Perhaps, it's because I'm listening to Jane Mayer's excellent non-fiction book,
The Dark Side, but I feel the need to post on two of my favorite films by
Frank Capra. Both were released within two years of each other. At first glance, they are very different from each other, but each have some very similar traits (like great direction, cast, screenplay, etc.)--including a central dark element. The first is the 1944
Arsenic and Old Lace (though it was filmed in 1941 before Capra went to work making movies for the WWII War Dept). For family movie night on the last weekend in November, my wife suggested this movie because she didn't want to get into any Christmas movie (the kids were clamoring for) before December arrived. The family's reaction to it, and critic's pick, caused the itch that this post intends to scratch it with.
Adapted from the Joseph Kesselring stage play, it is a black comedy that stands the test of time. It stars a young Cary Grant doing some of the best double-takes in cinema history (IMO) as the nephew of a jolly pair of old aunts with a kind, but lethal, calling. As Mortimer Brewster, Cary's character is forced one Halloween in Brooklyn to confront the insanity of his relatives--all of them complicit in murders here and abroad. It is one gloomily original story taken to a comedic extreme. All of this happening on Mortimer's wedding day, at that, to serve as the counterpoint. Though the plot is ingenious, the character dialog is among the best there is, too. Like Mortimer's description of his familial plight:
Insanity runs in my family... it practically gallops!
For such a funny film, Capra frames most of the film in shadows and the threat of death. When our comic hero is captured by his psychotic brother, played with villainous glee by Raymond Massey, the director doesn't soft peddle his peril. This key sequence in the film (that made a conscious impression on me when I first saw this on TV as a young teen), a bound Mortimer is given a verbal prelude by his sibling of what was to be his slow, torturous demise. And, it was at this point my nine-year old daughter chirped, "
This is supposed to be a comedy?!?" I had the same reaction decades ago. No other film sequence, save for Bela Lugosi's promise to the bound Boris Karloff at the climatic point in
The Black Cat, ever disturbed me as much. However, it is that mix of hilarity and death that makes this movie such a fun ride. The comedy highs are balanced beautifully by their negative--the threat of tragedy.
The second film is not only one for the ages, but an annual yuletide celebration for many. The 1946
It's a Wonderful Life is simply Frank Capra's finest film. Even James Stewart admitted that it was his, too, years later. However, for the elation audiences reach by the film's end, it is essentially a dark-themed movie. Stewart's George Bailey character is by accounts a good man wronged. He's kept in place by circumstances beyond his control. The Bedford Falls native has his boyhood dreams of travel and adventure seemingly crushed by a life of familial obligation. He's lived in his own world of self-sacrifice toward his father, younger brother, and the small close-knit community around him.
You've been given a great gift, George. A chance to see what the world would be like without you.
The quote is IaWL in a nutshell. Its story-line is one that touches, at times wrenchingly, life's inequities and what-if's. And though it has many, many moments of sheer joy within it, Capra counterbalances it with some pretty stark situations that are nightmarish and recognizable by all who sit and watch it. And, again (like AaOL), it is its dark undertone that brings out its best parts. It's a Wonderful Life bestows a heavenly sense through its use of a little Hell. In other words, you're not going to have a silver lining without that dark cloud to show it off.
Ask yourself this,
Would Ebenezer Scrooge's heart have been opened without being shown the spectres of Want and Ignorance?
It's a Wonderful Life has more density than many give it credit for. Which is why it stands up to repeated viewings so well. It is more than the sum of its parts. As well, its meaning changes for the viewer as one ages. The older ones amongst us (ahem) have a very different take compared to those seeing it for the first time, or in their youth. No wonder the
N.Y. Times film critic, A.O. Scott, showcased it today in his Critics Picks (see it
here). Frank Capra was a genius film maker who knew how to use the qualities of light and dark to make his movies that much more special. Interestingly, if you remove Capra's War Dept. films, both of these commercial works bracket World War II. One has to think about that event and its affect upon the director when it comes to the latter film--or how different AaOL would have developed if it had been the latter? Hmm...
p.s., did you spot the other theme that runs through both films? It's family. For many of us, that is its own heaven and hell right there ;-).
