December 20, 1946
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 thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring 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. 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. A modern remake of the film, written and directed by Kenya Barris, is in development at Paramount Pictures as of January 2024.
Storyline
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 in order to earn his wings.
Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life. He watches 12-year-old George rescue his younger brother Harry from drowning in a frozen pond, leaving George with deafness in his left ear. George later saves pharmacist Mr. Gower from accidentally poisoning a customer.
In 1928, George plans a world tour before college. He is reintroduced to Mary Hatch, who has loved 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, 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, giving his tuition savings to Harry with the understanding that Harry will take over the company when he graduates.
Harry returns from college married and with a job offer from his father-in-law, and George resigns himself to running the building and loan. George and Mary rekindle their relationship and marry, but abandon their honeymoon to use their savings to keep the company solvent during a run on the bank.
Under George, the company establishes Bailey Park, a housing development surpassing Potter's overpriced slums. Potter entices George with a high-paying job, but George rebuffs him when he realizes that Potter's true intention 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 Potter's bank to deposit $8,000 ($139,726 in 2024) of the building and loan's money. 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. With a bank examiner reviewing the company's records, 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, offering his meager life insurance policy as collateral. Potter scoffs that George is worth more dead than alive and phones the police.
George flees Potter's office, gets drunk at a bar, and prays for help. Contemplating suicide, he goes to a bridge. Before George can jump, Clarence dives into the river and George rescues him. When George wishes he had never been born, Clarence takes him into an alternate timeline in which he never existed. George finds that Bedford Falls is now Pottersville, an unsavory town occupied by sleazy entertainment venues and callous people.
Mr. Gower was jailed for manslaughter because George wasn't there to stop him from poisoning the customer. His mother does not know him, and Uncle Billy was institutionalized after the building and loan failed. Bailey Park is a cemetery, where George discovers Harry's grave; without George to save him, Harry drowned in the frozen pond as a child; and without Harry to save them, the troops aboard the transport were killed. George finds that Mary is an "old maid" librarian. When he grabs her and claims to be her husband, she screams and runs away.
George races back to the bridge and begs Clarence, and then God, for his life back. His wish granted, he happily rushes home to await his arrest. 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, George finds a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a gift from Clarence inscribed: "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!" When a bell on the Christmas tree rings, George's youngest daughter, Zuzu, explains that, "every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings", while those gathered sing "Auld Lang Syne".
Sound Effects Used
- Sound Ideas, SCREAM - FEMALE, SHORT, HUMAN, HORROR 05 (Only heard in the current American Spanish dub.)