It's a Wonderful Life

For other uses, see It's a Wonderful Life (disambiguation).

It's a Wonderful Life
File:Its A Wonderful Life Movie Poster.jpg
Directed by	Frank Capra
Written by	Screenplay: Frances Goodrich Albert Hackett Jo Swerling Frank Capra Short Story: Philip Van Doren Stern
Produced by	Frank Capra
Starring	James Stewart Donna Reed Lionel Barrymore
Distributed by	RKO Radio Pictures
Release date	20 December 1946
Running time	130 min
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$3,180,000

It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American film 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 his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers) who is sent to help him in his hour of need. Much 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 television around the world, although, due to its high production costs and stiff competition at the box office, financially, it was considered a "flop." The film's break-even point was actually $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. Mark Eliot writes, "Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes... it was a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were." Although not an Oscar winner at the time, it has been since named by the American Film Institute one of the best films ever made and was placed number one on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers list of the most inspirational American films of all time.

Plot

The story begins on Christmas Eve, 1946, and George Bailey is in a dark place. The prayers of his family and friends alert Heaven to George’s state of mind, and Clarence Odbody, an Angel Second Class, is sent to Earth to save George — and thereby perhaps, after 200 years of trying, to earn his wings. To prepare for his mission, Clarence is brought before Joseph, the head angel, to see a review of George's life to date, highlighting all the good he has done for others: As a boy, George saved the life of his younger brother Harry in an ice sledding accident, a heroic act that cost him the hearing in his left ear. Weeks later, George prevented his boss, local druggist Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), from poisoning a child accidentally while grief-stricken from his son's death.

From childhood, George's most compelling ambition is to see the whole world; he plans to become an architect and design magnificent bridges and skyscrapers everywhere. However, as George matures, he continues to extend help to whoever needs it at the sacrifice of his dreams: He puts off going to college until Harry graduates from high school to take over the family business, the Bailey Building & Loan Association, essential to many of the disadvantaged in Bedford Falls. On Harry's graduation night, as George fantasizes about his future to childhood sweetheart Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) in front of a dilapidated old mansion (the "old Granville house"), the brothers' father suddenly dies. An avaricious and opportunistic board member of the Building & Loan (and owner of most of the town), Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore) seizes this opportunity to gain control of the Board of Directors and end the "nonsense" of home loans for the working poor. George makes a reluctant but impassioned plea to keep the company independent, moving the board members to agree, but only if George remains to run the business.

Harry goes on to college, but George's hopes of being able to leave Bedford Falls on Harry's return are dashed once again: Harry unexpectedly brings home a new wife whose father has offered Harry a promising job in his company. His mother persuades a depressed George to call on Mary, also back from college; while he's there, Mary is telephoned by their mutual school friend Sam Wainwright, who has gone on to wealth and success in the plastics industry and is doing much of the traveling George always dreamt of. George and Mary are forced to share a telephone handset during the call, and in an emotional catharsis of his frustrations, George finally expresses his love for her. On their wedding day, as the Great Depression looms, George and Mary see a run on the bank that leaves the Building & Loan in serious danger of going under. Potter, sensing another opportunity, offers all its customers "50 cents on the dollar"; George argues vehemently for his customers to remain with the institution, and Mary offers money from their honeymoon fund to lend the townspeople enough to sustain them. The plan is barely a success; at closing, the Building & Loan holds exactly $2.00. Later Mary (with the aid of cabbie Ernie and Bert the cop) sets up an elaborate mock tropical honeymoon in the old mansion, which is gradually renovated into the couple's new home. With the family of the local bar owner Martini among its first tenants, George starts up Bailey Park, an affordable housing project that according to Potter's own financial advisor is an unabashed success: Its homeowners are rescued from paying high rent for squalor in Potter's Field, and its homes "are worth twice what [they] cost … to build." Potter tempts George with a glamorous job at eight times his current salary; at first intrigued, upon realizing Potter is trying to buy him, George vehemently refuses the offer. His ambivalence is accentuated by a visiting Wainwright's increasing success and upon entering his humble home — where Mary surprises him with news of her pregnancy.

Over the next several years, George and Mary have three more kids. When World War II erupts, George is unable to enlist due to his bad ear; he stays at home to assist in the war effort while his brother Harry becomes a Navy pilot, awarded the Medal of Honor for shooting down 15 enemy aircraft, including two kamikaze planes that were about to crash into a Navy troop transport. On Christmas Eve, entering the bank lobby to make an $8,000.00 deposit for the Building & Loan, Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) encounters Mr. Potter and, bursting with pride, shows him the newspaper article about his nephew Harry, about to be honored by the President. Absent-mindedly, he leaves the deposit money in the newspaper that he drops in Potter's lap; Potter discovers the money moments later and abruptly leaves. This is also the day the bank examiner has come to inspect the Building & Loan's records; he arrives to find the money missing and George and Billy ransacking the place looking for it. Returning home in anguish, George perceives his entire life as a massive failure: His wife and children, exuberantly preparing for the evening's festivities, send him into a rage, and he unfairly chastises Zuzu's teacher over the phone for getting Zuzu sick. He then tends to Zuzu and, in an emotional shift, tenderly places her flower's petals into his pocket; emotionally overcome, he leaves the house as Mary phones Uncle Billy. In desperation, George appeals to Mr. Potter, telling him he (not Billy) lost the money; Potter implicates George's "generosity" — specifically his charity to troubled childhood friend Violet. When George asks for a loan, offering his $15,000 life insurance policy, Potter laughs mockingly: "You're worth more dead than alive!" Aghast, George stumbles over to Martini's bar where he prays for guidance, admitting he is not a praying man; instead, the schoolteacher's husband, upon discovering George in the bar, punches him in the face, cutting George's lip. George staggers out of the bar and, in a snow storm, crashes his car into a tree; he runs to the nearby bridge over the river, intending to commit suicide.

Henry Travers as Clarence after "saving" George

Before George can jump into the river, however, Clarence the angel jumps in first. After a shocked George saves him, Clarence reveals himself to be George's guardian angel and that he saved George from committing suicide. Clarence pleads with a reluctant George to let him help, so he can finally earn his wings. George concedes that killing himself wasn't going to better things and instead wishes he had never been born. At that instant it stops snowing outside, and Clarence allows George to see life as it would have been if George Bailey was never born: Bedford Falls is called Pottersville and is mostly a slum; Main Street is dominated by pawn shops and sleazy bars; Bailey Park was never built and is part of a desolate cemetery; George's home remains a run-down, abandoned mansion. George sees the people he knows and loves, but in this alternative world, none of them recognize him and their lives are hard and grim: His mother, a widow running her house as a room and board, and Mary, a spinster librarian, are both lonely, embittered women. Uncle Billy has been in an insane asylum for years; Harry has been dead since he fell through the ice in childhood, because George wasn't there to save him. (Consequently the men on the transport ship were all killed.) Violet is a dancer whom George sees arrested for pickpocketing, Mr. Gower was convicted of poisoning the child that George had saved and is now a panhandler, and Martini no longer owns the bar. Ernie and Bert, although still friends, are much darker characters, and are suspicious of George, thinking he is insane when he claims to know them.

After finally realizing Mary and the others do not remember him at all, George returns to the bridge and calls upon Clarence, and then to God, to let him live again. It begins to snow again; Bert spots George and tells him the whole town is looking for him. Ready to fight, George realizes Bert now recognizes him, then notices his mouth bleeding and Zuzu's petals in his pocket: George has returned to present-day Bedford Falls on Christmas Eve, at the instant he witnessed Clarence. Screaming his ecstasy to buildings and people alike (even Potter), George runs home and bursts through the door, welcoming the bank examiner, a sheriff, a reporter and a photographer ("I'm going to jail!"). Calling out to his family, he basks in their sorely-missed recognition. Mary urges him to prepare for what is coming: Caroling "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," his friends and family have rallied to collect huge amounts of money to save George and the Building & Loan from scandal and ruin. As a final coup, Mr. Gower has telegraphed Sam Wainwright in London, who has offered to wire an immediate advance up to $25,000. In the midst of the festivities, Harry arrives, having quit the banquet in his honor, and toasts, "To my big brother George: the richest man in town"; with that, everyone spontaneously cheers and breaks into "Auld Lang Syne." Seeing how many lives he has touched, and the difference he has made to the town, George Bailey realizes that despite his problems he really has a wonderful life. The film ends with George finding Clarence's Tom Sawyer book, with an inscription: "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings!" George and Mary then hear a bell ring on their Christmas tree; Zuzu exclaims, "Look, daddy! Teacher says, every time a bell rings, an Angel gets his wings." George quietly agrees, "Attaboy, Clarence," as "Auld Lang Syne" rings out.

(Original edits ended with "Ode to Joy," not "Auld Lang Syne.")

Cast

As appearing in screen credits (main roles identified):

Actor	Role
James Stewart	George Bailey
Donna Reed	Mary Hatch
Lionel Barrymore	Mr. Potter (Henry F. Potter)
Thomas Mitchell	Uncle Billy
Henry Travers	the Angel Clarence Odbody, AS2
Beulah Bondi	Mrs. Bailey
Frank Faylen	Ernie Bishop
Ward Bond	Bert
Gloria Grahame	Violet Bick
H.B. Warner	Mr. Gower
Todd Karns	Harry Bailey
Samuel S. Hinds	Peter Bailey
Lillian Randolph	Annie
Mary Treen	Cousin Tilly
Frank Albertson	Sam Wainwright
Virginia Patton	Ruth Dakin Bailey
Charles Williams	Cousin Eustace
William Edmunds	Mr. Martini
Bobby Anderson	Little George Bailey
Sheldon Leonard	Nick the Bartender
Charles Lane	the Rent Collector
Karolyn Grimes	Zuzu Bailey
Charles Halton	Carter, Bank Examiner (uncredited)
Joseph Kearns	Angel Joseph (voice, uncredited)
Jimmy the Raven	Uncle Billy's pet raven

A full cast and production crew list is too lengthy to include, see: IMDb profile.

Featured cast

George Bailey (James Stewart), Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) and their youngest daughter Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes).

The contention that James Stewart is often referred to as Capra's only choice to play George Bailey is disputed by film historian Stephen Cox, who indicates that "Henry Fonda was in the running."

Although it was stated that Jean Arthur, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers were all considered for the role of Mary before Donna Reed won the part, this list is also disputed by Cox as he indicates that Jean Arthur was first offered the part but had to turn it down for a prior commitment on Broadway before Capra turned to Olivia de Havilland, Martha Scott and Ann Dvorak. Ginger Rogers was not considered.

Originally dubbed Herbert Potter, a long list of actors were considered for the pivotal role of Mr. Potter (Henry F. Potter): Edward Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan, Louis Calhern, Victor Jory, Raymond Massey, Vincent Price and even Thomas Mitchell.

Jimmy the Raven appeared in You Can't Take it With You and each subsequent Capra film.

Production

Background

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. The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent and, in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000 hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant. RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie with Grant going on to make another Christmas picture in The Bishop's Wife.

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, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000, and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson and Dorothy Parker brought in to "polish" the script) turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename "It's a Wonderful Life." Capra wrote the screenplay at his offices at Columbia Studios (now the Sunset-Gower Studios) on Sunset Blvd.; his office faced Gower Street, which inspired the name of Mr. Gower, the druggist.

Filming

It's a Wonderful Life was shot at the RKO studio in Culver City, California and the RKO Ranch in Encino, where "Bedford Falls" was a set covering four acres, assembled from three separate parts with a main street stretching 300 yards (three city blocks), with 75 stores and buildings, a tree-lined center parkway and 20 full grown oak trees. For months prior to principal photography, the mammoth set was populated by pigeons, cats and dogs in order to give the "town" a lived-in feel. Due to the requirement to film in an "alternate universe" setting as well as during different seasons, the set was extremely adaptable. Filming started on 15 April 1946 and ended on 27 July 1946 (exactly on deadline for the 90-day principal photography schedule).

The RKO ranch in Encino, the filming location of Bedford Falls, was razed in the mid-1950s. Because of this there are only two filming locations still remaining from the film. The first is the swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene. The pool is located in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School, 241 Moreno Drive in Beverly Hills, California.

The second location is the Martinis' new home and neighborhood in the fictional Bailey Park. The Martini house is located at 4587 Viro Road in La Canada Flintridge, California. The roofline, window layout (including the front bay window), front path and chimney are all the same as they appear in the film.

During filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's engagement party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" Equipment on the set had been actually knocked over accidentally; Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's appropriate ad lib.

The full extent of Mr. Potter's deviousness is never revealed to the other characters in the film, and he is never brought to account for sequestering the $8,000, although Capra filmed an alternate ending that was subsequently cut wherein Potter receives a "comeuppance."Later a Saturday Night Live skit reprised the scene, this time with Potter comically brought to account.

While George sees what life would be like without him, Harry's would-be grave displays the dates 1911–1919, contradicting Clarence's statement that Harry died at the age of nine.

Reception

It's a Wonderful Life premiered in New York on 20 December 1946 at the Globe Theatre and opened to mixed reviews. Time magazine said, "It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year... Director Capra's inventiveness, humor and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement." Bosley Crowther, writing for The New York Times, complimented some of the actors, including Stewart and Reed, but concluded that "the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it — its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities." 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, which went into general release on 7 January 1947, placed 26th in box office revenues for the year (out of more than 400 features released), one place ahead of another Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street. It received five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor.

Awards and nominations

Prior to the Los Angeles release of It's a Wonderful Life, Liberty Films mounted an extensive promotional campaign which included a daily advertisement highlighting one of the film's players, along with comments from reviewers. Jimmy Starr wrote, "If I were an Oscar, I'd elope with It's a Wonderful Life lock, stock and barrel on the night of the Academy Awards". The New York Daily Times also wrote an editorial in which it declared the film and James Stewart's performance, to be worthy of Academy Award consideration.

It's a Wonderful Life received five Academy Award nominations:

• Best Actor for James Stewart
• Best Editing for William Hornbeck
• Best Director for Frank Capra
• Best Sound Recording for John Aalberg
• Best Picture for Frank Capra

The Best Years of Our Lives, a gritty and topical drama about servicemen attempting to return to their pre-World War II lives, won most of the awards that year, including four of the five for which It's a Wonderful Life was nominated. (The award for "Best Sound Recording" was won by The Jolson Story). The Best Years of Our Lives was also an outstanding commercial success, ultimately becoming the highest grossing film of the decade, in contrast to the more modest box office returns of It's a Wonderful Life.

Capra won the "Best Motion Picture Director" award from the Golden Globes, and a "CEC Award" from the Cinema Writers Circle in Spain, for Mejor Película Extranjera (Best Foreign Film). Jimmy Hawkins won a "Former Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award" from the Young Artist Awards in 1994; the award recognized his role as Tommy Bailey as igniting his career which lasted until the mid-1960s.

This film was ranked #1 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers, #20 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), #8 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions. Lionel Barrymore and James Stewart appear on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains, ranking #6 on villain list and #9 on hero list, respectively.

In 1990, It's a Wonderful Life was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.

Ownership and copyright issues

Liberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. Paramount owned the film until 1955, when they sold a few of their features and most of their cartoons and shorts to television distributor U.M.&M. TV. Corporation. This included key rights to It's a Wonderful Life, including the original television syndication rights, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the story on which the film is based, "The Greatest Gift." National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the U.M.& M. library soon afterward.

However, a clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974. Despite the lapse in copyright, television stations that aired it still were required to pay royalties. Although the film's images had entered the public domain, the film's story was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of the published story "The Greatest Gift," whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season. It was sometimes mentioned during the deliberations on the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.

In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim of copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, it was a derivative work of various works that were still copyrighted. As a result, the film is no longer shown as much on television. (NBC is currently licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and only shows it traditionally twice during the holidays, with one showing primarily on Christmas Eve from 8-11 Eastern time) and now Paramount (via parent company Viacom's 1998 acquisition of Republic's then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has ancillary rights for the first time since 1955. Artisan Entertainment (under license from Republic) took over home video rights in the mid-1990s. Artisan was later sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, which continued to hold US home video rights until late 2005 when they reverted to Paramount, who also owns video rights throughout Region 4 (Latin America and Australia), and in France. Video rights in the rest of the world are still in the hands of different companies, for example, the UK rights are with Universal Studios.

Belated success

The film's success, decades after its initial release, came as a welcome but unexpected surprise to Frank Capra and others involved with it. "It's the damnedest thing I've ever seen," Capra 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." In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film's theme as "the individual's belief in himself," and that he made it to "combat a modern trend toward atheism."

Colorization

Director Frank Capra met with Wilson Markle about having Colorization, Inc. colorize It's a Wonderful Life based on an enthusiastistic response to the colorization of Topper from actor Cary Grant. The company's art director Brian Holmes prepared ten minutes of colorized footage from It's a Wonderful Life for Capra to view, which resulted in Capra signing a contract with Colorization, Inc., and his "enthusiastic agree[ment] to pay half the $260,000 cost of colorizing the movie and to share any profits" and giving "preliminary approval to making similar color versions of two of his other black and white films, Meet John Doe (1941) and Lady for a Day (1933)". However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process.

Three colorized versions have so far been produced. The first, released by Hal Roach Studios in 1986, was poorly received. The second was authorized and produced by the film's permanent owner Republic Pictures in 1989, with better results. They are widely considered as inferior to the black and white original, and are often held up by opponents of colorization as examples of the flaws associated with the process. For many years, television stations paid substantial royalties to show a colorized version, figuring that color would attract more viewers. Both Capra and Stewart lived long enough to take a critical stand on the colorized editions (Capra passed away in 1991, Stewart in 1997). The initial colorized versions of the film have since been withdrawn, and the only version shown on TV is the original black and white version. On 13 November 2007, Paramount released a two disc special edition DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black and white version, newly restored, and a brand new third colorized version, produced by Legend Films using the latest colorization technology.

Popular culture

It's a Wonderful Life has been popularized in modern cultural references in many of the mainstream media. Due to the proliferation of these references, only a few examples will suffice to illustrate the film's impact.

• Other alternate reality films include Back to the Future Part II, The Family Man, and Mr. Destiny, where main characters have to struggle with and reconcile an alternate world. Likewise innumerable television series have a proverbial episode based on the film's premise.
• One of the curious allusions to the film is the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie. Series creator Jim Henson and others involved with its production denied a connection and said that it was just a coincidence. The Capra-esque episode Elmo Saves Christmas (1996), which featured a clip from the film, pokes fun at the persistent reports of a connection.

Antecedents

• Film historian and reviewer James Berardinelli elaborated on the parallels between this film and the classic Dickens tale A Christmas Carol. In both stories, a man revisits his life and potential death (or non-existence) with the help of supernatural agents, in the end experiencing a joyous epiphany and a renewed view of his life.

References

Bibliography

• Capra, Frank. Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-30680-771-8.
• Cox, Stephen. It's a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book. Nashville, Tennessee: Cumberland House, 2003. ISBN 1-58182-337-1.
• Eliot, Mark. Jimmy Stewart: A Biography. New York: Random House, 2006. ISBN 1-4000-5221-1.
• Finler, Joel W. The Hollywood Story: Everything You Always Wanted to Know About the American Movie Business But Didn't Know Where to Look. London: Pyramid Books, 1988. ISBN 1-855-10009-6.
• Goodrich, Francis, Hackett, Albert and Capra, Frank. It's a Wonderful Life: The Complete Script in its Original Form. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1986. ISBN 0-312-43911-3.
• Jones, Ken D., McClure, Arthur F. and Twomey, Alfred E. The Films of James Stewart. New York: Castle Books, 1970.
• McBride, Joseph. Frank Capra: The Catastrophe of Success. New York: Touchstone Books, 1992. ISBN 0-671-79788-3.
• Michael, Paul, ed. The Great Movie Book: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference Guide to the Best-loved Films of the Sound Era. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-13-363663-1.
• Wiley, Mason and Bona, Damien. Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. New York: Ballantine Books, 1987. ISBN 0-345-34453-7.

See also

• Frank Capra
• It Happened One Christmas
• James Stewart

External links

• It's A Wonderful Life - Feature Film on Google Video 2:10
• It's a Wonderful Life at IMDb
• Jimmy Stewart Remembers "It's a Wonderful Life"
• It's a Wonderful Life on Lux Radio Theater
• The It's A Wonderful Life Webring
• Essay on the deeper meaning of It's a Wonderful Life
• Official website run by Karolyn Grimes, who played 'Zuzu' in the film
• In-depth defense of the film from its critics
• Excerpts from Ray Carney's analysis of the film.
• It's a Wonderful Life Ruining Your Holiday....Why the FBI Thought "It's a Wonderful Life" was a Subversive Film
• Filmsite.org's extended review
• "Some Kind of Wonderful" Frank Capra Examines Failure (from Failure Magazine, March 2001)
• "It's A Wonderful Movie" YoursDaily.com
• The Making of "It's A Wonderful Life" Frank Capra Online
• It's Still a Wonderful Life by Paul Greenberg — 1998 editorial refuting a critical book
• The Making of It's a Wonderful Life a documentary hosted by Tom Bosley featured in the Forty-fifth Anniversary Edition on home video
• On a wing and a prayer Los Angeles Times: "'It's a Wonderful Life' is a film classic, but the production wasn't always angelic."
• It's a Wonderful Life ... The Drama Review
• Screenplay