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Frank Capra
The Catastrophe of Success
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Book Presentation:
Moviegoers often assume Frank Capra's life resembled his beloved films (such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and It's a Wonderful Life). A man of the people faces tremendous odds and, by doing the right thing, triumphs! But as Joseph McBride reveals in this meticulously researched, definitive biography, the reality was far more complex, a true American tragedy. Using newly declassified U. S. government documents about Capra's response to being considered a possible “subversive” during the post-World War II Red Scare, McBride adds a final chapter to his unforgettable portrait of the man who gave us It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, and Meet John Doe.
About the Author:
Joseph McBride is a film historian and associate professor in the Department of Cinema Studies at San Francisco State University. His many books include Hawks on Hawks; What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? A Portrait of an Independent Career; Searching for John Ford; and Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, the latter two published by University Press of Mississippi.
Press Reviews:
"Masterly, comprehensive, and frequently surprising"
- Barry Gewen, New York Times Book Review
"The dramatic story of one of the most interesting characters ever to emerge in Hollywood"
- Philip Dunne, Chicago Sun-Times
"A major book . . . superbly researched and almost continually surprising"
- Gavin Lambert, Los Angeles Times Book Review
"While the book may crumble our iconic preconceptions of who Frank Capra was, it does a greater justice to him in its documenting the life of a complex man, who struggled for respect from his peers and family, but never received it on his own terms or to his own satisfaction. . . . The reader is likely to be left with a compassionately balanced understanding of what was both good and bad about Frank Capra as a human being and artist, and also a great appreciation of the mammoth work turned in by McBride. "
- Carl Bennett, Silent Era website
"Easily the best—certainly the most realistic—biography of a film director in the age of the auteur, to which this is a counterbalance. "
- Gore Vidal
See the publisher website: University Press of Mississippi
See the complete filmography of Frank Capra on the website: IMDB ...
> Books with the same or similar title:
Frank Capra (1998)
Authorship and the Studio System
Dir. Robert Sklar and Vito Zagarrio
Subject: Director > Frank Capra
> From the same author:
The Whole Durn Human Comedy (2022)
Life According to the Coen Brothers
Subject: Director > Coen Brothers
What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? (2022)
A Portrait of an Independent Career
Subject: Director > Orson Welles
What Ever Happened to Orson Welles? (2006)
A Portrait of an Independent Career
Subject: Director > Orson Welles
> On a related topic:
The Capra Touch (2011)
A Study of the Director's Hollywood Classics and War Documentaries, 1934–1945
Subject: Director > Frank Capra
Hollywood's Artists (2020)
The Directors Guild of America and the Construction of Authorship
Subject: Economics
Regarding Frank Capra (2005)
Audience, Celebrity, and American Film Studies, 1930-1960
by Eric Smoodin
Subject: Director > Frank Capra
Frank Capra (1998)
Authorship and the Studio System
Dir. Robert Sklar and Vito Zagarrio
Subject: Director > Frank Capra
There's a Body in the Window Seat! (2022)
The History of Arsenic and Old Lace
Subject: One Film > Arsenic and Old Lace
Wonder and Cruelty (2018)
Ontological War in It's a Wonderful Life
Subject: One Film > It's a Wonderful Life
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