Walther Huston is caught in Frank Capra’s “American Madness”

American Madness (1932) is a pre-Code drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Walter Huston. Other members of the cast include Pat O’Brien, Kay Johnson, and Constance Cummings.

Tom Dickson (Huston) is the president of Union National Bank. The bank’s board is concerned that Dickson’s lending practices are too risky during the early years of the Great Depression.

When the bank is robbed, it causes a run and Dickson’s career and the banks survival are in Jeopardy.

Frank Capra (1897 - 1991) was an American film director, producer, and writer. During the 1930s and 1940s, Capra’s films were among the most popular and awarded films. By 1938, Capra has won three Best Director Academy Awards. Born in Italy, Capra immigrated to the United States with his family when he was five years old. By sheer determination and his self-described cockiness, Capra talked his way into the movie business. He found a great home at “Poverty Row” studio, Columbia Pictures. At Columbia he had a major success with It Happened One Night (1934), which swept all the major categories at the Academy Awards that year. This helped turn Columbia Pictures from a Poverty Row studio into a major one. Other Capra successes include You Can’t Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

 

Walter Huston (1883 - 1950) was a Canadian singer, stage, and film actor. He is also the patriarch of the Huston clan which includes his writer-director son John, and his granddaughter, actress Anjelica. Huston worked in the theater, with roles on Broadway where he debuted in 1924. Once talking pictures began in Hollywood, Huston worked as both a leading man and also a character actor. Some of Huston’s films include The Virginian (1929), Rain (1932), Gabriel Over the White House (1933), The Devil and Daniel Webster (1941), and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, directed by his son John. Huston’s last film was The Furies (1950) co-starring Barbara Stanwyck and Wendell Corey.

American Madness  trivia

• Frank Capra replaced Allan Dwan as director and started from scratch.
• Walter Huston was on loan from M-G-M.
• Capra modeled Walter Huton’s character after A. P. Giannini, the founder of the Bank of America.
• The film’s original title was Bank Story.
• American Madness is credited with helping to restore the public’s faith in the banking industry.
• This was the first collaboration between Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin; American Madness was Riskin’s first original screenplay.

 

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Sterling Holloway, Constance Cummings, and Pat O’Brien

Discussion questions

1. Did the film seem realistic to you?
2. Was Walter Huston convincing as the bank president?
3. What did you think of the pacing of the film? After only three years after the first all-talking pictures, American Madness seems fairly modern, especially when compared to other films from 1931. Do you agree?
4. Do you see some foreshadowing of future Capra movies? If so, which ones?
5. Did anything about the film surprise you?