American Madness

Wonderful Depression-era movie about a bank president (Walter Huston) who has more than his share of troubles - his board of directors is criticizing his every move, his wife is looking for love in all the wrong places, and his favorite employee (Pat O'Brien) is accused of robbing the bank. It's notable today for being directed by Frank Capra and for having a few similarities to his later classic It's a Wonderful Life (particularly the bank run). Good cast backing up Huston and O'Brien, who are both terrific, includes Kay Johnson, Gavin Gordon, Edwin Maxwell, Arthur Hoyt, Berton Churchill, the lovely Constance Cummings, and Sterling Holloway. Some nice directorial touches from Capra, great script from Robert Riskin, and attractive photography from Joseph Walker. An early taste of the kinds of classics Capra would later make - socially conscious dramas with some humor, heart, and ultimately an optimistic outlook on life. You can't go wrong with Capra or, for that matter, Walter Huston. Anything involving these two is worth a look, particularly if it's from the 1930s.

Director Capra and writer Riskin's first socially conscious collaboration, the cornerstone of great films to come.

To start off Frank Capra is my favorite director because his best films are stories of regular people who have faith in the inherent goodness of the average person.

When I watched American MADNESS, I was surprised to see this 1932 movie is not as dated as you would expect. It moves quickly, has modern characters and dialogue and the drama is balanced with some comedy. The opening scene introduces one of those wonderful telephone operators with a voice that is instantly recognizable and funny at the same time.

American Madness' timely story is about bank president Thomas Dickson played by Walter Huston who has a lending policy that shows great faith in ordinary people but irritates his board of directors, as does his claim that an increased money supply will help end the Great Depression.

Walter Huston's character obviously embodies the wide-eyed hope found in such Capra films as Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, which also explore what it means to be a "little guy" in a world where millionaires and power brokers usually pull the strings. In some respects, American Madness amounts to a rigged argument in favor of Capra's most optimistic views. But along the way it shows his nagging awareness of the American dream's darker, madder side.

The Great Depression started on Oct. 29 of 1929 when the stock market crashed and it spread to almost every country in the world. US unemployment eventually rose to 25%. Bank failures snowballed as desperate bankers called in loans which the borrowers did not have time or money to repay. With future profits looking poor, capital investment and construction slowed or completely ceased. In the face of bad loans and worsening future prospects, the surviving banks became even more conservative in their lending. Banks built up their capital reserves and made fewer loans, which intensified pressures. A vicious cycle developed and the downward spiral accelerated. By 1933 more than 5,000 banks had failed.

American Madness was the first of Frank Capra's "social dramas," anticipating his later work in this sub-genre with Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and Meet John Doe. After WWII his Christmas classic It's A Wonderful Life would reuse two vital scenes first used in this movie. And for fans of the filmmaker's uplifting, socially conscious comedies as It Happened One Night and You Can't Take It With You this film is an early cornerstone of a great career.

But wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. The best of stories work because they have elements of truth in them and the basis for this film came from a banker named Giannini who started a small but successful lending institution in San Francisco called the Bank Of Italy that made loans to working class people not based on collateral, but based on the character of the borrower. Harry Cohen, the head of Columbia Studios that made tonight's movie was one such borrower who went to Mr. Giannini's bank to start his own business.

This story of banking opened in the dark heart of the Great Depression. It was risk taking too and it was not entirely well-received in cities that had seen bank runs in recent months.

But let's talk about what does work in this movie. First, there is the script that is economical and yet gives every character a full personality. Next the actors play real, flesh and blood people. Capra always brought a natural comfort level to his characters making them people we recognize and want to spend time with. Finally there is the crew behind the camera who must have enjoyed their jobs and believed in this director's vision.

There are two parallel stories, Dickson's battle with his board of directors and the personal lives of the bank's employees that lead to events that cripple the bank.

The cinematographer was Capra's favorite, Joseph Walker. Walker and Capra made 22 films together. And I've always appreciated Walker's camera work because it is so smooth, his shots seem to dove-tail together. I hate it when a cameraman tries to bring attention to what he's doing -- jarring you out of the story. Walker sometimes used 2-8 cameras to shoot a scene as it happened to later cut it together so you wouldn't notice the cuts, just smooth transitions.

Let's talk about the life lessons we can take away from these quaint old movies. Not only do we learn a few good moral lessons but I can't think of a better example of the dangers of gossip. The power and poison of gossip can quickly escalate to become a sinkhole of quicksand that swallows even the exaggerators!

Screenwriter Robert Riskin and Capra liked each other's work, and, as a result, Riskin contributed the wisecracking dialogue for Capra's Platinum Blonde. After American Madness future Riskin/Capra collaborations included Lady for a Day (later remade as Pocketful Of Miracles), It Happened One Night (first film to win all five major Oscars), Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (Oscar for Best Director), Lost Horizon and You Can't Take It With You (which won Oscars for Best Picture & Director). Free of their Columbia contracts in 1941, Riskin and Capra formed their own production company to put together Meet John Doe. In later years, Capra would sometimes comment that he'd often have to tone down Riskin's cynicism; Riskin bristled at Capra's tendency to appear to take all the credit.

One last thing in closing, I forgot to mention to you what happened to the Bank Of Italy, they changed their name to Bank Of America and are now one of the largest banks in the world. Well when I learned that, you could have knocked me over with a pin!

American Madness is a somewhat dated film from the Depression made dated by the banking legislation of the New Deal. This film was made in the last year of the Herbert Hoover presidency. In the following year, in one of the landmark reforms of the first hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt was the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Banks in fact have failed since then, but we've never seen the disastrous runs on them that characterized previous times, that are shown so graphically in this early Frank Capra film.

Comparing this with another Capra classic, imagine if you will instead of old man Potter running the bank in Bedford Falls, we had kindly old Peter Bailey instead. The man who believed in investing in his clients at the Building&Loan and passed that philosophy on to his son George.

That's what bank president Walter Huston believes in as well. But he's got a board of directors on his case just as Samuel S. Hinds as Peter Bailey. But he's got one thing that Hinds didn't have, a bored and flirtatious wife in Kay Johnson, ready to respond to the amorous advances of Gavin Gordon, one of the bank vice presidents.

Huston has a surrogate son though, like his George in the person of head teller Pat O'Brien. Pat works some wonders, save's Huston-Johnson marriage, helps stop a bank panic that results from a holdup that was clearly an inside job, and gets out from under suspicion of being involved in that same crime.

The climax of American Madness might be tied up a little too neatly, but Capra was honing his populist movie making skills in this film.

And if it's dated, there's reason to be thankful it is.

American Madness (1932)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely entertaining and all around dramatic film from Capra tells various stories inside a bank. All are centered around the head man (Walter Huston) at a bank that soon finds itself robbed with a watchman dead. One of the most trusted guys (Pat O'Brien) gets blamed for it and while this is going on word starts to get around that the bank is going to fall, which causes a near riot of people showing up to withdrawal all their money. I'm sure people could call this thing preachy but then again that's something you could call just about any film from this director. I was really surprised after viewing this that it wasn't more talked about in terms of classics from the director because I found it to be a rather solid entertainment from start to finish. The movie not only features some great performances but we've also got Capra telling a great story and milking it for every ounce of drama. You could also take the opening speech by Huston and play it today and it would still make sense and pack quite a punch. Capra does a wonderful job at keeping the film rolling at an extremely fast pace and I think he handles every little story just perfectly. We have a subplot with one of the bankers connections to some mob men and he also just happens to be connected to Huston's wife. We have O'Brien and his woman going through some troubles, which is handled very well and all the stuff dealing with the bank is pretty much an early version of what we'd eventually see in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. The performances are also very good with Huston leading the way with another major winner. His opening speech is marvelous as is the scene where he finds the truth out about his wife. O'Brien is very good as well as he perfectly fits that every man role. Kay Johnson and Constance Cummings are both good as well. One of the best moments in the film happens at the end when we witness the mad rush of the bank. The hundreds of extras used here is very impressive especially for such a small movie like this. I really enjoyed how Capra just left the camera in one spot for a minute and just let us witness the mad dash as it really gives us an idea and feeling of being in there among everyone. When people talk about Capra they rarely mention this film but I think it's a very strong little gem.

...from Columbia Pictures and director Frank Capra. Walter Huston stars as Thomas Dickson, a hard-charging bank president who runs his business with an eye towards growth and the future, much to the annoyance of his more conservative board members. His workload forces him to neglect his wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson), who looks for comfort in the arms of sketchy bank employee Cyril (Gavin Gordon). Meanwhile, another employee, Matt (Pat O'Brien) is romancing a secretary, Helen (Constance Cummings). When a terrible crime is committed, it causes a run on the bank, and everyone may lose everything.

For some reason I was expecting a look at backroom banking machinations that lead to the financial collapse of the Great Depression, but instead this is largely a soap-opera level melodrama about infidelity, gambling debts, and mob mentality. Huston is in full alpha-male motor-mouth mode, threatening to steamroll over anyone sharing a scene. Kay Johnson seems to have trouble with inattentive husbands given her other roles in the precode era. Gavin Gordon looks odd with his overly-manicured, pencil-thin eyebrows. This isn't bad, it's just fluff.