Customer Reviews

Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film

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The Journalism & Mass Communications Quarterly Review highlights:

"One of the many strengths of this book is Saltzman's writing style. Like good journalism, the writing here is straightforward and clear. The result is a book that is accessible to both students and others interested in film, Capra, the image of the journalist in popular culture, or any combination of the three.

"Academics will find it a valuable resource, especially if teaching a course that examines the image of the journalist, a Capra course, or even a film genres course. In the latter case, the book offers professors an ideal opportunity to supplement genre-based texts in an unexpected way. What Saltzman cleverly does here is show how the journalist, like the gangster or hard-boiled detective...navigates his way through the urban milieu and represents another version of a 'cultural middle man.' Further he elevates the "journalist genre" to the ranks of other, more recognized genres like the gangster or detective, replete with its own codes, conventions, characters, and cliches, and clearly explains how Capra and his collaborators solidified and refined them...."

"Lastly, do not overlook Saltzman's endnotes, which include interesting production notes, additional analysis, comments on and evaluation of his resources, and other useful information. In short, the book could supplement a variety of courses and is an important resource."

"The first book of the IJPC project, Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film, sets a precedent of excellence in scholarship, writing, and readability, serving academics, students, and film aficionados alike. Its attractive design, including full-page stills, will hopefully be retained for future entries in the series...."

"Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film" is the first publication of The Image of the Journalist in Popular Culture (IJPC), a project of the Norman Lear Center, Annenberg School for Communication, University of Southern California. For more information, please see our Web site [web page] Publisher: Norman Lear Center, USC Annenberg, 218 pages including 25 photographs.

Critical acclaim for "Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film":

"A dandy new book that recalls an area of his moviemaking not often cited." - Howard Rosenberg, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Critic, Los Angeles Times.

"Here is real scholarship and original research presented in a wonderfully readable style. Joe Saltzman's book will be consulted for many years to come by film buffs and media scholars alike. I was hooked from the very first page." -- Leonard Maltin, Film Critic-Historian, "Entertainment Tonight."

"(This book)is indispensable to any student of the American journalist, the mythical as well as the real one." -- Loren Ghiglione, Dean, Medill School of Journalism, Northwestern University.

"Saltzman shows that we could reconstruct most of American journalism, at least as it existed in the middle decades of the twentieth century, through Capra's work. Saltzman convincingly demonstrates that the journalist in his films is the link between the private and public spaces of life - and that negotiating that gap between the heart and the mind, our souls and our jobs, the personal and the professional realms, is the challenge of journalism." -- Ray Carney, Professor of Film and American Studies and Director of the Film Studies Program, Boston University. General Editor: The Cambridge Film Classics Author, "The Films of Frank Capra."

"Although much has been written about Frank Capra's influence on American society, little of this attention has focused on Capra's treatment of that most foundational and fundamental of American institutions, the Fourth Estate. Joe Saltzman corrects that oversight with his carefully researched examination of
the depiction of the press in Capra's films. Saltzman's work, particularly his discussion of several lesser-known films by the director, is a significant contribution, not only to Capra scholarship, but to film and journalism studies." -- Richard R. Ness, Author of "From Headline Hunter to Superman: A Journalism Filmography."

"Joe Saltzman has written a lively and comprehensive account of filmmaker Frank Capra's contribution to the image of the journalist in popular culture." -- Howard Good, Author of "Girl Reporter" and "The Drunken Journalist," State University of New York at New Paltz.

In "Frank Capra and the Image of the Journalist in American Film, author Joe Saltzman looks at the colorful gallery of journalists created by director Capra and his writers who were responsible for much of what Americans thought they knew about their newsgatherers in the twentieth century. Capra's familiar "Stop the Presses!" images still focus our thinking today - the energetic, opportunistic reporter who would do anything for a scoop; the cynical big-city newspaper editor committed to getting the story first; the sarcastic sob sister trying desperately to outdo her male competition; and the morally bankrupt, ruthless media baron who uses the power of the press for his or her own ends. From 'The Power of the Press,' through 'It Happened On Night,' 'Meet John Doe,' and 'State of the Union,' Saltzman shows how the Capra films influenced the public's perception of who and what journalists are all about. an influence that continues to this day."