It’s a Wonderful Life
| November 24, 2007 at 6:30 pm | Category: Movie Spotlight |
| by hollywoodjoker | |
Story :
It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 Christmas movie produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story, “The Greatest Gift” written by Philip Van Doren Stern. The film takes place in the fictional town of Bedford Falls shortly after World War II and stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose attempted suicide on Christmas Eve gains the attention of a guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) who is sent to help him in his hour of need.
Most of the film is told through flashbacks spanning George’s entire life and narrated by Franklin and Joseph, unseen Angels who are preparing Clarence for his mission to save George. Through these flashbacks we see all the people whose lives have been touched by George and the difference he has made to the community in which he lives.
The film is regarded as a classic and is a staple of Christmas TV around the world, although due to its high production costs and high standard of competition at the box office it failed to return a profit on release and financially was considered a flop. But, in later years, this film became unexpectedly successful and is still a very popular Christmas classic.
Starring :
James Stewart as George Bailey
Donna Reed as Mary Hatch
Lionel Barrymore as Henry Potter
Karolyn Grimes as Zuzu Bailey
Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy
Henry Travers as Angel Clarence Odbody
Movie Gossip :
The Greatest Gift : The original story “The Greatest Gift” was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943. In April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000. RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie. At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read “The Greatest Gift” and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, sold the rights in 1945 to Capra’s production company, Liberty Films, for $10,000, and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and with the help of other writers turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
One motion picture industry source reported to the FBI in 1947 that the movie resembled Communist propaganda in its making a banker the most despised person in the story.
The film’s success decades after its release came as a welcome but unexpected surprise to those who worked on it, including Frank Capra. “It’s the damnedest thing I’ve ever seen,” he told the Wall Street Journal in 1984. “The film has a life of its own now and I can look at it like I had nothing to do with it. I’m like a parent whose kid grows up to be president. I’m proud… but it’s the kid who did the work. I didn’t even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea.”
Youtube Trailer and Videos :
Movie Ratings :
Hollywood Jokes Rating : 8/10
Box Office :
no information available
Popularity: 8%
