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.

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!"