USA film school
1946
bw 130 min.
Director: Frank Capra
CAV: $89.95 - available
           3 discs, catalog # CC1112L
Untitled Document
Of the
thousands of films that Hollywood turned out durin the golden
age of the
studio system, a few hundred are fondly remembered by the general
public.
Of those, even fewer have reached the status of It's
AWonderful
Life. Casablanca, The Wizard of Oz, Citizen
Kane,
Singin' in the Rain and a small list of others can be
revived anywhere,
anytime, and count on a happy audience, but none have the
consistent, seasonal,
"it's that time of year" guarantee that
It's AWonderful Life
can claim.
Why? What
draw Americans to It's A Wonderful Life year after year,
Christmas
after Christmas? Why do people who have already seen it once,
twicw, even
ten times, want to watch it again? What is its magic, its power,
its
apparently timeless appeal?
Some answers are simple.
Frank Capra is a great film director who knows
how to reach and please
audiences, and James Stewart is a great film actorwho
knows how to create
screen characters people believe in. More than that,
the screenwriters,
Francis Goodrich and ALbert Hackett, are a successful
team who really knew
what a movie was and how to write a good one. The supporting
cast is
outstanding. Even minor roles are played by such heavyweights as
Thomas
Mitchell, Frank Faylen, and Ward Bond, while major support is provided
by
Lionel Barrymore, Beulah Bondi, Gloria Grahame and Henry Travers.
Opposite
Stewart, as his leading lady, is the fresh and lovely Donna Reed
at the
beginning of a long and varied career.
The
entire collaborative team of It's A Wonderful Life is a roster
of
great names. Three of Hollywoods greatest cinematographers worked on
the
film: Victor Milner (uncredited), and the talented Joseph Walker,
who
shared final credit with the up-and-coming Joseph Biroc, who developed
into
another big name. The film was edited by the man many considered to be
the
most influential cutter in Hollywood's history, William Hornbeck,
whose
career stretches from the days of Mack Sennett through the years with
Korda
in England and on to other classics movies such as A Place in the
Sun,
Shane, and Giant.
With
additional scenes written by Jo Swerling, music by Dimitri Tiomkin,
and
contributions from a roster of first-rate technicians, it might be
said
that, as is true for other beloved Hollywood movies, the collaborative
combination
for It's A Wonderful Life was just right. Capra had a
lot of talented
help.
It's A Wonderful Life was not
just another feature from the Hollywood
movie factory. When director Frank
Capra returned to film-making from his
World War II service in the Office
of War Information, it was the fall of
1945 and he had not made a
commercial feature film for the duration of the
war. Behind him he had a
record of outstanding critical and commercial success
-- films such as
It Happened One Night, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town,
Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington, You Can't Take It With You,
and more. He had
won three Oscars for Best Direction for such films ( a
fourth Oscar for
Prelude to War, a part of the Why We Fight
series for the U.
S. Army was also to his credit), and he was axious --
even a bit frightened
-- to know if he still had the old magic touch with
films and
audiences.
From the beginning, he wanted a property
that would be outstanding in
every way possible. To acheive his goals, he
formed his own independent
production company, Liberty Films, in
partnership with Samuel Briskin, William
Wyler, and George Stevens, Sr.,
and he took his time searching for just
the right story. He found it on the
shelves of RKO Pictures -- a neglected
little tale called "The
Greatest Gift," by Philip Van Doren Stern,
which RKO had originally
planned to turn into a film for Cary Grant. So
far, no one had been able to
adapt the story, which was about a man given
a chance to see what the world
would have been like if he had never lived,
into a successful screenplay.
Capra took on the job and, needless to say,
he
succeeded.
Everyone has their own explanation of the
film's continued success. In
determining what makes audiences want to look
at one film more than another,
one has to consider the basic story itself.
The story of George Bailey is
the story of an American Everyman. He is an
ordinary guy, with dreams of
excitement and success. He wants to travel,
see the world, make something
of himself -- goals that almost anyone
watching the movie can identify with
and understand. He wants to shake off
his small town and experience the
glamour and excitement of the big city.
However, simple events, not earthquakes
or bubonic plagues but family
responsibilities, keep interfering with his
departure. Suddenly, a lot of
years have passed, and he's still living in
Bedford Falls, the town he was
born in. Maybe it wouldn't be so awful, but
a crisis occurs, a shortage of
money, another thing the average person can
identify with . . . and George
is forced to question everything. What has
his life been worth? What is the
point of going on?
It's A Wonderful Life
becomes accessible to everyone because it
asks the basic question: What is
an average man's contribution to his world?
Rich or poor, failure or
success, the question applies. After seeing the
film one has a sense that
one's life counts, that every person's life counts,
and that friendship is
the only true wealth anyone has.
Besides all that, philosophizing
and analyzing set aside, It's A Wonderful
Life is full of laughs. As
Frank Capra summed up, "It's my kind
of film for my kind of
people" . . . and that turned out to be
almost
everyone.
--Jeanine
Basinger
Cast & Credits
George Bailey
... James Stewart
Mary Hatch Bailey ... Donna Reed
Mr.
Potter ... Lionel Barrymore
Uncle Billy ... Thomas Mitchell
Clarence ... Henry Travers
Mrs. Bailey ... Beulah
Bondi
Ernie ... Framk Faylen
Bert ... Ward
Bond
Violet Black ... Gloria Grahame
Mr. Gower ... H. B.
Warner
Sam Wainwright ... Frank Albertson
Harry Bailey ...
Todd Karns
Mr. Bailey ... Samuel S. Hinds
Cousin Tilly ...
Mary Treen
Ruth Dakin ... Virginia Patton
Cousin Eustace
... Charles Williams
Annie ... Lillian Randolph
Young
George ... Bobbie Anderson
Producer, Director ...
Frank Capra
Screenplay ... Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank
Capra and Jo Swerling,
from the story
"The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern
Director of
Photography ... Joseph Walker, A. S. C., Joseph Brice
Editor ...
William Hornbeck
Art Director ... Jack Okey
Music Director
... Dimitri Tiomkin