I have put off blogging about Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) for my Christmas edition of CRAZYFILMGUY for many years now for one simple reason. I cry every time I watch the film. I had never even heard of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE until college when my film criticism professor and screenwriter Peter Krikes (who wrote I think the best of the early STAR TREK movies called STAR TREK IV: THE VOYAGE HOME) showed the movie to our film class before Christmas break back in 1985. Upon viewing the now classic film, I discovered 1) I am extremely sentimental and 2) I developed a crush on actress Donna Reed who plays James Stewart's wife Mary. Nowadays, you can't turn on the television around the holidays (in fact it's on tonight on NBC) and not stumble across IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. But until that pivotal moment in college, I had no clue that such a heart-warming film existed. It turns out this year is the 75th anniversary of the release of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. I've got a box of tissue right next to me. Let's do this!
Yet, as beloved as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is today, it was not appreciated when it was released back in 1946 which is incredible. It was a box office flop. How can that be? The title is uplifting. It's a holiday film. It stars All American movie stars James Stewart and Donna Reed. It has a lovable angel in it. But dig a little deeper into IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE and the film's story and the time the film came out is darker than you would imagine. World War II had just ended. Although jubilant, the U.S. had a hangover from a war that killed millions. A film about a man who teeters on the brink of suicide, leaving his wife and young kids behind when he believes he's lost everything was a bit too bleak for audiences a year after the war ended. But like the main character George Bailey, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would be saved and rediscovered by later generations who found deeper meaning and laughs in this black and white holiday movie.
An Italian immigrant from Sicily who came to America with his family in 1903, Writer/Director Frank Capra was at the top of his game between 1934 to 1941 creating classic films like IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert; MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON (1939) with James Stewart and Jean Arthur; and MEET JOHN DOE (1941) with Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. But World War II would put a break on the careers of both Frank Capra and James Stewart's. Both men would become involved in the war effort. Stewart would fly bombing missions over Europe, forever altering his life and view of the world. Capra would continue filmmaking but for the U.S. Government, making propaganda films during the war. When World War II ended, Capra and Stewart would reunite for their first project since the war with IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
With a screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Frank Capra and some additional scenes by Jo Swerling based on a story by Philip Van Doren Stern and directed by Frank Capra, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE opens on Christmas Eve with the sleepy, snowy New England town of Bedford Falls praying for a man named George Bailey. The Celestial Beings above hear their prayers and request Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers) an angel, second class to help George. They begin by having Clarence study young George Bailey (Bobbie Anderson) in two pivotal moments of his youth. First, in 1919, George saves his younger brother Harry Bailey (Georgie Nokes) from drowning in an icy pond. Later, young George prevents his pharmacist boss Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner) from accidentally dispensing poison to a customer. We flash forward to adventurous, young adult George Bailey (James Stewart) in 1928 about to travel around the world before returning to finish college. On his final night before leaving, George joins his younger adult brother Harry (Todd Karns) at Harry's high school graduation party where he runs into childhood friends Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), Violet Bick (Gloria Grahame) the sexiest girl in Bedford Falls, and Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) who has secretly loved George since they were kids. George and Mary dance the Charleston, fall into a swimming pool underneath the dance floor, and later walk home together but their romance and George's trip are cut short when George's father Peter Bailey (Samuel S. Hinds) has a stroke that night and dies.
George delays his Around the World trip to help settle the affairs of his father and Uncle Billy's (Thomas Mitchell) Bailey Brothers Building & Loan bank that they own. The richest and meanest man in Bedford Falls Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore) wants to liquidate the Building & Loan but the Board of Directors votes to keep it open but only if George manages it. George cancels his trip around the world and finishing college, letting Harry go to college first. But when Harry returns after graduating to trade places with George, he's secretly married to Ruth Dakin (Virginia Patton) and her father has a job lined up for Harry. George is stuck in Bedford Falls. George's mother Mrs. Bailey (Beulah Bondi) tells George Mary is back in town from college. George is in a bad mood but wanders around town eventually ending up in front of Mary's house. After initially fighting, George realizes he's in love with Mary. George and Mary get married.
George and Mary prepare to leave on an extensive honeymoon when they notice a crowd of people heading for the Building & Loan. There's been a run on the Building & Loan as Potter's bank has called its loan. The citizens of Bedford Falls want their money. George and Mary use the two thousand dollars put away for their honeymoon to keep the bank open until closing time at six o'clock. The Building & Loan has survived. George is relieved but realizes Mary has disappeared. George's policeman friend Bert (Ward Bond) and taxi cab buddy Ernie (Frank Faylen) bring George over to the dilapidated old Granville house Mary has spruced up and renamed for one night the Waldorf to celebrate their honeymoon. George and Mary move into that old house, start a family and open Bailey Park, a community of affordable homes for residents to compete against Potter's slums. Potter tries to buy out George but George holds firm to his principles. Christmas Eve arrives. A big party is set for the Bailey house that night to celebrate the return of George's brother Harry who has just received the Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism during World War II.
The absent-minded Uncle Billy goes to make a deposit of eight thousand dollars at Potter's Bank but accidentally loses it (placing the envelope with the money in Potter's newspaper as Billy razzes Potter). George and Uncle Billy retrace his steps but the money is gone. The Building & Loan will be ruined. George goes to Potter for help but Potter just laughs at him. At his wit's end, George drives to a bridge, prepared to jump into the river to commit suicide when Clarence the Angel jumps into the river first. George rescues Clarence. As they dry off in the tollhouse keeper's shack, George wishes he'd never been born. With that wish, Clarence shows George what life would be like without him. Bedford Falls would become the dark and dangerous Pottersville. Mr. Gower would go to jail for poisoning a customer and become a drunk when released. George's brother Harry would drown because George wasn't there to save him. George's wife Mary would become an old maid and never be married. Clarence shows George that one man, one life can touch so many others. George wants to live again and Clarence returns George to his life as snow falls again in Bedford Falls. George races home to see his family and discovers all of Bedford Falls has turned out to help George with his financial situation.
I have to give credit to my wife for pointing out to me that IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE has deep connections to Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol. Now George Bailey is no Ebeneezer Scrooge but George does become distraught and cranky to his family on Christmas Eve after Uncle Billy loses the bank deposit. Henry Potter is the Scrooge character, showing not an ounce of humanity as he seeks profit over the welfare of the citizens of Bedford Falls. Instead of Christmas ghosts, George's Guardian Angel (and director Capra) take George to a Christmas Past or Future (depending on how you look at it) where a George Bailey doesn't exist, revealing a dismal outcome for everyone George cares about. Bedford Falls never looked so eerie and ghostly (thanks to cinematographers Joseph Biroc and Joseph Walker and music by Dimtri Tiomkin). The black and white photography makes the Norman Rockwell like Bedford Falls (or Potterville in the George Bailey-less world) look positively Dickens like from the white snow falling on the black and white town to George and Clarence visiting a windy, sinister cemetery to view Harry's grave.
As uplifting as the finale of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE is, I always came away at the end of the film with the feeling that mean, old Mr. Potter (and his Lurch like silent bodyguard played by Frank Hagney) still won. Potter never gives back the money and he's never caught. Not that he needs it but he's eight thousand dollars richer. But upon my recent viewing, I realize that George will be the richest man in Bedford Falls, both figuratively with the love and generosity of his family and friends and realistically, with the financial support of childhood friend and wealthy industrialist Sam Wainwright who wires George twenty-five thousand dollars. Sam could steer any of his businesses to open accounts at George's Building & Loan. Potter may have momentarily shaken George to his core but the Bedford Falls community will rise together to ultimately put Henry Potter out of business. At least, that's how I imagine it once the film ends.
There are plenty of good Christmas themed films that came out around the same time as IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE like Leo McCarey's THE BELLS OF ST. MARY (1945) and Henry Koster's THE BISHOP'S WIFE (1947) but what makes IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE memorable and enduring are the little things like the pet raven named Jimmy that Uncle Billy keeps at the Building & Loan or the railing knob that George keeps pulling off and putting back when he goes upstairs in his house. There's George's friends Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver whose names will become synonymous with two muppets named Bert and Ernie on Jim Henson's television show for children called SEASAME STREET (1969). There's Uncle Billy who ties a string around his finger so he doesn't forget things (it still doesn't help). Or the sound of a bell ringing which means "an angel just got their wings." There's George and Mary singing "Buffalo Girls Won't You Come Out Tonight" and a jitterbug dance contest that winds up with the dancers all falling Busby Berkley style into a pool that opens up underneath the dance floor. There's Sam Wainwright and his signature donkey noise and gesture that always reminds us who he is. There's George's daughter Zuzu's (Karolyn Grimes) flower petals. None of these are vital to the plot of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but they are little flourishes that make the film more personal and stay with us long after the movie is over.
Before World War II broke out, James aka Jimmy Stewart was just coming into his own as both a romantic and comedic lead in films like George Marshall's DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) with Marlene Dietrich and George Cukor's THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940) with Cary Grant and Katherine Hepburn. Stewart would put his career on pause to join the war effort, becoming a distinguished bomber pilot in Europe during World War II. But Stewart would return a changed man, even contemplating retirement from acting. Unbeknownst to his friends and family, the horrors of bombing innocent civilians in France and Germany and witnessing the death of up to 130 comrades during bombing missions left Stewart with what we now call PTSD (post-traumatic stress syndrome). IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would be Stewart's first post-war film. As George Bailey, Stewart shows off his familiar comedic and romantic skills but he reveals to us a new, dramatic intensity borne from his war experiences. Faced with eight thousand dollars missing from his bank, the possibility of arrest and jail time, and the disgrace he and his family would face, Stewart's George Bailey goes from pathetically begging his nemesis Potter to save him to emotional desperation and the real act of suicide. Stewart would continue to display his new found dramatic chops in films ranging from Alfred Hitchcock's REAR WINDOW (1954) and VERTIGO (1958), Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE (1955), Otto Preminger's ANATOMY OF A MURDER (1959), and John Ford's THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE (1962).
IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would be the only pairing of James Stewart with Donna Reed. I would have loved more films with the two of them as a romantic couple but how lucky we are to have at least one. My crush on Donna Reed might have something to do in that she looks like another film crush of mine Olivia De Havilland (THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD). Doe eyes, round cheeks, brunette. Reed was just becoming a leading lady when she landed the plum role of Mary Hatch in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. Mary is the All-American girl next door but she has a small town sexiness about her. When George steps on her robe on the way home from the dance, Mary darts into some bushes, naked. Capra and Stewart have some fun with that scene. Mary's a resourceful woman, coming up with the idea to use their honeymoon money to save the Building & Loan. Later, it's Mary who goes around town asking for help for George and calls Sam Wainwright to rescue George from financial ruin. Reed would move on from her squeaky-clean roles, playing a prostitute and winning the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in Fred Zinneman's FROM HERE TO ETERNITY (1953) and as the Native American Sacajawea in THE FAR HORIZONS (1955) with Fred MacMurray as Meriwether Lewis and Charleton Heston as William Clark.
Capra found the perfect romantic leads for IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but his best casting were the supporting roles. Lionel Barrymore (YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU) as the Scrooge like Mr. Potter, the meanest man in Bedford Falls is the perfect villain opposite Stewart's Everyman George Bailey. Ebeneezer Scrooge would grow to love people but Capra never lets Henry F. Potter ever become sympathetic. Barrymore's Potter has a lump of coal for a heart. Henry Travers as Clarence Oddbody, the second-class angel trying to earn his wings is inspired casting. With his slight Irish accent and grandfatherly demeanor, Travers' Clarence is the perfect foil and companion to help George learn to love life again. Travers retired from film a few years after IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but check out this great character actor in other classics like Raoul Walsh's HIGH SIERRA (1941) and Alfred Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1942). Lastly, the hardest working supporting actor in Hollywood in the 30s and 40s Thomas Mitchell plays George's forgetful Uncle Billy. Besides George, Billy Bailey may be the saddest character in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. He probably only kept his job because of his brother Peter and then George. But Billy loves animals (he has a pet crow and squirrel) and he has a big heart. 1939 would be Mitchell's finest year, appearing in John Ford's STAGECOACH, Frank Capra's MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON, Howard Hawks' ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS, and Victor Fleming's GONE WITH THE WIND.
Capra rounds out the cast of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE with some familiar as well as fresh faces. Ward Bond as Bert the Cop and Frank Faylen as Ernie the cabbie would become universally loved as George's loyal Beford Falls friends. Bond had been appearing in small roles in films like Howard Hawks BRINGING UP BABY (1938) and John Huston's THE MALTESE FALCON (1941) but would really make his mark after WONDERFUL LIFE in John Ford westerns like FORT APACHE (1948) and THE SEARCHERS (1956). Frank Faylen I'm not as familiar with but he proved to be a fine supporting actor appearing in Billy Wilder's THE LOST WEEKEND (1945). For Gloria Grahame who plays Violet Bick, the supposed bad girl of Bedford Falls, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE would kick start her career. Grahame would become the femme fatale in film noir classics like Nicholas Ray's IN A LONELY PLACE (1952) with Humphrey Bogart and Fritz Lang's THE BIG HEAT (1956). Look for the Little Rascal "Alfalfa" aka young adult Carl Switzer as Mary Hatch's date Freddie Othello at the graduation party who opens up the swimming pool underneath the dance floor to get back at George Bailey stealing his gal. Grandma Walton Ellen Corby has an uncredited appearance as Ms. Davis, one of George's customers. And Sheldon Leonard as Nick the bartender at Martini's would play tough cops and tough guys in films like Howard Hawks TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT (1944) and Joseph Mankiewicz's GUYS AND DOLLS (1955) before becoming a successful TV producer of comedies like GOMER PYLE USMC (1964) and THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW (1960).
Some wonderful last IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE trivia. Most films in the 30s and 40s used city streets located on the backlot of studios like Warner Bros or Universal. But the town of Bedford Falls and its city blocks looked so authentic to me I always imagined Capra filmed on location somewhere in upstate New York. It turns out Capra had a real three block set (covering four acres) built on RKOs Encino Ranch in southern California. Main Street was 300 yards long and the set had 75 stores and buildings. If they filmed in southern California (during a heatwave in June of 1946 no less), how did they make the snow looks so real and not melt? Before IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, film snow was accomplished with cornflakes painted white. Director Capra needed lots of snow, snow that would crunch when characters walked on it and leave tire tracks. Capra turned to RKO special effects head Russell Shearman who devised a mixture of Foamite (found in fire extinguishers) along with soap, sugar, and water that could be sprayed out of cannisters and have that gentle, soft falling effect. The snow is a major character in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE. There is a colorized version of IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE but I have fought off the urge to watch it. I would think color would change the tone of the film especially when George and Clarence revisit if George had never been born.
Frank Capra's pet project IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE, the first and only project he made under his Liberty Films banner, would fade from the public's mind after 1946 and seem just a footnote in James Stewart's career. But with the advent of television and television stations needing product to show, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was rediscovered. Its copyright had not been renewed and the film fell into public domain allowing anyone to broadcast it for free. Suddenly, a new generation got to know and fall in love with George Bailey and Bedford Falls and the true spirit of people helping people.
I have made it through this blog without crying although I have fought off a tear every now and then. Yes, IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE has its dark moments but they are woven carefully within this magical, slice of small town America version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. How audiences back in 1946 couldn't embrace this film after nearly a decade of war is beyond me. If you or I ever become as desperate and disillusioned as George Bailey, just remember these words from his guardian angel Clarence who now has earned his wings. "Remember no man is a failure who has friends!" Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah everyone!
