Location:Home » dvd » The Premiere Frank Capra Collection (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington / It Happened One Night / You Can't Take It with You / Mr. Deeds Goes to Town / American Madness / Frank Capra's American Dream)
The Premiere Frank Capra Collection (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington / It Happened One Night / You Can't Take It with You / Mr. Deeds Goes to Town / American Madness / Frank Capra's American Dream)
Theatrical Release Date:2006 Release Date:December 5, 2006 Availability:Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Editorial Reviews:
Product Description American madness (1932) it happened one night (1934) mr deeds goes to town (1936) you cant take it with you (1938) mr smith goes to washington (1939) Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 12/05/2006
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Mr. Smith Goes to Washington Political heavyweights decide that Jefferson Smith (James Stewart), an obscure scoutmaster in a small town, would be the perfect dupe to fill a vacant U.S. Senate chair. Surely this naive bumpkin can be easily controlled by the senior senator (Claude Rains) from his state, a respectable and corrupted career politician. Director Frank Capra fills the movie with Smith's wide-eyed wonder at the glories of Washington, all of which ring false for his cynical secretary (Jean Arthur), who doesn't believe for a minute this rube could be for real. But he is. Capra was repeating the formula of a previous film, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, but this one is even sharper; Stewart and Arthur are brilliant, and the former cowboy star Harry Carey lends a warm presence to the role of the vice president. Bright, funny, and beautifully paced, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is Capra's ode to the power of innocence--an idea so potent that present-day audiences may find themselves wishing for a new Mr. Smith in Congress. The 1939 Congress was none too thrilled about the film's depiction of their august body, denouncing it as a caricature; but even today, Capra's jibes about vested interests and political machines look as accurate as ever. --Robert Horton
It Happened One Night Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "walls of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment and an uplifting experience. --Tom Keogh
You Can't Take It With You Frank Capra's 1938 populist spin on the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart play about a family of happy eccentrics is a great deal of fun, though it significantly rewrites the original work and doesn't represent Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) at his best. Jean Arthur plays a member of the blissful Vanderhof household who falls in love with a rich man's son (James Stewart) and brings him into her nutty home. Lionel Barrymore, who played such a bad guy eight years later in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, is the wonderful Grandpa Vanderhof, who addresses God during the dinner prayer as "sir" and speaks plainly and beautifully of why it's good to be alive. Capra took this opportunity to rail against big business and champion the common man, but the overall tone of the film--typical for the director's comedies--is buoyant and snappy. --Tom Keogh
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is Frank Capra's classic screwball comedy about a village innocent who inherits $20 million, only to discover it's more trouble than it's worth. The screwball in question is Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), a small-town greeting-card poet and tuba player transplanted to the big city to administer his newly inherited wealth, where fast-pattering, wised-up cynics, sneering society denizens, and corrupt lawyers lord it over the ingenuous and straightforward. Deeds's idiosyncrasies are amply magnified in the tabloids by journalist "Babe" Bennett (Jean Arthur), dating Deeds as a cover, only to discover she's the sap when she falls irresistibly for him. But the damage has been done, when Babe's column is used by a pack of corrupt lawyers, Cedar, Cedar, Cedar & Budington, to prove Deeds mentally unfit. The miracle of this unforgettable comedy is how it embraces dark material, calling into question some common assumptions about capitalism while maintaining an approachable atmosphere of light comedy, and deceptively so. You'll be so pixilated by its charm, you won't rest until you've doodled your way to a rhyme for "Budington." --Jim Gay
More Stills from The Premiere Frank Capra Collection (click for larger image)
AmazingDecember 29, 2008 Frank Capra was one of the greatest pioneers in film history. He made movies that made you think about life and what all was involved in it. He warmed our hearts by trying to remind us that there is still good in the world.
My personal favorite thing is the music. Whether it was him personally or just the musicians he was fortunate enough to work with, the music in a Frank Capra film is astounding. Wonderful intros and outros and wonderful momental music that grabs your attention.
If you buy one set of Capra's works, this is the one. These films are among his most celebrated. All of them are on one disc a piece, no dual discs (having to get up in the middle of a movie) or anything like that. I recommend getting this with It's a Wonderful Life, then you'll have all the Frank Capra you need!!!
Perfect!November 19, 2008 This was exactly what I expected it to be. My husband LOVED it for his birthday present. It had all the Capra Movies you could want, with the exception of Meet John Doe. And the price is right!
It's a Wonderful SetJuly 28, 2008 2 out of 2 found this review helpful
"It's a Wonderful Life" is not only the best Frank Capra film, it's one of the best films ever. Some would want to limit to that to a genre, but if popularity counts for anything, it would be the people's choice. What's number two in the Caprian list? I'd say Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. In my view this Cooper vehicle is quite a bit better than Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, although in some ways they seem to be the same movie. But Capra arguably had one message, which he said over and over again. In Mr Deeds, he says it with wit and savvy. It's a plain man/ common man anthem that makes you rejoice to be alive.
Longfellow Deeds is what Chesterton called "another kind of priest", a poet, and a particularly looked-down upon sort-- the sort that writes greeting cards and rhyming verse. Cooper's co-star is the unsinkable Jean Arthur. Modern audiences dismiss such films out of hand: they're black and white, for one thing; predictable for another; and the inevitable happy ending doesn't sit well in a cynical world. All that aside, as the people at the Library of Congress knew when they restored this film, and the people at Turner Classic Movies knew when they showed it, and which many viewers of this set know when they watch it, there are a lot of things going on here that are frankly dazzling, and in a filmic sense, for moderns tired of the switch it on, fast, hard, and, in its own way predictable modern fare of Hollywood, black and white is the new color.
You Can't Take It With You plays well as a play, which is what it once was, and often is, as it remains one of the most popular comedies for small theater groups to put on, but it largely fails in this movie, for the same reason that many early cartoons similarly do. Both were made to fill their bill in the theater line-up (at a time when a newsreel and cartoon presented the feature film), and the fact of animation was dazzling enough on it's own without the later Disney innovation of a story line. In retrospect, this film would make a better musical, and I'm surprised someone hasn't redone it as one. Nevertheless, it provides yet another angle on Capra's populist dream at a time when the melting pot of America was sorely in need of an injection of celluloid hope.
And humor. It Happened One Night is the quintessential screwball comedy, which the stylish Claudette Colbert was barely induced to play in. That already gives it a bit of a twist. Add the chemistry of Clark Gable who, again, was not entirely up for the film, and you get a spontaneity of the Buster Keaton sort without the spinning houses. TCM has a very deluxe package version of this film, but here one can see for oneself what the much-derided genre of screwball comedy was all about, with the result that one may just become an addict of it like this reviewer.
If you like Capra at all, you likely already own some version of It's a Wonderful Life, so here are a few more of his Cupid's arrows from the days when cinema had a heart, which just may make you fall in love with life all over again.
frank capraJune 25, 2008 These are classic movies which every red-blooded American should see. Capra captures the American spirit well. And Jimmy Stewart is a genius! You can't not love his characters.
The Premiere Frank Capra Collection (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington / It Happened One Night / You Can't Take It with You / Mr. DeeMay 31, 2008 The item was exactly as discribed and arrived in good condition. I would gladly buy from this seller again...anytime!
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