Early Capra Film "American Madness" (1932)

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Castile
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Joined: Mon Jun 30, 2008 9:44 am

Early Capra Film "American Madness" (1932)

#1 Post by Castile »

Turner Classic Movies (USA) showed this little-seen gem the other day; the story of a bank president at odds with his board of directors, who want to hoard their assets rather than circulating the money to stimulate a failing ecomomy. Sound familiar? Very interesting to see this in light of what's happening today, and an opportunity to watch Walter Huston at work is always welcomed, with me. Don't know if this ever had a DVD release. The scene depicting the run on the bank is beautifully realized, and is intercut with scenes detailing Huston's crumbling marriage, and Pat O'Brien's interrogation for robbery and murder. The movie runs a tight seventy-five minutes (they knew how to get a story across in those days!)and, via its ending, shows itself to be a distant cousin to another, better know Capra film from 1946. One of the most striking images to me was the close-up of the closing and releasing of gears of the vault lock - an ebb and flow image that then repeats itself in overhead shots of the gathering crowds at the bank as the run swells to the panic point. Very interesting film, I thought. Has anyone else seen this? Thoughts?

John Johnson
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Joined: Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:28 pm

Re: Early Capra Film "American Madness" (1932)

#2 Post by John Johnson »

Castile wrote:Turner Classic Movies (USA) showed this little-seen gem the other day; the story of a bank president at odds with his board of directors, who want to hoard their assets rather than circulating the money to stimulate a failing ecomomy. Sound familiar? Very interesting to see this in light of what's happening today, and an opportunity to watch Walter Huston at work is always welcomed, with me. Don't know if this ever had a DVD release. The scene depicting the run on the bank is beautifully realized, and is intercut with scenes detailing Huston's crumbling marriage, and Pat O'Brien's interrogation for robbery and murder. The movie runs a tight seventy-five minutes (they knew how to get a story across in those days!)and, via its ending, shows itself to be a distant cousin to another, better know Capra film from 1946. One of the most striking images to me was the close-up of the closing and releasing of gears of the vault lock - an ebb and flow image that then repeats itself in overhead shots of the gathering crowds at the bank as the run swells to the panic point. Very interesting film, I thought. Has anyone else seen this? Thoughts?
It was released as part of The Premiere Frank Capra Collection.

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Jedbu
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#3 Post by Jedbu »

I have the Capra set this is in, and it is his first really great talkie. I saw the others that were shown on TCM and copied both FLIGHT and DIRIGIBLE to DVD to complete my Capra collection. Both are hokey and both Jack Holt and Ralph Graves are definitely stars of their era and no further, but Capra does keep things moving.

IMHO Capra really didn't catch his stride in the sound era until AMERICAN MADNESS, and that is due not only to an extremely timely script (love to see someone remake that one instead of PELHAM 1-2-3, which is really unnecessary) but just the fact that it really hums and you have two of the best actors of their time in Huston and Pat O'Brien, who could put across quick dialogue with real conviction and make it natural. It also is short-less than 100 minutes-yet it contains enough plot for a much longer film but due to Capra speeding up the dialogue by 1/3 it MOVES, but not out of control. I think it is easily the best film he made since THE STRONG MAN, and with the possible exception of some very bad acting in LOST HORIZON (mainly John Howard, who is excreble), the beginning of a winning streak that lasted a good 15 years, until Liberty Films went belly up and something went out of him.

One thing that I have to admit with Capra-his films might have been corn, but damn, he knew where to put the camera and how to give a scene life better than many of his contemporaries. Too bad he burned himself out.
JDvDHeise

"You've got to remember that these are just simple farmers. These are people of the land. The common clay of the new West. You know... morons."-Gene Wilder to Cleavon Little in BLAZING SADDLES

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