It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet "The Greatest Gift", self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol.
The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams to help others in his community and whose intended suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed.
Although it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, It's a Wonderful Life initially received mixed reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was $6.3 million, about twice the production cost, a figure it did not come close to achieving on its initial release. Because of the film's disappointing sales, Capra was seen by some studios as having lost his ability to produce popular, financially successful films.Eliot 2006, p. 206. Its copyright in the U.S. expired in 1974 following a lack of renewal and it entered the public domain, allowing it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees, at which point it became a Christmas classic.
It's a Wonderful Life is now considered to be one of the greatest films of all time and among the best Christmas films. It has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made. It was no. 11 on the American Film Institute's 1998 greatest movie list, no. 20 on its 2007 greatest movie list, no. 8 on its list of greatest love stories, and no. 1 on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time. In 1990, It's a Wonderful Life became one of 25 films selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress for being deemed as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Capra revealed that it was his favorite among the films he directed and that he screened it for his family every Christmas season. It was one of Stewart's favorite films.Appearance at University of Chicago Law School Films, 1978. A modern remake of the film, written and directed by Kenya Barris, is in development at Paramount Pictures as of January 2024.
Plot
On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey contemplates suicide. The prayers of his family and friends reach Heaven, where guardian angel second class Clarence Odbody is assigned to save George to earn his wings. Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life, beginning when 12-year-old George rescued his younger brother Harry from drowning in a frozen pond, leaving George deaf in his left ear. George later saves pharmacist Mr. Gower from accidentally poisoning a customer.
Before starting college, George plans a world tour. He is reintroduced to Mary Hatch, who has had a crush on him since childhood. When his father dies from a stroke, George postpones his travel to settle the family business, Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. Avaricious board member Henry F. Potter, who owns most of the town's businesses, seeks to dissolve the company, but the board of directors votes to keep it open if George runs it. George works alongside his uncle Billy and gives his tuition savings to Harry, with the understanding Harry will run the company when he graduates. When Harry returns from college married and with a job offer from his father-in-law, George resigns himself to running the Building and Loan. George and Mary rekindle their relationship and marry, but forego their honeymoon and use the money to keep the company solvent during a run on the bank. Under George, the company establishes Bailey Park, a housing development to compete with Potter's slums. Potter entices George with a high-paying job, but George rebuffs him when he realizes that Potter's goal is to close the Building and Loan.
On Christmas Eve, the town prepares a hero's welcome for Harry, a Navy fighter pilot awarded the Medal of Honor for preventing a kamikaze attack on a troopship. Billy goes to deposit $8,000 of the Building and Loan's money in Potter's bank. He taunts Potter with a newspaper headline about Harry, but absentmindedly wraps the cash in Potter's newspaper. Potter keeps the money while Billy cannot recall how he misplaced it. While a bank examiner performs an audit, George fruitlessly retraces Billy's steps. Frustrated and angered by Billy's blunder, which may lead to scandal and jail, George resents the sacrifices he has made and the family that has kept him trapped in Bedford Falls. He appeals to Potter for a loan, but has only a meager life insurance policy for collateral. Potter scoffs that George is worth more dead than alive and, accusing him of bank fraud, phones the police.
George flees Potter's office, gets drunk at a bar and prays for help. Contemplating suicide, he goes to a bridge, but before he can jump, Clarence falls into the water below and George rescues him. When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence takes him into an alternate timeline in which he never existed and Bedford Falls is called Pottersville, an unsavory town occupied by sleazy entertainment venues and callous people. No one knows George, not even his mother and Mary, who is an "old maid". He learns that Uncle Billy was committed to an institution after the Building and Loan failed and Mr. Gower was jailed for manslaughter for poisoning the customer. George also discovers Harry's grave; without George to save him, Harry drowned as a child, and without Harry to save them, the troops aboard the transport were killed.
George races back to the bridge and begs Clarence, and then God, for his life back. His wish granted, he gleefully rushes home to await his arrest. Meanwhile, Mary and Billy have rallied the townspeople, who donate more than enough to replace the missing money. Harry arrives and toasts George as "the richest man in town". Among the donations is a gift from Clarence, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, with the inscription, "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!" When a bell on their Christmas tree rings, George's youngest daughter, Zuzu, explains that "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings".
Cast
Uncredited cast members include:
Ellen Corby as Miss Davis, a townswomanDonnaReed.Org Ellen Corby in It's A Wonderful Life accessed 11/22/205 Jimmy as Uncle Billy's pet raven Stanley Andrews as Mr. Welch, the teacher's husband Al Bridge as the sheriff with the arrest warrant against George Marian Carr as Jane Wainwright Adriana Caselotti as the singer at Martini's Dick Elliott as the bald man on his front porch Tom Fadden as the bridge tollhouse keeper Charles Halton as bank examiner Mr. Carter Harry Holman as high school principal Mr. Partridge J. Farrell MacDonald as the man whose great-grandfather planted the tree George drives into Mark Roberts as Mickey, the student with the swimming pool floor key Almira Sessions as Potter's secretary Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer as Freddie Othello, the student who tries to flirt with Mary Joseph Granby as the Angel Joseph (voice) Moroni Olsen as the Senior Angel (voice)
Production Background
The original story, "The Greatest Gift", was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After it was rejected by several publishers, he had it printed as a 24-page pamphlet and mailed to 200 family members and friends for Christmas 1943.Ervin, Kathleen A. "Some Kind of Wonderful" . Failure Magazine (n.d.). Retrieved June 2, 2007. The story came to the attention of either Cary Grant or RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Grant's agent. In April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000, hoping to turn it into a vehicle for Grant.
Dalton Trumbo, Clifford Odets, and Marc Connelly each worked on versions of the screenplay before RKO shelved the project. In Trumbo's draft, George Bailey is an idealistic politician who grows more cynical as the story progresses, then tries to end his life after losing an election. The angel shows him Bedford Falls not as it would be if he had never been born, but if he had gone into business instead of politics. Also in Grant went on to make another Christmas movie staple, The Bishop's Wife.Cox 2003, p. 26.
RKO studio chief Charles Koerner urged Frank Capra to read "The Greatest Gift". Capra's new production company, Liberty Films, had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO. Capra immediately saw its potential, and wanted it for his first Hollywood film after making documentaries and training films during the war. RKO sold Capra the rights for $10,000 and threw in the three earlier scripts for free. (However, Capra claimed the rights and the scripts cost him $50,000.)Capra 1971, p. 376. Capra salvaged a few scenes from Odets' earlier screenplay and worked with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, and Dorothy Parker (brought in to "polish" the script),Cox 2003, p. 23. on many drafts of the screenplay.
It was not a harmonious collaboration. Goodrich called Capra "that horrid man" and recalled, "He couldn't wait to get writing it himself." Her husband, Albert Hackett, said, "We told him what we were going to do, and he said 'That sounds fine.' We were trying to move the story along and work it out, and then somebody told us that [Capra] and Jo Swerling were working on it together, and that sort of took the guts out of it. Jo Swerling was a very close friend of ours, and when we heard he was doing this we felt rather bad about it. We were getting near the end and word came that Capra wanted to know how soon we'd be finished. So my wife said, 'We're finished right now.' We quickly wrote out the last scene and we never saw him again after that. He's a very arrogant son of a bitch."
Later, a dispute ensued over the writing credits. The final screenplay, renamed by Capra It's a Wonderful Life,Goodrich et al. 1986, pp. 135, 200. was credited to Goodrich, Hackett, and Capra, with "additional scenes" by Jo Swerling. Capra said, "The Screen Writers' Arbitration committee decided that Hackett and Goodrich and I should get the credit for the writing. Jo Swerling hasn't talked to me since. That was five years ago."
Some in Seneca Falls, New York, believe Capra was inspired to model Bedford Falls after the town following a visit in 1945. The town has an annual "It's a Wonderful Life Festival" on the second weekend in December.McDonald, Joan Barone (November 16, 2008). "Seneca Falls: It's a 'Wonderful' town". The Buffalo News. Retrieved December 29, 2008. 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.Pacheco, Manny. "It's a Wonderful Life Museum opens" . redroom.com, December 11, 2010. Retrieved December 23, 2010. However, film historian Jeanine Basinger, curator of the Frank Capra archives at Wesleyan University and author of The 'It's A Wonderful Life' Book, has said no evidence exists for Seneca Falls' claim. "I have been through every piece of paper in Frank Capra's diaries, his archives, everything. There's no evidence of any sort whatsoever to support this. That doesn't mean it isn't true, but no one is ever going to prove it." Basinger said that Capra always described Bedford Falls as an "Everytown".Gammage, Jeff (September 27, 1998). "For Seneca Falls, It's Hollywood or Bust." Philadelphia Inquirer. A3.
Philip Van Doren Stern said in a 1946 interview, "Incidentally, the movie takes place in Westchester County. Actually, the town I had in mind was Califon, N.J." The historic iron bridge in Califon is similar to the bridge that George Bailey considered jumping from in the movie.
Casting