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28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Biased Attack on Capra, December 22, 2000
This book, though it does have much interesting detail, is essentially an attack on Frank Capra, with many dubious conclusions drawn, and is so unrelentingly negative and unfair that it at times borders on the ludicrous. The theory of the book is that Frank Capra was a pathlogical liar and unrelenting egotist, who used the talents of others to make his films and then tried to hog all the glory himself, culminating in his famous autobiography, "The Name Above the Title," which is a "self-aggrandizing fairy tale." Capra was essentially a front man for the brilliant work of screenwriter Robert Riskin, who is the main reason behind Capra's success. When you finish this book, however, you stop and say, "How did this pathetic fraud produce such a staggering array of classic films, in such a distinctive style, and in such a variety of genres (comedy, drama, documentary, and even educational films)?" None of McBride's conclusions makes the slightest bit of sense. One key flaw of the theory is that Capra's two greatest films, "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," were not written by Riskin. McBride attempts to answer this by saying that they "followed the Riskin formula," as if by watching a few Disney Classics we could each make one ourselves, simply by following the formula, as if any decent movie was ever made by a "formula." In actuality, the brilliant screenplay of "It's a Wonderful Life" bears little resemblance to anything written by Riskin, although Capra's directorial style is easily recognizable (his style is almost as easily identifiable as Hitchcock's). The fact that Capra made many great films without Riskin (The Strong Man, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Arsenic and Old Lace, State of the Union, Why We Fight series, the Bell Science series, and the two classics mentioned above), while Riskin made none without Capra, though he was given the opportunity to direct his own material, should seem to be a telling blow.If you read Capra's own book after reading this one, you will be surprised to discover no sense of rampaging ego, but the thoughts of a rather straightforward, idealistic, and often self-deprecating person. Capra did very little research for his own book, largely relying on his wife's scrapbooks and his own memory, and so there probably are some minor factual errors, but McBride jumps on every minute inconsistency, and if Capra says one thing and some obscure person says something contradictory, he immediately and annoyingly assumes Capra is lying and the other person is telling the truth. As an example, Capra says in his book that he graduated high school a half year early. McBride pounces on this eagerly, and says that Capra graduated on time with his class. However, we learn that Capra graduated on January 27, and didn't start college until September, so it's very easy to see how he could remember that he graduated 6 months early when recalling the events 50 years later. Capra also then says he spent 6 months working at the Western Pipe and Steel Company to earn money for college. McBride pounces again, saying that Tony Capra claims that he was the one who worked there. Later McBride ruminates about "the mysterious missing 6 months" after Capra graduated High School and ponders what he could have done in that time. Gosh, could it be that Tony Capra is the one mistaken, and that Frank did work at the factory?-such a possibility would never occur to McBride. McBride even somberly and absurdly quotes a certain Eugene Vale, who claims that he was the man who wrote most of "The Name of Above the Title" and that he "made" Capra, as if Capra's classic films don't speak for themselves. Capra's book is great because we get to hear Capra's own opinions on various aspects of his films, not because it's brilliantly written. We're all still awaiting with bated breath the next astonishing literary production from the great Eugene Vale. It appears that McBride's animosity toward Capra is largely due to the fact that Capra was a Republican who believed in rugged individualism and conservative values, which seems to lead McBride to think that it was therefore impossible to care about his fellow man, and that surely there must be a liberal somewhere responsible for all these powerful films. McBride claims he wrote the book because after World War II "no other Director had such a precipitous decline" as Capra. For the record, after World War II Capra made possibly the greatest movie of all time, an outstanding political comedy-drama, two mediocre remakes of his earlier films, an enjoyable musical comedy, a disappointing musical comedy, and 4 Educational films (Out Mr. Sun, etc.) that have been beloved by schoolkids everywhere for the past 45 years. In conclusion, it's especially galling that shortly before his final, paralyzing stroke, the 87-year old Capra was gracious enough to grant McBride a number of interviews, and supply him with information (such as his military records), while McBride (no doubt acting as servile and ingratiating as possible) knew full well that he intended to do a vicious hatchet job on him the second he could no longer defend himself. Watch the films, read "The Name Above the Title," and don't bother with this book
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