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.

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.

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.

This is early Frank Capra film, primarily interesting because of Walter Huston's character and the portrayal of mob mentality in a "run" on the bank. Walter Huston plays a noble bank president who tries to serve the community while fighting off greedy bankers who want to cash in and the mob mentality of the people he is trying to protect. Meanwhile, his wife feels neglected, but that relationship isn't developed enough to make interesting. Good Production values for a film of this time.

NRA cheerleader Frank Capra condenses FDR's march out of the depression with this hokey drama about keeping faith in the banking industry which in 1932 were collapsing daily throughout the country. Bank President Thomas Dickson is a typical Capra idealist, friend of the little man and bane to the greedy board of directors whom he suggests (anti-semitically?) are "acting like pawnbrokers". When the bank is robbed by an insider, the chief teller, an ex-con hired by the trusting Dickson is the primary suspect. Meanwhile in a well edited montage a run on the bank ensues as a rumor runs amok on the size of the banks loss. Dickson gallantly attempts to keep the institution solvent but is suddenly blindsided by the strong possibility his wife has been sleeping with one of his officers. Close to being crushed by both sides of his existence Dickson, like all Capra heroes begins the Sisyphean task of recovering.

Of all thirties Hollywood pantheon directors, Frank Capra's work has aged as poorly as any with its saccharine sentimentality and noble, naive protagonists. In his day though he provided a depression era audience with an upbeat message and faith in mankind that made him right for the times. He had an armful of Oscar's to prove it. There's a bumper crop of corn in Madness but it moves along at a decent pace with reliable performances from Walter Huston, Pat O'Brien and Constance Cumming. Twenty-eight year old Kay Johnson looks fifty and Gavin Gordon's bank officer predates the metro sexual by nearly 70 years.

The photography of the highly underrated cinematographer Joseph Walker is the film's most attractive element. The opulent bank is lovingly phototgraphed with the vault taking on a role as important as any of the characters, giving it an almost Hal like quality. Walker also provides the chiaroscuro portraits work that helped make the Capra everyman in his films so compelling. Overall American Madness is a liberal leaning, well intentioned good looking fairy tale.