Frank Capra publicity photo
It’s the 18th anniversary of the death of one of the world’s most beloved directors, Frank Capra. This man brought us some of the most recognizable and cherished films in cinema history. Throughout his lengthy career, Capra earned three best director Academy Awards out of six nominations. Most know him as the director of everyone’s favorite Christmas movie, It’s a Wonderful Life, but his Hollywood career spanned four decades. In about forty years, he directed almost fifty films. So let’s get to know the man behind some of the most classic of all classic films.
Born in Sicily, Italy in 1897, Capra moved with his family to Los Angeles, California in 1903. Frank was one of seven children in the Capra family. He worked odd jobs during his childhood, trying to help earn money for his large family. In high school, he got his first taste of the theater. Though education wasn’t really encouraged in the Capra household, Frank pushed through and graduated. He then signed up for college classes, where he discovered the craft of writing. After graduating from Throop College of Technology in 1918, Capra went to fight in the U.S. army for a short stint during World War I.
After returning home, Capra was set on working in the film industry and started working short-lived, odd jobs for producers. He soon got hired by Hal Roach as a writer for Our Gang, but then transferred over to Mack Sennett’s company and therefore started writing and directing short films for Harry Langdon. Still unable to find the success he craved, producer Harry Cohn hired Capra to direct That Certain Thing (1928). During this period, Capra directed the films Ladies of Leisure (1930), The Miracle Woman (1931), American Madness (1932), among others. Even during this time, critics were hard on young Capra, accusing him for being too sentimental. Oscar seemed to agree with Capra though, throwing him his first Oscar nod for the 1933 film Lady for a Day.
It was the following year, that Capra struck gold with his screwball comedy It Happened One Night, which received five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. Throughout the rest of the decade, Capra made some of his most famous and successful films of his career including Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t it With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), as well as Meet John Doe in 1941. Though he had won three Oscars at this point, as World War II reached America, Capra reenlisted in the army. But his talent didn’t go to waste, as he made almost a dozen war propaganda while serving in the army. 
When he returned, he came back to a new Hollywood. He made the heart-felt holiday film It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) but it didn’t at first receive the acceptance that the film has now. He had apparently lost the magic that he used to have and the film flopped at the box office. He never regained the fame and praise that he once had, until of course years later.
His films now stand as some of the most appreciated masterpieces in film history. The social situations portrayed in his films remain all too real even today. Though his characters are often naïve, they represent the common man. His characters may come off as simpleminded on the surface, but they make the changes in the world that Capra saw fit for change. Though many of his audiences viewed his films as sentimental, these same films shed a light on us that many other directors shied away from. Was this last paragraph too sappy? Well, maybe it fits in perfectly with a Capra film then.
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