August 4, 1932, with the Great Depression at its worst, Frank Capra’s American Madness is released.
‘American Madness’ was a shocker to the public. It created controversy among critics and bitter contention in financial circles. Some called it “New Dealish”… “impractical star-gazing:… “fuzzy thinking.” Other said the thinking was no fuzzier than the “thinking” of financiers which created the boom and the crash.
– Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title, 1971
That quote is an example of why Capra’s autobiography is best read with an occasional grain of salt. The New Deal didn’t exist yet, and FDR hadn’t even been elected. Regardless, American Madness has Walter Huston as a bank president stating the case for new thinking to deal with the Depression. Herbert “Business as Usual” Hoover did not represent new thinking.
American Madness is a must-see movie, if only for its value as a time capsule, dramatizing the very real fears of a desperate, panicking public. But it has much more going for it. With the exception of the clichéd gangsters, the interactions between the characters are delightful, and Constance Cummings is an absolute dream.