Capra, Frank

As I looked out the window and into the lobby, the Mandarin Oriental, with its silver Chinese cloud motif, began to remind me of the mythical lamasery in Frank Capra s 1937 Lost Horizon. (Mr. Capra claimed the Christmas season with another classic, It s a Wonderful Life.)... 

Arsenic is one of the oldest and best known of poisons. It is so well known, in fact, that when the wonderful Frank Capra comedy Arsenic and Old Lace was released, everyone knew that it was going to be a murder mystery in which someone would be poisoned. In fact, it has even been rumoured that Napoleon died from arsenic poisoning, the arsenic coming from the green dye on his wallpaper. We deduce that even a small amount of arsenic will cause death, or at least an unpleasant and lingering illness. 

Poisoning makes good drama. Witness Arsenic Old Lace - a play by Joseph Kesselring that achieved its greatest success in the Frank Capra film version about two elderly matrons who are ultimately less than cordial to certain gentlemen visitors. Aunt Martha is very forthcoming with the recipe for the drinks they supply ... 

Arsenic and Old Lace was already mentioned above among the literary arts as a famous toxicology-oriented play. It found, of course, another life in the memorable 1944 film version directed by Frank Capra. Toxic themes have been adopted by many movies. 

An effective treatment is Frank Capra s It s a Wonderful Life (1946). Heaven and angels seemed out of place in the immediate postwar period. But today, after 50 years, the Capra film is shown continually and celebrated. 

U Frank Capra, Al Pacino, Sue Grafton (Moon in Sagittarius)... 

---