It's a Wonderful Life

Front Row at the Movies by Shirrel Rhoades

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It wouldn’t seem like Christmas without a annual viewing of “It’s a Wonderful Life.” The 1946 Frank Capra classic is ranked as the #1 Most Inspirational Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute (AFI).

However, the black-and-white film was considered a flop when it was released in 1946. Two of the writers called the finished film “horrid” and refused to see it.

At $3.7 million, “It’s a Wonderful Life” was a very expensive production for its time. Earning only $3.3 million, it placed 26th (out of more than 400 films) in box-office revenues for 1947.

This was the first and last time Frank Capra produced, financed, directed, and co-wrote one of his films. Losing $525,000, it left him scrambling to finance his production company’s next picture, “State of the Union.”

“Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes,” said one recent appraisal. “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.”

You remember the story: An angel-in-training (AS2) is sent to help a disillusioned businessman in the little town of Bedford Falls. He accomplishes this by showing George Bailey what life would be like if he’d never existed.

And you remember the stars: Jimmy Stewart as George, Donna Reed as his loyal wife, Thomas Mitchell as forgetful Uncle Billy, Lionel Barrymore as the Scrooge-like Mr. Potter, and Henry Travers as the 293-year-old wingless angel named Clarence Oddbody.

As Clarence says, “Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?”

The film was inspired by an unpublished short story titled “The Greatest Gift” that the author had sent out as a Christmas card to 200 friends. David Hempstead, a producer at RKO Pictures, ended up buying the rights to the story, with the part of George Bailey earmarked for Cary Grant. But Grant made “The Bishop’s Wife” instead, so RKO sold the rights to Capra and threw in the three earlier scripts for free. The screenwriters had included such luminaries as Dorothy Parker, Dalton Trumbo, and Clifford Odetts.

Capra recalled, “Of all actors’ roles I believe the most difficult is the role of a Good Sam who doesn’t know that he is a Good Sam. I knew one man who could play it … James Stewart.”

Capra rewrote the script to fit Stewart. Even so, Capra had trouble pitching the role to the actor, admitting, ““This really doesn’t sound so good, does it?”

According to some accounts, Stewart hesitated to take on the role, feeling he was not up to it so soon after returning from World War II, but his friend Lionel Barrymore convinced him to sign on.

Barrymore had been selected to play Mr. Potter because he was a famous Ebenezer Scrooge in a radio adaptation of “A Christmas Carol.”

Although having appeared in nearly 20 movies, this was Donna Reed’s first starring role … she got it because Jean Arthur wasn’t available.

All was not wonderful. A 1947 FBI memo cited the film as a potential “Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry,” noting that the film’s obvious attempt to discredit bankers and deliberately malign the upper class “is a common trick used by Communists.

What’s more, an article for The New York Times described it as “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.”

And Salon has called it “the most terrifying Hollywood film ever made.”

Nevertheless, AFI selected “It’s a Wonderful Life” as its third Best Fantasy Film in its listings of Top Ten Classics.

Britain’s Channel 4 ranked it as the 7th Greatest Film Ever Made.

The Vatican cited it in the “values” category of its list of “45 Great Films.”

And the United States Library of Congress selected it for preservation in its National Film Registry.

“It’s a Wonderful Life” received six Oscar nods, but won only one for the Technical Achievement of inventing a new kind of fake movie snow.

BBC-TV’s poll listed “It’s a Wonderful Life” as second only to “The Shawshank Redemption” among the Best Films Never to Have Won an Oscar.

Three decades after the film’s initial release, it discovered a whole new audience by becoming a television staple during the 1976 Christmas season. (The copyright lapsed in 1974, making it royalty-free to any TV network that wanted to show it for the next 20 years.)

“It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” said Capra. “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 President. 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.”

Rotten Tomatoes calls it, “The holiday classic to define all holiday classics, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ is one of a handful of films worth an annual viewing.” The aggregator awards it a 94% approval rating.

You don’t have to wait for this year’s television re-run. “It’s a Wonderful Life” is being shown at 6:30 p.m. on December 9 as part of Tropic Cinema’s Monday Night Classics series.

Jimmy Stewart said George Bailey was the favorite character he ever played (but “Harvey” remained his favorite film). His turn as George Bailey was ranked as #8 among Premiere Magazine’s 100 greatest Performances of All Time.

Frank Capra admitted that “It’s a Wonderful Life” was his personal favorite among all the films he directed. And he screened it for his family every Christmas season.

Final note: When George Bailey shows cab driver Ernie a copy of the Bedford Falls Sentinel, sharp eyes will note that the paper is undated. Maybe that was prescient … because “It’s a Wonderful Life” is timeless.

Email Shirrel: srhoades@aol.com