Elmer Harris again was the screenwriter on So This Is Love, this time adapting a story by Norman Springer. Viola Diana’s sister, Shirley Mason, had the lead role of a delicatessen girl whose infatuation with a prizefighter (Johnnie Walker) forces her timid dress-designer boyfriend (William [Buster] Collier, Jr.) to battle Walker in the ring. Mocking the traditional macho code all the way through the film, Capra directed the David-and-Goliath tale in a breezy, offhand style that makes enjoyable what might otherwise seem a disturbingly masochistic story. So This Is Love needed all the help it could get from the director, because it has even skimpier production values than That Certain Thing. Almost all of the film takes place on a single tiny studio street, and the paucity of extras in the delicatessen, dress shop, and sidewalk scenes is very noticeable, suggesting that the studio was determined to show the rebellious Capra who was boss when it came to budgetary matters. The extreme cheapness of the film probably contributed to its modest reception. “Variety” found it amusing but said condescendingly, “From the angle of second and third-run box office – not a bad picture”.

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