The Younger Generation

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1929 D: Frank Capra. Based on the play It Is to Laugh di Fannie Hurst; SC: Sonya Levien; Dial: Howard J. Green; DP: Ted Tetzlaff, Ben Reynolds; ED: Arthur Roberts; DP: Harrison Wiley; CAST: Jean Hersholt (Julius “Pa” Goldfish), Lina Basquette (Birdie Goldfish), Ricardo Cortez Morris Goldfish), Rosa Rosanova (Tilda “Ma” Goldfish), Rex Lease (Eddy Lesser), Sid Crossley (Butler), Martha Franklin (Mrs. Lesser), Julanne Johnston (Irma Striker), Jack Raymond (Pinsky), Otto Fries (Tradesman), Julie Swayne Gordon (Mrs. Striker); P: Frank Capra; 35mm. B&w. [announced 75’ a 24 fps.] actual duration 83 min. From: Sony Columbia. - Presenta Rita Belda, [piano music announced, but screened was] a sound print of Columbia's first sound film, earphone commentary in Italian, viewed at Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 4 July 2009. - A new print of the sound film important for the history of Columbia Pictues. - A brilliant print. - Frank Capra's contribution to the great Jewish film cycle of the 1920s, which started with Frank Borzage's Humoresque and culminated with The Jazz Singer. - Capra is clearly influenced by them, starting with the fascinating half-documentary opening in New York's Lower East Side. - This is a story of rags to riches, and of assimilation. - Money does not bring happiness. Everybody is sad under the rule of the young businessman son Morris Goldfish. - Lina Basquette is charming in this film. - This is not a very good film, and it lacks the passion of Humoresque and The Jazz Singer, but it is extremely important (as Joseph McBride writes) as Frank Capra's veiled autobiography of "the catastrophe of success".

Ladies of Leisure

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1930. D: Frank Capra. From the play Ladies of the Evening di David Belasco e Milton Herbert Gropper; SC: Jo Swerling; DP: Joseph Walker; ED: Maurice Wright; DP: Harrison Wiley; M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff; S: John P. Livadary, Harry Blanchard; CAST: Barbara Stanwyck (Kay Arnold), Ralph Graves (Jerry Strong), Lowell Sherman (Bill Standish), Marie Prevost (Dot Lamar), Nance O’Neill (Mrs. Strong), George Fawcett (Mr. Strange), Juliette Compton (Claire Collins), Johnnie Walker (Charlie), Charles Butterworth; P: Frank Capra per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 99’. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - E-subtitles in Italian (Sub-Ti). Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, 1 July 2009. - A brilliant print. - Essential Capra. - Barbara Stanwyck brings her special presence to one of her first starring roles and to her first Frank Capra film of five (Ladies of Leisure, Miracle Woman, Forbidden, The Bitter Tea of General Yen, Meet John Doe). - Jo Swerling is the screenwriter, also he in one of his first films and in his first Frank Capra film of seven. - Lots of wisecracking, tough surfaces barely hiding a great vulnerability. - "Look through the ceiling". "The ceiling seems to be your limit". "You give up too easily". - I had to go in the middle of the film, but this picture would be worthy to revisit.

The Way of the Strong

Nyrkkivalta. US 1928 D: Frank Capra. Based on a story by: William M. Counselman; SC: William Counselman, Peter Milne; DP: Ben Reynolds; AD: Peter Milne; WITH: Mitchell Lewis (“Handsome” “Pretty Boy” Williams), Alice Day (Nora), Margaret Livingston (Marie), Theodore von Eltz (Dan), William Norton Bailey (Tiger Louie); P: Harry Cohn per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. D.: 65’ a 24 f/s. From: Sony Columbia. - Presenta Rita Belda, grand piano Marco Dalpane, earphone commentary in Italian, viewed at Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 1 July 2009. - Based on a 4K scan of a short version of the film. - A gangster film by Frank Capra, the story of the scarfaced crime lord who falls in love with a blind violinist. - The fourth film directed by Capra in 1928. - The idea of the film is based on the transforming power of music, but the live pianist ignored both this basic concept and the explicit music cues seen on screen (Liebestraum by Franz Liszt). - I did not see this film till the end.

So This Is Love?

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1928. D: Frank Capra. Story: Norman Springer; SC: Elmer Harris, Rex Taylor; DP: Ray June; ED: Arthur Roberts; DP: Robert E. Lee, Rex Taylor; CAST: Shirley Mason (Hilda Jenson), William “Buster” Collier, Jr. (Jerry McGuire), Johnnie Walker (“Spike” Mullins), Ernie Adams (“Flash” Tracy), Carl Gerard (Otto), William H. Strauss (Maison Katz), Jean Laverty (Mary Malone); P: Harry Cohn; Dist: Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 65’ a 24 fps. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - Presenta Rita Belda, grand piano Donald Sosin, viewed at Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 30 June 2009. - A print from a 4K scan from the French version. - A triangle love story: the delicatessen girl is in love with a prizefighter but admired by a dress designer. A small comedy with some good physical action. I did not see this film till the end.

Flight

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1929. D: Frank Capra. Story: Ralph Graves; SC: Howard Green, Frank Capra; DP: Joseph Walker, Elmer Dyer, Joe Novak; ED: Ben Pivar, Maurice Wright, Gene Milford; DP: Harrison Wiley; S: John Lividary, Harry Blanchard, Dean Daly, Eddy Hahn, Ellis Gray; CAST: Jack Holt (“Panama” Williams), Ralph Graves (“Lefty” Phelps), Lila Lee (Elinor), Alan Roscoe (Major), Harold Goodwin (Steve Roberts), Jimmy De La Cruze (Lobo); P: Frank Capra per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 110’. B&w. From: LoC. - E-subtitles in Italian (Sub-Ti). Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, 29 June 2009. - A brilliant print save for stock footage montages. - The middle film of Capra's marine trilogy (Submarine, Flight: it's about the Marines flight school, Dirigible), all with the same actors, usually with a triangle of two men and a woman. - The story of a loser: Lefty scores in football for the opposite team; in his flight test, his plane crashes before taking off. - Also a Cyrano story: Lefty is good with words, Panama is clumsy. - A colonialistic story: the Marines go to Nicaragua to quench a rebellion. - Interesting semi-documentary footage on early flying. - Mediocre. - I did not watch this till the end.

Dirigible

Lentävä kuolema. US 1931. D: Frank Capra. Story: Frank Wilber Wead e James Warner Bellah (n.c.); SC: Jo Swerling, Dorothy Howell; DP: Joseph Walker, Elmer Dyer - 1,2:1; ED: Maurice Wright; M: Mischa Bakaleinikoff, David Broekman; S: E. L. Bernds; CAST: Jack Holt (Jack Bradon), Ralph Graves (Frisky Pierce), Fay Wray (Helen Pierce), Hobart Bosworth (Louis Rondele), Roscoe Karns (Sock McGuire), Harold Goodwin (Hansen), Clarence Muse (Clarence), Emmett Corrigan (Admiral Martin), Selmer Jackson (il luogotenente Rowland); P: Harry Cohn, Frank Capra per Columbia Pictures; 35mm. 106’. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - E-subtitles in Italian by Sub-Ti. Viewed at Cinema Arlecchino, Bologna, 28 June 2009. - A brilliant print. - The last picture of Capra's Marines trilogy, all with Jack Holt and Ralph Graves as rivals for Woman, here played by Fay Wray as the conceited hero's long-suffering wife. - An ugly feature in Frank Capra's films: blatant racism is recurrent. - The dirigible sequences have documentary value. I did not know that Zeppelins had such a role in the U.S. Marines. - The second half of the picture is a harrowing adventure on the Antarctic with a grim fate for the unfortunate flyers. Snow blindness threatens our hero. - Interesting but mediocre.

That Certain Thing

[The film was never released in Finland]. US 1928. D: Frank Capra. SC: Elmer Harris; DP: Joseph Walker; ED: Arthur Roberts; DP: Robert E. Lee; CAST: Viola Dana (Molly Kelly), Ralph Graves (Andy B. Charles, Jr.), Aggie Herring (Mrs. Maggie Kelly), Carl Gerard (Secretary Brooks), Burr McIntosh (A.B. Charles, Sr.), Sydney Crossley (Valet); P: Harry Cohn; 35mm. [announced: 70’ a 24 fps]. Actual duration: 64 min. B&w. From: Sony Columbia. - Presenta Grover Crisp, grand piano: Donald Sosin, earphone commentary in Italian, viewed in Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 28 June 2009. - GC: this print is from material in poor condition, made in 2001, now there is access to an incomplete 35mm print, and a new restoration is in progress. - Joseph McBride: of all the early Columbia films, the story of this is the most Capraesque. - The girl wants to marry money, but the son of the millionaire is disinherited. They stay together anyway and make a fortune with box lunches. "Cut the ham thick!"

Fulta Fisher’s Boarding House

US 1922. D: Frank Capra. Based on the poem "The Ballad of Fisher’s Boarding-House" from Departmental Ditties (1886) by Rudyard Kipling; SC: Frank Capra, Walter Montague; DP: Roy Wiggins; CAST: Mildred Owens (Anne of Austria), Ethan Allen (Salem Hardieker), Olaf Skavlan (Hans), Gerald Griffin (marinaio inglese), Oreste Seragnoli (Luz); PC: G. F. Harris e David F. Supple di Montague Studios per Fireside Productions; 35mm. [Announced: 15’ a 22 fps], actually 13 min. B&w. From: Sony Columbia (Frank Capra’s personal nitrate print collection). - Presenta Joseph McBride, grand piano: Marco Dalpane?, earphone translation into Italian. - Viewed at Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 27 June 2009. - Ok print. - A filmed poem. The milieu: qf. Les Bas-fonds.

La visita dell’incrociatore italiano Libia a San Francisco Calif., 6-29 novembre 1921

US 1921 D: Frank Capra. Intertitles: J. J. Moro, DP: Amos Stillman; With: Admiral Ernesto Burzagli, Dorothy Valerga (Dorothy Revier); 35mm. 658 m. 32’ a 18 fps. [announced: b&w] tinted. Italian intertitles From: Cineteca di Bologna e American Film Institute. Print made from a tinted nitrate positive with Italian intertitles. - Presenta Joseph McBride, grand piano: Marco Dalpane? / [Donald Sosin? announced], earphone commentary in English, viewed at Cinema Lumière 1, Bologna, 27 June 2009. - A brilliant print, a dullish colour. - A serviceable actuality film with no personal touch. Interesting as an early proof of Capra's interest in the military (Submarine - Flight - Dirigible and the great WWII documentaries). - Capra himself visible early on.