What is the best Frank Capra movie?

Best Picture winners share the bill with a silent-era debut, pre-Code melodramas and a late color remake, so the holiday staple has serious competition. Which one would you put on first?

1. 1
   It's a Wonderful Life

   A 1946 Christmas fantasy drama starring James Stewart as George Bailey, nominated for five Academy Awards including Best Picture.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Meet John Doe

   A 1941 comedy-drama with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck about a homeless man hired to front a newspaper's invented grassroots campaign.
   550pts
3. 3
   The Strong Man

   Capra's 1926 silent feature debut starring comedian Harry Langdon, selected for the National Film Registry in 2007.
   507pts
4. 4
   It Happened One Night

   A 1934 screwball comedy with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert that became the first film to win all five major Academy Awards.
   498pts
5. 5
   Arsenic and Old Lace

   A 1944 black comedy starring Cary Grant, based on Joseph Kesselring's play and held back until its Broadway run ended.
   440pts
6. 6
   American Madness

   A 1932 pre-Code drama starring Walter Huston as a New York bank president caught up in a scandal and a run on his bank.
   440pts
7. 7
   The Bitter Tea of General Yen

   A 1933 pre-Code drama with Barbara Stanwyck as an American missionary in civil-war Shanghai who is rescued by, and drawn to, a Chinese warlord.
   440pts
8. 8
   Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

   A 1939 political comedy-drama starring James Stewart as a naive new senator who fights corruption, earning 11 Academy Award nominations.
   372pts
9. 9
   Lost Horizon

   A 1937 fantasy adventure based on James Hilton's novel, with Ronald Colman in Shangri-La, that won Oscars for art direction and film editing.
   372pts
10. 10
    Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

    A 1936 comedy-drama with Gary Cooper as a small-town man who inherits a fortune, which won Capra the Academy Award for Best Director.
    293pts
11. 11
    Lady for a Day

    A 1933 comedy-drama from a Damon Runyon story that earned Capra his first Academy Award nomination for Best Director.
    293pts
12. 12
    A Hole in the Head

    A 1959 comedy starring Frank Sinatra and Edward G. Robinson whose song "High Hopes" won the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
    293pts
13. 13
    You Can't Take It with You

    A 1938 screwball comedy adapted from the Kaufman and Hart play that won the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director.
    200pts
14. 14
    Pocketful of Miracles

    Capra's 1961 color remake of Lady for a Day starring Glenn Ford and Bette Davis, which earned Peter Falk an Oscar nomination.
    200pts
15. 15
    State of the Union

    A 1948 political drama with Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, adapted from a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a bid for the Republican presidential nomination.
    0pts

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