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I am a self acclaimed Frank Capra fan. Like, a HUGE Frank Capra fan. I have almost every one of his films in my collection. So, in the month of December, I'm going to occasionally watch a Frank Capra film, sum it up, and talk about it.

Since these films are so old, I'm hoping to get others to breathe new interest into these old classics, or at least, make people aware of them. And hear y'all's perspectives on these films. These won't be beat by beat recaps, but giving more a feeling about what these are about.

So, without further ado, let's start with a lesser known one.(mostly because it's public domain and y'all can watch and judge for yourselves)

Meet John Doe 1941

Can be viewed at a few websites, or on Youtube. And since it's public domain, you don't have to worry about Copyright.
Youtube link



After some opening credits showing everyday people working in their jobs across America, we start with a newspaper being bought out, and people losing their jobs.

The new owner fires a lot of its staff. Columnist Ann Mitchell, having already lost her job, writes a fake letter to herself as her last column to say that a certain "John Doe" will jump off of City Hall on Christmas Eve due to being tired of society, knowing that this will cause a stir and get her paid one way or another.

This causes quite a stir all right, and gets her job back. The newspaper gets a man to be "John Doe", and Ann writes fake speeches and columns stating his philosophy. The fake John Doe is poor bum and ex-baseball player John. He agrees to sign up for this so that they'll pay him enough to hire a doctor to fix his arm. Ann is writing these as mostly being inspired by her deceased father's letters, and emphasize showing kindness to each other, and how we can be better by helping each other. Recognizing that "The John Does of the world" is everyone around them.

This cause spreads like wildfire, and pretty soon there are John Doe clubs. With the newspaper's new owner JB Norton seeing opportunity, he funds John Doe clubs all over the nation. People are helping each other out in the name of John Doe, and the need to actually help each other out, rather than just complain how things are bad. JB Norton arranges a John Doe conference in New York City, with the leaders of each club to come there and organize. His plan is to have John Doe endorse him for President, and create the John Doe political party.

When John Doe learns of this, he plans to blow the whistle, but the whole movement is destroyed by Norton, as he can no longer profit from it. John is disgraced, and feels lower than he has before.

John Doe faces his public image, the reality of what he really is, what hope is, and what people are, what they try to be, and what they can be at their worst, especially when you're not squeaky clean yourself.

I think the real star of the show is Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell. Her portrayal of Ann as a jaded woman doing what she can to support her family, acting witty and delivery of one-liners really bolster the film. Especially in how she becomes a believer in the John Doe she created.

The film's message is really summed up by her passionate plea in the end, and is delivered wonderfully: Spoiler It's not as good as other Capra films, and there are a few bits which haven't aged well. John's dialogue of his dream about being Ann's father is just surreal and off-putting rather than charming in the 21st century, but for the most part, the dialogue is great and wonderful to watch.

On Frank Capra films in general:

Frank Capra has a knack for this kind of story. The man who does a lot for others, gets destroyed by the world, and because of how much he has done for the others, this kindness is paid back in some form. I think it's why his stories hold up.

What has been passed down is that, "Oh, well isn't this an example of the corniness of that era of movies, you couldn't make those kinds of films today."
Which is blatantly untrue, films of that era were, if they weren't silly comedies, could be gritty noir films, war films, etc. Showing all sorts of things that were wrong with the world. Capra films embrace the corniness, allowing us to freely attach ourselves to the characters, and so when things do become real, we're so attached that we feel their pain.

To sum up, the films give you hope, even in times when it seems that everything is hopeless.

What do you think of Frank Capra films? What do you think of Meet John Doe?

Tonight's film is Lady for a Day 1933.

The premise: Apple Annie is a homeless woman living in New York City. Her daughter traveled overseas to Europe and is marrying into nobility. Annie has been convincing her for years that she's a rich person who lives in a hotel. When she finds out that her daughter is coming into the city to introduce her fiance to her, she panics. Fortunately for her. she has a superstitious mob boss as a patron, who goes out of his way to make sure that she can pull off the lie that she has been telling for years.

If you don't feel for Apple Annie within the first fifteen minutes of the film, this isn't for you. She's witty, a character, and self destructive drunk due to where her life has gone. A way to show how you can start at the bottom. A nice picture of how a second chance can help transform anyone.

What's fun about this film is all the lengths this mob boss goes to just to keep his good luck charm happy. Everything, from a team of beauticians to makeover Annie, hiring an army of con artists, and having to do the occasional kidnapping and other crime to keep the government off his tail.

What I noticed during this rewatch is how the various homeless people are commenting on how the Depression is affecting the cash they're getting from people, and how the new President should help. Interesting perspective on the era.

If anyone has seen this, what are your thoughts?

I kinda got started on the whole military history thing watching his Why We Fight series movies on VHS. Amazing how little they actually needed to lie about how bad the Axis power were! The use of the Germans own propaganda stock footage against them was just brilliant.

The Walt Disney cartoon swastika termites eating the French castle though remains the best part of those films.

Sea Skimmer wrote: ↑2018-12-17 11:54pm I kinda got started on the whole military history thing watching his Why We Fight series movies on VHS. Amazing how little they actually needed to lie about how bad the Axis power were! The use of the Germans own propaganda stock footage against them was just brilliant.

The Walt Disney cartoon swastika termites eating the French castle though remains the best part of those films.

Those films were my entry to Capra's work, and of those I think that Battle for Russia is just brilliantly done, considering the times.

I mostly know Capra from Its a Wonderful Life, which along with Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol was one of the main Christmas movies of my childhood. That said, it was never a huge favorite of mine, and I hadn't watched it for years. But I saw it again a year or two ago, and was very impressed by how much substance it had to it. I think its a movie you have to be older to fully appreciate the social commentary of. Its that rare gems- a good Christmas movie which is better for adults than for kids.

Gandalf wrote: ↑2018-12-17 11:57pm Those films were my entry to Capra's work, and of those I think that Battle for Russia is just brilliantly done, considering the times.

The Free and United People of the Soviet Union!

Stalin? Communism? Nah we can skip those parts!

That one got even better since it not only exploited captured and recycled Nazi propaganda footage per usual, it also cut in those clips of Alexander Nevsky by Sergei Eisenstein, which was a great propaganda movie epic with upwards of some connection to history in it's own right. And basically made it out like Alexander Nevsky himself was the guy leading the whole Soviet Union.

I have never watched any of his WWII works, something I'll have to rectify one of these days.

Last time was Lady for a Day.

Now it's time for the remake:

Pocketful of Miracles, 1961

Remakes are always a mixed bag. In this case, the plot gets expanded, the characters are more defined and not so much archetypes as they are in the 1933 original. They also had a chance to avoid the racist bit from the original of the Duke impersonating a Japanese person on the phone, but nope, still in there. *sigh*

Anyway, regarding the film:

Bette Davis is a talented actress, but her acting as Apple Annie isn't as convincing as May Robson, and doesn't seem to emotionally grip you as well. But, her desperation comes off better later on, when the scheme is on the verge of falling apart. Instead, Annie is more of a local panhandler street boss than desperate woman. The script is also almost beat for beat from the original script, with a few changes here and there to expand the story, meaning everyone gets a subplot.

It still works, but I think the original is better.

Originals are almost always better.... even with very old movies. At least once we get into talkies.

The Why We Fight Movies will be online forever because US public domain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wcAsIWfk_z4

For maximum win a mere 5 minutes 30 seconds into this film the US government propaganda voiceover endorses Muhammad and the film poorly quotes the Quran. I remember now back closer to 2001 I used to bring that up on a regular basis, so glad I've recalled this now.

I never understood why Capra's movies were dismissed as "Capra-Corn" and other filmmakers of his era were given a pass, like John Ford, whose movies were often cornier than Orville Redenbacher's stool. They all had Spielberg-level schmaltz, with the exception of Billy Wilder.

Why We Fight was pure brilliance, especially having the folksy Walter Huston narrate them. Taking Goebbels' own footage and busting his chops with it is the greatest act of propaganda jujitsu ever.