It's a Wonderful Life [60th Anniversary Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

This is director Frank Capra's classic bittersweet comedy/drama about George Bailey (James Stewart), the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the typical American small town of Bedford Falls. As the film opens, it's Christmas Eve, 1946, and George, who has long considered himself a failure, faces financial ruin and arrest and is seriously contemplating suicide. High above Bedford Falls, two celestial voices discuss Bailey's dilemma and decide to send down eternally bumbling angel Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), who after 200 years has yet to earn his wings, to help George out. But first, Clarence is given a crash course on George's life, and the multitude of selfless acts he has performed: rescuing his younger brother from drowning, losing the hearing in his left ear in the process; enduring a beating rather than allow a grieving druggist (H.B. Warner) to deliver poison by mistake to an ailing child; foregoing college and a long-planned trip to Europe to keep the Bailey Building and Loan from letting its Depression-era customers down; and, most important, preventing town despot Potter (Lionel Barrymore) from taking over Bedford Mills and reducing its inhabitants to penury. Along the way, George has married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Donna Reed), who has stuck by him through thick and thin. But even the love of Mary and his children are insufficient when George, faced with an $8000 shortage in his books, becomes a likely candidate for prison thanks to the vengeful Potter. Bitterly, George declares that he wishes that he had never been born, and Clarence, hoping to teach George a lesson, shows him how different life would have been had he in fact never been born. After a nightmarish odyssey through a George Bailey-less Bedford Falls (now a glorified slum called Potterville), wherein none of his friends or family recognize him, George is made to realize how many lives he has touched, and helped, through his existence; and, just as Clarence had planned, George awakens to the fact that, despite all its deprivations, he has truly had a wonderful life. Capra's first production through his newly-formed Liberty Films, It's a Wonderful Life lost money in its original run, when it was percieved as a fairly downbeat view of small-town life. Only after it lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and became a Christmastime TV perennial did it don the mantle of a holiday classic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 (Pre-1954 Standard)
• Screen: Black and White
• Audio: Dolby Digital Mono
• Features:
  • cc
  • The making of "It's a Wonderful Life" - a documentary featurette hosted by Tom Bosley
  • A Personal Remembrance - a special tribute to Frank Capra narrated by his son, Frank Capra Jr.
  • Original theatrical trailer

AWARDS

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

•     Nominated Best Actor - 1946 (James Stewart)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1946 (Frank Capra)
•     Nominated Best Editing - 1946 (William W. Hornbeck)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1946
•     Nominated Best Sound - 1946 (John Aalberg)

• American Film Institute

•     Won 100 Greatest American Movies - 1998

• Hollywood Foreign Press Association

•     Won Best Director - 1946 (Frank Capra)

• Library of Congress

•     Won U.S. National Film Registry - 1989

• National Board of Review

•     Nominated Best Picture - 1947

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Cast:

  
       James Stewart - George Bailey
       Donna Reed - Mary Hatch Bailey
       Lionel Barrymore - Mr. Potter
       Thomas Mitchell - Uncle Billy
       Henry Travers - Clarence
       Beulah Bondi - Mrs. Bailey
       Carol Coomes - Janie Bailey
       Gloria Grahame - Violet Bick
       Argentina Brunetti - Mrs. Martini
       Frank Faylen - Ernie
       Jean Gale - Mary (younger)
       Karolyn Grimes - Zuzu Bailey
       Frank S. Hagney - Potter's Bodyguard
       Jim Hawkins - Tommy Bailey
       Samuel S. Hinds - Pa Bailey
       Todd Karns - Harry Bailey
       Sheldon Leonard - Nick
       Virginia Patton - Ruth Dakin
       Ronnie Ralph - Sam (younger)
       Lillian Randolph - Annie
       Larry Simms - Pete Bailey
       Mary Treen - Cousin Tilly
       H.B. Warner - Mr. Gower
       Charles Williams - Cousin Eustace
       Al Bridge - Sheriff

• Director:

  Frank Capra

• Producer:

  Frank Capra

• Screenwriter:

  Frank Capra, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling

• Cinematographer:

  Joseph Biroc, Joseph Walker

• Composer (Music Score):

  Dimitri Tiomkin

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Dimitri Tiomkin

• Editor:

  William W. Hornbeck

• Art Director:

  Jack Okey

• Set Designer:

  Emile Kuri

• Costume Designer:

  Edward Stevenson

• Sound/Sound Designer:

  Clem Portman, Richard VanHessen

• Makeup:

  Gordon Bau

• Special Effects:

  Russell A. Cully

• First Assistant Director:

  Arthur S. Black, Jr.

• Short Story Author:

  Philip Van Doren Stern

REVIEW:

• The image of It's a Wonderful Life has undergone a complete transformation since its 1946 release. In its own time, Frank Capra's comedy-drama about the dark side of human nature was a modest failure, neither a box-office success nor a critical favorite, though it garnered some recognition in the form of 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. For the next 28 years, the movie remained a cult favorite among movie buffs and Capra fans. Then the movie's copyright was allowed to lapse and suddenly, during the early 1980s around Christmas (the season in which the film is set), it seemed possible to flip on the TV at random some nights and find the movie playing somewhere on the dial, and that went double for Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year's. The public came out regarding the film as a lost classic; Capra lived just long enough to reap some of the belated acclaim, and his estate later benefitted from the sales of the films that he owned outright, such as Broadway Bill and Lady For a Day. The movie is in fact a dark, disturbing look at small-town American life between the two world wars, rife with class envy and fears of modernity, and featuring a before-its-time portrayal of George Bailey's middle-aged sense of failure that seems more appropriate for an American film of the Seventies. It is at once nostalgic and angry, and its reputation as a holiday chestnut has been mercilessly parodied for its conclusion on good spirits and generosity; Saturday Night Live, in particular, had vicious fun with it in a post-end-credits parody in which the people of Bedford Falls lynch Mr. Potter when they realize that he has the money. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi