Word: capra
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...Smith Goes to Washington (Frank Capra...
...Though he is an explicitly non-political director Sturges's comedies constantly explode the key assumptions of American ideology. To explore their internal contradictions, they use absurd resolutions to undercut both their standard form and premises. He thus stands in direct contrast with Hollywood comedy directors, especially Frank Capra, whose work always ended up uncritically reaffirming the nostrums of American ideology. Though Sturges's other films, such as The Great McGinty, The Palm Beach Story, and Christmas in July say more about problems like the American Dream, virtue in American politics, and the connection between love and money, The Lady...
...make TV and those who watch it, Network, which opens in 15 cities on Dec. 17, has drilled into a sensitive national nerve. Overlong and preachy, exaggerated even within the bounds of satire, the movie nonetheless has the power of a frightening revelation (TIME, Nov. 29). Like the Frank Capra films of the '30s and '40s (particularly Meet John Doe), it is half entertainment and half message, a populist plea for the individual against inhuman institutions. But unlike the movies of those optimistic days, there is no happy ending...
...world, mainly because the champ sees the promotional possibilities of the hero's monicker: "the Italian Stallion." The hero produces a rousing fight and, of course, finds love. The movie is fun- ny, unpretentious and relentlessly upbeat, sort of what Mean Streets would have been if Frank Capra had made it. Its only message-endure, reach your potential, be a man-is enough to give machismo a good name...
...Happened One Night. Frank Capra hits his crest. This legend, a tremendously successful commercial venture ruined undershirts and all that, but it is funny and still fresh too. Gable became an important star with this, mostly by taking off his shirt and having another on underneath and that was swell for the dames of America, but we all wish that it was Claudette Colbert who sent the underwear business into Depression with the rest of the country...