David Lynch on why Glenn Ford was “not a good person to Frank Capra”
It feels as though David Lynch has mastered the perfect balance of being successful, critically admired and artistically authentic. He’s never compromised his strange and often incomprehensible ideas while still managing to garner legions of fans. In the current cinematic landscape, Lynch’s popularity is reassuring, suggesting that those with boundary-pushing ideas might still be able to find an audience.
Lynch released his first feature, Eraserhead, in 1977, exploring anxieties around fatherhood and urban alienation. Using a grotesque alien baby, the film revelled in the surreal and absurd, setting the tone for his imminent work. Since then, he’s released movies ranging from the heartbreaking drama The Elephant Man to the mind-bending Mulholland Drive. Lynch’s career has been far from typical, and despite making a few missteps (we’re talking about you, Dune), he’s retained the crown as one of cinema’s most well-known rebels.
He’s achieved this status by subverting traditional narrative forms, creating offbeat, memorable characters and honing a cinematic world full of specific tropes and imagery that feels quintessentially Lynchian. Despite Lynch’s works feeling quite different from typical Hollywood fodder, he wouldn’t have been able to create movies had he not grown up consuming the works of countless classic directors. One director he particularly enjoys is Frank Capra, who helmed projects such as It Happened One Night and It’s A Wonderful Life. These iconic films are some of Hollywood’s finest efforts, and Lynch will be one of the first to champion Capra.
Naturally, Lynch’s interest in cinema has led him to read about some of his favourite auteurs, like Capra. Yet, upon reading about the life and work of the famous director, Lynch discovered that one popular Hollywood actor was actually not so kind to Capra, leading the Blue Velvet filmmaker to explain to Vulture, “I’m really upset with Glenn Ford.”
Ford appeared in many box-office and critical hits during his career, such as The Big Heat, 3:10 to Yuma, Gilda and Superman. Lynch particularly loves Gilda, and a poster of the movie even appears in Mulholland Drive, with Laura Harring’s Camilla calling herself ‘Rita’ after her car accident, inspired by Rita Hayworth, who plays the titular character in the 1946 film.
However, Ford also starred in Pocketful of Miracles, directed by Capra, which earned him widespread critical acclaim, leading him to win a Golden Globe for his performance. Yet, when Lynch read more about Capra’s career, he found out that Ford hardly treated his director with respect. Lynch explained, “What I got out of reading about Frank Capra was that Glenn Ford was a fucker, man.”
He continued, “Glenn Ford apparently was not a good person to Frank Capra, and Frank didn’t have the fight in him to deal with it.”
According to Capra, he was unhappy with Ford’s demands to be involved in the production of Pocketful of Miracles. Even though Capra is credited as the sole producer of the movie, Ford did finance a large chunk of it, so his insistence might not have been entirely far-fetched. Still, after reading Capra’s autobiography, Lynch was horrified to hear about the way Ford had gone about communicating his demands, adding, “Glenn Ford ruined the joy of filmmaking for Frank Capra. I’m really upset with Glenn Ford.”
