It really is a Wonderful Life

Christmas is not complete for me unless I have watch the 1946 classic, It’s a Wonderful LIfe. It is a lovely black and white movie directed by Frank Capra starring Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed. It chronicles the story of George Bailey, a good man that is well beloved by the community who gave up on his own dreams to help others over and over again. George falls on hard times and gets the chance to see what his community would have been like if he had never been born. It shows just how many lives he touched during his lifetime up to that point. As he stands on a bridge considering suicide, he sees someone fall in and then dives in to save him. The person he saves turns out to be an angel sent to save him from killing himself and shows him what a wonderful life he actually had.

This post-war classic was not a big hit when it was first released. The film was based on a short story by Phillip Van Doren Stern in 1939. His story was called “The Greatest Gift” and was set in Seneca Falls, New York. The rights to the story were actually purchased by a RKO as a project to star Cary Grant but Grant was tied up in production on another project.

Several stars were considered for the different roles, such as Henry Fonda for George Bailey and Ginger Rogers for the role of Mary Hatch. I think James Fonda and Donna Reed were perfect for those roles! Lionel Barrymore (Drew Barrymore’s grandfather) was perfect as the miserly, mean Mr. Potter. He was chose for the role because of this spot on portrayal of Scrooge in other performances. Did you recognize a “grown-up Alfalfa” Carl Switzer from the Little Rascals movies? He was Mary’s suitor that helped open the pool under the dance floor.

It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for several academy awards but only won the category for Technical achievement for developing a new method for simulating falling snow in motion pictures! The big winner at the Academy awards that year was the film

The Best Years of our Lives. There are so many more wonderful stories and facts about this beloved movie to read about online if you are interested in learning more.

Every year I watch this movie, I have different things going on in my life and this movie is always an uplifting reminder in the movie from George’s brother Harry who makes a toast, “to my brother George, the richest man in town” as all of his friends and people he had helped rally around him at the end of the film. He finds a copy of Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer with an inscription from his angel friend that says, “no man is a failure who has friends” and I believe that to be true! Happy Collecting and Merry Christmas!

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