Back to Golden Days

Did you know that...  In 1947, an FBI analyst investigating Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry submitted a memo to his director, J. Edgar Hoover, claiming that Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life (1946) promoted Communism by discrediting bankers.   It's a Wonderful Life is now considered a Christmas classic. According to the memo received by Hoover, written by a certain D. M. Ladd and dated May 26, 1947, It's a Wonderful Life , now a Christmas classic, «represented rather obvious attempts do discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This [...] is a common trick used by Communists.» The report goes on to add that the film  «deliberately maligned the upper-class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters.» An informant interviewed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation spoke in particular of the scene in which Mr. Potter (play...

In honour of James Stewart's 108th birthday, which happens to be today, this week on «Film Friday» I thought I would bring one of his most iconic pictures. This was also the second of his films that I saw and remains one of my personal favourites. Directed by Frank Capra, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) begins when the untimely death of Senator Foley disrupts the plans of corrupt political boss Jim Taylor (Edward Arnold), who needed the senator's help to perpetrate a land swindle at Willet Creek. He controls the state's Governor, Hubert «Happy» Hopper (Guy Kibbee) and the state's beloved senior Senator, Joseph Paine (Claude Rains), who suggest a popular citizen and local Boy Ranger leader, Jefferson «Jeff» Smith (James Stewart) to fill the empty position. Smith is humbled and proud to be under the wing of Paine, who had known Smith's late father, a crusading journalist. Jeff and Paine travel to Washington, where the patriotic young senator is overwhelmed by hi...

Douglas Fairbanks presents Janet Gaynor with the first ever Academy Award for Best Actress for her work in 7th Heaven (1927), Street Angel (1927) and Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927). Mary Pickford poses with her Oscar for Best Actress. She won for her work in Coquette (1929), her first talkie. Norma Shearer receives from Conrad Nagel the Oscar for Best Actress for The Divorcee (1930). Marie Dressler and Lionel Barrymore were the Best Actress and Best Actor winners at the 5th Academy Awards. She won for Min and Bill (1930) and he for A Free Soul (1931). MGM chief Louis B. Mayer presents producer Carl Laemmle with the award for Best Picture for All Quiet on the Western Front (1930). Helen Hayes proudly holds her Best Actress Oscar for The Sin of Madelon Claudet (1931). Shirley Temple gives Claudette Colbert the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in It Happened One Night (1934). It Happened One Night also earned Clark Gable th...

Directed by Frank Capra, It's a Wonderful Life (1946) opens on Christmas Eve 1945, in the town of Bedford Falls, New York, as guardian angel Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) is sent to Earth to stop George Bailey (James Stewart) from committing suicide. In preparation for his task, Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life. At age 12, George saved his brother Harry (Todd Karns) from drowning in an icy pond, and prevented his druggist boss, Mr. Gower (H. B. Warner), from accidentally prescribing poison to a child. After the death of his father (Samuel Hinds) in 1928, George is forced to postpone his plans to travel the world to take over the family's building and loan society to keep Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), the richest and meanest man in Bedford Falls, from having financial control over the town. Four years later, Harry returns home from college with a wife (Virginia Patton) and the promise of a good job in New York. Once again, George postpones his plans a...