In 1941 Capra directed Meet John Doe ( 1941 ), considered by some to be Capra's most controversial movie.

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.

Seneca Falls is believed by some to have been the inspiration for the fictional town of " Bedford Falls, N. Y ." portrayed in filmmaker Frank Capra's classic 1940s film " It's a Wonderful Life ".

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

" 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.

" That film expressed Capra's patriotism more than any of his others, and " presented the individual working within the democratic system to overcome rampant political corruption.

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

Film author Richard Glazer speculates that the film may have been autobiographical, " reflecting Capra's own uncertainties.

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.

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.

Although It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union were successful shortly after the war ended, Capra's themes were becoming more out of step with changes within the film industry and with the public mood.

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.

As for Capra's subject matter, film author Richard Griffith tries to summarize Capra's common theme:

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.

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.

In 1944, Ivens made Know Your Enemy: Japan for Frank Capra's U. S. War Department film series Why We Fight.

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.

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 ).

A fifth film with Hepburn came in 1948, Frank Capra's political drama State of the Union.

The Capra's body may be made of different materials depending on local tradition, such as carpet or red cloth with adornments sewn on: traditional colourful cloth, embroidered handcerchiefs in Suceava, beaded ornate women's textile girdles in Bacău, reed ( Phragmites australis ) seed heads in Botoşani and Iaşi, goat pelts in Vrancea and in Mehedinţi, fabric ribbons or coloured paper in Neamţ and in Giurgiu etc.

The book's issues are detectable from a slightly different perspective in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life ( 1946 ) and Scrooge is likely an influence upon Dr. Seuss's How the Grinch Stole Christmas!

In Frank Capra's 1936 Film Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the eccentricities of the main character are attributed to his having become " pixelated ", or falling under the influence of pixies.

The Capra's chiseled wooden mask has a movable ' clamping ' lower jaw for the lively dance, and its horns are either of wood or from a goat, ram, or stag.

* 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 ).

In 1993 Republic won a landmark legal decision reactivating the copyright on Frank Capra's 1946 RKO film It's a Wonderful Life ( under NTA, they had already acquired the film's negative, music score, and the story on which it was based, " The Greatest Gift ").

Lister settles down with a woman who looks exactly like Kristine Kochanski in Bedford Falls, which looks exactly like the Bedford Falls in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, Lister's favourite movie.

He notes that the English word " capricious " derives from it, " evoking the animal's skittish temperament ", adding that " the name neatly expresses two aspects of Frank Capra's personality: emotionalism and obstinacy.

" 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.

Film historian Michael Medved agrees with and understands Capra's impressions, noting that he walked away from the movie business because " he refused to adjust to the cynicism of the new order.

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.

* Republic took its original " Liberty Bell " logo from M. H. Hoffman's Liberty Pictures ( not to be confused with Frank Capra's short-lived Liberty Films that produced his It's a Wonderful Life, ironically now owned by Republic ).

In 1959, she played opposite Frank Sinatra in Frank Capra's A Hole in the Head, Dean Martin in Career, and Anthony Quinn in Last Train from Gun Hill.

The following excerpt from The Tao of Physics summarizes Capra's motivation for writing this book.

Travers ' most famous role was as the angel Clarence who comes to save James Stewart's character from suicide in Frank Capra's classic It's a Wonderful Life.

During the golden age of Hollywood, Capra's " fantasies of goodwill " made him one of the two or three most famous and successful directors in the world.

In Frank Capra's It's A Wonderful Life ( 1946 ), George Bailey ( center, played by James Stewart ) is shown by his guardian angel how the world would have been radically different for the worse if Bailey had never existed.

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.

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

Capra's family was Roman Catholic.

They eventually settled in an Italian ghetto in Los Angeles, where Capra's father worked as a fruit picker and young Capra sold newspapers after school for the next 10 years, until he graduated high school.

Capra's only prior exposure to films, however, was in 1915 while attending Manual Arts High School.

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

Because of Capra's engineering education, he adapted more easily to the new sound technology than most directors.

Few of the studio heads or crew were aware of Capra's engineering background until he began directing The Younger Generation in 1929.

Nonetheless, McBride insists that The Younger Generation " abounds with parallels to Capra's own life.

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.