Film History
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JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Indiana University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Film History. http://www.jstor.org FilmHistory, Volume 14, pp. 121-135, 2002. Copyright© John Libbey ISSN:0892-2160. Printedin Malaysia The Catholic Vision in Hollywood:Ford, Capra, Borzage and Hitchcock MarfaElena de las CarrerasKuntz This articleexplores the differentways in which fear of being involvedin anythingevil. I alwaystried a Catholicview of the human conditionis re- to avoid it',he acknowledgedto Truffaut.4 flected in the cinema of John Ford, Frank FrankCapra was the most explicitof the four Borzage, FrankCapra and AlfredHitchcock. directors in discussing his religious affiliation. The belief system at work in the canon of these Capra'sbiographers and criticsagree thatthe power Hollywoodfilmmakers of the studioera is rootedin a and consistency of the filmmaker'smoral vision are Catholicunderstanding of the humanperson and his rootedin his own lifeand experiences.Even if Joseph relationshipto others, to the worldand to God. No- McBride'sbiography Frank Capra: The Catastrophe tions of love, sin, redemptionand communion- as of Success (1992) shows that Capra's1971 memoir taughtand livedin the Catholictradition - are central should be readwith qualifications, it still provides the to understandthe worldviewof fourfilmmakers who point of departureto examine the extent to which were raised in the Catholicfaith.1 Capra's moralvision is shaped by the Catholicism Ford(1894-1973), Borzage (1894-1962) and into he was born, There are many revealingrefer- Capra (1897-1991) share a common immigrant ences in Capra's The Name Above the Titleto the background:they were bornin the last decade of the Catholicfaith in connectionwith his personallife and 19th century into large Europeanfamilies of rural work.An individualistby temperamentwho did not backgroundwho had leftthe OldWorld searching for accept his religiousheritage as a given butgradually a betterfuture in the UnitedStates. Fordand Borzage came intoit, Caprawrites that in his earlyadulthood were first generation Americans of Irish and Ital- he was a 'ChristmasCatholic'.5 In the mid 1930s, the ian/Austrian/Swissorigins, respectively;and Capra astonishing success of It Happened One Night was born in Sicilyand immigratedto the US at age (1934)triggered an artisticcrisis, which resulted in a six. As noted by theirbiographers, the culturaland conversionexperience, not unlikethe one faced by religiouspatterns of these hyphenatedfamilies were many of his characters.He relates that the admon- absorbedby their children and combined,in the case ishmentof an anonymouslittle man catapultedhim of Caprawith long-lastingrepercussions, with the back to action:'The talents you have, Mr.Capra, are prevailingvalues of the Anglo Protestant estab- not yourown, not self-acquired.God gave you those lishment.2 talents; they are His gifts to you, to use for His Hitchcock(1899-1980), on the other hand, of was born in Londoninto a middle-class family, Maria Elena de las Carreras-Kuntz is a film critic English and Irishdescent. He noted to Francois and Fulbright scholar from Argentina. living in Los Truffaut:'Ours was a Catholicfamily and in England Angeles. She has a Ph.D. in Film Studies from UCLA. this in itselfis an He attendedCatholic and teaches at both UCLA and California State Uni- eccentricity'.3 the the Jesuit St. a versity at Northridge. She reports on international schools, including IgnatiusCollege, film scene for several Argentine publications and formativeexperience that left a lasting influence.'It currently is writing a series of articles on cinema and was probablyduring this periodwith the Jesuits that Catholicism for CRISIS. a strong sense of fear developed - moralfear - the Correspondence to jkuntz(o)ucla.edu. 122 MariagIPlg·V~~~~o·Pnirl Elena9--V-----CI·I~~P Carreras--PMaria~Elena de las Carreras Kuntz conflict:the clash between a Catholicmoral view - an idealisthero - and his desire to be a successful Hollywooddirector - the materialisticworld which his memorablevillains inhabit.8 John Ford'sCatholicism is also a knownfact: a complex personality,he was a man of faith and deeply held convictions. His biographers- begin- ningwith grandson Dan Ford- attest to this fact but fall short of exploringthe full implicationsof this lifelong fidelityto the Church,which resulted, for example, in the conversion of his Protestantwife. They tend to dwell (sometimes rathernegatively in the case of RonaldL. Davis)on what they perceive as the Irishqualities of Ford's religiousbeliefs, like superstition,childishness and the adorationof the Virgin Mary. The two most recent biographers, Joseph McBrideand Scott Eyman,tend to empha- size the ethnic component of Ford's Catholicism, examiningit primarilyin relationshipto the liferather thanthe work. Hitchcock,an intenselyprivate person, did not disclose publiclythe importanceof Catholicismin his adultlife. He was a parishionerof the Churchof the Good Shepherd in BeverlyHills, where he attended Mass withhis wifeAlma Reville, a close collaborator duringhis entirecareer, who converted to Catholi- cism beforetheir marriage in 1926. LikeFord, Hitch- cock was reluctantto discuss his cinema otherthan incinematic terms. So to assess the Catholicoutlook that Frenchcritics saw as shaping his work,one has to look at the evidence of the films. When Truffaut asked Hitchcockif he considered himselfa Catholic artist,the filmmakerwas not so much evasive as cryptic:'Maybe one's earlyupbringing influences a Fig.1. The purpose. And when you don't use the gifts God man's lifeand guides his instinct.I am definitelynot youngFrank blessed you with- you are an offense to God - and antireligious;perhaps I'msometimes neglectful.'9 Borzage,a star of to Whether wrote the facts or with Frank Catholicismis westernsfor humanity.'6 Capra Dealing Borzage's the about this as not on a level. ThomasInce, printed legend definingepisode, possible purelybiographical Borzage about1915. McBridenotes, it doesn't alterthe autobiographical grew up in a Catholicfamily who had settled outside resonance of Clarence,the guardianangel in It'sa of Salt LakeCity, staunch Mormonterritory. Accord- [Allphotos WonderfulLife (1946): through him the herobecomes ing to his Swiss biographerHerv6 Dumont, Borzage courtesyof aware of the effects of his God-giventalents. had not been baptised and did not want to convert RichardKoszarski Inlater years, through his wife,Lucille Reyburn, to the familyfaith at the time of his death. In 1997 I Collection.] who had convertedto Catholicism,Capra returned interviewedBorzage's nephew Frank, who con- to the faith.He definedhimself 'as a Catholicin spirit; firmed this information.Frank Borzage, Jr., com- one who firmlybelieves thatthe anti-moral,the intel- mented on the long-runningfamily joke about the lectual bigots and the Mafiasof illwill may destroy unbaptisedBorzages faringmuch betterin lifethan religion,but they willnever conquer the cross'.7If his the Catholicones. films are seen as a form of submerged biography Dumontpoints out thatthe enigmaof Borzage then one can understandwhy in so many of them - an extremely private person - can start to be Capra is fashioning plots that reflect his personal unraveledby notingthat at age 25 the filmmakerhad The Catholic Vision in Hollywood: Ford, Capra, Borzage and Hitchcock 123 become a Mason and was active in his CulverCity, been created in God's image and resemblanceand CaliforniaLodge. Dumont,in his definitivebiography by virtueof this filiationwe are all, the livingand the (unavailableso far in an Englishtranslation), makes dead, part of the same body - the communionof the case that the Borzage canon should have a saints - held together by the redeeming power of Masonic interpretation,whose thematic model is love. Inthis sense, Capra'smain narrative trope (an Mozart'sThe Magic Flute with its hero's Gnostic idealisthero rising up to defendthe commonpeople) journeyof enlightenmentthrough the acquisitionof partakesof this notion.A joyfulsense of community, knowledge.10The contentionof this articleis thatthe of belongingto somethinglarger than themselves, of Borzage canon - not the biography- reflects a being partof a familyand family-likeinstitutions, is at Catholicview of love in its theological meaning of the heartof Capra'sworks of maturityfrom Mr. Deeds Charityor