The Weasel As far as I can see, there are two reasons for anyone buying another copy of a book they already have: a) Their home is so awash with books that it is impossible for the householder to lay his hand on...

The Premiere Frank Capra Collection: American Madness. It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, You Can't Take K with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1932-1939) 1.33:1 (Full Frame) Dolby Digital Monaural Sony Home Entertainment, $59.95 When Joseph...

Francis "Bucko" KilroyFOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) _ Francis "Bucko" Kilroy, a former New England Patriots executive who was known throughout the league as a top talent scout, has died. He was 86.Kilroy died Tuesday, the team announced.Kilroy was a six-time All-Pro guard for the Philadelphia Eagles...

The problem with writing a book about a screenwriter is made obvious by the title of this book: If you have to give top billing to a director, you’re in trouble. Ian Scott’s In Capra’s Shadow examines one of the most interesting screenwriting talents of...

[In Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Capra] takes a plot with as few restrictions as possible (it has the necessary sentimental angle and forward motion but is fairly empty of anything else) and proceeds to fill it up with situations and characters from life—working the situations into some direct line with wonderful care both for their speed and clarity as parts and for their associative values, their cumulative effect in the whole story; working over the casting and combined performance of the best actors h...

Mr. Deeds is Capra's finest film (it is on quite a different intellectual level from the spirited and delightful It Happened One Night), and that means it is a comedy quite unmatched on the screen. For Capra has what Lubitsch, the witty playboy, has not: a sense of responsibility, and what Clair, whimsical, poetic, a little precious and à la mode, has not, a kinship with his audience, a sense of common life, a morality; he has what even Chaplin has not, complete mastery of his medium, and that...

Here is Capra, without the help of Riskin, back to his finest form [in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington]—the form of Mr. Deeds. It has always been an interesting question, how much Capra owed to his faithful scenario writer. Now it is difficult to believe that Riskin's part was ever very important, for all the familiar qualities are here—the exciting close-ups, the sudden irrelevant humour, the delight—equal to that of the great Russians—in the ordinary human face. (p. 260) It...