Frank Capra on His Disastrous Preview Viewing Of Lost Horizon | The Dick Cavett Show

Dick Cavett welcomes a star line-up of Mel Brooks, Frank Capra, Robert Altman and Peter Bogdanovich to show to discuss their experiences of having their movies re-cut and audience previews.
Date aired - January 21 1972 - Frank Capra, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman and Mel Brooks
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Dick Cavett has been nominated for eleven Emmy awards (the most recent in 2012 for the HBO special, Mel Brooks and Dick Cavett Together Again), and won three. Spanning five decades, Dick Cavett’s television career has defined excellence in the interview format. He started at ABC in 1968, and also enjoyed success on PBS, USA, and CNBC.
His most recent television successes were the September 2014 PBS special, Dick Cavett’s Watergate, followed April 2015 by Dick Cavett’s Vietnam. He has appeared in movies, tv specials, tv commercials, and several Broadway plays. He starred in an off-Broadway production ofHellman v. McCarthy in 2014 and reprised the role at Theatre 40 in LA February 2015.
Cavett has published four books beginning with Cavett (1974) and Eye on Cavett (1983), co-authored with Christopher Porterfield. His two recent books -- Talk Show: Confrontations, Pointed Commentary, and Off-Screen Secrets (2010) and Brief Encounters: Conversations, Magic moments, and Assorted Hijinks(October 2014) are both collections of his online opinion column, written for The New York Times since 2007. Additionally, he has written for The New Yorker, TV Guide, Vanity Fair, and elsewhere.
#thedickcavettshow #MelBrooks #FrankCapra #RobertAltman #PeterBogdanovich #DickCavett

[@TheDickCavettShow]

Where does Frank Capra rank among the greatest filmmakers of all time?

[@robderiche]

He definitely deserves a seat at the table.

[@ianbauer4703]

Near the tippy top. Genius director!

[@Joshualbm]

Wow, the likes of this kind of gathering is impossible to imagine these days.

[@Joshualbm]

@@VideoAmericanStyle Nah. Not even close. With the exception of Wes, almost the entirety of everyone else's work focuses on human misery, highly dysfunction ugliness, violence and dystopian hopelessness. The cross section of everyone Dick Cavett has up there runs the gamut of exploring the wonder, joy and bittersweet reality of the human experience. From the context of trying to understand and give affirmative viewpoints of everyday people and myriad ways to laugh at ourselves, their work is more timeless and worthy of celebration. And Quentin Tarantino? That's funny.

[@Joshualbm]

@@VideoAmericanStyle My original statement is irrespective of nostalgia, it is simply a fact that the kind of range, history and the enduring nature of the body of work these gentlemen created is very, very different than the work of those you listed. It wasn't a useful or illuminating comparison. In fact, it was quite off the mark as to be nothing more than a list of directors you like.

[@JustAFilmGuy]

@@VideoAmericanStyle It is an honor, sir. I've never met someone filled with so much hot air before.

[@XX-gy7ue]

LOST HORIZON IS STILL ONE OF THE GREATEST MOVIES EVER MADE !

[@shawnmorymcmillion]

I have missed Mr. Cavett! So happy to find him again!

[@jacmtl]

I have to add my same sentiments - where on earth would you find a guest list on a talk show like this now?

[@ianbauer4703]

Sadly, no where now.

[@brenturquhart7090]

Lost Horizons is one of the best films ever made. I can’t imagine what would have made people laugh at it. So at first I told my son that it’s too bad I’ll never have the chance to see those lost reels, but upon thinking a bit more about it, it’s probably a good thing.

[@somethingyousaid5059]

Great story.

[@archenema6792]

Bogdanovich looks like Desi Arnez, jr. had a live child with Marie Osmond.

[@ianbauer4703]

RIP Peter Bogdanovich, great director and film lover.

[@commanderkeen3787]

Please upload the interview with Blake Edwards

[@WintersWar]

Criminal he burned that footage. it would be golden today.

[@ken71671]

Just watched this film on a streaming service and it was 90+ minutes long. I would kill to see the full version. Breaks my heart to see him feel happy about destroying the 2 reels.

[@CaesarDarias]

I didn’t understand the story. By throwing out the two reels did he simply cut out several scenes, thereby shortening the running time?

[@shelleynobleart]

Yes, if each reel of 35 mm film would have run approximately 11 minutes. So I gather he essentially just lopped off what was the first 24 minutes or so of his original cut. So interesting that the film worked with all that initial exposition taken out.

[@GiggleBlizzard]

I wonder how much truth there is to Capras story. It doesn't matter, it's still a great story but it does make me curious!

[@myguitardetective5961]

Answer? None of it is true....I'm impressed that you suspected Capra was simply being a storyteller here...His "autobiography" was ghost-written by Eugene Vale and it's largely a work of fiction. Part of those reels are still in the film today: see the "making of" Documentary here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/aaSZoWitmq-lrac

[@GiggleBlizzard]

@@myguitardetective5961 Thanks for the headsup! Yeah no I didn't wanna outright call Frank Capra a storyteller, but everything about the way he told it not to mention the contents of the story itself made it seem a little too.. romantic.

[@shelleynobleart]

I believe every word. Don't know him though.

[@GiggleBlizzard]

@@shelleynobleart That is fair, but even Peter calls it as it is "That is a great story", he knows it but doesn't want to undermine the story but he uses those words for good reason, imo.

[@Gannooch]

have nothing against the other celebs that were on this show but is this channel ever going to show the Dick Cavett shows where he interviews Jackie Gleason or Art Carney? How about any Honeymooners actors that were part of the main cast? These are rarities much like the other ones.

[@felixthelmocevallosmorales41]

Frank Capra (Francesco Rosario Capra: Bisacquino, Sicilia; 18 de mayo de 1897 - La Quinta, California; 3 de septiembre de 1991) fue un director de cine ítalo-estadounidense ganador de tres premios Óscar. Es autor de algunas películas muy populares de los años 1930 y 1940, como los clásicos ¡Qué bello es vivir! y Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, entre otras.

[@Gannooch]

I have nothing against the other celebs that were on this show but is this channel ever going to show the Dick Cavett shows where he interviews Art Carney or Jackie Gleason? I don’t have Decades.

[@allon33]

Spells out the end of Hollywood.

[@Ckom-Tunes]

LOOK at the talent on that stage! I believe that Cavett has the least directorial talent of the five of them and he could probably do a better job than any contemporary director!

[@clintonsmith5163]

In many cases the first half hour of a movie is quite boring. I seem to recall that The Godfather began with that dreadfully dull wedding scene.

[@mikephalen3162]

An awful lot was set up in the wedding portion. It wasn't dull at all.

[@noisekeeper]

It insists upon itself.

[@jennifersman7990]

There was a lot of setup for characters and this was how the book began too

[@klipkultur2951]

That wedding scene is actually a masterpiece within the masterpiece.

[@commanderkeen3787]

Dull, yes, but only for the ADHD Generation