USA, 1947
130m
35mm, black and white, 1.37:1
mono, English
An American fantasy film directed by Frank Capra.
Plot Summary
George Bailey has spent his entire life in the small town of Bedford Falls, dreaming of travelling the world but constantly gives up his dreams for the good of the town and its people. As Christmas approaches one year, thinks look bleak – his Buildings and Loan bank is on the verge of bankruptcy and George decides to end it all, realising that he’s worth so much more dead than alive. But his guardian angel Clarence intervenes and shows him a nightmare vision of what Bedford Falls and its inhabitants would have become had he never existed…
Credits
Crew
Directed by: Frank Capra
Copyright MCMLXVII by Liberty Films, Inc.
Liberty Films presents an RKO Radio release
Produced by: Frank Capra
Screen Play by: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Frank Capra; Michael Wilson *, Dalton Trumbo *, Dorothy Parker *, Clifford Odets *
Additional Scenes by: Jo Swerling
Based on a Story [The Greatest Gift] by: Philip Van Doren Stern
Directors of Photography: Joseph Walker, Joseph Biroc; Victor Milner *
Film Editor: William Hornbeck
Musical Score Written and Directed by: Dmitri Tiomkin
Sound by: Richard Van Hessen, Clem Portman
Costumes by: Edward Stevenson
Makeup Supervisor: Gordon Bau
Special Photographic Effects: Russell A. Cully
Art Director: Jack Okey
Locations: Beverly Hills High School, Beverly Hills, California, USA, RKO Ranch in Encino, California, USA, RKO-Pathé Studios, Hollywood, California, USA
Cast
James Stewart (George Bailey)
Donna Reed (Mary Hatch)
Lionel Barrymore (Mr Henry F. Potter)
Thomas Mitchell (Uncle Billy)
Henry Travers (Clarence Osbody)
Beulah Bondi (Ma Bailey)
Frank Faylen (Ernie Bishop)
Ward Bond (Officer Bert Jameson)
Gloria Grahame (Violet Bick)
H.B. Warner (Mr Gower)
Todd Karns (Harry Bailey)
Samuel S. Hinds (Pa Bailey)
Mary Treen (Cousin Tilly)
Frank Albertson (Sam Wainwright)
Virginia Patton (Ruth Dakin)
Charles Williams (Cousin Eustace)
Sara Edwards (Mrs Hatch)
Bill Edmunds (Mr Martini)
Lillian Randolph (Annie)
Argentina Brunetti (Mrs Martini)
Alternative Titles
Do Céu Caiu Uma Estrela – Portugal
Det er herligt at leve – Denmark
Az Élet csodaszép – Hungarain title
The Greatest Gift – working title
Ihmeellinen on elämä – Finland
Ist das Leben nicht schön? – Germany
Livet är underbart – Sweden
!Qué bello es vivir! – Spain
Qué bello es vivir – Argentina
Que la vie est belle – Belgium
La Vie est belle – France
La vita e meravigliosa – Italy
Links
Remakes
Charley and the Angel (1973)
It Happened One Christmas (1977)
See also
Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad (1949)
AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (1998)
Amazon Women on the Moon (1987)
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Beavis and Butt-head Do Christmas (1996)
The Borrowers (1997)
Clarence (1990)
Escape from It’s a Wonderful Life (1996)
The Exorcist III (1990)
Franz Kafka’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1993)
Free Enterprise (1998)
Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo (1996)
Groundhog Day (1993)
Merry Christmas, George Bailey (1997)
Mobile Suit Gundam Wing: The Movie – Endless Waltz (2000)
The Night Before (2015)
Spawn (1997)
Extracts included in
100 Years at the Movies (1994)
976-EVIL 2: The Astral Factor (1991)
AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (1998)
The American Film Institute Salute to Steven Spielberg (1995)
Android (1982)
A Christmas Story (1983)
Christmas Unwrapped: The History of Christmas (1997)
Coneheads (1993)
Elmo Saves Christmas (1996)
Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Swing But Were Afraid to Ask (1999)
Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life: A Personal Remembrance (1991)
Frank Capra’s American Dream (1997)
Gremlins (1984)
Harrison Bergeron (1995)
High Hopes: The Capra Years (1981)
James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987)
Look Who’s Talking (1989)
The Making of It’s a Wonderful Life (1990)
Precious Images (1986)
Press
2003
Total Film no.83 (December 2003) p.47
Pretty apt that a film all about second chances got its own through a legal loophole. Back in 1974, some bozo forgot to renew the copyright, meaning the film could be shown on US telly without having to shell out on any royalties. “It was cheap,” laughs Frank Capra Jnr. “In its heyday of playing on TV, you could go from one channel to another, any day of the week before Christmas, and find it.” Meaning a whole new generation is responsible for championing a Hollywood perennial. For the record, then: definitely Capra’s best movie, the ancestor of feelgood, and, to paraphrase angel-in-training Clarence, without it, there’d be an awfully big hole. – from an illustrated article (The flops that rocked) by Jonathan Crocker and Simon Crook
References
Periodicals
- Board of Trade Journal vol.198 no.3813 (15 April 1970) p.1031 – note (Registrations of British and foreign films)
- Castle of Frankenstein no.11 p.40
- Empire January 1998 p.44 – review (by Ian Freer)
- Film Review January 1998 p.20 – review (by Hannah Fries)
- Sight and Sound vol.12 no.1 (January 2002) pp.22-23 – illustrated article (Crisis in happyland by David Mamet)
- Total Film January 1998 p.100 – review (by Helen Van Kruyssen)
- Total Film no.83 (December 2003) p.47 – illustrated article (The flops that rocked by Jonathan Crocker and Simon Crook)
Newspapers
- Correio da Manha, TV 18 December 1998 p.32 – review
Books
- 100 Cult Films by Ernest Mathijs & Xavier Mendik pp.128-129 – illustrated review by EM [Ernest Mathijs]
- Armchair Cinema: A History of Feature Films on British Television, 1929-1981 by Sheldon Hall p.254
- Feature Films, 1940-1949: A United States Filmography by Alan G. Fetrow pp.235-236
- Ghosts and Angels in Hollywood Films by James Robert Parish pp.212-216 – illustrated credits, synopsis, review
- The It’s a Wonderful Life Book by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Frank Capra – illustrated credits, production notes
- Reference Guide to Fantastic Films by Walt Lee p.226 – credits
- The RKO Features by James L. Neibaur p.131 – credits, synopsis
- RKO Radio Pictures Horror, Science Fiction and Fantasy Films, 1929-1956 by Michael R. Pitts pp.159-162
- The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy by David Pringle (general ed.) p.55 – credits, review
- The World of Fantasy Films by Richard Myers p.158
Other sources
- BFI Southbank Guide January 2008 p.40 – illustrated listing, review
- BFI Southbank Guide January 2013 p.46 – illustrated listing
- BFI Southbank Guide December 2016 – illustrated listing
- BFI Southbank Guide December 2019 p.42 – illustrated listing
- BFI Southbank Guide December 2020 p.22 – illustrated listing
- BFI Southbank Guide December 2022 p.40 – illustrated listing
