Movie Monday: It's a Wonderful Life

Movie Monday: It’s a Wonderful Life

I would hazard a guess that even folks who don’t tend to watch “old movies,” films from the 1930s and 1940s, have seen Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life. It generally airs at Christmastime, but I watch it all year and cry every time the bell rings, even after all these years. The movie is based on a short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern who couldn’t find a publishers, so sent printed copies to his friends as a Christmas card in 1943.

Here are some fun facts you may not know:

When RKO had the rights to the movie, and before Capra came on board, studio executives saw It’s A Wonderful Life wanted superstar Cary Grant for the role of George Bailey. Henry Fonda was also considered, but Capra always wanted Jimmy Stewart. I’m with Capra!

Donna Reed plays Mary Hatch-Bailey, George’s wife. For the scene where George and Mary each throw a stone through the windows of an abandoned house, Capra had an ace marksman lined up to shoot out the window on cue. But Donna Reed who had played baseball in high school, nailed it the first time.

Beulah Bondi, who plays George’s mother, played Jimmy Stewart’s mother five times on screen. Jimmy used to call her, “Mom” right up until her death in 1981.

During the scene where Uncle Billy leaves the Bailey home and goes off camera, it sounds like he

stumbles into some trash cans. What actually happened was accidental: a crew member dropped a tray of props. Actor Thomas Mitchell, who played Billy ad libs by shouting, “I’m alright! I’m aaaaaalright!” Capra used this take in the final cut and gave the crew member who dropped the props a $10 bonus for improving the sound. And Jimmy Stewart, who’s still on-screen looking off-camera, smiles when Mitchell improvises the line.

The name of George’s daughter is Zuzu, and she’s played by Karolyn Grimes. Zuzu is named after a brand of biscuits that were popular in the US in the 40s, which is why George says, “Zuzu! My little ginger snap,” when he sees her.

Before It’s a Wonderful Life was made, snow on film was made with painted cornflakes. Because of the noise created by the flakes, dialogue had to be dubbed in later. Capra wanted to record the sound live so, instead, the RKO effects team came up with a new effect using soap, water, and foamite (the substance you find in fire extinguishers) and won a special Oscar for their innovation.

The high school dance sequence was filmed at Beverly Hills High School and it’s still there, and used by students, to this day. And the retractable floor was also used in a rom-com called Whatever It Takes in 2000, in a very similar scene.

The FBI flagged the film as "communist" in 1947 in a memo: “With regard to the picture 'It's a Wonderful Life,' [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists.”

Have yourself a merry little Christmas!

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A Lesson in Love (Strength of His Heart Anthology):

He thinks he’s too old. She thinks she’s too young. Can these teachers learn that love defies all boundaries?

Born and raised in London, Isobel Turvine knows nothing about farming, but after most of the students in her school evacuate during Operation Pied Piper, she’s left with little to do. Then her friend Margery talks her into joining the Women’s Land Army, and she finds herself working the land at a manor home in Yorkshire that’s been converted to a boys’ school. A teacher at heart, she is drawn to the lads, but the handsome yet stiff-necked headmaster wants her to stick to farming.

Left with an arm that barely works from the last “war to end all wars,” Gavin Emerson agrees to take on the job of headmaster when his school moves from London to Yorkshire, but he’s saddled with the quirky manor owner, bickering among his teachers, and a gaggle of Land Army girls who have turned the grounds into a farm. When the group’s blue-eyed, raven-haired leader nearly runs him down in a car, he admonishes her to stay in the fields, but they are thrown together at every turn. Can he trust her not to break his heart?

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