IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) is wonderful, full of life

Posted by Daniel Metz

Frank Capra’s yule time yarn played as part of the very special Paramount Holiday series. It is a much loved film, one that I had not yet seen. I wasn’t too aware of the film, except that it was once in the public domain (a fact that explains its constant broadcast through the 1980s). I knew that the film starred Jimmy Stewart, I knew that there is a run-on-the-bank scene where he explains that everybody’s money is with everybody else, and I knew it had something remotely related to Christmas. In the lobby waiting for the film, a hobo walked in and said, “I know that film; in the end, Christmas comes back again.” That also influenced my viewing of the film.

What I didn’t know was how touching a film it really is. I was in tears for a good portion of act 3, as Jimmy Stewart sees how important and beneficial he has been to the lives of so many working people. At the end of the film, the town comes together and donates their meager savings in order to rescue him from a jam; man oh man is that a sweet scene of generosity. This may sound like a cliche, or at least culturally obvious, but I think that moment is the quintessential representation of the Christmas Spirit in the cinema.

That sure looks like Christmas to me.

I also didn’t know that this film was the origination of the “what happened if I had never been born” concept (itself derivative of Dickens’ Ghosts of Christmas device) that is used so often in television and cartoons. Here it is not played for laughs, however, but to great effect as Stewart is dissuaded from his suicidal intentions and led home to some Merry Christmases.

Stewart should be commended here, as this is one of his great roles (rivaling Mr. Smith, Macaulay Connor, LB Jeffries, Elwood Dowd, John Ferguson, and Ransom Stoddard). During the alternative reality scene, he plays crazy with great wit and energy. In fact, he brings a certain madness to most of the film. I hate to steal Stephen’s thunder here, but his suicidal turn sports probably the best stubble in 1940s film.

No, you got the money. No, you got the money; one of Stewart's finest speeches in the film.

This film is much loved because of its Christmas angle, and also certainly because it is so damned inspirational. We should also remember that it was produced in 1946, which is the biggest year in Hollywood history, profit-wise. This film was apparently a flop, but it was a crazy time where money was flowing and the studio system was simultaneously stronger than ever and in crisis. It is no wonder that this, a very strange movie about money, about morality, about sacrifice, is so damned superlative about so many things. It is the most Christmassy, the most inspirational, the most stubbly, and certainly the most heart warming, of all Hollywood output during the Golden Age.

Even depressed, his hair looks great.

Also, the hair styles in the movie all look great. Stewart actually wears about 3 different ‘dos in the film, a trait not all that common in movies. He pulls off the different looks with ease.