an awful dancer as a parody) as another granddaughter (Arthur's sister), and a host of males in the basement inventing both new fireworks and other enjoyable toys. The funniest sequence involves an IRS tax collector in the family living room grilling Barrymore as to WHY he never filed any tax returns nor paid any taxes. The play by George Kaufman and Moss Hart won a Pulitzer prize, and this deservedly won Best Picture and Director in 38 but for some reason isn't seen very often anymore. Perhaps its lack of a strong plot. "Repression from corporate capitalists" also comes to mind, as the film would have been banned and then used as fodder by the HUAC had it come out 15 yrs later, but the anti-business attitude of the pre-war 30's depression era made it not only timely and popular but still relevant today. Noticed by the Oscars as well, 7 nominations, 2 Oscars

Quote: Did you ever notice how they try to use fear to control us? (Barrymore)

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It's a Wonderful Life

Dir: Frank Capra, 1946, bw (9.0*)

AFI and Time Mag Top 100

This perennial Christmas favorite actually spends a lot of its time on the dark side, during a terrific fantasy sequence where main character George Baily, one of James Stewart's most famous and lovable roles, has had bank misfortunes drive him to despair, when an angel trying to gain wings (Henry Travers as Clarence), shows him what his life would be like had he never lived, the ultimately positive effect his life has had on others. This optimistic and idealistic philosophy is typical Capra and what a lot of people wanted to hear in 1946, and the film has had a long tour of popularity as a family film, especially at Christmas. Donna Reed is perfectly "wifely", Gloria Grahame is perfectly flirtatious as the local single woman who gets all the guys' motors funning, prompting policeman Ward Bond to say "I'm going home for lunch and see what the wife's doing! Lionel Barrymore is his brilliant self, as Henry Potter, the Old Scrooge personified, the evil bank man more concerned with profits than people, the one we all love to hate. Based on Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol". No Oscars in 4 nominations, as Best Years of Our Lives won nearly all the big ones.

Note: Ironically, the film originally made no money, and the studio let the copyright expire, so TV stations later all ran it often since it was free, boosting its viewings, so its popularity is ironically due to a legal loophole!

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