American Madness
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Robert Riskin
1932/US
Columbia Pictures
IMDb page
Repeat viewing/Amazon Prime rental
Upon receiving his AFI Lifetime Achievment Award] I’d be the first to admit I’m a damn good director. – Frank Capra
Thomas A. Dickson (Walter Huston) runs a successful bank. He believes that credit should be given based on character not on wealth. His board of directors believes this “faith-based lending” will wreck the bank and wants either to get Walter to change his ways or quit. Walter refuses to do either.
Then the bank is robbed of $100,000. It was evidently an inside job and blame is placed on cashier Pat O’Brien who is in charge of the vault. He has an alibi which he refuses to use because it might compromise Walter’s wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson) whom he found in the apartment of creepy bank executive Cyril Cluett (Gavin Gordon).
In an elaborate game of “telephone”, rumors that the bank has lost millions in the robbery and is on the verge of failure spread like wildfire through the city. A run on the bank ensues. I will go no further except to say that many of the tropes in this movie would appear again in It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). With Constance Cummings as O’Brien’s fiancee and Huston’s secretary.
This is an excellent movie. The acting is terrific and the skill that Capra was developing is evident in every scene, especially the spectacular crowd shots during the bank run. Recommended.
