It`s a Wonderful Life (1946) |
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It`s a Wonderful Life Cast |
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On-Screen Couples |
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Jimmy Stewart
(as George Bailey)
with Donna Reed
(as Mary Hatch Bailey)
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Movie Highlights |
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Other InformationAwardsFormer Child Star Lifetime Achievement Award Young Artist Awards [1994] (Won/Nominated: Won) National Film Registry National Film Preservation Board, USA [1990] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Foreign Film (Mejor Película Extranjera) Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain [1949] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Motion Picture Director Golden Globes [1947] (Won/Nominated: Won) Best Sound, Recording Academy Awards [1947] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Picture Academy Awards [1947] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Film Editing Academy Awards [1947] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Director Academy Awards [1947] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Best Actor in a Leading Role Academy Awards [1947] (Won/Nominated: Nominated) Plot SummaryThis is director Frank Capra`s classic bittersweet comedy/drama about George Bailey (James Stewart), the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the typical American small town of Bedford Falls. As the film opens, it`s Christmas Eve, 1946, and G... TaglineThey`re going steady...straight to your heart! It`s a wonderful laugh! It`s a wonderful love! Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! How could it be anything else? They`re making memories tonight! DiscographySinglesAvalon Vieni, vieni Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star Auld Lang Syne Hark! The Herald Angels Sing When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again This Is the Army, Mr. Jones I Love You Truly The Wedding March My Wild Irish Rose Charleston Adeste Fidelis (O Come All Ye Faithful) Buffalo Gal (Won`t You Come Out Tonight) |
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Full Cast and Crew |
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Actor CreditsNon Actor Credits |
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Awards |
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It`s a Wonderful Life (1946) was nominated for the following awards:
Academy AwardsGolden Globes |
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Trivia |
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Trivia and QuotesQuotes Mrs. Hatch: [calling from upstairs] Mary, who`s down there with you?
Mary: It`s George Bailey, mother!
Mrs. Hatch: Well, what does he want?
Mary: I don`t know!
[to George]
Mary: What do you want?
George Bailey: What do I want? Why, I`m just here to get warm, that`s all!
Mary: [calling up] He`s making violent love to me, mother!
George Bailey: Mary Hatch, why in the world did you ever marry a guy like me?
Mary: To keep from being an old maid!
George Bailey: You could have married Sam Wainright, or anybody else in town...
Mary: I didn`t want to marry anybody else in town. I want my baby to look like you.
George Bailey: You didn`t even have a honeymoon. I promised you...
[stops]
George Bailey: Your what?
Mary: My baby!
George Bailey: [stuttering] Your, your, your, ba- Mary, you on the nest?
Mary: George Baily Lassos Stork!
George Bailey: [still stuttering] Lassos a stork?
[Mary nods]
George Bailey: What`re`ya... You mean you`re... What is it, a boy or a girl?
Mary: [nods enthusiasticly] Mmmm-hmmm!
Ma Bailey: [speaking of Mary Hatch] Why, she lights up like a firefly whenever you are around. Besides, Sam Wainright is off in New York, and you`re here in Bedford Falls...
George Bailey: And all`s fair in love and war, right?
Ma Bailey: [fixing his collar] Well, I don`t know about war...
George Bailey: Merry Christmas, Mr Henry F. Potter!
Mr. Potter: And Happy New Year, In Jail! They`re At Your House Right Now!
Man at Bar: Why do you drink so much? Please go home, Mr. Bailey.
Mr. Welsh: [sitting right beside George] Bailey? Which Bailey?
Giuseppe Martini: This is Mr. George Bailey.
[Mr. Welsh angrily pulls George Bailey up to his face by the lapels with one hand and hits him in the face with a right hook, sending him to the floor]
Mr. Welsh: Next time you talk to my wife like that, you`ll get worse! She cried for an hour! It`s not enough she teaches stupid children to read and write, you had to bawl her out!
George Bailey: Dear Father in heaven, I`m not a praying man, but if you`re up there and you can hear me
[begins crying]
George Bailey: show me the way... show me the way.
Mary: [embracing George] Remember the night we broke the windows in this old house? This is what I wished for.
George Bailey: [softly] You`re wonderful... wonderful.
George Bailey: [George is having his last meal at home before leaving on his cruise. His father is distraught over his leaving] Pop, I think you`re a great guy.
George Bailey: [thinking Annie is eavesdropping] Did you hear that, Annie?
Annie: I heard it... `bout time one of you lunkheads said it!
George Bailey: [the staff celebrates closing the building and loan company with only two dollars remaining, to stay in business] Get a tray for these two great big important simoleans here.
Uncle Billy: We`ll save `em for seed.
George Bailey: A toast! A toast! A toast to Mama Dollar and to Papa Dollar, and if you want to keep this old Building and Loan in business, you better have a family real quick.
Cousin Tilly: I wish they were rabbits.
Mickey: [Mickey walks up to a disheartened Freddie Othello, dumped by Mary Hatch] What`s the matter, Othello - jealous? Did you know there`s a swimming pool under this floor? And did you know that *button* behind you causes this floor to open up? And did you further know that George Bailey is dancing right over that crack?
[Othello turns to Mickey]
Mickey: I`ve got the key!
Mary: You look at me as if you didn`t know me.
George Bailey: Well, I don`t.
Mary: You pass me on the street almost every day.
George Bailey: Me? Naw, that was a little girl named Mary Hatch, that wasn`t you.
George Bailey: [gazing eyes with Mary] Well, well, well.
Freddie Othello: Now, to get back to my story, see?
[in a trance, Mary hands Othello her drink, and George and Mary start dancing]
Freddie Othello: Hey, this is MY dance!
George Bailey: Oh, why don`t you stop annoying people.
Freddie Othello: Well, I`m sorr- Hey!
Mary: I feel like a bootlegger`s wife!
Clarence: Clarence Oddbody, AS2.
George Bailey: Oddbody... Hey, what`s an AS2?
Clarence: Angel, Second Class.
George Bailey: I wish I had a million dollars... Hot dog!
Bert: Liver pills? We need posters of beautiful places, romantic places. Places George wants to go!
Ma Bailey: First Harry, now George. Annie, we`re just two old maids now.
Annie: You speak for yourself, Miss B.
Mrs. Hatch: Who is down there with you, Mary?
Mary: It`s George Bailey, mother.
Mrs. Hatch: George Bailey? What does he want?
Mary: I don`t know!
[to George]
Mary: What do you want?
George Bailey: Me? Nothing! I just came in to get warm, is all.
Mary: [pause] He`s making violent love to me, mother!
Little Mary: Is this the ear you can`t hear on?
[whispering in his bad ear]
Little Mary: George Bailey, I`ll love you `til the day I die.
George Bailey: Isn`t it wonderful? I`m going to jail!
George Bailey: Well, you look about the kind of angel I`d get. Sort of a fallen angel, aren`t you? What happened to your wings?
Little Violet: [commenting on George] I like him.
Little Mary: You like every boy.
Little Violet: What`s wrong with that?
Annie: I been savin` this money for a divorce, if ever I got a husband.
[first lines]
Mr. Emil Gower: I owe everything to George Bailey. Help him, dear Father.
[last lines]
Zuzu Bailey: Look, Daddy. Teacher says, every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings.
George Bailey: That`s right, that`s right. Attaboy, Clarence.
Mary: Bread... that this house may never know hunger.
[Mary hands a loaf of bread to Mrs. Martini]
Mary: Salt... that life may always have flavor.
[Mary hands a box of salt to Mrs. Martini]
George Bailey: And wine... that joy and prosperity may reign forever. Enter the Martini Castle.
[George hands Mr. Martini a bottle of wine]
Ernie Bishop: Just a minute! Quiet everybody! Quiet, quiet. Now get this, it`s from London.
Ma Bailey: Oh!
Ernie Bishop: [Reading the telegram in his hand] Mr. Gower cabled you need cash, stop. My office instructed to advance you up to twenty-five thousand dollars, stop. Hee Haw and Merry Christmas! Sam Wainwright.
Harry Bailey: A toast to my big brother George: The richest man in town.
Clarence: You see George, you`ve really had a wonderful life. Don`t you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it away?
Clarence: You`ve been given a great gift, George: A chance to see what the world would be like without you.
George Bailey: You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn`t, Mr. Potter. In the whole vast configuration of things, I`d say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider. And...
[turning to his aide]
George Bailey: And that goes for you, too!
Mr. Potter: Why, the whole town knows you`ve been giving money to Violet Bick.
George Bailey: You call this a happy family? Why do we have to have all these kids?
Man on Porch: Why don`t you kiss her instead of talking her to death?
George Bailey: You want me to kiss her, huh?
Man on Porch: Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people.
George Bailey: I wanna live again!
[George returns to the bridge where his nightmare began, hoping to bring back his old life]
George Bailey: [praying] Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence! Get me back! Get me back, I don`t care what happens to me! Get me back to my wife and kids! Help me Clarence, please! Please! I wanna live again. I wanna live again. Please, God, let me live again.
[it begins to snow again]
Bert: [shouts] Hey, George! George! You all right? Hey, what`s the matter?
George Bailey: Now get outta here, Bert, or I`ll hit you again! Get outta here!
Bert: What the sam hill you yellin` for, George?
George Bailey: You...
[suddenly stunned]
George Bailey: George... Bert? Do you know me?
Bert: Know you? Huh. You kiddin`? I`ve been looking all over town trying to find you. I saw your car plowed into that tree down there and I thought maybe you - hey, your mouth`s bleeding. Are you sure you`re all right?
George Bailey: What the...
[licks the corner of his lip and checks his mouth with his hand]
George Bailey: Ha, ha, ha, ha! My mouth`s bleeding, Bert! My mouth`s bleeding! Zuzu`s petals... Zuzu...
George Bailey: [checking his pocket] There they are! Bert, what do you know about that! Merry Christmas!
Clarence: Strange, isn`t it? Each man`s life touches so many other lives. When he isn`t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn`t he?
George Bailey: What is it you want, Mary? What do you want? You want the moon? Just say the word and I`ll throw a lasso around it and pull it down. Hey. That`s a pretty good idea. I`ll give you the moon, Mary.
Mary: I`ll take it. Then what?
George Bailey: Well, then you can swallow it, and it`ll all dissolve, see... and the moonbeams would shoot out of your fingers and your toes and the ends of your hair... am I talking too much?
[George has discovered his brother Harry`s tombstone]
Clarence: [explaining] Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.
George Bailey: That`s a lie! Harry Bailey went to war - he got the Congressional Medal of Honor, he saved the lives of every man on that transport.
Clarence: Every man on that transport died! Harry wasn`t there to save them, because you weren`t there to save Harry.
George Bailey: Well, maybe I left the car up at Martini`s. Well, come on, Gabriel.
Clarence: Clarence!
George Bailey: Clarence. Clarence.
George Bailey: Now, come on, get your clothes on, and we`ll stroll up to my car and get... Oh, I`m sorry. I`ll stroll. You fly.
Clarence: I can`t fly. I haven`t got my wings.
George Bailey: You haven`t got your wings. Yeah, that`s right.
Nick: [slamming a bottle on the bar] That`s it. Out you two pixies go - through the door, or out the window.
Uncle Billy: After all, Potter, some people like George HAD to stay at home. Not every heel was in Germany and Japan.
Nick: Hey look, mister - we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don`t need any characters around to give the joint "atmosphere". Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?
Mr. Potter: [to George Bailey] Look at you. You used to be so cocky. You were going to go out and conquer the world. You once called me "a warped, frustrated, old man!" What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds. Nothin` but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy.
[Potter chuckles]
Mr. Potter: You`re worth more dead than alive!
Nick: [ringing the cash register repeatedly] Get me. I`m givin` out wings.
George Bailey: [yelling at Uncle Billy] Where`s that money, you silly stupid old fool? Where`s that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison. That`s what it means. One of us is going to jail - well, it`s not gonna be me. George Bailey: Just a minute - just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You`re right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I`ll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was - why, in the twenty-five years since he and Uncle Billy started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn`t that right, Uncle Billy? He didn`t save enough money to send Harry to school, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what`s wrong with that? Why - here, you`re all businessmen here. Doesn`t it make them better citizens? Doesn`t it make them better customers? You - you said - what`d you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they`re so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save five thousand dollars? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you`re talking about... they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn`t think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they`re cattle. Well, in my book he died a much richer man than you`ll ever be.
Trivia House owner: I mean Pottersville. Don`t you think I know where I live? What`s the matter with you?
[He proceeds toward his house. George is completely bewildered]
George Bailey: Oh, I don`t know. Either I`m off my nut, or he is...
[to Clarence]
George Bailey: ... or you are!
Clarence: It isn`t me!
George Bailey: Now, will you do something for me?
Zuzu Bailey: What?
George Bailey: Will you try and get some sleep?
Zuzu Bailey: I`m not sleepy. I want to look at my flower.
George Bailey: I know-I know, but you just go to sleep, and then you can dream about it, and it`ll be a whole garden.
Zuzu Bailey: It will?
George Bailey: Uh-huh.
George Bailey: Now, you listen to me! I don`t want any plastics, and I don`t want any ground floors, and I don`t want to get married - ever - to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you`re... and you`re...
[runs out of words, sees her crying]
George Bailey: Oh, Mary, Mary...
Mary: George... George... George...
George Bailey: [kisses her intensely] Mary... Would you?... Would you?...
George Bailey: I`m shakin` the dust of this crummy little town off my feet and I`m gonna see the world. Italy, Greece, the Parthenon, the Colosseum. Then, I`m comin` back here to go to college and see what they know. And then I`m gonna build things. I`m gonna build airfields, I`m gonna build skyscrapers a hundred stories high, I`m gonna build bridges a mile long...
Annie: Boys and girls and music. Why do they need gin?
George Bailey: I know what I`m gonna do tomorrow, and the next day, and the next year, and the year after that.
Clarence: Ohh, there must be some easier way for me to get my wings.
George Bailey: Merry Christmas, movie house! Merry Christmas, Emporium! Merry Christmas, you wonderful old Building and Loan!
George Bailey: [on Mary being caught naked in the bushes] This is a very interesting situation!
Clarence: [In book inscription] Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.
At one stage when George is walking down the street, someone calls out "Hey Captain Cook, got your sea legs yet?". Captain James Cook (1728-1779) was an English sailor renowned as a navigator. Ginger Rogers was offered the role of Mary, but turned it down. According to an interview with Karolyn Grimes, the actress who played Zuzu, the name Zuzu comes from Zu Zu Ginger Snaps. George makes reference to this near the end of the movie when he says to Zu Zu at the top of the stairs, "Zuzu my little Ginger Snap!"
Despite being set around Christmas, it was filmed during a heat wave. It got to be so hot that Frank Capra gave everyone a day off to recuperate. When Officer Bert shoots at George, the "s", the "v" and the "i" in the electric "Pottersville" sign far away in the distance, go out. Debuted a week after William Wyler`s The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which explained why this movie was a disappointment at the box office and at the Academy Awards. Ranked #3 on the American Film Institute`s list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Fantasy" in June 2008.
In 2007, the American Film Institute ranked this as the #20 Greatest Movie of All Time. Ranked as the #1 Most Powerful Movie of All Time by the American Film Institute (2006). Voted the #1 inspirational film of all time in AFI`s "100 Years, 100 Cheers" (June 14th, 2006) James Stewart`s performance as George Bailey is ranked #8 on Premiere Magazine`s 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006).
Frank Capra often said that this was his favorite of all his films. The scene on the bridge where Clarence saves George was filmed on a back lot on a day where the temperature was 90 degrees Fahrenheit. This is why James Stewart is visibly sweating in a few scenes.
The name of Bedford Falls was combined from Bedford Hills, in Westchester County, New York, and Seneca Falls, a small town midway between Rochester and Syracuse. The town of Elmira, mentioned by the bank examiner, is a real town in New York, not that far from the actual Seneca Falls. Pharmacist Gower`s son`s death at college is attributed to "Influenza" in the telegram that Young George reads, dated May 3, 1919. Around that time, there was the "Spanish Flu" worldwide epidemic that claimed millions of lives. The film has two lines of "secret dialog" - spoken quietly through a door. (They can be heard when amplifying the volume, and are also explicitly depicted in the closed-captioning.) The lines occur at the end of the scene set in Bailey`s private office with Bailey and his son George, and Potter and his goon present. After George raves to Potter that "you can`t say that about my father", he is ushered out of the room by his father, then George is shown standing outside the office door. At that moment, George overhears the following two lines of dialog through the glass pane of the door behind him: POTTER: What`s the answer? BAILEY: Potter, you just humiliated me in front of my son. Actor and producer Sheldon Leonard said in an interview that the only reason he agreed to play Nick the bartender in this film was so that he would have money to buy Dodger baseball tickets. James Stewart and Donna Reed reprised their roles in 1947 on radio, first on "The Lux Radio Theatre" and then on "Camel Screen Guild Theatre." In the Lux version, instead of putting Zuzu`s petals in his pocket, George has a bell that Zuzu likes to play with. The "Lux" version aired in March; the "Screen Guild" version aired December 29th. While filming the scene where George prays in the bar, James Stewart has said that he was so overcome that he began to sob right then and there. Later, Frank Capra reframed the shot so it looked like a much closer shot than was actually filmed because he wanted to catch that expression on Stewart`s face. Two of "Sesame Street" (1969)`s Muppets, Bert and Ernie, share their names with the film`s cop and cab driver, respectively, but this is said by some to be just a coincidence. However, Karolyn Grimes, who played Zuzu, claimed that the two Muppets were named after the characters because the movie was Jim Henson`s favorite. The raven, named Jimmy, appeared in all of Frank Capra`s movies.
In the original script, Clarence confronts Potter about what he did to George. It was to take place right after Potter yelled, "And Happy New Year to you, in jail!" Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, and Clifford Odets all did uncredited work on the script. The Bailey Park scenes were filmed in La Crescenta, California. The set for Bedford Falls was constructed in two months and was one of the longest sets that had ever been made for an American movie. It covered four acres of the RKO`s Encino Ranch. It included 75 stores and buildings, main street, factory district and a large residential and slum area. The Main Street was 300 yards long, three whole city blocks! James Stewart repeated his role in a one-hour radio version for NBC Radio Theater in 1949. The cigarette lighter seen in this film (the one which George wishes he had a million dollars on) was previously seen in another Frank Capra film, You Can`t Take It with You (1938). The instant that George says "God" on the bridge, it starts snowing, showing that he is back in the real world. 350,000 feet of film were used. After the war Frank Capra set up Liberty Films with George Stevens and William Wyler to make more serious, soul-searching films. This and State of the Union (1948) were Liberty`s only productions. Donna Reed`s first starring role.
Vincent Price was considered for the part of Mr. Potter. James Stewart cited George Bailey as being his favorite character. The part was originally developed at another studio with Cary Grant earmarked for the role. When Frank Capra inherited the project, he rewrote it to suit Stewart. At $3.7 million, this was a very expensive independent production. In its initial box office run, it only earned $3.3 million. This was the first and last time that Frank Capra produced, financed, directed and co-wrote one of his films. In 2004 the BBC TV listings magazine "Radio Times" conducted a poll into the Best Film Never to Have Won an Oscar. "It`s a Wonderful Life" came second (The Shawshank Redemption (1994) was first). The gym floor that opens up to reveal a swimming pool was real and was located at Beverly Hills High School in Los Angeles.
In 1947, an FBI analyst submitted, without comment, an addition to a running memo on "Communist infiltration of the motion picture industry," recording the opinion of an industry source who said that the film`s "obvious" attempt to discredit bankers "is a common trick used by Communists." When composer Dimitri Tiomkin`s original score for the finale (featuring "Ode To Joy") was eliminated, tracks of Alfred Newman`s score from The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) were used instead, most notably the chorus singing "Hallelujah". Jean Arthur was Frank Capra`s first choice for the part of Mary. However, she declined the role since she was already committed to a Broadway play. James Stewart was nervous about the phone scene kiss because it was his first screen kiss since his return to Hollywood after the war. Under Frank Capra`s watchful eye, Stewart filmed the scene in only one unrehearsed take, and it worked so well that part of the embrace was cut because it was too passionate to pass the censors. For the scene that required Donna Reed to throw a rock into the window of the Granville House, Frank Capra hired a marksman to shoot it out for her on cue. To everyone`s amazement, Donna Reed broke the window with true aim and heft without the assistance of the hired marksman! The Bells of St. Mary`s (1945) is showing at the movie house as George runs down the street in Bedford Falls. Henry Travers, who plays Clarence, the angel, starred in that film as Horace P. Bogardus. As Uncle Billy is leaving George`s house drunk, it sounds as if he stumbles over some trash cans on the sidewalk. In fact, a crew member dropped some equipment right after Uncle Billy left the screen. Both actors continued with the scene ("I`m all right, I`m all right!") and director Frank Capra decided to use it in the final cut. He gave the clumsy stagehand a $10 bonus for "improving the sound." Films made prior to this one used cornflakes painted white for the falling snow effect. Because the cornflakes were so loud, dialogue had to be dubbed in later. Frank Capra wanted to record the sound live, so a new snow effect was developed using foamite (a fire-fighting chemical) and soap and water. This mixture was then pumped at high pressure through a wind machine to create the silent, falling snow. 6000 gallons of the new snow were used in the film. The RKO Effects Department received a special award from the Motion Picture Academy for the development of the new film snow. Originally ended with "Ode to Joy", not "Auld Lang Syne". Lionel Barrymore convinced James Stewart to take the role of George, despite his feeling that he was not up to it so soon after World War II. | ||
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