Word: capra
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...Pocketful of Miracles (United Artists), Director Frank Capra's reglaze of a soggy old (1933) candied apple called Lady for a Day, Bette Davis, 53, finds heavier slogging on the comeback trail. She is cast as Apple Annie, one of those studiously shabby, relentlessly endearing sentimendicants who are patrolling the stretch of Broadway that is running through Damon Runyon's brain...
...Capra tells the teary tale, raggedy Annie has an iron kidney and a golden heart. People think she is selling apples just to make gin money. Little do they know that the burlapidated old bag is (violins can now be heard sobbing on the sound track) An Unwed Mother. Yes, the dear old girl is living on Gordon's and garbage, and sending every lousy nickel to a Spanish convent, where her wide-eyed, ever-loving daughter lives with some kind old nuns who teach her to be a lady and shield her from the awful truth about...
...Hole in the Head (Sincap; United Artists) is just what famed Filmaster Frank Capra (It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town) needed this picture like-unless, after an eight-year absence from moviemaking, it was only money he was after. The story about a Jewish family has undergone nearly every possible treatment by Author Arnold Schulman (one-act play, TV script, a novel, two full-length plays, one of which made Broadway) except maybe a synopsis baked inside a Chinese fortune cookie...
...none of Director Capra's sharp, knowing touches about people really save this one-act vignette from being lost for 120 minutes on the wide screen. To beef it all up, he has loaded it with unconscionable plugs for the Miami Beach shoreline, an expensive hotel, fashion models, flamingos and dog races. But not even Capra could plug all the holes...
...idea sounds like a far-out gag from one of his own movies, but Comedy Director Frank (It Happened One Night) Capra insists that this time he is playing it straight. After years of research he is anxious to get started filming the life of St. Paul, and he has already picked his leading man: Frank Sinatra. "I'll admit that at first Sinatra seems a little offbeat for the role," says Capra. "When I first mentioned it to him, I think he was shocked. But there's no doubt about his acting ability, or his depth...