Review: Frank Capras mostly wonderful life in Hollywood was not without a few missteps along the way

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Set us as preferred Book ReviewFrank Capra: A LifeBy Sam WassonHarper: 752 pages, $45If you buy books linked on our site, The Times may earn a commission from Bookshop.org, whose fees support independent bookstores.Even in retirement, the film Frank Capra loved best — “It’s a Wonderful Life” — continued to bring him pleasure.In 1980, a group of friends who watched the 1946 Christmas classic together each year invited Capra to Manhattan for the ritual.According to Capra biographer Sam Wasson, the 83-year-old director made the trip from Southern California and sent along his own print to screen.

The improbable evening turned into a moving tribute to both Capra himself and his tale of the suicidal banker George Bailey, who comes to realize that his life has indeed been wonderful.So, too, was Capra’s, despite some misbegotten movies and his struggles with depression and other ailments.Hollywood chronicler Wasson (“Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.,” “The Big Goodbye”) uses dialogue from “It’s a Wonderful Life” to frame his narrative.

And he quotes a remark by Jimmy Stewart, who played the film’s protagonist, that “the best Frank Capra story is the story of his own life.”“Frank Capra” is fond and admiring, even gushing at times.But the book is also candid about its subject’s missteps.

These included Capra’s weak-kneed response to the anti-Communist crusade that roiled mid-20th-century Hollywood and his occasional failure to adequately credit his collaborators.Francesco Capra, born in Sicily, arrived in Los Angeles with his family at age 6.His impoverished immigrant household, and especially his mother, prioritized work over education.

But as a child, Capra was already ambitious; he peddled newspapers for cash but stayed in school.At the California Institute of Technology (then the Throop Polytechnic Institute), he studied to be a chemical engineer.His interests turned out to be eclectic...