It's a Wonderful Life Turns 80 This December, and Its Box Office Failure Is the Best Part of the Story

Film still: Liberty Films, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life premiered in New York on December 20, 1946, which means it turns 80 in a few weeks. I always find it funny that a film now treated as the safest, cosiest Christmas choice was a disappointment when it came out. It was expensive for its time, it did not earn its money back, and the studio behind it, Liberty Films, was sold not long afterwards.

Photo: New York World-Telegram and Sun, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The story is simple enough. George Bailey, played by James Stewart, spends his life putting other people first in the small town of Bedford Falls. On Christmas Eve a money crisis pushes him to despair, and an angel called Clarence, played by Henry Travers, shows him what the town would have looked like if he had never been born. Donna Reed plays Mary, and Lionel Barrymore is the miserly banker Mr Potter, a villain you can hear coming from the next room.

Photo: unknown photographer, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

It was based on a short story by Philip Van Doren Stern called The Greatest Gift, and the film earned five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, without winning any of them. Critics at the time were mixed. Some thought it too sentimental, and I can see where they were coming from, because it does lay the feeling on thickly in places.

Poster: RKO Radio Pictures, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

What saved it was television. The copyright was not renewed in the 1970s, so stations could show it cheaply, and it ended up on screens every December until people simply assumed it had always been a holiday tradition. Capra later said it was his favourite of his own films, and Stewart felt the same way about his own work in it. I think the darkness in the middle is the reason it lasts, because George really is close to the edge before the bell rings.

Photo: Andre Carrotflower, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Do you watch it every Christmas, or have you skipped it for a long time? And does the ending still get you, or does it feel too neat now?