Wednesday, December 26, 2007

American Madness (1932)

Nothing quite brings the holiday cheer like a depression era drama about an embattled bank president who is contending with an unfaithful wife and a bank-panic all on the same day.
If you said "this sounds like a Frank Capra film" and you would be right on that score.
It is a good movie, Walter Huston is great, Pat O'Brien is wonderful, even Sterling Holloway has a good scene or two. It is a stone cold shame more of Capra's early works like "Miracle Woman" (1931) and "Submarine" (1927) aren't available at all on DVD.
In some ways this is a sort of early sketch for the later classic Jimmy Stewart vehicle "It's a Wonderful Life", which again features a virtuous banker in close battle with personal and professional challenges.
Can't recommend a single local outlet that might rent this film, nor does it play much on cable, hell I had to watch via a "private source".
However, we will be able to download it someday but only after spending hundeds and hundreds of dollars on bandwith upgrades.

Amazon will sell you the film as part of a collection...here: take that for whatever comfort it may bring.