IT’S A WONDERFUL FILM

Why all these hatchet jobs on the late Frank Capra? The law says you cannot libel the dead, so Capra is now being cruelly attacked on a variety of fronts.

An unflattering biography of Capra by Joe McBride, “Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success” (May 17), attempts to steal Capra’s credit and give it all to his screenwriter, Robert Riskin. Truth is, Capra made great films with Riskin and without Riskin. The only films Riskin ever made that anyone remembers were those directed by Capra.

Reviewer Gavin Lambert misstates the book in order to smear Capra as being pro-Mussolini, without mentioning that Capra (along with Winston Churchill) had radically changed this view by the 1930s. Indeed, Capra, although a rich middle-aged man in his 40s, enlisted in the military in World War II and was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal by Gen. George C. Marshall.

Lambert has the audacity to conclude that Capra was a “minor” film director. I need only point out that his films made poverty-row Columbia Studios rich, garnered a slew of Oscars, furthered the reputations of actors, and are still being watched, enjoyed, debated and (incredibly!) reviewed by critics in The Times generations after they were made.

Capra was a genius. May he rest in peace.

MICHAEL T. CREIGHTON, CLAREMONT