Frank Capra

Trivia

• Claimed that both Barbara Stanwyck and Frank Sinatra "left their best scenes in rehearsal," saying that all subsequent takes got stale quickly. Capra would often shoot scenes with them without any rehearsing at all. This used to drive the other actors nuts. Edward G. Robinson once stormed off the set of A Hole in the Head (1959) and asked to be let out of his contract because he was used to rehearsing all his roles.
• Said Jean Arthur would get real tense and often become violently sick before shooting began. However, he said she always managed to compose herself when the cameras started to roll and acted as though nothing was wrong.
• Claimed that Frank Sinatra had the potential to be the best actor there ever was. He once told Frank to quit his musical career and concentrate solely on acting and that if he did he would go down as the greatest actor who ever lived.
• Inspired the adjective "Capraesque".
• He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1986 by the National Endowment of the Arts in Washington, DC.
• Is the second most-represented filmmaker (behind Steven Spielberg) on the American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies of All Time, with four of his films on the list. They are: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) at #83, Meet John Doe (1941) at #49, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) at #5, and the most uplifting movie of all time, It's a Wonderful Life (1946).
• Capra heavily influenced friend, Producer/Director Thomas R. Bond II, where Bond gained most of his knowledge in directing and producing.
• Was originally supposed to write and direct Circus World (1964) but quit the project when star John Wayne rejected Capra's script and instead insisted it be written by his old friend, James Edward Grant.
• Although most of his films were written by individuals on the political left who tended to exude the spirit of the New Deal, Capra himself was a lifelong conservative Republican who never voted for President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, admired Francisco Franco and Benito Mussolini and later, during the McCarthy "Red Scare era. served as a secret FBI informer for his friend J. Edgar Hoover.
• Interviewed in "Talking to the Piano Player: Silent Film Stars, Writers and Directors Remember" by Stuart Oderman (BearManor Media).

Quotes

• "Do not help the quick moneymakers who have delusions about taking possession of classics by smearing them with paint."
• "A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something."
• "Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream, it takes over as the number one hormone; it bosses the enzymes; directs the pineal gland; plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to film is more film."
• "There are no rules in filmmaking. Only sins. And the cardinal sin is dullness."
• "I thought drama was when the actors cried. But drama is when the audience cries."
• "My advice to young filmmakers is this: Don't follow trends. Start them!"
• "Compassion is a two-way street."
• "Behind every successful man there stands an astonished woman."