By VICTOR M. PARACHIN
In 1944, Philip Van Doren Stern wrote a short story and had it privately printed as a tiny hardcover booklet. Calling it The Greatest Gift, he mailed it off to family and friends as a combination Christmas card and gift. One went to his agent, who was so touched by the story that she submitted it to various Hollywood studios as basis for a film. After several months of negotiation, Charles Koerner, head of production at RKO Radio Pictures. purchased it for $50,000. Astonished at the sale price, author Stern later confided in friends: “I thought the studios were crazy for buying it.”
In spite of Stern’s skepticism that his simple short story could be transformed into a full-length feature film, Koerner turned the book over to studio writers to make a screenplay out of. After the expenditure of additional thousands of dollars, none of the attempts satisfied Koerner. so he turned to a recently released World War II Army officer, Frank Capra, asking him to read the story and offer his opinion.
Before the war, Capra had already established himself as a popular 1930s film director with a series of comedies like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take It With You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). When the United States entered the war, Capra enlisted in the Army. Wisely, the military placed him in charge of the U.S. government’s documentary series Why We Fight (1942-1945).
Capra, returning to Hollywood a colonel who had been awarded the Distinguished Service Medal, was most anxious to resume his career as a feature-film director. He eagerly welcomed the opportunity to review Stern’s short story. After a careful reading, Capra saw the potential and agreed to take on the project. Working with new writers and adding some scenes of his own, he came up with a new title for the film: It’s a Wonderful Life.
Today, more than five decades after its release in 1946, It’s a Wonderful Life continues to touch audiences, turning sober-faced adults into tear-sodden wrecks.
You don’t have to be a film critic to understand and appreciate the movie. When Stern wrote his story, America was just emerging from the pain of the Great Depression, only to be thrust into a world war. Those great cataclysmic events left many Americans fearful and uncertain about the future. Stern’s story is classic Americanism in which fatherhood is honored, small-town values celebrated, greed thwarted, God’s existence validated, a suicide averted, and a world war won.
The plot is simple and easy to follow — the tale of an uncommon common man, George Bailey, portrayed by James Stewart. Forced to give up his ambitions to travel because of the necessity of taking over the family business — a building and loan association — he remains at home while his younger brother goes off to war and returns a hero. The business which George Bailey remains home to run is itself threatened by a cruel and unscrupulous competitor.
Depressed and in despair, George contemplates suicide but is saved by a guardian angel who responds to George’s cry — “I wish I had never been born” — by showing him how his community and loved ones would have fared if he had never existed. Those images convince George it is better to have lived. The angel reminds him: “You’ve had a wonderful life.” When George returns home on Christmas Eve, he finds the people in his community have chipped in to save the business.
Although the movie continues to attract a new generation of viewers and has become a holiday classic with millions viewing it annually every December, most people are surprised to learn that in 1946 It’s A Wonderful Life was a financial failure. In spite of receiving five Academy Award nominations (but no Oscar) and gaining generally favorable reviews, the film lost $525,000, an enormous sum in those years. Some believe that America’s postwar atmosphere was not conducive to Capra’s unique blend of triumph over tragedy and goodness conquering greed. Yet this movie with a message has over the years won the loyalty of viewers young and old, male and female. And, it is not favored only by fans. Capra declared it to be his personal favorite from among all the films he directed. Jimmy Stewart cited it as his own favorite.
A major part of the picture’s success was the director himself. Capra had a finely tuned sense for themes which would appeal to viewers. He once outlined rules “that I abide by religiously in selecting a story. My first rule is that it must have charm. If a tale leaves you with a glow of satisfaction, it has the quality I seek. Second, it must have interesting characters that do the things human beings do — or would like to do if they had the courage and opportunity. My third and last requisite is that the members of the cast must in real life be the nearest thing possible to the characters they are to portray, so that their performance will require the least acting.”
Capra’s third rule led him directly to Jimmy Stewart. Like Capra, Stewart interrupted his Hollywood career to serve in the war. Like Capra, he returned home, a decorated hero, anxious to resume acting. As an unemployed actor, Stewart was thrilled to hear from Capra, not because he felt the movie would necessarily be a box-office success but because Stewart desperately needed the work.
“I remember,” Stewart would later say, “when he called me about the story of It’s a Wonderful Life. We had both been out of the service for several months, and I had no offers to play in pictures of any kind, but Frank called me and said he had an idea for a picture, and I went over to his house. He started a rather rambling story about a guardian angel and a man about to commit suicide and wishing he had never been born, and it was all rather confusing. However, I frankly didn’t ask many questions and simply said that I would like, with all my heart, to play the part of George Bailey in It’s A Wonderful Life.”
During the filming Capra didn’t just shoot what was on paper; he continued to create on the set. One such spontaneous change resulted in the humorous Charleston dance contest. That sequence was shot at Beverly Hills High School. When a crew member mentioned that the dance floor was movable and that underneath it was a swimming pool, Capra said: “I’ve got to use it.” So the script was altered to include one of George’s rivals at the dance pulling a switch which moves the floor apart. As George and Mary frantically dance, they are unaware that they are backing off the dance floor and toward a pool. The scene ends with the duo tumbling down into the water followed by nearly everyone present including the principal.
While the film’s appeal grows steadily even now, some criticism comes from members of the psychiatric community. An article in the American Journal of Psychoanalysis recently declared that Stewart portrays Bailey as a “supremely divided neurotic” plagued by “incompatible longings.” Then again, Freudian theorists are critical over George’s relationship with his father, from whom he uneasily inherits the job of running the building and loan association. “George had a particularly bad case of ‘conflicted identification with the father,’” says New York City psychiatrist Harvey Greenberg, M.D. And family therapists worry that George is simply an “enabler” and “co-dependent” who covers up his Uncle Billy’s alcoholism. “He didn’t see that Uncle Billy’s drinking impinged on other people. That’s when acceptance isn’t healthy,” says California psychologist Lillie Friedland.
In spite of such modern criticism, most viewers would agree with Julian Myers, a former story analyst at Columbia Pictures who recommended Stern’s piece to executives at that studio only to have them turn it down. Myers says: “Let psychologists and others analyze this property. It was written during the pain and depression of early World War II. I believe Stern created all the characters and situations only to provide the setting for his theme: ‘Don’t despair. Your life has value. You have made the world better.’ That was his Christmas message. May we all be motivated by it.”
Regardless of debate among psychologists, the fact is that It’s a Wonderful Life has become a true holiday film classic. Many fans make it a yearly practice to view it on Christmas Eve just as Frank Capra did until his death in 1991. The characters Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street were named after Bert the cop and Ernie the taxi driver in the film
In many ways It’s a Wonderful Life is a national treasure. Through it, Capra portrayed good versus evil, made a hero out of an obscure person, and reminded all viewers that the virtues of small-town America can overcome the greed and power of the wealthy. Frank Capra succeeded in creating a movie which inspires viewers to live with love and hope, and to value their lives by knowing that one person can indeed make the world a kinder, gentler place.
Victor Parachin, an ordained minister and writer living in Claremont, California, is the author of 365 Good Reasons to Be a Vegetarian.
