It's a Wonderful Life

It's a Wonderful Life
January 7, 1947
RKO
Drama, Comedy
VHS
B

This may be the darkest of all "holiday movies," involving as it does suicide, bankruptcy, and unpunished corruption.*  The hero, George, yells at his uncle, wife, and kids, as well as picks fights with strangers.  He wants to escape his little hometown, but he always does "the right thing."  If we smile and/or cry at the ending, it's partly with relief that, despite all George's problems, it's a good thing he was born.  Jimmy Stewart is just right as this complex yet ordinary man, with all his line readings (stuttered or not) natural and believable.  Lionel Barrymore puts enough sarcasm into his dialogue that he never becomes a simple cartoon villain.  The supporting cast, with a lot of familiar faces (some of them mentioned below), is good, especially glowing Donna Reed as George's loyal wife Mary.  (However, I always laugh out loud that we're supposed to be horrified that alternative-universe-Mary has become, gasp, a spinster librarian!)  This time, I was particularly impressed with the children, the younger versions of George, Mary, and Violet matching up with their adult counterparts, and the Bailey kids not only looking like each other, but acting believably for their ages, with no precocity or wisecracks.  (Compare, for instance, Andrew on Family Ties, with his unbelievable dialogue even as a kindergartner.)

As with Citizen Kane and Casablanca, this is a "great" movie that I still find good after many viewings.  I'd rather hang out with the gang in Morgan's Creek, since the visits to Bedford Falls are draining, but it is interesting to see one man's life in a couple hours.  (There are some glitches in chronology, mostly surrounding younger brother Harry's age.  In the alternative world, he dies at 9 in 1919, although born in 1911.  And he seems to be four years younger than George, who's 12 in 1919, but Harry graduates high school in 1928.)

This is yet another credit for Frank O'Connor, this time as a military officer.  Edward Keane and Art Howard were in A Night at the Opera.  Brooks Benedict was in Follow the Fleet.  Lillian Randolph (Annie the maid) was in At the Circus.  Tom Coleman, Mike Lally, and Suzanne Ridgeway were in Citizen Kane.  George Noisom was in The Wizard of Oz and Citizen Kane.  Jimmy the Crow has a larger role here than he did in The Wizard of Oz.  Adriana Caselotti, who sings at Martini's here, was "Juliet's" voice in The Wizard of Oz (as well as Snow White's in the Disney cartoon).  Al Bridge, who was the lawyer Johnson in The Miracle of Morgan's Creek, has a much smaller role here as the sheriff.

Joseph E. Bernard would shortly appear in The Egg and I.  Brick Sullivan would be in Singin' in the Rain, Hershell Graham in The Band Wagon, and Jack Gordon in Some Like It Hot.  Frank Faylen, who plays Ernie was in The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle, and would go on to The Monkey's Uncle.  H.B. Warner, who plays Mr. Gower, was then in his 70s and had credits going back to before World War I; he would play himself in Sunset Boulevard.  Charles Lane, who describes himself as a "bright young man," was then 41 and still had decades ahead of him as an actor.


*Well, unpunished except on Saturday Night Live:  http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/81249131/