Regarding Frank Capra: Audience, Celebrity, and American Film Studies, 1930-1960

In this lively, innovative historical analysis of movie audiences, Eric Smoodin focuses on reactions to the films of Frank Capra. Best known for his classic Hollywood features of the 1930s and 1940s–including It Happened One Night, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington–Capra also directed extensively in other genres such as educational films, military films, and documentaries. Smoodin explores responses to Capra’s films among a wide range of viewers not only in theatres but also in schools, libraries, corporations, the military, and prisons. By illuminating the extent to which motion pictures reached audiences beyond consumers of popular culture, Regarding Frank Capra signals new directions for research on film reception and promotion. Drawing on archival sources including fan letters, exhibitor reports, military and prison records, government and corporate documents, and trade journals, Smoodin explains how the venues where Capra’s films were seen and the strategies used to promote the films affected audience response and how, in turn, audience reaction shaped film production.He examines issues of foreign censorship and government intervention in the making of The Bitter Tea of General Chen; the response of high school students to It Happened One Night; fan engagement with the overtly political discourse of Meet John Doe and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington; San Quentin prisoners’ reactions to It’s a Wonderful Life; and AT&T’s involvement in Capra’s later documentary work for the Bell Science Series. He also looks at how military recruits and German prisoners of war responded to the director’s documentary series Why We Fight.