American Madness
Director: Frank Capra
Year Released: 1932
Rating: 2.5
Union National Bank president Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston) has to contend with multiple problems: the Board of Directors want him out (for being "too liberal") despite his outstanding multi-decade track record, he's so busy he can't spend much time with his wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson), his head cashier Cyril Cluett (Gavin Gordon) owes the mob $50k (he has a gambling addiction) ... and then a night watchman winds up shot dead, the vault is raided, rumors spread around town and a massive crowd gathers to take their cash out. The second word in the title could have been "propaganda" since the function of the movie is to "restore confidence" in the nation's financial institutions and use Huston (in a commanding lead role) as a "symbol" of integrity, thereby placing blame for any "mishandling" on his evil underling who thinks nothing of sabotaging his place of employment and proudly boasts that he's "involved" with a married woman. The whole 'infidelity' subplot involving Cluett and Phyllis is clunky and when Dickson finds out about it he considers taking his own life with a pistol, but no dame is worth eating a bullet for, the two (improbably) patch up their marriage and the bank is saved. Go America?