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10 out of 10 people found the following comment useful :-
Walter Huston Highlights Early Capra Classic, 31 mars 2004
Author: Kalaman de Ottawa

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Film critic Richard Schickel says that "American Madness" is Frank Capra's first truly great film. I don't know if I agree with him, but it's certainly terrific gem worthy of such accolade. The film is a fast-paced, exciting early social drama, written by Capra's long-time collaborator Robert Riskin, starring Walter Huston as the populist bank president Thomas Dickson who loans money to people in need during Depression.

"American Madness" opens with the bank's board of directors holding an emergency meeting with Dickson to discuss possible merger with the New York Trust. The board intends to end Dickson's reckless practice of lending money to people without collateral. Meanwhile, one of the bank's trusted officers Cyril Cluett (Gavin Gordon), under pressure from some hoods, arranges a robbery to pay off his gambling debts. As the events proceed, Cluett becomes involved with Dickson's glamorous wife Phyllis (Kay Johnson).

The robbery creates a huge mass hysteria as thousands of angry depositors rush to the bank to withdraw their investments -- one of Capra's most powerful images of mass hysteria, a sequence to rival the one in "Meet John Doe". Ultimately, two of Dickson's most efficient employees, Helen (played by the always radiant Constance Cummings) & Matt (Pat O'Brien) come to the aid of their boss.

Walter Huston is terrific as Dickson, a quirky but shrewd financier who is capable of understanding people's financial problems. He's also courteous to his employees and very faithful to his bored wife; at the same time he has a deep grasp of the duty of financial institutions to distribute money into circulation. In what is perhaps the most astute quote in the film, "Character", he muses, "is the only thing you can bank on!"

This was one of Huston's earliest roles; It ranks with "Dodsworth" (1936) and "Abraham Lincoln"(1930) as his very best.

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10 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Good early Capra with Walter Huston vs.Greed & Mob Mentality, 10 mars 1999
Author: Bill Davis de Ghent, KY



This is early Frank Capra film, primarily interesting because of Walter Huston's character and the portrayal of mob mentality in a "run" on the bank. Walter Huston plays a noble bank president who tries to serve the community while fighting off greedy bankers who want to cash in and the mob mentality of the people he is trying to protect. Meanwhile, his wife feels neglected, but that relationship isn't developed enough to make interesting. Good Production values for a film of this time.

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12 out of 17 people found the following comment useful :-
Preachy, but brilliant, 6 mars 2002
10/10
Author: boblipton de New York City

Walter Huston is supposed to be the star of this movie, and he does a fine job, as always. But wait..... watch for the moment when the panic on the bank begins, and in less than thirty seconds, the bank goes from almost empty to a scene of madness, the American Madness of the title. It's one of the most brilliantly choreographed and directed scenes in the entire history of the movies.

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6 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Peter Bailey In The Depression, 14 juin 2007
7/10
Author: bkoganbing de Buffalo, New York

American Madness is a somewhat dated film from the Depression made dated by the banking legislation of the New Deal. This film was made in the last year of the Herbert Hoover presidency. In the following year, in one of the landmark reforms of the first hundred days of Franklin Roosevelt was the creation of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Banks in fact have failed since then, but we've never seen the disastrous runs on them that characterized previous times, that are shown so graphically in this early Frank Capra film.

Comparing this with another Capra classic, imagine if you will instead of old man Potter running the bank in Bedford Falls, we had kindly old Peter Bailey instead. The man who believed in investing in his clients at the Building&Loan and passed that philosophy on to his son George.

That's what bank president Walter Huston believes in as well. But he's got a board of directors on his case just as Samuel S. Hinds as Peter Bailey. But he's got one thing that Hinds didn't have, a bored and flirtatious wife in Kay Johnson, ready to respond to the amorous advances of Gavin Gordon, one of the bank vice presidents.

Huston has a surrogate son though, like his George in the person of head teller Pat O'Brien. Pat works some wonders, save's Huston-Johnson marriage, helps stop a bank panic that results from a holdup that was clearly an inside job, and gets out from under suspicion of being involved in that same crime.

The climax of American Madness might be tied up a little too neatly, but Capra was honing his populist movie making skills in this film.

And if it's dated, there's reason to be thankful it is.

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7 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
great film, 8 mars 2004
8/10
Author: kyle_furr

I like the early Frank Capra films like this one and It Happened One Night better than his later films like Mr. Smith Goes To Washington and Meet John Doe. This movie stars Walter Huston as a bank president who's partners don't like the way he runs the bank and want him to resign. They can't make him and there's really nothing they can do. When an employee gets in debt to some gangsters for $50,000 dollars and he doesn't have the money, the gangsters tell him what to do so they can sneak in that night and rob the bank. During the robbery, a security guard is killed and word gets around town that the bank is broke. A mob of people show up and want to take their money out. They run out of money pretty quick and they have a hard time finding some more. Pat O'Brien also stars as Huston's friend and an employee who's in charge of the money. There's even more plot that deals with Huston's wife and the employee who was in debt with the gangsters.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Humble Beginnings for a Bank, 3 décembre 2006
10/10
Author: stevem-26 de United States

The conservative and liberal sides of America seem to have been brought out in sharp relief during the Great Depression. This was a time when solutions were needed. "American Madness" shows the liberal side fighting for fairness and prosperity by what seems odd today, a bank president. The president's populist stance with his loans seems quaint now with today's number-crunching banking corporations, and maybe his was an unrealistic character, or at least rare. Think of the bank president in the "Bank Dick" offering W.C. Field's character a copy of the bank's calendar, "Springtime in Lompoc" and "my heartiest handshake" for saving the money from a robbery. More realistic, if comedic. But think of this: Robert Osborn, on TCM, commented that the movie was inspired by The Bank of Italy, founded in San Francisco by Amadeo Giannini, a bank geared toward working class people and it's reputation was one of basing its loan approvals heavily on the character of the borrower. In 1929, Giannini merged his bank with Bank of America and became its chairman. (By the way, Bank of America financed Harry Cohn's Columbia Pictures which made "American Madness".) Which is all to say that Capra's films so often show a more humane side of people in this country, which of course was there, but it all can seem a little corny in our cynical age. Thing is, what happens if you go to Bank of America now? Will they loan you money based on your "character" ?

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Huston's speech early on is very relevant today to our current economic woes., 8 février 2009
10/10
Author: cindy-47 de New York, NY

Huston's speeches especially in the early board room scene, are very relevant today. He expounds on the ways that greed causes the downfall of the economy---sound familiar? The banks that now are withholding credit after being bailed out would do well to heed his message. And, back then, mergers were still a method of making the rich even richer. Are you listening, Mr. President?

Huston is a benevolent character to his staff but neglects his wife, who apparently has to visit him at the bank to have any contact. The message is very clear there--strive for balance in your life or you may end up losing what is important to you. THe characterizations are wonderful---Sterling Holloway who raised his voice an octave later to voice Winnie the Pooh, is a bank drone with a one-liner that will crack you up. The telephone operator with the annoying voice who causes chaos is another great character. And one of the gossip callers looked so much like Joan Crawford--could it be she?

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Capracorn, and I like it that way, 4 décembre 2006
8/10
Author: marcslope de New York, NY

Walter Huston is typically superb as a principled bank president (this was a busy year for him; he's also interesting in "Kongo" and "Beast of the City"), and Capra's little-people-count theme, so magnificently fleshed out in similar ways in "It's a Wonderful Life," has real resonance here. Riskin's screenplay is pithy and generous to bit players -- get a load of Sterling Holloway's self-important bank clerk -- and Capra's direction is not only faster-paced than most of his compatriots, but wonderful with actors: You can read every single emotion on Huston's face. Add a gleaming Art Deco set, Pat O'Brien in a good early Everyman role, a fabulously staged bank-run set piece, and Capra's ability to turn the bank itself into a character. Those who find later Capra -- "Meet John Doe," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" -- too preachy would do well to take a look at this one, which shows how engaging he was before he became an institution.

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
Walter Huston WAS this movie, 3 décembre 2006
7/10
Author: kenn_honeyman de United States

Frank Capra was just starting with his theme of the little guy trumps power, and corruption. It was the first collaboration with Mr. Capra, and his favorite screenwriter, Robert Riskin. This is a seamless screenplay to be sure. great attention is paid to detail... with only one blunder with John Huston's wife showing up with different dress only moments after she appears in different dress. Which brings up a point with the previous commenter... Constance Cummings was NOT John Huston's wife in this movie. Ms. Cummings was Helen.

Helen was Mr. Huston's secretary, and fiancée of Pat O'Brien's character Kay Johnson played the wife, and, VERY well. Ms. Johnson only made 24 movies before she quit in 1944.

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A very good but seldom seen Capra film, 24 juin 2009
7/10
Author: planktonrules de Bradenton, Florida

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Walter Huston plays a heck of a nice banker in this film. He prides himself for being a great judge of character and makes loans to people, not statistics. While some on the bank's board of directors bristle at all the loans he makes to simple folks, Huston is quick to point out that none of them has ever defaulted. So it's a never-ending battle between board members who want the bank to very, very seldom make loans and the bank president who feels that the loans stimulate the economy and are good for the country.

Later in the film, when one of the bank employees works with crooks to rob the bank, the timing couldn't be any worse. At the same time, it appeared as if Huston's wife was cheating on him with this same bank employee. As a result, customers loose faith in the bank and start withdrawing their money AND Huston is so stunned that he doesn't react. Eventually, however, the faithfulness of his wife is certain and Huston regains his old form--thus averting a banking catastrophe.

In addition to Huston, there is a supporting role for a young Pat O'Brien. All in all, an interesting film that as another reviewer said, is quite timely today. Well written, directed and produced.

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