The Extras - Frank Capra, Robert Riskin and the Early Days of Columbia Studios

Episode Date: December 18, 2024

Send us a textIn this episode, Victoria Riskin, daughter of Oscar-winning writer Robert Riskin and Fay Wray, and award-winning writer-producer Steven C. Smith reveal the impact of director Frank Capra and his friend and collaborator writer Robert Riskin on the early success of Columbia Pictures.  We also discuss two audio commentaries they provided for inclusion in the recently released FRANK CAPRA AT COLUMBIA COLLECTION, featuring 20 films in HD, plus nine films in 4K, plus tons of extras, all on 27 discs. Purchase links:  FRANK CAPRA AT COLUMBIA COLLECTIONFay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood MemoirMusic by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential ComposerPrepare to embark on an enlightening journey through the legacy of Frank Capra at Columbia Pictures. Learn how Capra's immigrant background and early hardships shaped his storytelling genius, contributing to Columbia's rise as a powerhouse in the film industry. From tackling the transition to sound films to creating financially and culturally significant works, Capra’s journey illustrates the power of determination and creativity. Through engaging anecdotes and insights, Steven and Victoria reveal how Capra's collaborations with Robert Riskin gave birth to classics like "It Happened One Night," demonstrating the strength of their partnership despite differing political ideologies during a tumultuous era.Join our conversation as we celebrate the enduring messages of integrity and community values in films like "American Madness" and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." The fascinating history of "American Madness" unfolds, highlighting its timely relevance during the Great Depression and its innovative technical directing. Meanwhile, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" captures the triumph of the common man, with Gary Cooper's memorable performance and the film's seamless blend of comedy and drama. Through personal anecdotes and reflections, Steven and Victoria underscore the significance of these films, inviting listeners to appreciate the artistry and dedication behind Hollywood's most beloved classics. The Extras Facebook pageThe Extras Twitter Warner Archive & Warner Bros Catalog GroupOtaku Media produces podcasts, behind-the-scenes extras, and media that connect creatives with their fans and businesses with their consumers. Contact us today to see how we can work together to achieve your goals. www.otakumedia.tv

Hi, I'm film historian and author John Fricke. I've written books about Judy Garland and the Wizard of Oz movie, and you're listening to The Extras. Hello and welcome to The Extras, where we take you behind the scenes of your favorite TV shows, movies and animation, and then release on digital DVD, Blu-ray and 4K or your favorite streaming site. I'm Tim Millard, your host, and today I'm very excited to welcome back my good friend and award-winning writer-producer Stephen C. Smith.

Stephen is the author of Music by Max Steiner, the epic life of Hollywood's most influential composer, also A Heart at Fire Center, The Life in Music of Bernard Herman, and he has written and produced hundreds of documentaries and behind the scenes extras, some of which we got to work on together when I was at Warner Bros. So, it's always a pleasure to have you, Stephen. It's great to be back, Tim. Thank you. And also joining us is writer-producer Victoria Riskin, former president of the Writers Guild

of America West and daughter of Academy Award-winning screenwriter Robert Riskin, former president of the Writers Guild of America West and daughter of Academy Award winning screenwriter Robert Riskin and actress Faye Ray. She's also the author of Faye Ray and Robert Riskin, a Hollywood memoir. Victoria, so glad to have you on the podcast. Thank you for inviting me. I'm happy to be here. Even it's always good to see you. I think we last had you on the, it's always good to see you. I think we last had you on the podcast,

we talked about His Girl Friday. We did. And that was also a Columbia release. So you've been busy. Yes, I'm thrilled that Sony, which owns Columbia, has been so good about restoring classic films, many of them in 4K or in Blu-ray, and putting them out in these deluxe editions

with new featurettes. I got to do two documentaries for His Girl Friday and I participated with Vicki in two of the commentaries on the new Frank Capra at Columbia set and have done some other documentaries for them recently. So yeah, it's a thrill to see these films not only looking better than ever, but to give the movie lover a reason to revisit these titles, let's say, to add these new additions. Yeah. And I'm just going to throw in my opinion, and maybe you will agree or not, but there's been a number of 100th or centennial celebrations at the studios. A lot of them started around the same time.

A year ago or so, it was the Warner Brothers hundred. And then is it this year or last year, the MGM? I think it's also MGM this year, is it not? 24, yeah, MGM is this year. Disney was last year, as I recall. All those studios were figuring out how to make it work at the same time, how to take these disparate smaller production companies and create the studio system. And I have to say kudos to Columbia Sony

because I think they're doing a terrific job of packaging for collectors the library, some of the best and really putting effort and money into new content, new extras like the ones we're going to talk about here. And I just love what they're doing. The packaging is fantastic. Beautiful. I am too. It's thrilling. I mean, to go back to a project I did a few years ago to see Oliver, 1968's best picture winner, finally looking just absolutely gorgeous, sounding gorgeous in a way that just hadn't been possible for a long time.

Obviously, technology has come a long way, but the transfers Lawrence of Arabia are stunning. And while the Frank Capra films, which are of the 1930s in the set and the 1920s, obviously don't have that Lawrence of Arabia scope, they're still gorgeously shot. And it's a chance to really appreciate how beautiful those movies became, particularly as of about 30, 32, 33, and then continuing to the end of Capra's time at Columbia at the end of the decade. And Victoria, it has to be exciting for you when you see your father's work represented and released like this for the fans.

Well, I want to start by sending a Valentine to the studio itself, because when I was writing my memoir, there were several films that were not available to see. And I got in touch with the studio and they set up a screening room for me and said, what do you want to see? And they pulled out the old reels. It was pretty exciting. And I had private screenings to see the films in good shape and beautiful condition and appreciate them. They just pop off the screen, the blacks and whites and the whole, the spirit of the film, so much stronger. But they also have a wonderful archive of photographs. So

I was like a kid in a candy store going into the archives and they could not have been more welcoming and encouraging. So I think Sony's done a great job. And I would say that that comes from probably from the top. What I mean by that is I think the top executive appreciate Tom Rothman. I think he's still there, right? I've left Hollywood, but really appreciated the history of the studio. And of course, Capra and my

dad played an important role in that turning point, as Stephen suggested, bringing the studio into the grownup world. Right. I know that studios have been bought, sold, you know, so there's a lot that goes into the centennials. Sometimes it makes sense from a business standpoint to do, you know, more or less or whatever. So that complicates things a little bit, but I do like what Columbia is doing. The movies, of course, are fantastic. And the restorations that I've seen have been really fantastic. So before we dive into this Frank Capra collection at Columbia, I did want to ask you, Victoria, a little bit about your book.

I have not read the book, but I saw it. I'm like, I really want to read this book now. Can you tell us what kind of got you motivated to want to do it? And what was that experience like? Well, a book is always the happiest when it's done. Tell us what kind of got you motivated to want to do it and what was that experience like? Well, a book is always the happiest when it's done. You're always happiest when you come to the end, right? Because it can be such an absorbing experience.

I did not spend a lot of my early life focusing on old Hollywood. What I was in search for was, and this is what happens when you reach a certain level of maturity, I wanted to find my parents again. Who were they really? Who was my father?

What role did he play? He had died when I was young and so he was sort of frozen in time for me and I've always thought of myself as a little girl looking up at him. In fact, he was not very tall. So by the the time i ended the book we were the same height. I was in search of both of them there are beginnings and their trip to hollywood how what roles they played. in hollywood but also who they were as people and the values that they had and how they in particularly my father how his values were infused in his writing and the films that he chose to do

and and then of course his relationship with capra and how that worked uh so it's a it's a story of my life but really mostly their lives and seen through my lens. We're going to talk a little bit about how Capra and your father met, but before we move on from the book, how did your mother and father meet? Well, it's not exactly. Well, they they met at a Christmas party hosted on Christmas Eve by Richard Bartholmas, if that name is familiar to old movie fans.

And it was for people who were they had to be single to come. It was sort of like early match.com, but in a room in Beverly Hills with filled with lights and music. And so my mother was there, she was single. She had divorced her first husband and she was feeling kind of cheerful and standing by the piano and kind of singing along the songs and dancing a little bit. And my father was like a little laser beam and he saw her and said, I think I have to get to know her. So he walked over and chatted and then invited her to go to the movies and they went to see

The Grapes of Wrath, which is not exactly a cheerful movie, right? But her early years had been years of not having much money, of really struggling. And so she was very moved by the film and teary-eyed during the difficult passages and I think he just, his heart melted. But years later, he said something that he suggested to her that he had seen her and had an eye on her for many years before that. In fact, he had written a film that she starred in for, I think it was Columbia, right, Stephen? And Carver's profession. And Carver's profession. I'll have to look that up.

I can't remember if that was in learners or, because your mother moved around studios a great deal during the 1930s. Did work at Columbia and she worked, I think, I'm sure it was a Columbia picture, but I can't swear to it, but a woman, a very successful lawyer, and how that impacted her marriage and the difficulty her marriage had in trying to, as she becomes more and more successful, and eclipses her husband. So it was actually a bit avant-garde in its own way and feminist in its own way. And at the same time, a little old fashioned, but, um, she loved, she loved the script and she admired the writing.

And so she had her eye on Riskin for a long time. Interesting. Well, that's all the T's everybody's going to get here. You're going to have to buy the book. By the book. It's a great book by the way. I mean, Vicki's father, Robert Riskin, not only was a great writer, but he must have been the most charming man and delightful of company.

Because prior to meeting your mother, he had had romances with Carol Lombard, with Linda Farrell. He was quite a ladies man. I should say in a serial way. These were relationships that lasted and he maintained really good friendships with those ladies too, didn't he?

He did, he did. And both of those women, Carol Lombard and Glenda Farrell were pretty terrific women. Maybe not so much as reflected in the parts they played, but as I got to know them and doing research for the book, I thought they were wonderful. And by the way, you were absolutely right. Ann Carver's Profession is a Columbia movie.

So maybe we'll see that on Blu-ray 4K one day. Well, the gist of our conversation today is about this wonderful 27 disc Frank Capra at Columbia collection. It has 20 different movies, I believe, in there. We're going to talk about two of the ones that you two added audio commentaries to. Before we dive into that, the obvious question here is, Frank Capra at Columbia, why pull out such a big collection?

And the answer we all know is because of the importance. But let's dig into that a little bit, Stephen. What can you tell us about the early history of Capra at Columbia? Indeed, well, if you don't mind, Tim, I'm gonna go back just a few years to say that when Columbia was formed in the 1920s, its early years were very challenging ones. It was by every historian's

account a quote unquote poverty row studio. This was a company that had been formed when Harry Cohn, his brother and another associate borrowed money from what became the Bank of America and established this very modest studio. And it was impossible to get stars. And if you look at the early photos of the films being made, it almost looks like you're making a home movie. The sets are so small, the cameras are so small. And yet Harry Cohn was a man of tremendous, fierce ambition and smart because yes, he was incredibly tough, but by the early 1930s, he had made hires

that were very strategic to improve the look and the feel of his films. Something that we talked about with Kimberly previously was the idea of having the costumes of Columbia films look better so they could entice actresses like Carol Lombard and Barbara Stanwyck to come over for one picture and to have better scripts.

And we'll talk more about Vicki's father, Robert Riskin, and how Cone really appreciated what Riskin could bring not just to the Capra films, but also to Columbia. And Cone was always looking at those big, gorgeous studios like MGM. Well, there was really no studio like MGM. There was MGM. It was enormous. And aspire not to the budgets of their films or the scope of their studio, but to produce, yes, a lot of bread and butter movies that made money and were inexpensive, but also to make enough really prestige films so that later,

Cary Grant and Irene Dunn and people like that would come to the studio. So going back to the Capra of all of that, there's no question that Columbia was on the right track in terms of trying to create the more impressive looking films that Cohn wanted to do. Capra had started in the silent film era in comedy, in I mean slapstick comedy, you know, Max Sennett, Hal Roach. He was a gag man. And Capra was a tremendously, like Cohn, ambitious

person who knew somewhat amorphously at the beginning, but with more and more clarity what he wanted to do and that was to escape a childhood of poverty, of great struggle. He was born in an area that was part of Sicily. He came over to the US, I believe when he was seven and the trip was absolutely miserable, terrible conditions, typical immigrants packed together. A similarly horrible train trip across from New York to California where the family moved for various reasons. But, and he later said quite poignantly that he was never a boy, that he was always a man, meaning that nobody was really protecting him.

And his father was a kind of a slightly ne'er-do-well fellow. His mother was driven, but he was really on his own to make it. Like a lot of young children at the time, he sold newspapers and he had to defend himself on the streets from all kinds of attacks from other boys, from all sorts of things. So that will toughen a person up. And let's face it, there are not many people who make it to the top of the American film industry without having a toughness and a backbone, or at least an ability to go through a really terrible experience and say, I'm going to get through this because I know what

I want to do. And Capra had certainly great instincts about storytelling that developed over time. He observed people. He liked people and people liked working for him when he began having these early opportunities to direct. And like so many directors, the opportunities were more plentiful in the 20s because the film business was so disorganized.

These little companies would crop up and disappear and come around. And sometimes, you know, I think it was Alan Duan, a director who supposedly got his break when the director was drunk and didn't show up or couldn't work. I mean, it was a really rough, hardscrabble, rough and tumble wild west kind of business.

And that's one reason I love this period so much is because it doesn't have the rules, the giant infrastructure that we have now, the vertical integration. It was just a bunch of people trying to figure out how this new medium of the movies could make them money and on the way create art almost accidentally at first. But Capra found his way to Columbia

and it wasn't as if he was just suddenly a great discovery and master filmmaker. Like all filmmakers, he had to be a journeyman first. He had to work in different genres, he had to make mistakes, and he wasn't happy with a lot of his early films, but he did the best he could and got better and better. And by the time sound took over,

all the studios in Hollywood agreed by 1929 that they were only gonna make talkies moving forward. Well, there were a couple of years where all the studios were figuring it out. But by, I think, 1931, Capra was really at the forefront of directors making good talkies because he directed a comedy called Platinum Blonde. And it was called Platinum Blonde because it had this new young star named Jean Harlow in it, in what you could argue is her first really good role in good film.

And Capper realized that unlike a lot of films of the time, actors didn't have to speak very slowly in this stentorian stage-like diction for people to understand them. No, people should talk like we're talking together now. So Platinum Blonde had pace, it had energy, and that really put him on the track to get better projects. And he began to collaborate with Vicki's father

on some scripts, and I'll leave that to Vicki to talk about. But the turning point for Columbia, without a question, is 1934's It Happened One Night, a movie that is still shown to people, a movie that audiences still love. I've hosted screenings of it, and people are enchanted by this film. happened one night. A movie that is still shown to people, a movie that audiences still love. I've hosted screenings of it and people are enchanted by this film. It really is, it's of its time, but timeless. And the success of Capra, Riskin, Gable, Colbert, and everyone

who worked on that film and Harry Cohn for bringing the elements together, that was a turning point for the studio because not only did it win Best Picture, which was unprecedented for Columbia, they were thought of as a B studio, it won the Best Picture. It won for the first time all of the top awards at the Oscars, something that didn't happen again for another 40 plus years with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

So this was really a milestone. And then that was like firing these talents out of a rocket. Suddenly everything they did was gold. You get movies like Capra and Riskin collaborating on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. You get Lost Horizon. You get You Can't Take It With You, 1938's Best Picture winner. You get Capra's, you can't take it with you. 1938's best picture winner. You get Capra's last film for the studio, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and I'm leaving some out.

So, Capra really put the studio into an entire new stratosphere. Well, Vicki, do you recall how your father kind of fit into that Columbia story? And did he work with Capra first or with Columbia first? Well, he came to Hollywood like a lot of people did after the crash, the 1929 crash. He had no money, but turned out that Warner Brothers had decided to buy one of the plays that he had written.

He was writing for Broadway. And there's a wonderful story in my book about how the agent who came offered him some money, like $5,000, which was a huge amount of money to buy his property. For whatever reason, my dad decided, I think this guy really wants this property, so I'm going to hold out. He had no money in his pocket. He said, I think I'd rather have, he said I'd like $50,000. He just gave him an enormous amount of money. The long and the short of it, and it's a cute story. I don't want to cheat everybody out, but you can read it. In the end, he was right.

They were already filming the movie, and they had to have the rights. And he ended up getting it paid $30,000 and then came to Hollywood. And Harry Cohn offered him a contract. That was a time, as Stephen says, they were hiring a lot of writers who had been journalists or playwrights

from New York to come out and work at the studio. In his first meeting with Frank Capra, he comes in and Capra's telling the story of a movie they're gonna make. And he recognizes that as his own play, another play. And he says, he's sitting in the back of the room and Harry Cohn turns to him and says, so you wrote this thing, what do you think?

And he said, well, it was a flop on Broadway and if you make it as a movie, it just shows you're stupider than I am. That made Cap very angry. That was their first meeting. They went on and made the film. It was not a success But actually I like this film. It's called Miracle Woman with Barbara Stanwyck and she's marvelous in it and

the reason it didn't do well is because it was a question the Commercialization of religion and that was not popular To the viewing public my My dad understood that. They then worked on, Stephen mentioned Platinum Blonde. That's also one of my favorite films, but there you see Capra as a brilliant director. Timing and lighting is quite wonderful, and you hear the brilliant dialogue of Riskin. And you know if these two are gonna get together, it's gonna go well.

Because there was a snappiness to the dialogue, there was style, there was wit. And it's still one of my favorites of the Riskin-Capra films. So that was the springboard. I think they then looked at each other. They each went off and did other things, but I think they had their eye on each other

to find ways to come together again. And they did with Broadway Bill, and they did with, of course, It Happened One Night, which just was off the charts. We know that they had a complicated relationship kind of toward the end, but what do you think allowed them to work so well together and be so successful? I think they were wonderful compliments to each other.

They were both scrappy kids. My dad had grown up on the lower East side and then in Brooklyn, he knew what it was to fight with the Irish and the Italians. And I think Capra had that same kind of wonderful playful rough edge. They also loved each other's sense of humor. They bantered a lot. There was great playfulness and I'm not sure they ever even had a bad relationship. That might have been overplayed in some places because when Capra finally left Columbia, my father left first and went to work for Sam Goldman as a top executive and he was miserable.

And Capra was miserable under the yoke of Harry Cohn because they'd had so much conflict. And finally he leaves and the first thing they do is they make a, they form a company together and they meet John Doe. So that's what I know of the facts of their relationship. There were tensions later but they were, they were more understandable. It was a different time. It was the post-war era. So I could be a psychoanalyst of what was going on there, but it was not easy to have gone off to war, have the whole kind of industry shut down, and then come back and rebuild a life.

And it was a new style of filmmaking and new sensibilities in the post-war era that audiences wanted. Anyway, that's a whole other side note to them. But what I think worked is there was no one who was more brilliant with dialogue and character than Robert Riskin. And there was no one with a better sense of timing and bringing out the best in actors and having a team around that Capra had for sound and cinematography. The big strain at Columbia was Lost Horizon because I think at that time, Capra wanted to be a grand director, epic, huge, and it became

a financial threat to the whole studio, that film. And much was complicated about how to end the film. And in many ways, a quite wonderful film. It was touching on the idealism and so, but I think that's where Capra and Harry Cohn were in. They were in, they were not only in battle, in battle, then they were in legal battles with each other because who was going to have the final say? And that's always, am I right, Stephen, about my history here?

I always turn very good on your history. And I would say that ultimately Lost Horizon, which was released many times, made its money back. And during the war, Franklin D. Roosevelt, when asked where, I can't remember, it was certain officers or where something was taking place, he made a reference to it all being in Shangri-La, which is the paradise setting

in Lost Horizon. And I think even people who've never seen or read the book of Lost Horizon have heard the phrase Shangri-La and know that it represents a kind of wonderful place to go to escape things. So Lost Horizon was the most challenging movie they made together because it wasn't a comedy.

It was a very ambitious kind of fantasy film with social themes. And the remarkable thing is Harry Cohn, despite his concerns, back them to the hilt, gave Capra everything he wanted to the end of production. And it ultimately was a success. I one thing I really love about this period from a say it happened one night in 1934. I know they Capra and Riskin were already working together and we'll talk about at least one of those films.

But especially starting with It Happened One Night, there's this tremendous excitement of, okay, what can we do now? You know, what's possible? What can we do even better? And there are some really charming articles of that time. One of them, I'll paraphrase, where a writer in profiling the two men says, it's

really unusual because you talk to Capra and he just wants to talk about Riskin and you talk to Riskin and he wants to talk about Capra. So they really had kind of a magic together at this time. And I now live in the Palm Springs area. So it was very fun for me to be reminded that when they were starting some of their projects, Capra and Riskin would come to this area, to La Quinta, I believe, right Vicki? And they would stay at a hotel and they would get away two hours outside of Hollywood to something of a, it must've felt like kind of a Shangri-La

in 1935-ish or so, and work here where they could be away from just anything other than their own imaginations. And so it's a very, very fertile period. And it will be fun, I think, for viewers to look at the films, which again, not only some are written by risk in their all Capra directed films, but they'll see how Capra develops from this person figuring out, you know, as everybody had to the grammar of film, what works, what doesn't. And then, you know, really swinging for the fences on some interesting films like the bitter tea of general yen which.

Dare to suggest an interracial romance possibility between barbara stanwyck and a character who is chinese that was really the sweet spot of commercial and critical success, you know, also, and that it remains some of the best loved movies of the 30s. So it will be fun, I think, for people to watch these things in context. Let's dive right into American Madness. With that kind of thought in mind, you know, maybe you can give us a little bit of background on that story. But the two films we're going to talk about, and of course, It's a Wonderful Life, you watch them and you just, I don't know, you feel like they understand people in America and like where we came from and our immigrant stories. And I mean, there's just so much there that was a part of their partnership, I'm assuming.

Yeah. Vicki, may I say for just a quick moment, I think it's a great example of how two people who had, let's say, different views of politics in some respects, and we won't get too political on this, but they were a little different in that Riskin was a real New Deal Franklin D. Roosevelt liberal and Capra was more of a conservative person, which a number of people in Hollywood were. And he was a self-made man. I mean, like a lot of people who didn't get any help from anyone, or at least, you know, really had to push to get help from people.

He didn't see things the same way Riskin did exactly. But what's great is how great that they didn't have the same point of view. Because when you get people who are simpatico creatively, but they have a different perspective on the world, on how things should be run. Some really interesting stuff can come out of that. And Vicki, I'll turn this over to you, of course. No, you have that exactly right.

I think Frank felt that he had worked so hard and no one had helped him along the way. And he didn't wanna be giving away stuff. People should dig in and take care of themselves. Whereas my dad felt 25% of the American population was out of work and we should be helping and people are not. It's amazing that you see in the films that they did, there's a blending. You could almost bring any point of view to some of those films. And yet they and they did have they did, I'm sure, debate things politically, but it didn't interfere with their love for each other.

And that's the remarkable thing that's kind of lost. And there were all these battles going on inside of Hollywood as well. And Frank was a little bit more sympathetic to the studio point of view and my dad was. First time in the middle and then he sided with the labor movement in and hollywood and mostly. it was, especially for his fellow writers and the younger writers, they deserve to be respected and cared about. Whereas for Frank, he felt, here are these guys who had worked hard to build these studios and let's not take them on and criticize them. In the end, actually there were times when they blended together and worked together, when there were some labor issues and when they were forming the unions and ultimately camper-side with unions.

I just think it's so interesting to look at their relationship and see how beautifully they got along. I'll tell you a quick story about how they got along because my first memory of Frank Capra and my dad is in the living room at our home in Bel Air and the two of them are doing circus tricks and you know throwing balls in the air and doing cartwheels that they were very playful together. They brought that out and I think my dad particularly brought that side side of Frank's personality out and they traveled together even not having anything to do with making movies. But they went to Russia, they went to England. Probably it was hard in some ways for Frank during

the war, when my father went in his own direction and didn't work with him. And when he married my mother, and suddenly there was another, you know, important center of my dad's life. I think you have a very powerful story of friendship with these two men. I've thought of actually writing a film about two men in Hollywood in the 1930s. And it had some sad moments too, the loss of Frank's son and then my father's illness

and how Frank responded to that. There's a lot of powerful story in that friendship. So anyway, enough said. Yes, and underneath it all there is this tremendous time of tumult in America all over the world, but this is the peak of the Depression is when their collaboration really started. And that sort of you know is something very very much felt in one of the two films for which vicki and i provided new audio commentary on the new set and. I have to admit i'm just fascinated by the period in the early thirties when hollywood had already gone this tremendous upheaval of change putting in make creating sound films which meant rebuilding their studios in effect, you know, creating sound departments, building sound stages that would work for sound, as opposed to the easier way in the

sense of silent films where the directors could verbally, you know, talk through a shot and that sort of thing. So the studios have already spent a great deal of money and then the stock market crashes. And for a little while, nobody's really sure that it's going to cause a problem in Hollywood in 1930, but it does. And by 1932, studios are starting to go into receivership. People forget that Paramount Pictures went into receivership. RKO went into receivership. In 1933, these were studios hanging on by their fingernails, trying to figure out what movies could keep them in business, trying to figure out what movies could keep them in business, what filmmakers could make the movies to keep them in business.

And Columbia was a little bit ahead of even a Paramount in that it didn't own theaters, like a lot of the big, big studios did. So they didn't have to worry about keeping their theater chains going and having quite as much product to put into them. And that brings us to one of the two films that Vicki and I provided commentary on. The wonderful, real, I think, overlooked gem in this Capra set that people are going to really enjoy. A 1932 film called American Madness. And just a brief word of context, in 1932, it was thought that as much as $100 million was being

hoarded by people, not being put into banks, because there were so many banks that failed. And that's well over a billion dollars today. So there was tremendous fear on the part of the American public about the banking industry. And Vicki, I know you can tell us much, much more about this film and how it came about. Yeah, well, I would add to the perfect context because the studio, well, the whole country was in a depression, but the studios were in crisis and going bankrupt, paramount, whether RKO, and we can talk about that later. But FDR was encouraging people after he got elected to put your money back in the banks. They'll be all right. I mean, because people were hoarding and putting whatever money they had under their mattresses. At the same time, Columbia Pictures did not have a whole string of theaters. So it was in better financial shape in some ways. But the two people, the Giannini brothers, who started the Bank of Italy that became

the Bank of America, liked movies. They first were loaning money to farmers, to Italian farmers up in the northern part of California, and they got interested in the movie business. And I don't remember which Giannini, but one of them was on the board of directors of Columbia Pictures and Cohen was very grateful to him and said to my dad go write a movie about a bank and banking and the Giannini brothers and he went and did an extensive interview. I think it was Doc Giannini, but I can't, I'm just... Yeah, I think it was Doc. Yeah.

It was Doc Giannini. And came back and crafted the American Madness screenplay. And as Stephen knows, the first, was it two directors? The first director was, it was terrible. The direction was terrible. I mean, they had to stop everything. And Capra was brought in to rescue the picture and did beautifully. But it's a story about the sense of panic that was streaming across the country.

You know, people taking money out of the banks. And so it follows along that emotional sense. And then a very sort of, I would say, risquinesque style, you had a banker at the center of the story who believed in loaning money to people he knew who had character. And the bank board of directors, the local board of directors, wanted to sell the bank to a much bigger bank, and that was no way to be loaning money. And so that becomes a piece of the story. Yes, so it's an unusual story.

And unlike many of the early 30s films in which bankers were sometimes depicted as the bad guys, and we know that gangsters were starting to be glorified by the likes of James Cagney and Edward G. Robinson in the Warner Brothers films, Harry Cohn said, make a movie to risk and write a movie where the banker is the hero. And he's the good guy of the story. He's played by the wonderful Walter Houston,

father of John Huston. John was not really doing much in the movie business yet, but Walter Houston was a well-known stage star and had begun to make more and more films. And he's just wonderful casting as this man of extreme integrity who understands that, who can read people and gauge a good investment. And what's unusual about it is, this is no spoiler because it's really what the movie is about, is that it's about a run on a bank. It's something that we'll see in a later famous Frank

Capper movie. But the title, American Madness, suggests what is going to happen, which is that due to plot machinations we won't reveal, people wrongly think that this bank is not safe. And it's the kind of urgent real-time action taken. And that may not sound like an exciting movie, but it's the kind of urgent real time action taken which and that may not sound like an exciting movie, but it's really almost a thriller a suspense movie and what Capra did was he didn't change a word of risk and screenplay he didn't recast one actor apparently but he had them rebuild the sets a little bit so that Walter Houston playing that the chief banker his office overlooks this big bank so there's things going on so there's a lot of energy in the shots. And he put rhythm into it and he paced it up and it builds beautifully so that when the panic and the run on the bank

starts in the last half hour of the movie, it's so gripping. And it's just a terrific movie. Yeah, I was not familiar with this film and from the get-go it just pulls you right in. It actually feels very modern. Yes, it is. It does feel modern. I'll tell you a little side story. I don't know if your listeners would be interested but I so love this film and I now live in Martha's Vineyard and I invited the president of my local bank to come and see the film because it's a community. We have a community bank, which means that it's

owned by the people depositors. It's not owned by other companies. And I said, this is what you're all about. And I want to remind you of how important you are in a community. That sense of the bank knowing the people and caring about the community and supporting good business and the depositors versus the money hungry guys who just want to turn a profit. This feels very modern indeed. Well, I was talking specifically about the style of filmmaking as well in the sense that the very first shot we start, well, it's not the

very first shot, but very soon we're looking at the vault. And we're showing the mechanisms of how it's pretty difficult to break into a vault. So just in terms of, I think, like closeups and the way it was cut and setting up of the, with the plot point of breaking into the bank, how's that going to happen? And just setting up that suspense, as you mentioned, I thought was fantastic. And then the melodrama of course, around that is of its period, but I just thought some of the other elements of the technical directing was very much. And there's some overhead shots and there's a lot of movement. Tracking shots as people talk.

Tracking sure, making sure you understand how the floor has to come down. Making sure all of this stuff is there for the viewer to understand the complexity of what the policeman will be. Yes. And everything. So I thought that was pretty good. Yes, it's so fluid. It's got the tracking shots as people talk.

And in those days, quite often, actors would just stand and give you the exposition. Capra has several tracking shots where they're talking and moving. And I love that there's a shot early on as Pat O'Brien's talking and they're moving past the teller windows. And you just really get a sense of the environment. It feels very real, even though it's a set. And you might think that bankers would be opposed to a film that shows that things can go wrong in their banks and for a time, you know, it's looking a little scary as to whether this bank is going to survive. But in fact, and this is something very smart that I think Harry Cohn was primarily responsible in doing, he pointed out to the censors that they made this movie

with the G and Mimi brothers supporting it, and that this movie was intended to show people that banks were safe. And then this is still, this is the last year of Herbert Hoover's presidency. He's gonna be voted out in November around the time that this movie is coming out. And the censors, in fact,

really got behind this movie and embraced it. And the publicity kind of talked about the fact that this was a movie that was, you know, they had a social message for it. So he completely, the studio completely turned the sensors around from being against the film to pointing to it as an example of how film can help the country at that time. I just want to contrast this film or these films with what was being made at MGM at the time, which is not to say I went I love MGM films. So but by contrast, MGM was making glossy films

with stars, they were relying on stars, not so much on these more humanistic storytelling that was so important to connect with the average American during that period. And that was the strength of Columbia and Capra and Riskin together. RG I think for those like myself who haven't seen the film before, the weights shot and the storytelling, which I thought was quite progressive as well, and then of course the whole banking thing, it's really enjoyable. I think also that you mentioned that there's some precursors here or some elements that Capra comes back to

with It's a Wonderful Life. Stephen, maybe you could explain a little bit more about that. Well, I can. It's not frankly an area of expertise for me. That is post Columbia Capra where he was forming his own production company. And the great hope was that the prestigious filmmakers who united to create that

organization would be able to make movies of their choosing. Alas, it did not work out that way, but of course it's a wonderful life found a great afterlife and one can't help but see a recurrence of a theme that runs through those 30s, Capra films, particularly the ones written by Riskin and also Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, this notion of the individual against the system. We all know that George Bailey in Savings and Loan is in a situation not dissimilar from some aspects of American madness, but they're different. But I think they speak to Capra's recognition that American people wanted to believe that the people who were

in charge of their institutions, whether they were small and local or large in the government, say we're really taking care of them and concerned about them. And that's sort of a theme that even carries over in the other movie for which we did a commentary, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, which is generally a much more lighthearted film. Its third act has more drama, but that's a romantic comedy. But again, it has that idea that you have an individual who listens to what they used to say, we used to call the common man, you know, the person without power, we can say perhaps today, and takes on large institutions, different ones in Mr. Deeds, but that's a constant Capra theme,

it's a risk and theme for sure. Well, why don't we talk about Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, 1936. I'm sure this is pretty much a beloved film that many people know, but maybe you could give us a little rundown for those who may be aren't as familiar with the film. Absolutely. This is a charming 1936 romantic comedy written by Vicki's dad, directed by Capra and starring Gary Cooper and the wonderful Gene Arthur. And it's about a very simple man, played by Cooper, long fellow deeds, who finds himself

the surprise inheritor of a fortune. And of course, where there's a will, there are relatives, as the saying goes. There aren't relatives here, but there are certainly people who want to take his money, steal his money, do bad things with his money. And it's a classic story of Akira who seems very simple to the point of, well, he is naive in some ways,

particularly when it comes to romance, but he was actually quite smart when it comes to reading people. We see that throughout the film. And it's, I think, safe to say in a Capra film that the simple man, quote unquote, it's, I think safe to say in a Capra film that the simple man quote unquote, that the quote unquote common man is going to be quite a match for the forces, the, the authority figures that try to exploit him that are corrupt. Now that may sound like

a cliche, it may sound like something you've seen a thousand times, but the beauty of this movie is how quickly you get involved with the character of Longfellow Deeds, so beautifully played by Cooper, then you're thrust into kind of the big city atmosphere that is personified by Gene Arthur's wised-up newspaper woman who assumes another identity to try to get the inside story on Deeds. And it's the specificity of the writing, it's the wit of the dialogue, it's the connection between the actors, and it's a fabulous supporting cast. A decade later, I think Preston Sturgis would really borrow the notion that Capra sets up in the 1930s of having all these great character actors whose names you won't know, but you'll

say, oh, I've seen him in a million movies. I've seen her in a million movies. And scene after scene, people who even at that time would have had much larger roles were willing to come in and do small parts in this because it was recognized quite early on as a project of quality. And Vicki, I'd love to hear your thoughts about it. Well, I guess it's one of my favorite films, to be honest. I think Gary Cooper is so wonderful

and beautiful performance and represents the integrity of the common man, as you would say, and that whole theme of, he comes to New York and he seems like a naive who's gonna be taken advantage of by the powerful leaders, lawyers, and power brokers. And he realizes ultimately that money doesn't make you happy and that you have a responsibility. But, and it's heartbreaking

because he falls in love with Jean Arthur as I, I shouldn't tell the whole story. That's not fair, right? Okay, so I'll stop. It's a good book. I think you gave it to me. You're thinking of yourself as a very accomplished screenwriter.

So I think you gave us the perfect book right there. Yeah, but there's so much I love about it. And I know it must have had a big influence on my dad because he named his dox and Mr. Deeds. And Mr. Deeds was continued to be important in our life, even when we were little kids after the war, we had Mr. Deeds as our favorite pet. But I think these characters that my dad created lived inside of his head. They were real people in some ways, in some realm inside of his mind and represented something that was very important to him, which was remembering that people are basically decent and helping each other out. These were important themes for him. And you don't know if the

romance is going to come together or not. So I'm not going to tell the ending of the film. But I do want to have a little chance to point out that in the final scene, there is a banter about people's oddities and funny things that they do, like doodling. And there's this whole little moment when that is used as an example, the kind of funny things people do who are normal. And my dad invented the word doodle. And I just think I have to go on record telling you that.

And even though there's some sort of Merriam-Webster dictionary says they think it maybe came from some other ancient word, but he invented that word. And later in his life, he wrote a story at the time of a film he did called Magic Town in which he reminded the, it was a newspaper story, the public that he had invented that word and he was looking for some new words to invent. And for those of you out there who think, well, what about Yankee Doodle, the song that came before that, that word might've existed, but it was her father

who gave it the meaning that we all associated with it, that is drawing. So yes. To Doodle, he gave it a verb that we all associate with it, that is drawing. So yes. To doodle, he gave it a verb. How's that? Yes, it becomes now something and that dates back to Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. And one of the other things I really love about this movie is that it accomplishes something that people try and it often doesn't work. It's essentially a romantic comedy for about 70% of the way.

And then there is a scene of intense drama. I mean, a gun is pulled and it's life and death suddenly. And the movie changes tone. And that is the hinge that takes us in a really arresting manner into a different kind of film for a while. It's a drama. And then eventually it's brought around to a very emotionally satisfying ending with great warmth and heart to it. But I have to say that it's a testament to Capra and Rysken that they would dare to create a sequence that is so suddenly different and dramatic and have it work. And apparently when the movie was first shown to critics and journalists covering it, at

the end of that scene, the audience applauded of Hollywood insiders. They were just so impressed with how that scene had worked and they related to what was being said in it. And again, you'll have to watch the movie to really know what we're talking about. But it's a great example for screenwriters and directors to watch and see how you can have these different tones. And because life is full of these different tones, comedy, romance, tragedy, dramedy, whatever, drama, whatever. And Mr. Deeds has so much of that. And I think that's another reason that when we get to the end of this movie, we really feel like we've been on such a fabulous journey with

people that we care about. And it you know, it moves us, it moves in a moves us. I want to just make one more comment for anyone who's going to be watching this film is look at the secondary characters, look at the cast. And you see them in Capra films over and over again. Some of these these character actors, these small roles, but they are it's a wonderful ensemble that, uh, that Capra put together. To be sure. So these are just two fabulous films that are part of this, uh, this amazing Frank

Capra set, uh, celebrating 100 years of Columbia pictures, 20 films on here. Uh, and it's so great, Victoria, that you could come on and talk about your father's collaboration on so many of these films. One thing I've learned today is just how tightly they are connected with some of these fantastic films. Stephen, your thoughts on this set and this release and your involvement with it? I'm so happy that soon I can have in one place so many movies that i love lady for a day we haven't talked about a beautiful movie based on it demon running story about a rundown woman who is a very magical fable from the other writer origin writer guys and dolls. There several barbara stanwick movies and she's fascinating to watch, particularly so early in her film career when she's already a terrific actress and she really connected on a personal level with Capra. I think you can see that in the movies. You get the later

Capra, his last film at Columbia, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, a movie that is as, yes, it has a happy ending we all wish could happen in real life, but so much of it is still true and relevant. And yeah, Lost Horizon we've talked about, you can't take it with you, 1938's best picture winner, a huge hit on Broadway, adapted for the screen by Vicki's father, Robert Riskin,

lots of extras, a new documentary. I don't want to sound like a total shill, but as a movie buff, I really can't wait to have all this material. Well, I mean, that's kind of what we do on this podcast, Stephen. We talk about movies that are coming out on 4K or Blu-ray. And if you aren't familiar with them,

we try to help people who are. And if you love the movie, them, we try to help people who are. And if you love the movie, it's great to revisit together. And I guess the really unique and wonderful thing is that we got to hear from you, Victoria, and the personal stories that, your memories of your father and your mother and their relationship to these films.

So thank you so much for coming on and sharing those. Oh, it's been my great pleasure. And I hope you get a chance to read the book because it'll be a deep dive into a personal life of Hollywood of the 1930s. Yeah. Vicki's Vicki's book on her parents is extraordinary. You get such a sense of Hollywood from the 20s to the 50s really and beyond with your mom. It's a beautiful story. Well, this was a lot of fun, Stephen and Victoria. Thank you so much for coming on the podcast. Tim, it's been a pleasure being here and

I hope I'll see you again soon. Take care both of you. This was great. For those of you interested in purchasing Frank Capra at Columbia Collection, there is a purchase link in the podcast show notes and on our website at www.theextrees.tv. If this is the first episode of The Extras you've listened to and you enjoyed it, please think about following the show at your favorite podcast provider. And if you're on social media, you can find our links on the show notes here. And for long-term listeners, don't forget to subscribe and leave us a review at iTunes, Spotify, or your favorite podcast provider. Until next time, you've been listening

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