Capra followed The Younger Generation with his, and Columbia’s, first all-talking picture, The Donovan Affair, based on a play by Owen Davis, with screen continuity by Dorothy Howell and dialogue by Howard J. Green. The studio selected the property because its murder mystery plot was set inside a country house (mostly in the dining hall) and would present a minimum of sound problems for the five cameras needed to shoot the picture. A silent version also was released to theaters not equipped to handle the sound discs. Today this forgotten film can be seen only at the Library of Congress, in a print lacking a sound track. The sound elements exist but a restoration would have to be undertaken to synchronize them with the picture. The plot was so ridiculously contrived that Capra had little choice but to treat it tongue-in-cheek. Jack Donovan (John Roche)is a roguish gambler murdered by an unknown person in the darkened dining hall. As is customary in the genre, several of the guests had reasons to wish him dead. Inspector Killian (Jack Holt) restages the scene with the original participants, and the atmosphere is full of the usual clichés of howling wind, barking dogs, and sinister servants, all of it adroitly orchestrated by Capra and [cinematographer] Ted Tetzlaff in this fast-paced and flamboyantly photographed film, which Capra felt marked an important advance in his development as a director. “Capra has manipulated his story and people with restraint and intelligence”, Robert J. Landry wrote in “Variety”. “Recording and technical details all nicely taken care of. Production looks good. In short, Columbia has rung the bell”. And Mordaunt Hall wrote in “The New York Times”, “It is a yarn that sustains the interest, and because of its farcical quality it affords good entertainment”.

Joseph McBride, Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success, Simon & Schuster, New York 1992 (revised edition, St Martin’s Griffin, New York 2000)