American Madness (1932)

[7]

In this early Frank Capra flick, romance blossoms and seeds of betrayal are sown during two days at a bank where a robbery leads to a public panic that threatens the bank’s existence. Walter Huston plays the bank’s owner, an optimist who lends to hard-working Americans who can’t get loans anywhere else. He’s the sort of boss who treats the security guard and the janitor the same as he treats his middle-managers — someone who would give you the shirt off his back if you asked him for it. But little does Huston know that one of his trusted employees is working with gangsters to rob the bank, or that his wife is being courted by that same dastardly employee (Gavin Gordon, whose creepy eyebrows give him away).

American Madness is quintessential Capra and a precursor of themes he would explore in many other films, most notably It’s a Wonderful Life. Throughout the film Huston argues with his board of directors who want him to liquidate clients’ assets and squirrel more money away for the bank. He’s the proto-George Bailey here, representing the everyman in our constant struggle against the greed of institutions. And the good karma he puts out into the universe does indeed come back to him in his greatest time of need.

The film takes place primarily on one, impressive, multi-level bank set. Frequent Capra screenwriter Robert Risk does a great job weaving the robbery and infidelity subplots to a simultaneous climax during a spectacular bank run sequence in which hordes of people flood the bank to withdraw their funds. The characters may not be as indelible as other Capra types, but Huston is reliably charismatic. He’s backed up by a competent supporting cast whose parts are better written than you might expect. Pat O’Brien and Constance Cummings play two employees in a romantic relationship that doesn’t annoy me (for a change), and Kay Johnson brings welcome complexity to the part of Huston’s wife.