It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
ChristmasChristmas or Christmas Day is an annual holiday generally celebrated on December 25 by billions of people around the world. It is a Christian feast that commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ, liturgically closing the Advent season and initiating the season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days...
dramaDrama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
film produced and directed by
Frank CapraFrank Russell Capra was a Sicilian-born American film director. He emigrated to the U.S. when he was six, and eventually became a creative force behind major award-winning films during the 1930s and 1940s...
and based on the short story "
The Greatest Gift"The Greatest Gift" is a 1943 short story written by Philip Van Doren Stern which became the basis for the film It's a Wonderful Life.-Plot summary :...
" written by
Philip Van Doren SternPhilip Van Doren Stern was an author, editor, and Civil War historian whose story "The Greatest Gift," published in 1943, inspired the classic Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life .-Early life:...
.
The film stars
James StewartJames Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
as
George BaileyGeorge Bailey is a fictional character and the main protagonist in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. He is played by James Stewart. He is loosely based on George Pratt, a character in Philip Van Doren Stern's The Greatest Gift....
, a man whose imminent suicide on
Christmas EveChristmas Eve refers to the evening or entire day preceding Christmas Day, a widely celebrated festival commemorating the birth of Jesus of Nazareth that takes place on December 25...
brings about the intervention of his
guardian angelA guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...
,
Clarence OdbodyClarence Odbody is a fictional character in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. He is portrayed by Henry Travers.-In the story:...
(
Henry TraversHenry Travers was an English actor. His most memorable role was that of the angel, Clarence, in the 1946 motion picture It's A Wonderful Life.-Early life:...
). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and the contributions he has made to his community.
Despite initially being considered a box office flop due to high production costs and stiff competition at the time of its release, the film has come to be regarded as a classic and a staple of Christmas television around the world. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was actually $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: "Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes ... it was initially a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were."
It's a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Oscars without winning any, although the film has since been recognized by the
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
as one of the 100 best American films ever made, and placed number one on
their list100 Years…100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies is a list of the most inspiring films as determined by the American Film Institute. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series, which has been compiling lists of the greatest films of all time in various categories since 1998...
of the most inspirational American films of all time.
Plot
Christmas Eve finds George Bailey (James Stewart) deeply troubled. Prayers for his wellbeing from friends and family reach Heaven. Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class, is assigned to save George and earn his wings. Franklin and Joseph, the head angels, review George's life with Clarence. At the age of 12, George (
Bobby AndersonRobert J. Anderson , better known by his stage name Bobby Anderson , was an American actor and television producer, most famous for his role as Little George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.Anderson grew up in a Hollywood family...
) saved the life of his younger brother Harry (George Nokes), who had fallen through the ice on a frozen pond, though George lost the hearing in his left ear. Later, as an errand boy in a
pharmacyPharmacy is the health profession that links the health sciences with the chemical sciences and it is charged with ensuring the safe and effective use of pharmaceutical drugs...
, George saved his grief-stricken boss, druggist Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), by refusing to deliver a child's
prescriptionPrescription may refer to:Health care*Prescription drug, a drug available only by a medical prescription*Medical prescription, a plan of care written by a physician or other health care professional...
Gower mistakenly filled with poison.
George's dream has been to see the world. However, he repeatedly sacrifices his ambition for others, waiting for Harry (
Todd KarnsTodd Karns was an American actor perhaps best remembered for playing Harry Bailey, the younger brother of George Bailey in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life....
) to graduate from
high schoolHigh school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
and replace him at the Bailey Building and Loan Association, vital to the people of Bedford Falls. On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George discusses his future with Mary Hatch (
Donna ReedDonna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...
), who has had a crush on him since she was a little girl. Later that evening, George's absent-minded Uncle Billy (
Thomas MitchellThomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
) and Harry break the news to George his father has had a
strokeA stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, which proves fatal. A few months later,
Henry F. PotterHenry F. Potter is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life. He occupies slot #6 on the American Film Institute's list of the 50 Greatest Villains in American film history . Mr...
(
Lionel BarrymoreLionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
), a heartless
slumlordA slumlord is a derogatory term for landlords, generally absentee landlords, who attempt to maximize profit by minimizing spending on property maintenance, often in deteriorating neighborhoods. They may need to charge lower than market rent to tenants...
and majority
shareholderA shareholder or stockholder is an individual or institution that legally owns one or more shares of stock in a public or private corporation. Shareholders own the stock, but not the corporation itself ....
in the Building and Loan, tries to persuade the
board of directorsA board of directors is a body of elected or appointed members who jointly oversee the activities of a company or organization. Other names include board of governors, board of managers, board of regents, board of trustees, and board of visitors...
to stop providing home loans for the working poor. George talks them into rejecting Potter's proposal, but they agree only on the condition that George himself run the Building and Loan. He gives his college money to his brother with the understanding that when Harry returns, he will take over the Building and Loan.
When Harry graduates from college, he unexpectedly brings home a wife, whose father has offered Harry an excellent job in his company. Although Harry vows to decline the offer as per their prior arrangement, George cannot deny his brother such a fine opportunity.
George and Mary get married. As they are leaving town for their honeymoon, they witness a
run on the bankA bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
that leaves the Building and Loan in danger of collapse. The couple quell the panic by using the $2,000
earmarkEarmark may refer to:*Earmark , cuts or marks in the ears of animals made to show ownership*Earmark , a legislative provision that directs funds to be spent on specific projects...
ed for their honeymoon to satisfy the depositors' immediate needs. Mary enlists the help of Bert, a policeman, and Ernie, a cab driver, to create a faux tropical setting for a substitute honeymoon in the same old house that Mary had dreamed of living in with George.
George and Mary raise four children. George starts up Bailey Park, an
affordable housingAffordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
project. They and the other residents no longer have to pay Potter's high rents. Potter tries to hire him away, offering him a $20,000 annual salary, along with the promise of business trips to New York and Europe. George is tempted, but turns him down.
When
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
erupts, George is unable to enlist due to his bad ear. Harry becomes a fighter pilot and is awarded the
Medal of HonorThe Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government. It is bestowed by the President, in the name of Congress, upon members of the United States Armed Forces who distinguish themselves through "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his or her...
for shooting down 15 enemy planes, two of which were targeting a U.S. transport ship full of troops in the Pacific. Potter runs the local draft board.
On Christmas Eve, 1946, Uncle Billy is on his way to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan when he runs into Potter. He proudly shows Potter the front-page article about Harry receiving the Medal of Honor. Potter grabs the newspaper angrily and discovers the money inside; he keeps it. When Uncle Billy realizes it is missing, a frantic search is started. With a bank examiner set to inspect the books that very day, a desperate George appeals to Potter for a loan to save the company, but Potter turns him down and swears out a warrant for his arrest for
bank fraudBank fraud is the use of fraudulent means to obtain money, assets, or other property owned or held by a financial institution, or to obtain money from depositors by fraudulently representing to be a bank or financial institution. In many instances, bank fraud is a criminal offense...
.
George takes his frustrations out on his family, before storming off and getting drunk at a bar owned by his old friend Martini (
Bill EdmundsWilliam Edmunds was a stage and screen character actor, typically playing roles with heavy accents . Born as Guillermo Bocconcini in Italy, he immigrated to the United States and was a New York City based actor, receiving his first credited role in the Bob Hope film Going Spanish...
). He crashes his car into a tree during a snowstorm. George staggers to a bridge, intending to commit suicide, feeling he is "worth more dead than alive" because of a $15,000 life insurance policy. Before he can leap in, however, Clarence appears and jumps in first and pretends to be drowning. After George rescues him, Clarence reveals himself to be George's
guardian angelA guardian angel is an angel assigned to protect and guide a particular person or group. Belief in guardian angels can be traced throughout all antiquity...
.
George does not believe him, but when he bitterly says he wishes he had never been born, Clarence has him experience what the town would have been like if he had never existed. In this
alternate realityA parallel universe or alternative reality is a hypothetical self-contained separate reality coexisting with one's own. A specific group of parallel universes is called a "multiverse", although this term can also be used to describe the possible parallel universes that constitute reality...
, Bedford Falls has become Pottersville and is home to sleazy
nightclubA nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
s and pawn shops. Bailey Park was never built. Gower was sent to prison for many years for poisoning the child (because George never existed to intervene), and is now a derelict. Martini no longer owns his bar. George's friend Violet Beck (
Gloria GrahameGloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
) is a dancer at a local club who gets arrested as a pickpocket. Uncle Billy has been in an insane asylum for years. Harry is dead, since George was not around to save him, and the soldiers Harry would have saved in the war also died. Mrs. Bailey is a bitter widow running a
boarding houseA boarding house, is a house in which lodgers rent one or more rooms for one or more nights, and sometimes for extended periods of weeks, months and years. The common parts of the house are maintained, and some services, such as laundry and cleaning, may be supplied. They normally provide "bed...
, and Mary is a spinster librarian.
George ends up badly shaken by these experiences and flees back to the bridge, begging God to let him live again. His prayer is answered. When he runs home joyously, the bank examiner and policemen are waiting there to arrest him. Just then, Mary, Uncle Billy, and a flood of townspeople arrive, with more than enough donations to save George and the Building and Loan. George's friend Sam Wainwright sends him a line of credit for $25,000 via telegram. George's brother Harry also arrives from Washington D.C., having abandoned a banquet held in his honor, and flown during a blizzard in order to help his brother, and leads the townspeople in singing
Auld Lang Syne"Auld Lang Syne" is a Scots poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and set to the tune of a traditional folk song . It is well known in many countries, especially in the English-speaking world; its traditional use being to celebrate the start of the New Year at the stroke of midnight...
in George's honor. George finds a gift from Clarence, a copy of
The Adventures of Tom SawyerThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain is an 1876 novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The story is set in the Town of "St...
with the inscription:
"Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence."
A bell on the tree rings, and his daughter Zuzu remembers that it signifies that an angel has earned his wings. George happily confirms this, now realizing that, while he didn't get to follow his dreams of travelling, he truly has a wonderful life.
Cast
- James Stewart
James Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
as George Bailey
- Donna Reed
Donna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...
as Mary Hatch Bailey
- Lionel Barrymore
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
as Henry F. Potter
- Thomas Mitchell
Thomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
as Uncle Billy
- Henry Travers
Henry Travers was an English actor. His most memorable role was that of the angel, Clarence, in the 1946 motion picture It's A Wonderful Life.-Early life:...
as Clarence Odbody
- Beulah Bondi
Beulah Bondi was an American actress.Bondi began her acting career as a young child in theater, and after establishing herself as a stage actress, she reprised her role in Street Scene for the 1931 film version...
as Mrs. Bailey
- Frank Faylen
Frank Faylen was an American movie and television actor.Born Frank Ruf in St. Louis, Missouri, he began his acting career as an infant appearing with his vaudeville performing parents on stage...
as Ernie Bishop
- Ward Bond
Wardell Edwin "Ward" Bond was an American film actor whose rugged appearance and easygoing charm were featured in over 200 movies and the television series Wagon Train.-Early life:...
as Bert
- Gloria Grahame
Gloria Grahame was an American Academy Award–winning actress.Grahame began her acting career in theatre, and in 1944 she made her first film for MGM. Despite a featured role in It's a Wonderful Life , MGM did not believe she had the potential for major success, and sold her contract to RKO Studios...
as Violet Bick
- H. B. Warner
H. B. Warner was a British actor.-Early life:He was born Henry Byron Charles Stewart Warner-Lickford in St John's Wood, London, England in 1875...
as Mr. Gower
- Todd Karns
Todd Karns was an American actor perhaps best remembered for playing Harry Bailey, the younger brother of George Bailey in the Christmas classic It's a Wonderful Life....
as Harry Bailey
- Samuel S. Hinds
Samuel Southey Hinds was an American actor who is perhaps best remembered for playing Peter Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life and for his part in You Can't Take It With You , both films by Frank Capra...
as Peter Bailey
- Lillian Randolph
Lillian Randolph was an American actress and singer, a veteran of radio, film, and television. An African American, she worked in entertainment from the 1930s well into the 1970s, appearing in hundreds of radio shows, motion pictures, short subjects, and television shows.-Early years:Born...
as Annie
- Mary Treen as Cousin Tilly
- Frank Albertson
Frank Albertson was an American character actor who made his debut in a minor part in Hollywood at age 13....
as Sam Wainwright
- Virginia Patton as Ruth Dakin Bailey
- Charles Williams as Cousin Eustace
- Sarah Edwards as Mrs. Hatch
- William Edmunds
William Edmunds was a stage and screen character actor, typically playing roles with heavy accents . Born as Guillermo Bocconcini in Italy, he immigrated to the United States and was a New York City based actor, receiving his first credited role in the Bob Hope film Going Spanish...
as Mr. Martini
- Bobby Anderson
Robert J. Anderson , better known by his stage name Bobby Anderson , was an American actor and television producer, most famous for his role as Little George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life.Anderson grew up in a Hollywood family...
as Little George Bailey
- Ronnie Ralph as Little Sam Wainwright
- Jean Gale as Little Mary Hatch
- Jeanine Ann Roose as Little Violet Bick
- George Nokes as Little Harry Bailey
- Danny Mummert as Little Marty Hatch
- Sheldon Leonard
Sheldon Leonard was a pioneering American film and television producer, director, writer, and actor.-Biography:...
as Nick, the bartender
- Charles Lane
Charles Gerstle Levison , better known as Charles Lane, was an American character actor seen in many movies and TV shows, and at the time of his death may have been the oldest living professional American actor. Lane appeared in many Frank Capra films, including You Can't Take It With You , Mr...
as The rent collector
- Jimmy Hawkins
James F. Hawkins , known as Jimmy Hawkins, and later, Jim Hawkins, is an American actor and film producer whose career began as a child actor to such Hollywood stars as Lana Turner, Spencer Tracy, James Stewart, and Donna Reed...
as Tommy Bailey
- Karolyn Grimes
Karolyn Grimes is an American actress known for her role as "Zuzu Bailey" in the Frank Capra classic It's a Wonderful Life. She also played "Debbie" in the 1947 Christmas film, The Bishop's Wife starring Cary Grant, David Niven, and Loretta Young.Grimes was born in Hollywood, California...
as Zuzu Bailey
- Larry Simms as Pete Bailey
- Carol Coomes (AKA Carol Coombs) as Janie Bailey
- Charles Halton
Charles Halton was a stern-faced American character actor who appeared in over 180 films.One of his most memorable portrayals was as Carter, the bank examiner in It's a Wonderful Life...
as Carter, bank examiner (uncredited)
- Joseph Kearns
Joseph Sherrard Kearns was an American actor, who is best remembered for his role as George Wilson in the CBS television series Dennis the Menace from 1959 until his death in 1962.-Biography:...
as Angel Joseph (voice, uncredited)
- Evelyn Moriarty as Girl in the bar (uncredited)
- Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer
Carl Dean "Alfalfa" Switzer was an American child actor, professional dog breeder and hunting guide, most notable for appearing in the Our Gang short subjects series as Alfalfa, one of the series' most popular and best-remembered characters.-Early life and family:Switzer was born in Paris,...
as Freddie (Mary's high school suitor)
- Max Wagner
Max Wagner was a Mexican-born American film actor who specialized in playing small parts such as thugs, gangsters, sailors, henchmen, bodyguards, cab drivers and moving men, appearing in over 300 films in his career, most without receiving screen credit...
as Cashier/Bouncer at Nick's Bar
- Tom Fadden as Bridge Caretaker (uncredited)
- Stanley Andrews
Stanley Andrews was an American actor perhaps best known as the voice of Daddy Warbucks on the radio program Little Orphan Annie and later as "The Old Ranger", the host of Death Valley Days.-Early life:...
as Mr. Welch (uncredited)
- Adriana Caselotti
Adriana Mitchell Caselotti was an American actress and singer. She was the voice of the title character in Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Caselotti was named as a Disney Legend in 1994.-Early life:...
as the singer in Martini's Bar (uncredited)
Casting
The contention that James Stewart is often referred to as Capra's only choice to play George Bailey is disputed by film historian Stephen Cox, who indicates that "
Henry FondaHenry Jaynes Fonda was an American film and stage actor.Fonda made his mark early as a Broadway actor. He also appeared in 1938 in plays performed in White Plains, New York, with Joan Tompkins...
was in the running."
Although it was stated that
Jean ArthurJean Arthur was an American actress and a major film star of the 1930s and 1940s. She remains arguably the epitome of the female screwball comedy actress. As James Harvey wrote in his recounting of the era, "No one was more closely identified with the screwball comedy than Jean Arthur...
,
Ann DvorakAnn Dvorak was an American film actress.Asked how to pronounce her adopted surname, she told The Literary Digest: "My name is properly pronounced vor'shack. The D remains silent...
and
Ginger RogersGinger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
were all considered for the role of Mary before Donna Reed won the part, this list is also disputed by Cox as he indicates that Jean Arthur was first offered the part but had to turn it down for a prior commitment on Broadway before Capra turned to
Olivia de HavillandOlivia Mary de Havilland is a British American film and stage actress. She won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1946 and 1949. She is the elder sister of actress Joan Fontaine. The sisters are among the last surviving leading ladies from Hollywood of the 1930s.-Early life:Olivia de Havilland...
,
Martha ScottMartha Ellen Scott was an American actress best known for her roles as mother of the lead character in numerous films and television shows.-Early life:...
and Ann Dvorak. Ginger Rogers was offered the female lead, but turned it down because she considered it "too bland". In Chapter 26 of her autobiography
Ginger: My Story, she questioned the decline of the role by asking her readers: "Foolish, you say?"
A long list of actors were considered for the role of Potter (originally named Herbert Potter):
Edward ArnoldEdward Arnold was an American actor. He was born on the Lower East Side of New York City as Gunther Edward Arnold Schneider, the son of German immigrants Carl Schneider and Elizabeth Ohse.-Acting career:...
,
Charles BickfordCharles Bickford was an American actor best known for his supporting roles. He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, for The Song of Bernadette , The Farmer's Daughter , and Johnny Belinda...
,
Edgar BuchananEdgar Buchanan was an American actor with a long career in both film and television, most familiar today as Uncle Joe Carson from the Petticoat Junction, Green Acres and The Beverly Hillbillies television sitcoms of the 1960s...
,
Louis CalhernLouis Calhern was an American stage and screen actor.- Early life :Louis Calhern was born Carl Henry Vogt on February 19, 1895 in Brooklyn, New York. His family left New York City while he was still a child and moved to St. Louis, Missouri where he grew up...
,
Victor JoryVictor Jory was a Canadian actor.-Biography:Born in Dawson City, Yukon, Jory was the boxing and wrestling champion of the Coast Guard during his military service, and he kept his burly physique. He toured with theater troupes and appeared on Broadway, before making his Hollywood debut in 1930...
,
Raymond MasseyRaymond Hart Massey was a Canadian/American actor.-Early life:Massey was born in Toronto, Ontario, the son of Anna , who was born in Illinois, and Chester Daniel Massey, the wealthy owner of the Massey-Ferguson Tractor Company. Massey's family could trace their ancestry back to the American...
,
Vincent PriceVincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...
and even
Thomas MitchellThomas Mitchell was an American actor, playwright and screenwriter. Among his most famous roles in a long career are those of Gerald O'Hara, the father of Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, the drunken Doc Boone in John Ford's Stagecoach, and Uncle Billy in It's a Wonderful Life...
. However, Lionel Barrymore, who eventually won the role, was a famous
Ebenezer ScroogeEbenezer Scrooge is the principal character in Charles Dickens's 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. At the beginning of the novel, Scrooge is a cold-hearted, tight-fisted and greedy man, who despises Christmas and all things which give people happiness...
in radio dramatizations of
A Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
at the time. Barrymore had worked with Capra earlier on his 1938 Best Picture Oscar winner
You Can't Take It with YouYou Can't Take It With You Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The cast includes James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold....
.
H. B. WarnerH. B. Warner was a British actor.-Early life:He was born Henry Byron Charles Stewart Warner-Lickford in St John's Wood, London, England in 1875...
, who was cast as the drugstore owner Mr. Gower, actually studied medicine before going into acting. He was also in some of Capra's other films,
Mr. Deeds Goes to TownMr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 American screwball comedy film directed by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in her first featured role...
,
Lost Horizon,
You Can't Take It with YouYou Can't Take It With You Adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The cast includes James Stewart, Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore and Edward Arnold....
, and
Mr. Smith Goes to WashingtonMr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American drama film starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart about one man's effect on American politics. It was directed by Frank Capra and written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story. Mr...
. The name Gower came from Capra's employer
Columbia PicturesColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, which had been located on
Gower St.Gower Street is a street in Los Angeles, California that has played an important role in the ongoing evolution of Hollywood, particularly as the home to several prominent Poverty Row studios during the area's Golden Age...
for many years. Also on Gower St. was a drugstore that was a favorite for the studio's employees.
Charles Williams, who was cast as Eustace Bailey, and Mary Treen, who was cast as Matilda "Tilly" Bailey, were both B-list actors, as they both had appeared in 90 films each before filming
It's a Wonderful Life.
Jimmy the Raven (Uncle Billy's pet) appeared in
You Can't Take It with You and each subsequent Capra film.
Background
The original story "The Greatest Gift" was written by
Philip Van Doren SternPhilip Van Doren Stern was an author, editor, and Civil War historian whose story "The Greatest Gift," published in 1943, inspired the classic Christmas film It's a Wonderful Life .-Early life:...
in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943.The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to
Cary GrantArchibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
's Hollywood agent and, in April 1944,
RKO PicturesRKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
bought the rights to the story for $10,000 hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant. RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie with Grant going on to make another Christmas picture,
The Bishop's WifeThe Bishop's Wife is a 1947 Samuel Goldwyn romantic comedy feature film starring Cary Grant, Loretta Young, and David Niven in a story about an angel who helps a bishop with his problems. It was released by RKO. The film was adapted by Leonardo Bercovici and Robert E...
.
At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read "The Greatest Gift" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, sold the rights in 1945 to Capra's production company,
Liberty FilmsLiberty Films was an independent motion picture production company founded in California by Frank Capra and Samuel J. Briskin in April 1945. It produced only two films, It's a Wonderful Life , originally released by RKO Radio Pictures, and the film version of the hit play State of the Union ,...
, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000, and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra, along with writers
Frances Goodrich and
Albert HackettAlbert Maurice Hackett was an American dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich.-Early years:...
with
Jo SwerlingJo Swerling was an American theatre writer and lyricist and a screenwriter.Born in Berdichev, Russian Empire, Swerling was a refugee of the Czarist regime who grew up on New York City's lower East Side, where he sold newspapers to help support his family...
,
Michael WilsonMichael Wilson was an Academy Award winning American screenwriter who was blacklisted by the Hollywood movie studio bosses during the era of McCarthyism....
, and
Dorothy ParkerDorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
brought in to "polish" the script — turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename
It's a Wonderful Life. The script underwent many revisions throughout pre-production and during filming. Final screenplay credit went to Goodrich, Hackett and Capra, with "additional scenes" by Jo Swerling.
Seneca Falls, New YorkSeneca Falls is a village in Seneca County, New York, United States. The population was 6,861 at the 2000 census. The village is in the Town of Seneca Falls, east of Geneva, New York. On March 16, 2010, village residents voted to dissolve the village, a move that would take effect at the end of 2011...
claims that when Frank Capra visited their town in 1945, he was inspired to model Bedford Falls after it. The town has an annual
It's a Wonderful Life festival in December. In mid-2009,
The Hotel ClarenceLocated in the Finger Lakes, The Hotel Clarence is a historic hotel with an "urban boutique feel" in Seneca Falls, New York. The Hotel Clarence is located in the former Gould Hotel. Which, when built in 1920, was described as “the most complete and perfectly equipped of the smaller hotels of New...
opened in Seneca Falls, named for George Bailey's guardian angel. On December 10, 2010, the "It's a Wonderful Life" Museum opened in Seneca Falls with Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu in the movie, cutting the ribbon.
Both
James StewartJames Stewart was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart may also refer to:-Noblemen:*James Stewart, 5th High Steward of Scotland*James Stewart, the Black Knight of Lorn James Stewart (1908–1997) was a Hollywood movie actor and USAF brigadier general.James Stewart...
(from
Indiana, PennsylvaniaIndiana is a borough in and the county seat of Indiana County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 14,895 at the 2000 census.The borough and the region as a whole promotes itself as the "Christmas Tree Capital of the World" because the national Christmas Tree Grower's Association was...
) and
Donna ReedDonna Reed was an American film and television actress.With appearances in over 40 films, Reed received the 1953 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her performance as the tramp Lorene in the war drama From Here to Eternity. She is also noted for her role in the perennial Christmas...
(from
Denison, IowaDenison is a city in Crawford County, Iowa, United States, along the Boyer River. The population was 7,339 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Crawford County.-Geography:Denison is located at ....
) came from small towns. Stewart's father ran a small hardware store, in which he helped him out for years. Reed won an impromptu bet with
Lionel BarrymoreLionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul...
when he challenged her to milk a cow on set.
Filming
It's a Wonderful Life was shot at the RKO studio in
Culver City, CaliforniaCulver City is a city in western Los Angeles County, California. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 38,883, up from 38,816 at the 2000 census. It is mostly surrounded by the city of Los Angeles, but also shares a border with unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County. Culver...
, and the RKO Ranch in Encino, where "Bedford Falls" was a set covering 4 acres (1.6 ha), assembled from three separate parts with a main street stretching 300 yards (three city blocks), with 75 stores and buildings, a tree-lined center parkway and 20 full grown oak trees. For months prior to principal photography, the mammoth set was populated by pigeons, cats and dogs in order to give the "town" a lived-in feel. Due to the requirement to film in an "alternate universe" setting as well as during different seasons, the set was extremely adaptable. RKO created "chemical snow" for the film in order to avoid the need for dubbed dialogue when actors walked across the earlier type of movie snow, made up of crushed cornflakes. Filming started on April 15, 1946 and ended on July 27, 1946, exactly on deadline for the 90-day principal photography schedule.
The RKO ranch in Encino, the filming location of Bedford Falls, was razed in the mid-1950s. There are only two surviving locations from the film. The first is the swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene where George courts Mary. It is located in the gymnasium at
Beverly Hills High SchoolBeverly Hills High School is the only major public high school in Beverly Hills, California. Beverly is part of the Beverly Hills Unified School District and located on on the west side of Beverly Hills, at the...
and is still in operation as of 2008. The second is the "Martini home", at 4587 Viro Road in
La Cañada Flintridge, CaliforniaLa Cañada Flintridge is a small and affluent city in Los Angeles County, California, United States whose population at the 2010 census was 20,246, down from 20,318 at the 2000 census. According to Forbes, as of 2010, La Cañada Flintridge ranks as the 143rd most expensive U.S...
.
During filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's welcome home/newlyweds' party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" Equipment on the set had actually been accidentally knocked over — Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's impromptu ad lib (although the "crashing" noise was augmented with added sound effects).
Dimitri TiomkinDimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a Russian-born Hollywood film score composer and conductor. He is considered "one of the giants of Hollywood movie music." Musically trained in Russia, he is best known for his westerns, "where his expansive, muscular style had its greatest impact." Tiomkin...
had written
Death Telegram and
Gower's Deliverance for the drugstore scenes, but in the editing room Capra elected to go with no music for those scenes. Those changes, along with others, led to a falling out between Tiomkin and Capra. Tiomkin had worked on a lot of Capra's previous films, and was saddened that Capra decided to pared or toned down, moved, or cut entirely. He felt as though his work was being seen as a mere suggestion. In his autobiography
Please Don't Hate Me, he said of the incident, "an all around scissors job".
The products and advertisements featured in Mr. Gower's drugstore include
Coca-ColaCoca-Cola is a carbonated soft drink sold in stores, restaurants, and vending machines in more than 200 countries. It is produced by The Coca-Cola Company of Atlanta, Georgia, and is often referred to simply as Coke...
, Paterson tobacco pipes, La Unica cigars,
Camel cigarettesCamel is a brand of cigarettes that was introduced by American company R.J. Reynolds Tobacco in the summer of 1913. Most current Camel cigarettes contain a blend of Turkish tobacco and Virginia tobacco. Early in 2008 the blend was changed as was the package design.-History:In 1913, R.J...
,
Lucky Strike cigarettesLucky Strike is a brand of cigarette owned by the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company and British American Tobacco groups. Often referred to as "Luckies", Lucky Strike was the top selling cigarette in the United States during the 1930s.- History :...
,
Chesterfield cigarettesChesterfield is a brand of cigarette made by Altria. It was one of the most recognized brands of the early 20th century, but sales have declined steadily over the years. It was named for Chesterfield County, Virginia. Chesterfield is still being made today; it is still popular in Europe, but has...
, Vaseline hair tonic, Penetro cough syrup,
Pepto-BismolPepto-Bismol is an over-the-counter drug currently produced by the Procter and Gamble company in the United States of America and in Canada to treat minor digestive system upset. Its active ingredient is bismuth subsalicylate...
,
Bayer AspirinBayer AG is a chemical and pharmaceutical company founded in Barmen , Germany in 1863. It is headquartered in Leverkusen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany and well known for its original brand of aspirin.-History:...
("for colds and influenza"), and
The Saturday Evening PostThe Saturday Evening Post is a bimonthly American magazine. It was published weekly under this title from 1897 until 1969, and quarterly and then bimonthly from 1971.-History:...
.
In an earlier draft of the script, the scene where George saves his brother Harry as a child was different. The scene had the boys playing hockey on the river (which is on Potter's property) as Potter watches with disdain. George shoots the puck, but it goes astray and breaks the "No Trespassing" sign and lands in Potter's yard. Potter becomes irate, and the gardener releases the attack dogs, which causes the boys to flee. Harry falls in the ice, and George saves him with the same results.
Another scene that was in an earlier version was where young George visits his father at his work. After George tells off Mr. Potter and closes the door, he considers asking Uncle Billy about his drugstore dilemma. Billy is talking on the phone to the bank examiner, and lights his cigar and throws his match in the wastebasket. This scene explains that Tilly (short for Matilda) and Eustace are both his cousins (not Peter or Billy's kids though), and Tilly is on the phone with her friend Martha and says, "Potter's here, the bank examiner's coming. It's a day of judgment." As George is about to interrupt Tilly on the phone, Billy cried for help and Tilly runs in and puts the fire out with a pot of coffee. George decides he is probably better off dealing with the situation by himself.
Capra had filmed a number of sequences that were subsequently cut, the only remnants remaining being rare stills that have been unearthed. A number of alternative endings were considered, with Capra's first script having Bailey falling to his knees reciting
The Lord's Prayer (the script also called for an opening scene with the townspeople in prayer). Feeling that an overly religious tone did not have the emotional impact of the family and friends rushing to rescue George Bailey, the closing scenes were rewritten.
Reception
It's a Wonderful Life premiered at the Globe Theatre in New York on December 20, 1946, to mixed reviews. While Capra considered the contemporary critical reviews to be either universally negative or at best dismissive,
TimeTime is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine said, "
It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's
The Best Years of Our LivesThe Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell, a United States paratrooper who lost both hands in a military training accident. The film is about three United States...
) as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's inventiveness, humor and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement."
Bosley CrowtherBosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
, writing for
The New York TimesThe New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, complimented some of the actors, including Stewart and Reed, but concluded that "the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it — its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities."
The film, which went into general release on January 7, 1947, placed 26th ($3.3 million) in box office revenues for 1947 (out of more than 400 features released), one place ahead of another Christmas movie,
Miracle on 34th StreetMiracle on 34th Street is a 1947 Christmas film written by George Seaton from a story by Valentine Davies, directed by George Seaton and starring Maureen O'Hara, John Payne, Natalie Wood and Edmund Gwenn...
. The film was supposed to be released in January 1947, but was moved up to December 1946 to make it eligible for the
1946 Academy AwardsThe 19th Academy Awards continued a trend through the late-1940s of the Oscar voters honoring films about contemporary social issues. The Best Years of Our Lives concerns the lives of three returning veterans from three branches of military service as they adjust to life on the home front after...
. This move was seen as worse for the movie, as 1947 did not have quite the stiff competition as 1946. If it had entered the 1947 Awards, its biggest competition would have been
Miracle On 34th Street. The number one grossing movie of 1947,
The Best Years of Our Lives, made $11.5 million.
In 1990,
It's a Wonderful Life was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and selected for preservation in their
National Film RegistryThe National Film Registry is the United States National Film Preservation Board's selection of films for preservation in the Library of Congress. The Board, established by the National Film Preservation Act of 1988, was reauthorized by acts of Congress in 1992, 1996, 2005, and again in October 2008...
.
In 2002, Britain's
Channel 4Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...
ranked
It's a Wonderful Life as the seventh greatest film ever made in its poll "The 100 Greatest Films" and in 2006, the film reached #37 in the same channel's "100 Greatest Family Films". It currently ranks 30th on the IMDb's top 250.
In June 2008, AFI revealed its
10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
, the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres, after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community.
It's a Wonderful Life was acknowledged as the third-best film in the fantasy genre.
Somewhat more iconoclastic views of the film and its content are occasionally expressed. In 1947, film critic
Manny FarberEmanuel "Manny" Farber was an American painter, film critic and writer. Often described as "iconoclastic" , Farber developed a distinctive prose style and set of theoretical stances which have had a large influence on later generations of film critics; Susan Sontag considered him to be "the...
wrote, "To make his points [Capra] always takes an easy, simple-minded path that doesn't give much credit to the intelligence of the audience", and adds that there are only a "few unsentimental moments here and there." Wendell Jamieson, in a 2008
The New York Times article which was otherwise positive in its analysis of the film, posited that the film "is a terrifying, asphyxiating story about growing up and relinquishing your dreams, of seeing your father driven to the grave before his time, of living among bitter, small-minded people. It is a story of being trapped, of compromising, of watching others move ahead and away, of becoming so filled with rage that you verbally abuse your children, their teacher and your oppressively perfect wife." In a 2010
Salon.comSalon.com, part of Salon Media Group , often just called Salon, is an online liberal magazine, with content updated each weekday. Salon was founded by David Talbot and launched on November 20, 1995. It was the internet's first online-only commercial publication. The magazine focuses on U.S...
piece, Rich Cohen described
It's a Wonderful Life as "the most terrifying Hollywood film ever made", opining that in the "Pottersville" sequence George is not "seeing the world that would exist had he never been born", but rather "the world as it does exist, in his time and also in our own". Nine years earlier another
Salon writer, Gary Kamiya, had expressed the view that "Pottersville
rocks!", adding, "The gauzy Currier-and-Ives veil Capra drapes over Bedford Falls has prevented viewers from grasping what a tiresome and, frankly, toxic environment it is."
The film's elevation to the status of a beloved classic came decades after its initial release, when it became a television staple in the 1970s and 1980s Christmas seasons. This came as a welcome surprise to Frank Capra and others involved with it. "It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen," Capra told the
Wall Street Journal in 1984. "The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I'm like a parent whose kid grows up to be
presidentThe President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
. I'm proud… but it's the kid who did the work. I didn't even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea." In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film's theme as "the individual's belief in himself," and that he made it to "combat a modern trend toward atheism."
Awards and honors
Prior to the Los Angeles release of
It's a Wonderful Life, Liberty Films mounted an extensive promotional campaign which included a daily advertisement highlighting one of the film's players, along with comments from reviewers.
Jimmy StarrJimmy Starr was an American screenwriter and columnist.Starr worked as a screenwriter in Hollywood during the 1930s. From the 1940s he worked as a film writer and columnist, providing reviews and insights into the film world, and made occasional appearances in cameo roles in film...
wrote, "If I were an Oscar, I'd elope with
It's a Wonderful Life lock, stock and barrel on the night of the Academy Awards". The
New York Daily Times also wrote an editorial in which it declared the film and James Stewart's performance, to be worthy of Academy Award consideration.
It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations:
- Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
for Frank Capra
- Best Director for Frank Capra
- Best Actor
Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize an actor who has delivered an outstanding performance while working within the film industry...
for James Stewart
- Best Editing
The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...
for William Hornbeck
- Best Sound Recording
The Academy Award for Sound Mixing is an Academy Award that recognizes the finest or most euphonic sound mixing or recording, and is generally awarded to the production sound mixers and re-recording mixers of the winning film. Compare this award to the Academy Award for Sound Editing...
for John Aalberg
The Best Years of Our LivesThe Best Years of Our Lives is a 1946 American drama film directed by William Wyler, and starring Fredric March, Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews, Teresa Wright, and Harold Russell, a United States paratrooper who lost both hands in a military training accident. The film is about three United States...
, a drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War II lives, won most of the awards that year, including four of the five for which
It's a Wonderful Life was nominated. (The award for "Best Sound Recording" was won by
The Jolson StoryThe Jolson Story is a 1946 musical biography which purports to tell the life story of singer Al Jolson. It stars Larry Parks as Jolson, Evelyn Keyes as "Julie Benson" , William Demarest as his manager, Ludwig Donath and Tamara Shayne as his parents, and Scotty Beckett as the young Jolson.The...
.)
The Best Years of Our Lives was also an outstanding commercial success, ultimately becoming the highest grossing film of the decade, in contrast to the more modest box office returns of
It's a Wonderful Life.
Capra won the "Best Motion Picture Director" award from the Golden Globes, and a "CEC Award" from the Cinema Writers Circle in Spain, for
Mejor Película Extranjera (Best Foreign Film). Jimmy Hawkins won a "Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Young Artist Awards in 1994; the award recognized his role as Tommy Bailey as igniting his career, which lasted until the mid-1960s.
American Film InstituteThe American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
The first of the AFI 100 Years… series of cinematic milestones, AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies is a list of the 100 best American movies, as determined by the American Film Institute from a poll of more than 1,500 artists and leaders in the film industry who chose from a list of 400 nominated movies...
— #11
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Passions is a list of the top 100 greatest love stories in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute on June 11, 2002, in a CBS television special hosted by American film and TV actress Candice Bergen.-The...
— #8
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains is a list of the 100 greatest screen characters chosen by American Film Institute in June 2003. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series. The series was first presented in a CBS special hosted by Arnold Schwarzenegger...
:
- Mr. Potter - #6 Villain
- George Bailey - #9 Hero
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Songs
Part of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years…100 Songs is a list of the top 100 songs in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute June 22, 2004 in a CBS special hosted by John Travolta, who appeared in two films honored by the list, Saturday Night Fever and...
:
- Buffalo Gal (Won't You Come Out Tonight) - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes
Part of the AFI 100 Years... series, AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes is a list of the top 100 movie quotations in American cinema. The American Film Institute revealed the list on June 21, 2005, in a three-hour television program on CBS...
:
- "What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word, and I'll throw a lasso around it and pull it down." - Nominated
- "To my big brother George, the richest man in town!" - Nominated
- "Look, Daddy. Teacher says, “Every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.”" - Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers
100 Years…100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies is a list of the most inspiring films as determined by the American Film Institute. It is part of the AFI 100 Years… series, which has been compiling lists of the greatest films of all time in various categories since 1998...
— #1
- AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) — #20
- AFI's 10 Top 10
AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
— #3 FantasyFantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
Film
Ancillary rights
Liberty Films was purchased by
Paramount PicturesParamount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...
, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. In 1955, M. & A. Alexander purchased the movie. This included key rights to the original television syndication, the
original nitrate film elementsthumb|300px|Stacked containers filled with reels of [[film stock]]The film preservation, or film restoration, movement is an ongoing project among film historians, archivists, museums, cinematheques, and non-profit organizations to rescue decaying film stock and preserve the images which they contain...
, the music score, and the film rights to the story on which the film is based, "The Greatest Gift".
National Telefilm AssociatesNational Telefilm Associates was an independent distribution company that handled reissues of American film libraries, including much of Paramount Pictures' animated and short-subjects library.-History:...
(NTA) took over the rights to the film soon thereafter.
However, a clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974. Despite the lapsed copyright, television stations that aired it still were required to pay royalties. Although the film's images had entered the public domain, the film's story was still protected by virtue of it being a
derivative workIn United States copyright law, a derivative work is an expressive creation that includes major, copyright-protected elements of an original, previously created first work .-Definition:...
of the published story "The Greatest Gift", whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season on hundreds of local television stations. It was mentioned during the deliberations on the
Copyright Term Extension ActThe Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 extended copyright terms in the United States by 20 years. Since the Copyright Act of 1976, copyright would last for the life of the author plus 50 years, or 75 years for a work of corporate authorship...
of 1998.
In 1993,
Republic PicturesRepublic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in
Stewart v. AbendStewart v. Abend, 495 U.S. 207 , was an important United States Supreme Court decision which held that a copyright owner has the exclusive right to permit the creation and exploitation of derivative works, regardless of potentially conflicting agreements by prior copyright holders.-Facts:Cornell...
(which involved another Stewart film,
Rear WindowRear Window is a 1954 American suspense film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes and based on Cornell Woolrich's 1942 short story "It Had to Be Murder"...
) to enforce its claim to the copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, Republic still owned the original film elements, the music score, and the film rights to "The Greatest Gift"; thus the plaintiffs were able to argue its status as a derivative work of a work still under copyright.
It's a Wonderful Life is no longer shown as often on television as it was before enforcement of that derivative copyright.
NBCThe National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
is currently licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and traditionally shows it twice during the holidays, with one showing on Christmas Eve. Paramount (via parent company
ViacomViacom Inc. , short for "Video & Audio Communications", is an American media conglomerate with interests primarily in, but not limited to, cinema and cable television...
's 1998 acquisition of Republic's then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has distribution rights for the first time since 1955.
Due to all the above actions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by
Turner EntertainmentTurner Entertainment Company, Inc. is an American media company founded by Ted Turner. Now owned by Time Warner, the company is largely responsible for overseeing its library for worldwide distribution Turner Entertainment Company, Inc. (commonly known as Turner Entertainment Co.) is an American...
/
Warner Bros.Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
in the USA. It is also one of two Capra films which Paramount currently owns despite not having originally released it — the other is
Broadway BillBroadway Bill is an American horse-racing - comedy film from 1934, directed by Frank Capra and starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy. In the UK the film was released as Strictly Confidential...
(originally from
ColumbiaColumbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
, remade by Paramount as
Riding HighRiding High is a black and white musical racetrack film featuring Bing Crosby and directed by Frank Capra in which the songs were actually sung as the movie was being filmed instead of the customary lip-synching to previous recordings. The movie is a remake of an earlier Capra film called...
in 1950).
Colorization
Director Frank Capra met with Wilson Markle about having Colorization, Inc.
colorizeFilm colorization is any process that adds color to black-and-white, sepia or monochrome moving-picture images. It may be done as a special effect, or to modernize black-and-white films, or to restore color films...
It's a Wonderful Life based on an enthusiastic response to the colorization of
TopperTopper is a 1937 American comedy film which tells the story of a stuffy, stuck-in-his-ways man who is haunted by the ghosts of a fun-loving married couple. It was adapted by Eric Hatch, Jack Jevne and Eddie Moran from the novel by Thorne Smith. The film was directed by Norman Z. McLeod, produced by...
from actor Cary Grant. The company's art director Brian Holmes prepared 10 minutes of colorized footage from
It's a Wonderful Life for Capra to view, which resulted in Capra signing a contract with Colorization, Inc., and his "enthusiastic agree[ment] to pay half the $260,000 cost of colorizing the movie and to share any profits" and giving "preliminary approval to making similar color versions of two of his other black-and-white films,
Meet John DoeMeet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman. It became a box office hit...
(1941) and
Lady for a DayLady for a Day is a 1933 American comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the short story Madame La Gimp by Damon Runyon...
(1933)". However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process.
Three colorized versions have been produced. The first was released by Hal Roach Studios in 1986. The second was authorized and produced by the film's permanent owner, Republic Pictures, in 1989, with better results. Both Capra and Stewart took a critical stand on the colorized editions. The Hal Roach color version was re-released in 1989 to VHS through the cooperation of
Video TreasuresAnchor Bay Entertainment is a U.S. based home entertainment and production company and is a division of Starz Media, which is a unit of Starz, LLC. It was previously owned by IDT Entertainment until 2006 when IDT was purchased by Starz Media. Anchor Bay markets and sells feature films, series,...
. A third colorized version was produced by
Legend FilmsLegend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietary technology and software...
, and released on DVD in 2007, with the approval of Capra's estate.
VHS versions
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, when the film was still under public domain status,
It's A Wonderful Life was released on VHS by a variety of home video companies. Among the companies that released the film on home video before Republic Pictures stepped in were Meda Video (which would later become
Media Home EntertainmentMedia Home Entertainment Inc. was a home video company headquartered in Culver City, California, originally established in 1978 by filmmaker Charles Band....
), Kartes Video Communications (under its Video Film Classics label), GoodTimes Home Video, and Video Treasures (now Anchor Bay Entertainment). After Republic reclaimed the rights to the film, all unofficial VHS copies of the film in print were destroyed.
Artisan EntertainmentArtisan Entertainment Inc. was a privately held independent American movie studio until it was purchased by a Canadian studio, Lionsgate, in 2003. At the time of its acquisition, Artisan had a library of thousands of films developed through acquisition, original production, and production and...
(under license from Republic) took over home video rights in the mid-1990s. Artisan was later sold to
Lions Gate EntertainmentLions Gate Entertainment Corporation is a North American entertainment company. The company was formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1997, and is headquartered in Santa Monica, California...
, which continued to hold US home video rights until late 2005 when they reverted to Paramount, who also owns video rights throughout Region 4 (Latin America and Australia), and in France. Video rights in the rest of the world are held by different companies; for example, the UK rights are with
Universal StudiosUniversal Pictures , a subsidiary of NBCUniversal, is one of the six major movie studios....
.
Technological first: CD-ROM version
In 1993, due in part to the confusion of the ownership and copyright issues,
KinesoftKinesoft Development was a video game development company founded by Peter Sills in 1991. Mark Achler joined the company in 1994 to serve as president. Along with Director of Technology, Andrew Glaister, Sills developed the concept which became known as Exodus, a video-game development...
Development, with the support of Republic Pictures, released
It's a Wonderful Life as one of the first commercial feature-length films on
CD-ROMA CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
for the Windows PC (Windows 3.1). Predating commercial DVDs by several years, it included such features as the ability to follow along with the complete shooting script as the film was playing.
Given the state of video playback on the PC at the time of its release,
It's a Wonderful Life for Windows represented another first, as the longest running video on a computer. Prior to its release, Windows could only play back approx. 32,000 frames of video, or about 35 minutes at 15 frames per second. Working with Microsoft, Kinesoft was able to enhance the video features of Windows to allow for the complete playback of the entire film — all of this on a PC with a
486SXThe Intel 80486 microprocessor was a higher performance follow up on the Intel 80386. Introduced in 1989, it was the first tightly pipelined x86 design as well as the first x86 chip to use more than a million transistors, due to a large on-chip cache and an integrated floating point unit...
processor and only 8 MB of RAM.
DVD and Blu-ray versions
The movie has seen multiple DVD releases since the availability of the DVD format. In the fall of 2001, Republic issued the movie twice, once in August, and again with different packaging in September of that same year. On October 31, 2006, Paramount released a newly restored "60th Anniversary Edition". On November 13, 2007, Paramount released a two-disc "special edition" DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black-and-white version, and a new, third colorized version, produced by
Legend FilmsLegend Films, a San Diego-based company, was founded in August 2001. The company specializes in the conversion of feature films, both new release and catalog titles, and commercials from their native 2D format into 3-D film format utilizing proprietary technology and software...
using the latest colorization technology. On November 3, 2009, Paramount released a DVD version with a "Collector's Edition Ornament", and a Blu-ray edition.
Adaptations in other media
The film was twice adapted for
radioOld-Time Radio and the Golden Age of Radio refer to a period of radio programming in the United States lasting from the proliferation of radio broadcasting in the early 1920s until television's replacement of radio as the primary home entertainment medium in the 1950s...
in 1947, first on
Lux Radio TheaterLux Radio Theater, a long-run classic radio anthology series, was broadcast on the NBC Blue Network ; CBS and NBC . Initially, the series adapted Broadway plays during its first two seasons before it began adapting films. These hour-long radio programs were performed live before studio audiences...
(March 10) and then on
The Screen Guild TheaterThe Screen Guild Theater was a popular radio anthology series during the Golden Age of Radio, broadcast from 1939 until 1952, with leading Hollywood actors performing in adaptations of popular motion pictures such as Going My Way and The Postman Always Rings Twice.The show had a long run, lasting...
(December 29), then again on the
Screen Guild Theater broadcast of March 15, 1951. James Stewart and Donna Reed reprised their roles for all three radio productions. Stewart also starred in the May 8, 1949 radio adaptation presented on the
Screen Director's PlayhouseScreen Director's Playhouse is a popular radio and television anthology series which brought leading Hollywood actors to the NBC microphones beginning in 1949...
.
A musical stage adaptation of the film, titled
A Wonderful LifeA Wonderful Life is a musical with a book and lyrics by Sheldon Harnick and music by Joe Raposo.Based on the classic Frank Capra film starring James Stewart, the story closely follows the original plot, set in 1945, telling the story of a suicidal man whose guardian angel reveals to him how...
, was written by
Sheldon HarnickSheldon Harnick is an American lyricist best known for his collaborations with composer Jerry Bock on hit musicals such as Fiddler on the Roof....
and
Joe RaposoJoseph Guilherme Raposo, OIH was a Portuguese-American composer, songwriter, pianist, television writer and lyricist, best known for his work on the children's television series Sesame Street, for which he wrote the theme song, as well as classic songs such as "Bein' Green" and "C is for Cookie"...
. This version was first performed at the
University of MichiganThe University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
in 1986, but a planned professional production was stalled by legal wrangling with the estate of Philip Van Doren Stern. It was eventually performed in Washington, DC by
Arena StageArena Stage is a not-for-profit regional theater based in Southwest Washington, D.C. Its declared mission"is to produce huge plays of all that is passionate, exuberant, profound, deep and dangerous in the American spirit. Arena has broad shoulders and a capacity to produce anything from vast epics...
in 1991, and had revivals in the 21st century, including a staged concert version in New York City in 2005 and several productions by regional theatres.
The film was also adapted into a play in two acts by James W. Rodgers. It was first performed on December 15, 1993 at Paul Laurence Dunbar High School. The play opens with George Bailey contemplating suicide and then goes back through major moments in his life. Many of the scenes from the movie are only alluded to or mentioned in the play rather than actually dramatized. For example, in the opening scene Clarence just mentions George having saved his brother Harry after the latter had fallen through the ice.
It's a Wonderful Life: A Live Radio Play, a stage adaptation presented as a 1940s radio show, was adapted by Joe Landry and has been produced around the United States since 1997. The script is published by
Playscripts, Inc.Playscripts, Inc. is a New York City-based publisher of new plays and musicals, founded by brothers and playwrights Doug and Jonathan Rand. Included in the exclusive Playscripts catalog are over 1,600 plays and musicals by over 800 authors....
Philip Grecian's 2006 radio play based on the film
It's a Wonderful Life is a faithful adaptation, now in its third incarnation, that has been performed numerous times by local theatres in Canada.
In a June 2011 interview,
John McDanielJohn William McDaniel is an American theatre producer, composer, conductor, and pianist. He is known as the lead composer and producer of the 1996 television talk show The Rosie O'Donnell Show, for which he received six Daytime Emmy Award nominations, winning two.McDaniel is also known for his...
told
Saint Louis Magazine, "I'm in the throes of writing a musical version ... right now, working with
Kathie Lee GiffordKathie Lee Gifford is an American television host, singer, songwriter and actress, best known for her 15-year run on the talk show Live with Regis and Kathie Lee, which she co-hosted with Regis Philbin...
, who's doing the lyrics. I find we're mostly writing to character: Is it George, or the old guy who runs the bank? What do they want, what are they trying to do, what is the mood of that — is it staccato, are they agitated, is it a ballad?"
Popular culture
It's a Wonderful Life has been popularized in modern cultural references in many of the mainstream media. Due to the proliferation of these references, only a few examples will suffice to illustrate the film's impact.
- The Sesame Street
Sesame Street has undergone significant changes in its history. According to writer Michael Davis, by the mid-1970s the show had become "an American institution". The cast and crew expanded during this time, including the hiring of women in the crew and additional minorities in the cast. The...
MuppetsThe Muppets are a group of puppet characters created by Jim Henson starting in 1954–55. Although the term is often used to refer to any puppet that resembles the distinctive style of The Muppet Show, the term is both an informal name and legal trademark owned by the Walt Disney Company in reference...
characters Bert and ErnieBert and Ernie are two muppets on the popular U.S. children's television show Sesame Street. The two appear together in numerous skits, forming a comic duo that is one of the centerpieces of the program. Originated by Frank Oz and Jim Henson, the characters are currently performed by Muppeteers...
share their names with the cop and the taxicab driver in the film. Longtime Muppets writer and puppeteer Jerry JuhlJerome Ravn "Jerry" Juhl was an American television and movie writer, best known for his work with Jim Henson's "Muppets".Juhl was born in St. Paul, Minnesota; his family moved to Menlo Park, California, when he was 14...
said he believed there was no connection and that this was a coincidence. The episode Elmo Saves ChristmasElmo Saves Christmas is a children's home video that was released in 1996. In the story, Elmo learns that Christmas cannot occur every day. The Christmas special is the basis idea from the Christmas short story, 'Christmas Every Day' by William Dean Howells,...
(1996), which featured a clip from the film, pokes fun at the persistent reports of a connection, having them look at each other in disbelief as George calls Bert and Ernie by name.
- In a direct reference to the film, The Simpsons
The Simpsons is an American animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The series is a satirical parody of a middle class American lifestyle epitomized by its family of the same name, which consists of Homer, Marge, Bart, Lisa and Maggie...
episode "The PTA Disbands" places a caricatureA caricature is a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness. In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others.Caricatures can be...
of James Stewart's character in a local bank, who paraphrases the infamous bank runA bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
scene, which promptly starts a brawl.
- Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was also one of the most influential and widely read writers of popular science of his generation....
's book Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History takes its main title from the film. The book proposes that the evolution of life, rewound and replayed multiple times, would yield a different world each time, just as life without George Bailey is Pottersville, not Bedford Falls.
- Billy Peltzer's home town of Kingston Falls in the movie Gremlins
Gremlins is a 1984 American horror comedy film directed by Joe Dante, released by Warner Bros. The film is about a young man who receives a strange creature—called a Mogwai—as a pet, which then spawns other creatures who transform into small, destructive, evil monsters. It was followed by a sequel,...
(1984) is laid out to look like Bedford Falls. Clips from It's A Wonderful Life also appear within the film.
- The Killers' single "Boots" (2010) is a "Christmas" release in benefit of the RED foundation and directly relates to It's a Wonderful Life, using scenes from the movie in the companion video.
Antecedents
Film historian and reviewer James Berardinelli elaborated on the parallels between this film and the classic Dickens tale
A Christmas CarolA Christmas Carol is a novella by English author Charles Dickens first published by Chapman & Hall on 17 December 1843. The story tells of sour and stingy Ebenezer Scrooge's ideological, ethical, and emotional transformation after the supernatural visits of Jacob Marley and the Ghosts of...
. In both stories, a man revisits his life and potential death (or non-existence) with the help of supernatural agents, culminating in a joyous epiphany and a renewed view of his life.
Spin-offs
The film was remade as the 1977
television movieA television film is a feature film that is a television program produced for and originally distributed by a television network, in contrast to...
It Happened One ChristmasIt Happened One Christmas is a 1977 made-for-television movie starring Marlo Thomas and Wayne Rogers.The film, a gender-reversal remake of the classic It's a Wonderful Life, centers on Mary Bailey Hatch, a young woman who dreams of seeing the world but is forced by circumstances to remain in her...
. Lionel Chetwynd based the screenplay on the original Van Doren Stern short story and the 1946 screenplay. This remake employed gender-reversal, with
Marlo ThomasMargaret Julia “Marlo” Thomas is an American actress, producer, and social activist known for her starring role on the TV series That Girl . She also serves as National Outreach Director for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital...
as the protagonist Mary Bailey,
Wayne RogersWilliam Wayne McMillan Rogers III is an American film and television actor, best known for playing the role of 'Trapper John' McIntyre in the U.S...
as George Hatch, and
Cloris LeachmanCloris Leachman is an American actress of stage, film and television. She has won eight Primetime Emmy Awards—more than any other performer—and one Daytime Emmy Award...
as the angel Clara Oddbody. Leachman received her second Emmy nomination for this role. In a significant departure from his earlier roles,
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles , best known as Orson Welles, was an American film director, actor, theatre director, screenwriter, and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television and radio...
was cast as Mr. Potter. Following initial positive reviews, the made-for-television film was rebroadcast twice in 1978 and 1979, but has not been shown since on national re-broadcasts, nor issued in home media.
In 1990, another made-for-television movie called
ClarenceClarence is a 1990 American film directed by Eric Till.It is a sequel to the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.The film is set in the 1990s....
starred
Robert CarradineRobert Reed Carradine is an American actor. The youngest of the Carradine family of actors, he made his first appearances on television western series such as Bonanza and his older brother David's Kung Fu. Carradine's first film role was in the 1972 film The Cowboys opposite Roscoe Lee Browne and...
in a new tale of the helpful angel.
See also
- Alternate universe in filmdom
- The Family Man
The Family Man is a 2000 drama film directed by Brett Ratner and starring Nicolas Cage and Téa Leoni. Cage's production company, Saturn Films, helped produce the film....
External links
- It's a Wonderful Life on Lux Radio Theater (Audio link)
- Stewart, Jimmy. "Jimmy Stewart Remembers 'It's a Wonderful Life' (1977)," MyMerryChristmas.com
- Zuzu.net, Official site of Zuzu actress Karolyn Grimes
- The Making of "It's A Wonderful Life" Frank Capra Online
- Dimitri Tiomkin and It's A Wonderful Life
- Cox, Stephen. "On a Wing and a Prayer", Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2006, p. E-1.
- "Sentimental Hogwash?: On Capra's It's a Wonderful Life", Humanitas, Vol. XVIII, No.s 1&2, 2005
- Gary Kamiya, "All hail Pottersville!", Salon.com, December 22, 2001
- Philip Van Doren Stern, "The Greatest Gift", publicly available 1st edition of authenticated reproduction