Exhaustive, freewheeling ... Wasson correctly gauges that neither Capra nor his America were all sunshine and optimism. There was little simple about Capra. That’s why he’s still worth studying.
Fond and admiring, even gushing at times. But the book is also candid about its subject’s missteps ... Doubles as a history of Hollywood’s early days and its transition from silent films to talkies. It also offers a measured defense of the old studio system, which curtailed freedom but provided stability ... Like Capra, Wasson is an entertainer, fun to read even when he digresses ... His prose is energetic, occasionally overexuberant — and, above all, a paean to Capra’s enduring importance.
A warmhearted assessment of a Hollywood life ... Mr. Wasson’s narrative begins to sing, if sometimes operatically. His sympathy for Capra is abundant, as is his love for movies ... In part a rejoinder to an earlier biography, Joseph McBride’s Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success ... Mr. Wasson doesn’t skirt ignoble moments in Capra’s long decline (he died in 1991 at age 94), including the director’s refusal to credit colleagues for their contributions to his work. But the author is clearly more interested in celebration.
