Populist primer.

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: REEL WORLD - History of movies

I LOST A BELOVED AUNT RECENTLY, and it got me to thinking about the movies of her youth (the 1930s and 1940s), a subject she dearly loved to discuss with me. This was the heyday of director Frank Capra's populism--the feel-good movies of second chances and underdogs winning. The Capra filmography is a populist primer for the genre: "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936), "You Can't Take It With You" (1938), "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), "Meet John Doe" (1941), and "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946).

With my aunt, it clearly was a case of life imitating art. Indeed, the title "You Can't Take It With You" might have served as her motto. At its best, a populist story attempts to be an honest tale, something my aunt greatly appreciated. For example, "Mr. Smith" not only is a touching comedy showcase of the values upon which the U.S. is based, with James Stewart's career-making turn as a young patriot, the movie is most rewarding when it freely illustrates flaws in the system. Throughout the years, a hallmark of American populism has been a willingness to show the weaknesses as well as the positives of a democratic state.

Other characteristics associated with populism include embracing rural and small town life, mythic-like leaders who have risen from the people, an adherence to traditional values and customs, a faithfulness to honest labor, a general optimism concerning humanity's potential for good, the importance of family, and underlining the importance of the individual. Put more succinctly, populism defines people as inherently good.

The Capra country philosopher constantly acts as a Jeffersonian brake on the dangers of Hamiltonian big government (or comparable powerful organizations bent on dictating orders to the common man). While Stewart's Jefferson Smith stops corruption in the Senate, John Doe (another everyman, this time played by Gary Cooper) stops a fascist-like organization from assuming power in "Meet John Doe." Poet Longfellow Deeds (named after the patriotic poet of the people and also played by Cooper) offers a self-help, small-farm solution to the Great Depression while foiling a corrupt but influential banker in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." In "It's a Wonderful Life," Stewart's George Bailey runs a savings and loan that provides an affordable option to blue collar citizens--versus the evil Mr. Potter's (Lionel Barrymore) misuse of his banking power.

In adapting the Moss Hart-George Kaufman play, "You Can't Take It With You," to...