FRANKLY

A memoir recounts the arduous process of producing a book on a celebrated film director.

McBride (Two Cheers for Hollywood, 2017, etc.) explains that creating an extensive, warts-and-all biography of an American icon was no simple task. In fact, it was a monumental time- and energy-consuming process that eventually produced a book in 1992. The story begins much earlier with the author’s efforts in Hollywood. He was a screenwriter with some successes (co-writing, for example, the film that became the Ramones vehicle Rock ’n’ Roll High School), a journalist, and author. His earnest interest in movies pushed him to “seek out and interview every venerable director I admired.” In 1975, he was able to interview Frank Capra while “on self-assignment” for Daily Variety. It would prove the first of many interviews that would lead to seeking out all there was to know about the man behind such classic films as It’s a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But not all of the discoveries would be pleasant ones. Capra, it turns out, made plenty of enemies in his time, particularly during the Red Scare of the 1950s when he had “thrown colleagues to the witch hunters to save his own skin.” McBride battled everyone from lawyers to a distrustful university archivist to uncover and publish the details of Capra’s epic journey. Readers are reminded that this was an uphill battle all the way and that the biography genre “challenges you on every level as a researcher and writer, critic and scholar.” Although the idea of the story behind a biography of a film director may not sound like riveting stuff, the tale is marked with deceit, a car crash, and a desire to know. What does it take to produce a less-than-glamorous portrait of a man who many consider a genius? The author deftly shows exactly what it took and the specifics are most telling. The book dives deeply into concerns like the fair use of material, including presenting information on a court case involving a biography of J.D. Salinger in 1987. Somewhat less thrilling are the many foes McBride seeks to expose. Did a university archivist really send a graduate student to spy on the author while he worked through Capra’s papers? Does it matter at this point? Still, McBride has some intriguing things to impart and he is not afraid to reveal them. He considers Michael Bay “the worst director in modern Hollywood.” And don’t get the author started on the idea of the film director as auteur. While he’s indisputably cranky in places, McBride’s overall honesty strongly comes across in these pages. Who knew something as seemingly innocuous as penning a biography would entail so much lasting conflict?

While it lingers over past wrongs, this work about writing Frank Capra’s biography remains entertainingly sincere.