It Was a Wonderful Life

Frank Capra, Jr., who showed that the apple may not fall far from the tree, but that doesn’t mean the applesauce won’t taste like feet, has died of prostate cancer at the age of 73. He was nominated for an Emmy for a documentary about his father, which consisted largely of clips of his pop’s pictures and home movies that the senior Capra staged and blocked. Having only one famous parent on whom to base a movie, the rest of Capra Jr’s producing career left a bit to be desired. While his father took Mr. Smith to Washington, Lil’ Frank took Billy Jack, a half-breed Native American Green Beret Vietnam War veteran, hapkido master, and gunslinger, in a virtual remake. The filibuster scene loses a little luster when Billy Jack crushes Senator Paine’s larynx with a roundhouse kick. This was the first in a planned series of remaking classic films with the Billy Jack touch, but Capra couldn’t secure the funding. Still, scripts of Citizen Billy have brought thousands on eBay, and bootlegs of Richard Dreyfus’ screen test for William of Arabia are legendary. He also served as associate producer for Marooned, a Mystery Science Theater 3000 target consisting of Gene Hackman, Richard Crenna and James Franciscus sitting around slowly suffocating, David Janssen leading a rescue effort in a red NASA spacecraft and Gregory Peck looking grim. He was also associate producer on the last three lousy Planet of the Apes sequels. Like making a copy of a copy, the Capra DNA keeps getting diluted, as his son has been assistant and second assistant directing on such classics as Zapped!, Warlock and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.