To the reader—
In 1971, I was a teenage actor who privately held the unlikely dream of one day directing movies myself. The stories I read and heard about Frank Capra’s spirit, tenacity, and vision inspired me as much as his array of great and enthralling movies that had already left me in awe of his truly unique talent.
It Happened One Night (1934), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946)—he directed and produced them all, the first two earning him Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Picture. A Caltech graduate in chemical engineering, he had waited tables, worked at a campus laundry facility, and played banjo at nightclubs. Frank Capra was no “goat,” as they say in Italian. For Frank, directing movies was a calling and the hard work was simply second nature. In addition to being a rags-to-riches example of the American Dream, Frank Capra was one of a kind and considered by many, and many legends, to be one of the best directors ever.
John Ford: “Frank Capra heads the list as the greatest motion picture director in the world.”
John Cassavetes: “Maybe there never was an America. Maybe it was only Frank Capra.”
He worked at all levels of the film industry. From a gag man under Mack Sennett to an editor, script writer, producer, and as a brilliant director. Because of the stories he told, people say Frank had a deep insight into people and events and that he loved the “little man.” Whether Mr. Smith was going to Washington or Mr. Deeds was going to town, Capra swept us all along on the journey with characters we can all relate to. In any case, there is no denying that Frank Capra brought some of the greatest stories of American life to the screen.
In The Name Above the Title, Capra tells the story of his life so masterfully that when I read it, it was the rocket fuel I needed to propel me to new levels of passion and ambition to be a moviemaker and to, by god, dare to quit being quiet about it and declare it to the world!
This expansive autobiography winningly frames the stories of Capra and his family coming to America as poor, illiterate Italian immigrants; how he worked his way up to the top of the business; his service in World War II; the McCarthy era, and beyond. Spanning decades, Frank Capra served his country with distinction both in military and civilian life. Earning many medals while serving the United States during World War II, he also earned the Order of the British Empire from Winston Churchill. Throw in six Academy Awards and many other awards too numerous to mention and Mr. Capra cuts an historic silhouette.
Yet his career success never dulled his compassion for writing stories about the human condition and creating work such as the perennial, decades-long holiday favorite: It’s a Wonderful Life, an unparalleled pan-generational hit built on values and the characters who stand up for them.
Unfortunately, when Frank was in his mid-sixties, it seemed the film industry had turned its back on him. He couldn’t find a studio willing to hire him to make a motion picture he believed in and he began losing his confidence. At some point he went north to his family’s second home in the High Sierras, did some soul-searching, and it was then that he began to write stories again. To this date, the extent of his writing output can’t be known for sure, but over three decades after his passing, his family found galleys of two unpublished novels in an old storage locker. These two novels titled Night Voices and Cry Wilderness were both written in 1966 with changes made in 1968, and prove that Capra’s drive to tell stories was still alive!
Told against the backdrop of two famous mountain ranges, the geologic masterpieces known as the Sierra Nevada and White Mountains, Cry Wilderness is yet another classic Capra story. In this tale, a seemingly minor investigation leads to an epic court case that pits two points of view of human nature against each other. These two perspectives and the definition of civilization and culture itself are brilliantly put in play here by Capra who, without question, gives the reader much to ponder after turning the last page. The story is articulate, thoughtful, profound, and, most importantly, told without pretension.
Cry Wilderness is a classic Capra tale we can all fall in love with and indicates in sharp relief that well past the supposed “peak” of his professional directing career, Frank Capra was creating characters and scenes that were quintessentially his own. Once again Capra has brought pages to life with his undiminished and unparalleled humor involving an abundance of great characters and, in an ironic twist, includes himself!
Yes, at center of it all is Frank Capra, the Hollywood big shot, called to action and moved to take on the establishment. The story could certainly suggest that maybe he never really left Hollywood, that perhaps it was Hollywood that left him, and well before his time. Nevertheless, here it is on the page, evidence that roughly twenty-five years before his death in 1991, the undaunted Frank Capra was creating a new chapter in his career. He was writing a book. A novel. And then some.
Cry Wilderness is genuine, intriguing, and wonderfully Capra-esque. Read it and enjoy! It is my sincere hope that you’ll be inspired by Frank Capra the same way I was.
—Ron Howard