It's A Wonderful Life
It's A Wonderful Life (1946), originally made for Liberty Films, is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made by director Frank Capra. It was actually a box-office flop at the time of its release, and only became the Christmas movie classic in the 1970s due to repeated television showings at Christmas-time when its copyright protection slipped and it fell into the public domain and TV stations could air it for free. Frank Capra regarded this film as his own personal favorite - it was also James Stewart's favorite of all his feature films.
The film's screenplay (credited as being written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Capra himself, with additional scenes by Jo Swerling) was based on "The Greatest Gift," an original short story first written on a Christmas card by Philip Van Doren Stern. Uncredited for their work on the script were Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, and Clifford Odets.
It is actually a dark, bittersweet post-war tale of a savings-and-loan manager who struggles against a greedy banker and his own self-doubting nature in a small town. Earnest do-gooder George Bailey (James Stewart) recognizes his life as wonderful and truly rich, even in its humdrum and bleak nature, only after suffering many hardships, mishaps and fateful trials (including compromised dreams of youth to leave the town and seek fame and fortune, other sacrifices, dismay, losses and the threat of financial ruin, and suicide). He is given encouragement by a whimsical, endearing, trainee-angel named Clarence (Henry Travers).
The story turns Dickensian (similar to A Christmas Carol, although told from Bob Cratchit's point-of-view rather than from Scrooge's) when the hysterical, despairing, and melancholy family man is shown what the small town (Bedford Falls, now renamed Pottersville after the town's evil tycoon) would be like without him. It's a frightening, nightmarish, noirish view of the world (at Christmas-time) that brings him back from self-destruction. He returns to the idyllic, small-town world that he left, with renewed faith and confidence in life itself. Hence, the film's title: It's a Wonderful Life. The plot of the film was copied in the rags-to-riches fantasy storyline (also with a guardian angel played by Michael Caine) of Disney's Mr. Destiny (1990), starring James Belushi.
The picture earned five Academy Award nominations: Best Picture, Best Actor (James Stewart in his first film in almost six years), Best Director (Capra), Best Sound Recording and Best Film Editing, but won no Oscars. (It was eclipsed by William Wyler's award-winning The Best Years of Our Lives.)
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WikipediaIt's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 Frank Capra film, produced by his own Liberty Films and released originally by RKO Radio Pictures. Dubbed by the American Film Institute one of the best films ever made, it placed #1 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers, a list of the most inspirational American movies of all time. It ranks 11th on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies, a list of the greatest American films. The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The movie is the story of the life of everyman George Bailey, as told to his guardian angel Clarence Oddbody, who has been recruited to save him in his moment of need.
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The movie begins on Christmas Eve as the multiple prayers of many people on Earth for a man named George Bailey are heard by people in Heaven. In the heavens, Clarence Oddbody, an "apprentice" angel, is told that he must help George Bailey in order to get his wings (which distinguishes him as a lowly apprentice angel). One of the higher-up angels, Joseph, begins to tell Clarence the story of George Bailey in order to prepare him for his mission to help him. |
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First, Joseph tells Clarence of how George saved his little brother Harry when he fell through the ice at the age of nine, which led to George losing his hearing in one ear. Later, Clarence is shown when George worked at Mr. Gower's drugstore. Two little girls, Mary Hatch and Violet Bick, come in, and Mary pledges to love him until the day she dies in George's deaf ear. George also saves a child from being poisoned by tainted capsules ordered from Mr. Gower, who has gotten drunk after learning, by telegram, of the recent influenza death of his son. Mr. Gower is eternally grateful to George. |
Now, about twenty-one, George Bailey wants more than anything in the world to "leave this crummy little town" of Bedford Falls, and experience the world outside. On the night before he is to leave for a European vacation and his architectural education, George sits down to dinner with his father Peter, who expresses his anxieties about having his eldest son leave without going into business with him at the Bailey Building & Loan. George reassures Peter that he has nothing to worry about, especially considering the aggressiveness of mill owner and banker Henry F. Potter, a greedy slumlord who already owns half the city. In a tender moment, George reveals his deep affection for his father, then leaves to attend the graduation party of his younger brother, Harry, at Bedford Falls High School. |
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