It's (Still) A Wonderful Life
Wonderful Life
By Pamela Powell
emember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.” As soon as you read that, you might recognize it as a quote from the classic film, “It’s A Wonderful Life.” These are the words that Clarence, AS2 (Angel Second Class) inscribed in the back of the book to George Bailey. But did you know that this 72 year-old film was a failure at the box office back in 1946? How did this Academy Award nominated flop directed by Frank Capra and starring Jimmy Stewart
and Donna Reed become one of the most watched Christmas classics of all time? The film’s backstory is a surprising one which may allow you to watch the film in a new light this year.
Sicilian-born Frank Capra immigrated to this country in 1903 by boat as a young boy with his family. Arriving in New York City, they boarded a train bound for the then little town of Los Angeles where Capra’s older brother resided. With a language barrier, the Italian-speaking family, knowing only a few words in English, reportedly subsisted on bananas and bread---two of their only English words. Arriving in L.A., Capra began school and much to his family’s chagrin, he excelled in this environment---they didn’t want a scholar, they wanted a worker. Fighting to graduate, he eventually went on to attend Cal Tech and discovered the beauty and power of the written word, setting his future successes and failures on their ordained trajectory.
Capra, who in his youth met director John Ford as an extra
for “The Outcasts of Poker Flat” (1919), partnered with the filmmaker in the 1940’s to create the production company Liberty Films, which would become the home for “It’s A Wonderful Life.” Capra “found” the inspiration for the film through a Christmas card, a self-published 21-page short story by Phillip VanDoren Stern called “The Greatest Gift," originally sent to David Hempstead at RKO Studios. RKO bought the rights for the film from Stern for $10k ($136k in 2018 dollars), and cast Cary Grant to star.
The film never got off the ground and the rights were then purchased by Liberty Films from RKO for another $10k, casting Jimmy Stewart in the lead role. Stewart's raw and evocative performance, according to author Robert Matzen, is in part due to Stewart’s PTSD resulting from combat duty in WWII. This gravity seeped into the emotionally wrought situations in the film which Capra exquisitely captured. The complex character of George who personifies wholesomeness and virtuosity is also inspired by real life. A.P. Giannini, founder of Bank of America, experienced similar circumstances in life and these similarities are found not only in “It’s A Wonderful Life,” but also Capra’s earlier film “American Madness” (1932).
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