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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 honor 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.    James Stewart, Claude Rains and Jean Arthur in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Jeff and P...