I had to wait awhile for The Frank Capra Collection and it was worth it. I have seen these movies at various times but never had the chance to own them. Now I'm thrilled to have them.
There are six movies and a documentary on Frank Capra. My favorite is Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. Gary Cooper is perfect as Mr. Deeds, a simple small-town guy who inherits $20 million dollars from a relative and it turns his life upside down. After being ridiculed through a series of newspaper articles written by the woman he thinks he can trust--including being labeled "Cinderella Man"--he decides to give the money away to people who need it, and is brought up on a false insanity charge by the lawyer and some family members he's never met. Without giving anything significant away, suffice to say the ending tugs at the heartstrings, as do the endings of all the movies.
Others include Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, about an idealistic young senator trying to pass a bill to help boys grow up to be strong, responsible adults, and You Can't Take it With You, about a delightfully eccentric family led by a man who knows that the best things in life are the simple things--not money and power, but family and friends; both of these star James Stewart and he's great in them. Then there's the Academy Award sweeping It Happened One Night, with Clark Gable and Claudette Corbert, who take a long, comical journey from Miami to New York and fall in love. Gable is especially funny, and Corbert holds her own with him.
In this day and age, people would say these movies are sappy and irrelevant, but I believe they represent, not the way things are, but the way they should be--the underdogs who people are trying to bring down for doing something good, who rise up and succeed, with many friends at their side backing them up.
I highly recommend this collection to anyone who wants to actually feel good after seeing a movie. I have no complaint about realism in movies, but there was a time when we understood movies were not real, but a temporary escape--we understood we had to face our problems, but there was nothing wrong with feeling good for awhile, and even being motivated to do good and stick by friends, things these movies help to motivate people to do. If this is want you want, the Frank Capra collection is for you.
