The Premiere Frank Capra Collection DVD Review

Before even examining the content on the six discs in the collection, this package is extremely impressive. The six discs include five of Frank Capra’s most noteworthy films and a bonus disc of additional special features including a documentary hosted by Ron Howard. There are also commentary tracks for each film, including many by Frank Capra Jr, who also does a short featurette for each film. The package has plenty of fantastic artwork in it, but there is also a movie scrapbook. This booklet is the most impressive that I have ever seen for a film, essentially resembling a miniature high school yearbook, with quotes, photos, script notes, and translucent pages. Looking through the booklet will give any fan of Capra the same feeling of nostalgia as well, which then brings us to the films.

American Madness (1932) The first film in the collection is American Madness, an important film in Capra’s career because it began his endless parade of films tacking real social and political issues. In a matter of days we see a man’s hope amidst the depression fall and rise again. Bank manager Thomas Dickso (Walter Huston) gives loans at his bank based on what his gut feels. He upsets his Board of Directors by these questionable decisions when they suddenly have a way to stop him after a bank robbery occurs. Once word gets out about the robbery a swarm of people rush in to take all of their money out and Dickso is faced with an impossible situation. There is an obnoxious sub-plot involving a supposed affair between Dickso’s wife and the man responsible for the bank robbery, but without it there wouldn’t be enough film.

It Happened One Night (1934) This was the film which started the screwball comedy genre as well as decreased the sale of undershirts drastically upon the film’s popularity and Clark Gable’s missing undergarment. When heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) flees her father in order to marry a man her father doesn’t approve of, she ends up falling for an out-of-work reporter Peter Worne (Clark Gable) who helps her get across the country. He is helping her get to another man in order to sell the story afterwards, but they inevitably fall in love.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) This sweet tale has an extremely likable Gary Cooper as small-town idealist Longfellow Deeds. He writes poetry in greeting cards for a living and has a nice life for himself when he suddenly finds himself a millionaire upon his uncle’s death. He travels to New York to collect the inheritance and begins to develop a relationship with reporter Louise Bennett (Jean Arthur) who is under the employment of a cynical news editor who sets out to destroy Deeds. It’s David versus Goliath for American individuals.

You Can’t Take it With You (1938) Based on the popular Kaufman Hart play, Capra brings extra charm to this tale of an eclectic group of frustrated artists living with Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), whose granddaughter Alice (Jean Arthur) has fallen in love with her boss’s son. When they come to the house to meet her grandfather and the strange group living there, she begs that they act normal for one night. Jimmy Stewart co-stars as the boss’s son, vamping up for his next film with Capra.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) While It’s a Wonderful Life is an obvious choice for the most popular Capra film, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington certainly comes close, and may be Capra’s best film. Jimmy Stewart is an idealist not unlike Gary Cooper’s Deeds, and from a small town as well. When a state Senator dies Jefferson Smith (Stewart) is elected Senator, but it isn’t what Smith expected at all. There is so much corruption in the system that he begins to fight back, but it is once again David versus Goliath.