Preface; 1. Picturing Capra, Meet Frank Capra, Critical Concepts, You Can't Take It with You; 2. Melodrama and the unknown woman: Forbidden; 3. Questions of difference: Mr Deeds Goes to Town; 4. Glimpsing the eternal: Lost Horizon; 5. 'This Is a Man's World': Mr Smith Goes to Washington; 6. 'To Be or Not to Be': It's a Wonderful Life; Postscript: The Catastrophe of Success; Notes; Selected Bibliography; Selected Filmography; Index.