It's a Wonderful Life
US (1946): Drama
CineBooks' Motion Picture Guide Review: 5.0 stars out of 5
129 min, No rating, Black & White, Available on videocassette and laserdiscFrank Capra and James Stewart teamed up for this majestic, heartwarming classic film (it remained the favorite of each) which, though not a big success at the time of its release, has gone on to become one of the most popular movies ever made. Thanks to frequent television screenings, in the past forty years uncounted millions have seen and loved IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE.
Synopsis
Small-town boy. This wonderful fantasy begins in the heavens with angels talking about a small-town young man, George Bailey (Stewart) and how his problems have overwhelmed him to the point where he is contemplating suicide. In flashback we see Stewart's life from boyhood: how he saved his younger brother from drowning, going deaf in one ear as a result; how he worked at the local drugstore owned by Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), and met his childhood sweetheart Mary, who, into his deaf ear swears she will love him all her life.
As a child, the boy discovers that druggist Mr. Gower, who has been drinking due to a family tragedy, has mistakenly mixed a prescription containing poison; the boy stops him from sending it to a patient. Angrily, before the boy can tell him of the mistake, Mr. Gower boxes the boy's ears. When he realizes his error, Mr. Gower breaks down and begs the boy for forgiveness.
Ambitions checked. By the time Stewart grows up, he can't wait to get out of tiny Bedford Falls and away from his father's building and loan association. He's set to go off to college, but his father dies and Stewart must take over the building and loan to keep it away from old man Potter (Lionel Barrymore), the richest and meanest man in town. Everyone realizes his Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) is incapable of running the business, and Stewart has to stay on to keep the business going. He uses his savings to send his younger brother Harry (Todd Karns) to college. Stewart plans to leave town when Karns finishes school and comes back to run the building loan.
When his brother shows up with a new bride who says that Karns has a chance to work for his father-in-law, Stewart once again stays in Bedford Falls keeping the building and loan afloat. Despondent, he visits Mary (Donna Reed), who has remained true to her youthful vow and still loves Stewart. He's surly and rude, and tries to leave, but then recognizes his love for her and soon they are wed. He plans to see at least some of the world on his honeymoon, but just as they are leaving, he notices a mob scene at the building and loan and arrives to find there's a run on the place. He uses the money he'd saved for the honeymoon to satisfy the depositors, throwing away his last chance to get away from Bedford Falls, even briefly.
Money lost. The years pass and Stewart and Reed renovate a dilapidated old house to live in and raise a family of four children, while Stewart continues to keep the building and loan going, never making much money but helping numerous people in the town buy homes. World War II comes and he is rejected due to his bad ear. His brother Karns, however, becomes a Navy pilot whose heroics save a U.S. troopship, winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.
On Christmas Eve, Karns is to be decorated at the White House while his family and friends in Bedford Falls celebrate his fame, shown boldly on the front page of the Bedford Falls newspaper. Absent-minded Mitchell is in Barrymore's bank about to deposit $8,000 in building and loan funds. When Barrymore enters, Mitchell can't help but gloat, tossing a copy of the newspaper into Barrymore's lap. Unfortunately, the $8,000 is also in the newspaper. In his office, Barrymore finds the money, but says nothing, silently watching Mitchell as he frantically searches for the money.
Back at the building and loan, a bank examiner has arrived to go over the books. In his office, Mitchell tells Stewart about the lost money, and the two go out, retracing Mitchell's steps in a vain attempt to find the cash. Stewart begins to panic and becomes enraged at Mitchell, knowing the missing funds could mean a jail term. He goes to Barrymore and asks for a loan, but Barrymore only taunts him, then tells him he's going to call the authorities.
Life saved. Thoroughly depressed, Stewart wanders home where he shows uncharacteristic cruelty to his family, then leaves, heading off for Martini's saloon. It is there that he utters his prayer for help that is heard up above. He then heads for the river, convinced he'd be better off dead. Standing on the bridge over the river, Stewart peers down at the icy waters below. Suddenly another body hurtles into the water, an elderly gentleman, who begins to flounder and call for help. Stewart leaps into the water and yanks the old man to safety.
They later dry out in the bridgetender's house. There the man (Henry Travers) introduces himself as Clarence Oddbody, AS-2 (angel, second class). He tells a bemused Stewart that he is his guardian angel and that he jumped in the river so Stewart would save him instead of taking his own life. He adds that he still must earn his wings. With this news, the bridgetender falls out of his chair and runs outside, thinking he's dealing with lunatics. Stewart thinks the old man is nuts, but is puzzled as to how he knows so much about his life. When Travers points out that Stewart's death wouldn't solve any problems Stewart agrees, noting that it would be much better if he'd never been born. That inspires Travers and, after checking with his heavenly employers, he grants Stewart's wish.
Wish granted. Stewart is suddenly able to hear out of his deaf ear and can't understand why his clothes are completely dry and he has no identification. Those changes are minor, however, compared to what he is about to see as Travers takes him on a journey showing him what the world would be like if Stewart had never been born.
He finds that his brother died in a childhood accident because Stewart wasn't there to save him; as a result, his brother never grew up to be a hero, saving all the lives of the men on the naval transport. In addition, he was not around to stop the druggist Gower from putting poison in a prescription; as a result, a boy died and Gower went to prison. More incredible, the pastoral town of Bedford Falls is now the garish Babylon of Pottersville, filled with burlesque houses, peep shows, bucket-of-blood bars, and pawn shops, where drunks and prostitutes roam the streets.
Stewart learns that after his father died, Mitchell tried to run the building and loan and went insane when it folded. His mother (Beulah Bondi) has had to subsist on a meager income running a boarding house. He finds her a weary, unhappy old woman who doesn't recognize him and orders him to leave. No one in town, it seems, knows who he is, including his old friends, Bert (Ward Bond) the cop, and Ernie (Frank Faylen) the cab driver. They think he's crazy, but when Bond tries to arrest him, Travers uses his magical powers to help Stewart escape.
Stewart is now nearly terrified by the sights he sees, and feels he must find Reed and all will be back to normal. He finds her, an old maid librarian, but she doesn't recognize him either and she screams as he desperately begs her to help him. The screams attract Bond who comes after Stewart with his gun drawn, prompting Stewart to run wildly out of town, back to the river. Standing on the bridge, he begs for Travers "to get me back, get me back! I want to live again." He begins to weep, begging to rejoin the living. Life returned. A police car turns onto the bridge and Bond rushes forward, addressing Stewart in a friendly manner. Stewart prepares to fight him until he realizes that Bond knows him. He has again lost the ability to hear in one ear, and now realizes that things are back to normal. Joyous he heads back to town, ecstatically greeting every familiar face and sight in Bedford Falls.
Back home, Stewart bursts through the door of his house to blissfully embrace his children. In the parlor waits the dour bank examiner and the local sheriff. Stewart greets them with a wide smile, saying: "Isn't it wonderful—I'm going to jail!" But Stewart does not go to jail. Reed runs into the house and into his arms. Behind her, flooding into his home, are all his depositors, friends, and relatives, brought there by Reed when she learned that her husband was in trouble. They begin to empty their pockets into a large basket, thousands of dollars, in gratitude for what Stewart and his company have done in enriching their lives. A wire arrives in which old friend Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson), now a millionaire manufacturer, states that he has made $25,000 available to Stewart if he needs it. The sheriff tears up his warrant and even the bank examiner contributes. Karns arrives and drinks are passed out.
Karns toasts Stewart: "To my big brother George, the richest man in Bedford Falls." All burst into "Old Lang Syne." Someone or something brushes the Christmas tree next to Stewart, Reed and their children, and the bells on the branches tinkle. The youngest Bailey (Karolyn Grimes) held in Stewart's arms, says: "Look, daddy, teacher says that every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." Stewart grins broadly and says: "That's right, that's right." He looks upward and gives a wink, saying: "Attaboy, Clarence."
Critique
The heart's reasons. "The heart has its reasons which reason does not know," wrote Blaise Pascal, and in IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE director Frank Capra etched those reasons upon the screens of America and in the open hearts of viewers everywhere. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE undoubtedly ranks among the ten most popular movies ever made, and it's also one of the best.Everything about this film gets the blood pumping in the right direction. It is true that the film deals with middle-class values, and that around the edges of every problem and joy is Capra's personal stamp of sentimentality, or perhaps American sentimentality. (Was there ever a more American director than the great Frank Capra?) However this sentiment is wonderfully and carefully crafted by the master filmmaker. It is honest, fresh, and it was as true then as it is today.
Stewart outstanding. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was always Stewart's favorite film, and he is stirring as the small-town dreamer who sacrifices his life for his fellow man. Stewart is everyman. He's no saint; he gripes and complains like everyone else, but he is a great leader of men because his brave, impetuous heart will not be ruled by the subtle, conniving minds of others. His performance helps us to see that George Bailey is vitally important in the world, as we all are, because he belongs to mankind.
Stewart shows his vulnerability, his weaknesses, his dogged yet distant hopes in a character who refuses to quit the burden of community. For example, early on, Stewart tells Reed: "Mary, I know what I'm going to do tomorrow, and the next day, and next year, and the year after that. I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I'm gonna see the world." Instead, Stewart stays home to build a strong community of independent, secure citizens with a future much brighter than banker Barrymore would ever paint had he, instead of Stewart, stroked the canvas of the town's future with his own brush. The young Stewart can do anything, achieve anything. "I'll give you the moon," he tells Reed when they stroll along a street in their youth. "I'll take it," she tells him, and somehow he does give her what she wants, a family, affection, a home.
A terrific cast. Reed, borrowed from MGM, as were Gloria Grahame and Barrymore, is also excellent as the loyal, trusting wife who knew since childhood she would be Mrs. George Bailey. Barrymore, the only man Capra would settle for as the vicious old skinflint, embodies scheming evil where Stewart is bright-hope good. The rest of the cast is simply terrific, a casting director's dream come true of matchless character players: Mitchell, Warner, Bond, Bondi, Albertson, Samuel S. Hinds, Frank Faylen, as well as the softspoken, venerable Travers.
Background
Capra's best. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE was Capra's first film in several years, and Stewart's first film for Capra in six years; both had only recently gotten out of the service. Capra felt that this film surpassed any movie he ever made, stating in his autobiography, The Name Above the Title: "I thought it was the greatest film I ever made. Better yet, I thought it was the greatest film anybody ever made. It wasn't made for the oh-so-bored critics or the oh-so-jaded literati. It was my kind of film for my kind of people." Nevertheless, forced to compete with another blockbuster of the time, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946), IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE struggled at the box office when first released, actually losing $525,000.Interestingly, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES was directed by William Wyler, one of Capra's collaborators—along with George Stevens and Sam Briskin, in the new independent production company, Liberty Films, formed by the four after World War II with the idea of giving good directors the full artistic control that Capra had previously enjoyed on his pictures. (Wyler's classic, however, was not a product of the new company.)
Original story. The idea for the story came about in a unique way. Author Philip Van Doren Stern wrote the story, entitled "The Greatest Gift," and sent it out to his friends as a Christmas card. So well did they receive it that Stern published the tale, and RKO immediately bought it for the screen. The studio assigned the script to a variety of writers, Dalton Trumbo, Clifford Odets, Marc Connelly, but none of them could develop the right approach. The final script, which is bright and full of humor, was fashioned expertly by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, with additional dialogue by Jo Swerling. It is this version that Capra took over and made into a classic.
