Frank Capra -- Pathe Said to Have Made Fine Production of Kipling Story -- April 21, 2022

Moving Picture World, 08-April-1922

Frank Capra had virtually no experience in movies when he talked his way into a job directing a short film for a new company founded in San Francisco. Walter Montague, an old actor and theatrical manager, had a dream. He wanted to make short films based on famous poems. His first project was an adaption of Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding-House." The movie, which survives, is pretty good for a first effort. 

I remember reading about the movie in Capra's autobiography, The Name Above the Title, and thinking that I will never get to see it. I recently found it on YouTube.

Moving Picture World, 01-April-1922

Moving Picture World, 15-April-1922

Moving Picture World, 08-April-1922

Frank Capra -- Fultah Fisher's Boarding House -- March 23, 2022

Moving Picture World, 25-March-1922

Frank Capra had virtually no experience in movies when he talked his way into a job directing a short film for a new company founded in San Francisco. Walter Montague, an old actor and theatrical manager, had a dream. He wanted to make short films based on famous poems. His first project was an adaption of Rudyard Kipling's poem "The Ballad of Fisher's Boarding-House." The movie, which survives, is pretty good for a first effort. Montague and Capra made three other movies in the series:
"The Village Blacksmith" -- a famous poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
"The Looking Glass" -- a not-so famous poem by F. B. Lowe
"The Barefoot Boy" -- a famous poem by John Greenleaf Whittier

The other films probably no longer exist.

Salt Lake Telegram, 27-March-1922

Walter Montague performed in vaudeville and wrote scripts for other acts. He died in 1925.