c a p r a  :   p a r t   i i

Pushed into a tight corner, Capra responded with the kind of films he produced in the years before Deeds when he was still evolving his style and subject-matter. Riding High (1950), starring Bing Crosby and various horses, was a flaccid remake of his earlier film Broadway Bill (1934); Here Comes the Groom (1951) featured Crosby in another weak comedy romance - about a reporter who adopts war orphans.

After eight quiet years Capra returned - in Cinemascope and colour - with A Hole in the Head (1959), a rancid sentimental comedy with Frank Sinatra. But with Pocketful of Miracles (1961), a remake of another of his early films, Lady for a Day (1933), Capra rallied. The screen once again teemed with lovable, eccentric characters - mostly Broadway types rushing about to help Bette Davis' Apple Annie, the apple-seller whose daughter has been led to expect a society queen for a mother. It was Capra's last display of good neighbourliness in action. Following this he prepared a science-fiction subject, Marooned (1969), eventually directed by John Sturges. The title was sadly suitable, for Capra himself had become marooned in post-war Hollywood - a place where working stiffs and short-changed Joes wanted their songs sung in far more harsh and complex ways than Capra could possibly managed.

He died of a heart attack in his sleep on the 3rd September 1991 at La Quinta, California, USA...previous page

frank capra film posters both vintage and repros @ ebay.com (direct link) - just checked and a bigger selection than i have seen everywhere else

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1964 Rendevous in Space/Reaching for the Stars (short)
*Why We Fight war documentary series. Capra also worked as a gag writer on six films in 1924.

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