Frank Capra
126 connections found
Filmography
It's a Wonderful Life 1946 
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington 1939 
It Happened One Night 1934 
Lost Horizon 1937 
State of the Union 1948 
American Madness 1932 
You Can't Take It with You 1938 
Meet John Doe 1941 
Arsenic and Old Lace 1944 
Pocketful of Miracles 1961 
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town 1936 
The Bitter Tea of General Yen 1932 
The Miracle Woman 1931 
Why We Fight: The Battle of Britain 1943 
A Hole in the Head 1959 
Platinum Blonde 1931 View:
Connections, in both directions
The sector of the audience that comes to an Adam Sandler movie for the crude stuff won't warm up to this mid-life crisis, with its obvious echoes of Frank Capra's holiday perennial It's a Wonderful Life .
2 Stars (out of 4) Tweet Button Pushing By Jeffrey M. Anderson Adam Sandler's latest is a high-concept idea borrowed from It's a Wonderful Life (1946) that had the potential to be as deeply touching as The Truman Show (1998), but sways too far one direction into the vulgar and too far the other into the maudlin.
The title of the movie surely should have read "Cliché" for its outright rip-off of It's a Wonderful Life and every other movie about the value of family over a self-absorbed, super-charged work ethic.
But it's much more ambitious than those movies, thanks to a premise that recalls classics like "It's a Wonderful Life" and "A Christmas Carol" and a bigger budget to accommodate the extensive makeup and visual effects.
Some of "Click" pays tribute to "It's a Wonderful Life" and (even more astonishingly) "A Christmas Carol."
It's watching Sandler channel Jimmy Stewart in Click, a film that owes more than a little to It's a Wonderful Life.
Bruce Almighty (2003)
Directed by Tom Shadyac
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Plot Themes
The film borrows a lot from the seminal classic "It's a Wonderful Life", including a cute homage in which Bruce literally lassos the moon to make the night more romantic.
It's just that, given the rich premise of the film, writers Steve Koren, Mark O'Keefe and Steve Oedekerk could have done much more than turn it into a weak copy of "It's a Wonderful Life."
Basically, Bruce Almighty wants to be It's A Wonderful Life (explicitly referenced twice in the film) meets Groundhog Day, except they only really got as far as the pitch ("Jim Carrey IS God!
Considering that the basic story is just a variation of the old "It's A Wonderful Life" plot, it isn't surprising that the protagonist eventually recognizes that theme and has a transformation for the better.
An "It's a Wonderful Life" of 1946 -- which it seems to have as a model -- it's not.
Try to envision -- if you dare -- Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life with boob jokes, a running gag involving a urinating dog, a "butt monkey" and, worst of all, a tendency to mock the sort of gooey, uplifting twaddle that Carrey's film finally becomes.
Last Christmas (2019)
Directed by Paul Feig
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Themes Characters Plot
I will also admit that, even though the final twist didn’t bother me or strike me as cloying or facile, it’s still pretty hard to accept, Last Christmas entering into that melodramatic Frank Capra-esque realm of emotionally-saccharine magical realism few filmmakers other than the It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington master have been able to pull off with any consistency.
The Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and even Netflix have proven that for every The Bishop’s Wife or It’s a Wonderful Life , there’s also a place for improbable romantic cheese involving holiday spirit and a strategically placed sprig of mistletoe.
You can easily picture Emilia Clarke taking on any role in a holiday classic and make it believable (Mary Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, Ellen in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation).
On the contrary, knowing that Tom is basically It’s A Wonderful Life -ing Kate makes the movie that much sweeter while you watch it.
British producer David Livingstone ( Judy ) was pondering on Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life when he came up with the idea.
It’s A Wonderful Life has gone down as a classic since its release and Christmas Vacation is a non-stop laugh riot.
Directors Pete Docter (“Monsters, Inc.”) and Bob Peterson and their co-screenwriter Tom McCarthy brilliantly draw on such cinematic touchstones as “It’s a Wonderful Life” and “The Wizard of Oz.” They’re also inspired by less likely sources such as “Fitzcarraldo,” “The Red Balloon” and Jules Verne’s “The Lost World” — not to mention Warner Bros.’ animated Road Runner and even the logo of its archrival, DreamWorks Animation.
Sadly, echoing George Bailey’s stasis in It’s a Wonderful Life , events conspire to tie them to their small house in a neighbourhood that, as the film begins, is set for redevelopment by sinister men in sleek suits.
It's touching, too, and reminiscent of "It's a Wonderful Life," that they had bought and fixed up the abandoned house they once used for their pretend adventures as children.
The Tomorrow War (2021)
Directed by Chris McKay
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Themes Plot
Violence notwithstanding, McKay credits the Frank Capra classic "It's a Wonderful Life" as inspiration for "The Tomorrow War," as both feature a family man given a second chance at life once he has glimpsed the future.
Warnings for the world notwithstanding, there’s also an It’s A Wonderful Life vibe to this film since Dan has an opportunity to give himself a second chance.
The movie includes nods to everything from Alien to Waterworld to It's a Wonderful Life.
There is also enough sweetness and focus on human relations to give it a quality like "It's a Wonderful Life", that is, if George Bailey trudged through Miami high-rises, evading spear-wielding, flesh-eating monsters yet still found time for that ah-ha moment, fully understanding how much he had been taking for granted.
Dan, who is ex military himself, seems to be on the same path, which sets up the dumb notion that we may be watching "It's a Wonderful Life" with space monsters.
Collateral Beauty (2016)
Directed by David Frankel
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Themes Plot
Not that this knockoff Hallmark special doesn’t go out of its way to camouflage its ill-conceived intentions as well as the considerable debt it owes to such seasonal chestnuts as “A Christmas Carol” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Intended as a twinkling Christmastime fable, it’s actually a dark perversion of “It’s a Wonderful Life” that replaces divine intervention with corporate fraud, and small-town values with big-city ambition.
Imagine if in It’s a Wonderful Life Clarence hadn’t been an angel but an actor hired by Uncle Billy and then the whole town gathered to redecorate in an effort to convince George Bailey that he shouldn’t kill himself.
In Hollywood, that has led to films from Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life to A Charlie Brown Christmas and Elf.
Directed by David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”) and written by Allan Loeb (“21”), the dramedy aims to be a holiday-season uplift film with an otherworldly component, like “It’s a Wonderful Life” or “A Christmas Carol.”
Despite the strange direction the plot takes, this is a film that goes with old school traditional values in the vein of movies like Miracle on 34th Street and It’s a Wonderful Life, without driving the Christmas holiday or meaning down your throat.
They’re not wrong, we do deserve our own “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
Even if you’re like me and prefer when they’re Die Hard , as opposed to It’s a Wonderful Life , this will do the trick.
The Family Man (2000)
Directed by Brett Ratner
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Plot Themes
In this one which must have been put together by someone who watched "It's a Wonderful Life" after a little too much eggnog and methamphetamine Nicolas Cage plays a high-rolling international investment star who is shunted into an alternate universe by a helpful angel and comes to see the pleasures of living in a crappy house in New Jersey.
And why is it that when a film blatantly steals from a classic -- "It's a Wonderful Life," in this case -- the characters almost never acknowledge it?
The best "What if?" movies are dark and troubling on some level -- It's a Wonderful Life starts with a man who wishes he'd never been born, and in Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character is driven to suicide by the banality of day-to-day existence.
Cage eases into the role with the charm and affability of Jimmy Stewart and its no coincidence, since "The Family Man" is essentially a reworking of that Christmas staple "It's a Wonderful Life" (right down to its angelic Clarence Oddbody, here fleetingly realized by Don Cheadle).
December 25, 2000 -- "The Family Man" is a slightly different riff on the story in the old movie "It's a Wonderful Life."
The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
Directed by Frank Darabont
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Characters Themes
Darabont’s lead characters in Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Majestic all bring to mind classic James Stewart roles from It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Over the years, it has attained a classic status that rivals “Casablanca,” “Citizen Kane,” and “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
And for a viewer like me, it takes a lot to get me to care about characters this much - in fact, only It's A Wonderful Life effected me this much.
Da je "The Shawshank Redemption" snimljen nekoliko dekada ranije, u filmu bi glavnu ulogu zasigurno igrao James Stewart ("It's a Wonderful Life").
Darabont’s lead characters in Shawshank Redemption, The Green Mile, and The Majestic all bring to mind classic James Stewart roles from It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
Jay Kelly (2025)
Directed by Noah Baumbach
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Themes Plot Characters
…with the sincerity and heart of It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)…
The reminiscing almost feels like It’s a Wonderful Life, except with the protagonist realizing he was actually kind of awful.
The film is a thinly veiled It’s a Wonderful Life.
Jay admits in one of several George Bailey–esque soliloquies…
Think It’s a Wonderful Life for the modern age, with poetic setups and payoffs that hit like a warm hug.
The Life of Chuck (2025)
Directed by Mike Flanagan
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Themes
…like Shawshank or the thematically similar It’s A Wonderful Life, feels destined to be around long after today’s hits are forgotten…
I’d call it a spin on “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the Trump era, when angels have a hell of a time getting their wings.
Ironically, It’s A Wonderful Life becomes a decent comparison point, since Frank Capra’s classic is a rather pensive film, too. But even in 1946, Capra knew that one line of dialogue, “a toast to my big brother, George, the richest man in town,” spoke louder than any amount of authorial philosophizing ever could.
And some viewers will undoubtedly be as moved by it as they are by films like “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
What Paddington 2 demonstrates is that in the currently messed-up and hectic world we currently live in, we need films like this to remind us how we need something loving to make our lives endearing, akin to the warm message of It's a Wonderful Life.
(There are movie references galore here, from "The Lone Ranger" and "It's a Wonderful Life" to the silents of Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton) It is Mary Brown (Sally Hawkins), here more than ever the human equivalent of Aunt Lucy, who deduces that the pop-up book is a treasure map and that the multiple strange sightings at Tower Bridge, St. Paul’s Cathedral and the Serpentine in Hyde Park are one man in disguise.
Upon deeper inspection, it also carries all those conventional visual and narrative details we come to associate with stories about the holidays: the obligatory wintry landscape where iron lampposts barely light the streets behind blankets of falling snow; the old Scrooge-like humbug (an old lady obsessed with money and cruelty played by Polly Holliday); a mute housewife (Frances Lee McCain) who engages in all the ordinary holiday pastimes, including watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on a kitchen television while baking cookies; and the local bar where citizens exchange those silly or vulgar anecdotes that aren’t very funny unless you’re in on the joke.
We see actual clips of "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," "It's a Wonderful Life" (which Billy's mom amusingly refers to as a "sad movie"), "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," and "To Please a Lady."
A great Christmas film can be shown in late December and any other time during the year, qualities shared by the best of all Yuletide movies, It's a Wonderful Life and Gremlins .
Imagine a berserk film editor splicing ''It's a Wonderful Life'' to ''Invasion of the Body Snatchers,'' with quoting from ''Snow White'' and a nod to ''The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.''
This is probably because Joe Dante’s Christmastime children’s fantasy is so gleefully mischievous and full of dark, magical energy that it’s hard to look past the plush-toy cuteness of Gizmo, the sweet romance between Billy (Zach Galligan) and Kate (Phoebe Cates), or the stream of reverential allusions to The Wizard of Oz, It’s A Wonderful Life, producer Steven Spielberg’s E.T., and the Looney Tunes cartoons (replete with a cameo by famed Warner Bros. animator Chuck Jones) from which Dante lovingly draws inspiration.
But given that the movie so blatantly hews to the original It Happened One Night formula-- complete with drippy husband-to-be (Adam Scott, so much more fun when he's smarmy) waiting at the end-- it has to be said: these two are no Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable.
This one takes the idea of the glossy "French Kiss," the classics "I Know Where I'm Going" and "It Happened One Night" and about two dozen other squabbling-couple-dealing-with-a-disaster-prone-journey movies and, as Woody Allen once said of his mother's cooking, "puts it through the de-flavorizing machine."
In this heavily diluted version of those classics It Happened One Night and I Know Where I'm Going, on the way to wed Dream Man, Anna gets sidetracked by Sarcastic Guy.
Though a loose update of 1945's "I Know Where I'm Going," the soulless script patches together influences ranging from 1934's "It Happened One Night" to 1997's "The Matchmaker," which was also about an ambitious American who falls for a surly Irishman.
Instead of a tonal and story amalgam of Local Hero and It Happened One Night, we get a pile-up of tired moments that are the product of whomever did the Google search that revealed the leap day custom.
Not for nothing does the town share a name with the angel in Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life."
His creation takes Larry Walters’s urban legend and uses the wacky premise to build his stranger-in-a-strange-land tale that is a combination of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” “Mr.
Mr. Holland's Opus (1995)
Directed by Stephen Herek
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Plot Themes
The movie spans some 30 years and is patterned after It's a Wonderful Life.
Similar in theme and content to Dead Poets' Society and It's a Wonderful Life, this movie persuades its audience that no life spent in a worthy pursuit is ever wasted.
The Adjustment Bureau (2011)
Directed by George Nolfi
influenced by It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Plot Themes
The tone of the film veers wildly from paranoia to predestination, making it an unsuccessful marriage of The Manchurian Candidate with It's a Wonderful Life.
Anyway, the point is that you've seen this sort of thing before, all the way back to It's A Wonderful Life, even if its fake-serious energy and matte finish will temporarily and entertainingly trick you into thinking otherwise.
They get assigned odd menial tasks on Earth, like wandering around listening to the thoughts of people with whom they can never interact (Wings of Desire), keeping suicidal drunks from offing themselves (It's a Wonderful Life), and trying to get notoriously fickle humans to fall (and stay) in love (A Life Less Ordinary).
Based on a Philip K. Dick story, this metaphysical fable takes place in a world somewhere between The Matrix and It's a Wonderful Life, where David (Damon), an up-and-coming politician, bumps into Elise (Emily Blunt) as he rehearses a concession speech in a men's room.
In It’s a Wonderful Life , George Bailey discovers, with a little supernatural assistance, that he has a very precise destiny and that one misstep could generate a radically different future.
Think Mr. Smith Goes to Washington meets Inception, with a love story thrown in: Matt Damon and Emily Blunt in The Adjustment Bureau.
Friends with Benefits (2011)
Directed by Will Gluck
influenced by It Happened One Night (1934)
Themes
Not only are their references to real life romantic films – such as the poster for “It Happened One Night” that hangs over her bed – but there’s a running gag about a made-up film that’s is one of her favorites which runs to the very end of the movie.
Preston Sturges this is not, nor Frank Capra (a poster for "It Happened One Night" hangs over Jamie's bed), nor even Judd Apatow, whose "Knocked Up" and "The 40-Year-Old Virgin" much more successfully merged sweetness and saltiness.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000)
Directed by Joel Coen
influenced by It Happened One Night (1934)
Characters Plot
Why if it isn't George Clooney in a perfectly jaunty performance that seems to channel both the roguish comedic charm of Clark Gable in "It Happened One Night" and the earnest zaniness of Cary Grant in his screwiest comedies.
But the film, essentially a road movie, isn't as much fun along the way as such old gems as Sturges' The Palm Beach Story or Frank Capra's It Happened One Night.
Debuting Writer-director Gareth Edwards mounts this cross of “It Happened One Night” and “The War of the Worlds” with lovely cinematography, dry humor (our contemporary immigration debate is given a stark new dimension here) and a real sense of people and place.
It covers the spectrum, too, sampling bits of “It Happened One Night,” “Apocalypse Now,” “District 9” and “Before Sunrise,” all set to a sci-fi beat that you can dance to – if you have the patience.
Despite its gigantic, squid-like aliens from outer space that have crash-landed in northern Mexico, Monsters (from Magnet Releasing) conjured memories for me of Frank Capra's 1934 comedy classic, It Happened One Night.
A cross between 2004's " The Motorcycle Diaries ," 2005's " The War of the Worlds ," and 2009's " District 9 " with plenty of 1934's "It Happened One Night" thrown in, "Monsters" is, collectively, like no other feature film in memory.
And it also means that the road movie takes on an It Happened One Night quality as these bickering strangers are thrown together against the odds.