* In 1947, the studio acquired Frank Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which produced only 2 films in the 1940s: It's a Wonderful Life, released originally by RKO Radio Pictures, and State of the Union, released originally by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer ( the latter made under Paramount ownership ).

Capra's synopsis: " Showing the gallant and victorious defense of Britain by Royal Air Force, at a time when shattered but unbeaten British were only people fighting Nazis.

Capra's " first, last and only choice " for the pivotal role of the eccentric Longfellow Deeds was Gary Cooper.

In only his tenth movie, he co-starred with one of the " grand dames of the silver screen ," Barbara Stanwyck, in Frank Capra's critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful The Miracle Woman ( 1931 ), and the movie's failure to attract an audience disappointed Capra tremendously.

She had a successful career at MGM, RKO and Columbia including important roles such as the tragic Beth in the original Little Women, among many other film appearances including Frank Capra's Lady for a Day and Gabriel Over the White House ; Sequoia ; Limehouse Blues with George Raft and Anna May Wong ; The Ghost Goes West, opposite Robert Donat ; and Rasputin and the Empress, with the Barrymore siblings ( John, Ethel, and Lionel ) in the only movie they all made together.

Early films, including those from the silent era, which feature the station include Traffic in Souls ( 1913 ), which starred Matt Moore ; The Yellow Passport ( 1916 ), starring Clara Kimball Young ; My Boy ( 1921 ), starring Jackie Coogan ; Frank Capra's The Strong Man ( 1926 ), starring Harry Langdon ; We Americans ( 1928 ), starring John Boles ; The Mating Call ( film ), 1928, co-starring Thomas Meighan and Renée Adorée ; Ellis Island ( 1936 ), starring Donald Cook ; Paddy O ' Day ( 1936 ), starring Jane Withers ; Gateway ( 1938 ), starring Don Ameche ; Exile Express ( 1939 ), which starred Anna Sten ; I, Jane Doe ( 1948 ), starring Ruth Hussey and Vera Ralston, and Gambling House ( 1951 ), starring Victor Mature

During the following years, however, Langdon's films went into decline without Capra's assistance.

" His films soon established Capra as a " bankable " director known throughout the industry, and Cohn raised Capra's initial salary of $ 1, 000 per film to $ 25, 000 per year.

Capra also directed a film for MGM during this period, but soon realized he " had much more freedom under Harry Cohn's benevolent dictatorship ", where Cohn also put Capra's " name above the title " of his films, a first for the movie industry.

In many of Capra's films, the wise-cracking and sharp dialogue was often written by Riskin, and he and Capra went on to become Hollywood's " most admired writer-director team.

Capra's films in the 1930s enjoyed immense success at the Academy Awards.

Capra's job was to head a special section on morale in order to explain to soldiers " why the hell they're in uniform ", writes Capra, and were not " propaganda " films like those created by the Nazis and Japan.

It would become Capra's last important film and, although he directed five more films over the next 14 years, his successful years were now behind him.

Because Capra's films often carry a message about basic goodness in human nature, and show the value of unselfishness and hard work, his wholesome, feel-good themes have led some to term his style " Capra-corn.

French film historian John Raeburn, editor of Cahiers du cinéma, notes that that Capra's films were unknown in France, but there too his films underwent a fresh discovery by the public.

With the sound era, films like All Quiet on the Western Front ( 1930 ) ( and its much darker German counterpart Westfront 1918 ), Howard Hawks ' Road to Glory ( 1936 ) and Grand Illusion ( 1937 ), focused on the futility of war for non-American soldiers whilst Hollywood produced American soldiers featuring in World War I comedies such as Buster Keaton's Doughboys ( 1930 ) and Wheeler & Woolsey's Half Shot at Sunrise ( 1930 ), or exciting tales of the U. S. Marine Corps putting down rebellions in Central America, China, and the Pacific Islands in films like Frank Capra's Flight ( 1930 ), The Leathernecks Have Landed ( 1936 ) and Tell it to the Marines ( 1926 film ).

The first film was shown on the giant screen was Frank Capra's The Bitter Tea of General Yen starring Barbara Stanwyck and the Music Hall became the premiere showcase for films from the RKO-Radio Studio.

However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process.

These films had been produced at Columbia Pictures, Capra's studio, and had a certain quality of production that seemed to be lacking at the Monogram lot, where Taylor brought his " Cannonball " character in 1947.

Stander was in a string of films over the next three years, appearing most notably in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes to Town ( 1936 ) with Gary Cooper, playing Archie Goodwin in Meet Nero Wolfe ( 1936 ) and The League of Frightened Men ( 1937 ), and in A Star Is Born ( 1937 ) with Janet Gaynor and Fredric March.

Though prolific in the movies, Novello was limited mostly to bits in minor films, one of his more noteworthy assignments being the officious Spanish consul in Frank Capra's Pocketful of Miracles.

After World War II, however, Capra's career declined as his subjects were more out of tune with the mood of audiences.

The film, however, became Capra's most controversial.

Frank Capra's Why We Fight ( 1942 – 1944 ) series was a newsreel series in the United States, commissioned by the government to convince the U. S. public that it was time to go to war.

Capra's family was Roman Catholic.

Nonetheless, Capra's vision about the film's significance was clear:

" Glazer describes how " John's accidental transformation from drifter to national figure parallels Capra's own early drifting experience and subsequent involvement in movie making ... Meet John Doe, then, was an attempt to work out his own fears and questions.

Although the project had an excellent pedigree with stars Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, the film was not a success, and Capra's eyebrow-raising statement, " I think State of the Union was my most perfect film in handling people and ideas " has few adherents today.

Biographer Joseph McBride argues that Capra's disillusionment was more related to the negative effect that the House Un-American Activities Committee ( HUAC ) had on the film industry in general.

Capra's final theatrical film was with Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, named Pocketful of Miracles ( 1961 ), a remake of his 1933 film Lady for a Day.

Capra's final film, Rendezvous in Space ( 1964 ), was an industrial film made for the Martin Marietta Company and shown at the 1964 New York World's Fair.

His son Frank Capra, Jr. – one of the four children born to Capra's second wife, Lucille Capra – was the president of EUE Screen Gems Studios, in Wilmington, North Carolina, until his death on December 19, 2007.

The film was based on a stage play by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur, and along with Frank Capra's It Happened One Night ( released the same year ) is considered to be the defining film of the screwball comedy genre.

The film was Capra's last feature, and although it was not the commercial success he hoped it would be, he " gushed about Falk's performance.

Colbert was noticed by the theatrical producer Leland Hayward, who suggested her for a role in Frank Capra's film For the Love of Mike ( 1927 ), now believed to be lost.

Noted reviewer Graham Greene was effusive that this was Capra's finest film to date, describing Capra's treatment as " a kinship with his audience, a sense of common life, a morality ..." Variety noted " a sometimes too thin structure the players and director Frank Capra have contrived to convert (...) into fairly sturdy substance.

" Joseph McBride in a later biography notes that Capra's emphasis on theme rather than people was evident in the film ; he also considered the film a financial " debacle.

The song was later used in Frank Capra's propaganda film, The Battle of China.

Friedman finds that while Capra's ideas were popular to depression-era and pre-war audiences, they became less relevant to attitudes of a prospering post-war America.

" Variety declared, " Capra's production, not elaborate, captures the color and spirit of the play, while the able writing team of Julius J. and Philip G. Epstein has turned in a very workable, tightly-compressed script.

He played the same role in Capra's 1934 film Broadway Bill and the 1950 remake, Riding High.