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Lady for a Day(1933) is a New York City fairytale about Apple Annie, a "gin-sodden old haybag" who sells apples on the street corner and shakes down the unwary—all to provide for the illegitimate daughter she gave up at infancy.

The daughter is being educated in a European convent, and believes her mother to be a glamorous patron of high society. Her letters are the one bright spot in the old woman's life. But Annie's fantasy begins to crumble as she reads of her daughter's engagement to the son of a Spanish count—and it falls with the news that the three are sailing to New York to meet her.

We see Annie stagger out into the street. Her eyes unseeing, her rags trailing behind, she is mocked by passers by and police angrily shoo her away. All hope seems lost.

But God's hand is at work, and in steps the most unlikely of angels: Dave the Dude, a gambler who considers Annie's apples to be good luck charms. In an outpouring of grace as hilarious as it is rich—with gamblers' donations, speech lessons from con artists and the makeup skills of nightclub dancers (publicans and sinners all) figuring into the mix—Annie is transformed and transfigured.

Capra's camera slowly revolves as the elderly woman—the gin-soaked hag—turns to face the mirror. It lifts our eyes with hers as she gazes into the glass … and breaks into tears. A street corner beggar, a cynical con artist, her life has been littered with tawdry scams and broken hopes. Now she can't believe her eyes. For looking back at her from the glass is a radiant queen robed in white, her face shining and her hair beautifully coiffed.

Hired muscle Big Mike's dazed response is spot on: "Boss! Lookit! She's … she's like a cockroach what turned into a butterfly!"

Capra was acutely aware of the inherent worth and dignity of each man and woman, as bearers of the divine image. As he later wrote: "Be he saint or sinner, rich or poor, black or white, coward or hero … be he lame, halt or blind … each (man) is a piece of his Maker." This belief suffused all his films. In Lady (and later its remake, Pocketful of Miracles), he draws the veil momentarily aside so that we might see it as well.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) was Capra's second attempt—following his hospital epiphany—to engage his audience. As he put it, "My films now had to say something. No more bragging about my powers to shoot the phone book and make it funny . … I was determined to change from 'using' films, to serving them … (instead of) the picture moguls, I set out to serve man and the Almighty."

Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) is a classic Capra protagonist, a good man perpetually bemused by life as he pursues his twin loves: playing tuba in his small town's band, and composing jingles for greeting

cards. Then the sudden death of an uncle leaves him fabulously rich. Pulled to New York City to manage the estate, he faces a different world as metropolitan swells attempt to milk him and a sarcastic press ridicules his every move.

Deeds' wisdom initially guides him well. But new girlfriend "Mary Dawson" is actually Babe Bennett, the cynical reporter feeding his exploits to the papers. And his lawyers, at first stunned by his otherworldiness and then angered by it ("Why did Uncle leave me all that money? I don't need it"), are planning to dispose of him. In their angry surprise, Capra reveals the hatred which the darkness of this world has for the light, which it cannot comprehend.

As the movie proceeds, Babe's eyes open to Deeds' purity of heart, and she finds herself falling in love with him. But before she can confess her secret, Deeds finds it out on his own. And as he reels from this news, he finds himself on trial for insanity: with his lawyers leading the charge, and Babe's words being used to convict him.

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