| Collector's Corner December 2004
 It's
a Wonderful LifeStarring: James Stewart,
Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers,
Beulah Bondi
Directed by: Frank Capra
Theatrical release: 1946
DVD release: 2001
Video: Fullscreen
Sound: Dolby Digital mono
Released by: Artisan
It’s a Wonderful Life premiered on
December 20, 1946. Frank Capra and James Stewart, who by that time had won four Oscars
between them, considered it to be their best film. Nevertheless, the movie, which was made
for $4 million, ended up losing $250,000 and sinking Liberty Films, the studio that Capra
had formed with William Wyler and George Stevens.
In 1946, after uniting behind the efforts of World War II
and the euphoria over victory, the American people had slipped into a slump, both
financial and emotional. With all the soldiers returning home to find jobs and so little
left to unify the populace, no one was interested in a story about a man grappling with
the meaning of life through the beneficence of a sweet old angel working for his wings. In
fact, the fate of It’s a Wonderful Life was so ignominious that no one cared
enough to renew the copyright in 1974, and the film lapsed into the public domain.
That’s when a parsimonious TV programmer discovered he could show the film for free.
Suddenly, every station in the US began showing it at Christmas, and generations who had
never seen it in the theater fell in love with the story of George Bailey.
It’s easy to see why people cherish the yarn. It’s
a Wonderful Life is archetypal in its portrayal of five deeply held human longings and
aspirations. First, we love the idea of charity and honor -- which anyone can possess --
being worth more than money. Rich old Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) gets the money, but
George Bailey (James Stewart) gains the respect. Second, we hope that our good deeds help
someone, but the child in us always wonders what would happen if we had never been born;
George gets the chance to find out, and to realize he has actually helped a lot of people.
Third, we love seeing good deeds rewarded, especially in the characters of Clarence (Henry
Travers), George, and George’s wife, Mary (Donna Reed). You have only to surf the
network channels to understand the fourth archetype: Most of us love the idea of a crisis
of faith met with the intervention of an angel. Finally, it makes us feel warm to know
that paradise was right there in front of us the whole time, as George finally discovers
about his hometown, Bedford Falls. This is a powerful theme, as you can judge by the
number of tears it has produced in the films where the protagonist launches on a voyage of
self-discovery only to discover there’s no place like home.
What saves It’s a Wonderful Life from
saccharine sweetness and makes it a classic is the multifaceted performance of its star.
Jimmy Stewart had just returned from distinguished service in World War II. He had
enlisted as a private in the Army Air Corps, worked his way up to colonel, been awarded
the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Croix de Guerre, and been battle-hardened by years
in combat. Stewart would never be the same after the war; all the carnage and death
changed him. In place of the raw, naïve youth of the late 1930s and early ’40s,
there was now a yearning, even a sadness, to his acting that added depth and richness.
Stewart knew death, and when you know death, little things like Uncle Billy losing the
deposit money don’t seem quite so big. War has a way of making most ontological
questions moot and leaving you face to face with your Creator. Stewart knew what it was
like to grapple with demons. The scene in Martini’s bar (chapter 21), in which George
asks for divine guidance, drew true tears from Stewart and caught Capra by surprise. If
you have a good monitor, you can see Capra using framing to draw us close to Stewart. But
this take was too emotional, too beautiful, too starkly honest for Capra to stop and ask
Stewart for a re-take so the cameraman could pan in. I don’t think it’s too much
of a stretch to assume that Stewart’s emotions were still labile enough from four
years of fighting that he was showing us something of his soul.
The rest of the cast is uniformly first-rate. Donna Reed
plays George’s wife with just the right blend of spunk and solicitude. She and
Stewart also generated enough heat to attract the censors, as you can see in chapter 11,
when they’re kissing and the camera suddenly cuts away to her mother’s shocked
expression. Lionel Barrymore’s Potter, full of venom and hatred for anyone who had
the love or respect he lacked, couldn’t hiss or bite any more were he a snake. And
everyone remembers kindly Clarence, the angel in training. Henry Travers made a career out
of playing benevolently, bewildered old men, but Clarence was his defining role.
Frank Capra was already a star director by the time he made
It’s a Wonderful Life. After making It Happened One Night, Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington, You Can’t Take It With You, Meet John Doe, and
two dozen other topnotch films, Capra was at the height of his powers, and his anger and
outrage over the tide of fascism drove him, at 46, to enlist in the army to help in any
way he could. They had him make a series of films, Why We Fight, aimed at
building the morale of our troops by reminding them of their purpose. As usual, Capra
reminded his audience that whatever they were doing, whether mundane or a matter of life
and death, was noble and worthwhile
It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for five
Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor (James Stewart), and Best Director
(Capra). Unfortunately for all involved, they were up against a juggernaut, directed by
Capra’s friend and business partner, William Wyler. The
Best Years of Our Lives walked away with almost all of the Oscars that year.
After It’s a Wonderful Life enjoyed several
years of success on TV (for which Capra and his cast and crew received nothing), the
original owners of the film bought the negative and reclaimed the copyright. Artisan now
owns that company, and their THX-certified DVD edition, in glorious black and white, is
the best way you can now see this classic. The film is all by itself on one side of the
two-sided DVD, which allows it an extravagant number of bits. The picture is nigh
faultless for a 58-year-old film, and the sound is perfectly intelligible mono. Flip the
disc for a 23-minute "making of" feature from 1990, the theatrical trailer, and
a tightly scripted and woodenly read reminiscence by Frank Capra, Jr.
Sadly, there appears to be some trouble with current
distribution, so you won’t be able to just pick up It’s a Wonderful Life
anywhere. I found it at Best Buy and Circuit City, but not at Tower Records or Amazon. In
any case, look for the THX-certified version.
And do try to find it. Frank Capra loved to hold a mirror
up to the folks in the theater and to show us something to make us proud, and that’s
what he did with It’s a Wonderful Life. In the end, we all have a little
George Bailey in us, and after watching him struggle with his problems and emerge
victorious, we all feel better about our own wonderful lives.
...Wes Marshall
wesm@hometheatersound.com |
