American Madness

American Madness (1932)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Extremely entertaining and all around dramatic film from Capra tells various stories inside a bank. All are centered around the head man (Walter Huston) at a bank that soon finds itself robbed with a watchman dead. One of the most trusted guys (Pat O'Brien) gets blamed for it and while this is going on word starts to get around that the bank is going to fall, which causes a near riot of people showing up to withdrawal all their money. I'm sure people could call this thing preachy but then again that's something you could call just about any film from this director. I was really surprised after viewing this that it wasn't more talked about in terms of classics from the director because I found it to be a rather solid entertainment from start to finish. The movie not only features some great performances but we've also got Capra telling a great story and milking it for every ounce of drama. You could also take the opening speech by Huston and play it today and it would still make sense and pack quite a punch. Capra does a wonderful job at keeping the film rolling at an extremely fast pace and I think he handles every little story just perfectly. We have a subplot with one of the bankers connections to some mob men and he also just happens to be connected to Huston's wife. We have O'Brien and his woman going through some troubles, which is handled very well and all the stuff dealing with the bank is pretty much an early version of what we'd eventually see in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. The performances are also very good with Huston leading the way with another major winner. His opening speech is marvelous as is the scene where he finds the truth out about his wife. O'Brien is very good as well as he perfectly fits that every man role. Kay Johnson and Constance Cummings are both good as well. One of the best moments in the film happens at the end when we witness the mad rush of the bank. The hundreds of extras used here is very impressive especially for such a small movie like this. I really enjoyed how Capra just left the camera in one spot for a minute and just let us witness the mad dash as it really gives us an idea and feeling of being in there among everyone. When people talk about Capra they rarely mention this film but I think it's a very strong little gem.