It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Ep. 126 - All The Right Movies

Episode Transcript
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(00:04):
All the right movies. It's a Wonderful Life was
released in 1946 and has become the definitive Christmas movie.
Frank Capra's tale of a suicidalman shown the value of his life
by a wingless Angel. The film is a story of hope,
community and the impact we haveon those around us.
My name is John and the buildingand loan associates with me are
Luke. I want a big one.

(00:25):
Westie. That does it out.
You 2 Pixies go through the dooror out the window.
And Matt? Happy New Year to you.
In jail. It's Christmas Eve in Bedford
Falls and ATRM are spreading some holiday cheer as we talk
the film that proves no one is afailure who has friends.
Hot dog. Hello and welcome to All the

(01:04):
Right Movies. We serve hard drinks for men who
want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around
to give the joint atmosphere correct.
I'm looking at you, Matt. Yeah, I'm going after this.
Don't worry, we tell the story of Hollywood one film at a time
here. And this Christmas, all four of
us are here because we've got one of the biggest theories.

(01:24):
We sure do. We do.
We're going all the way back to 1946 to talk Jimmy Stewart
Angels without wings and spread general yield tide fun as we
bring you the making of Frank Capra's holiday treasure, It's a
Wonderful life. Nice.
Perfect. See.
And that as if we didn't know what was coming.
Oh, we're here. It's a wonderful life.

(01:44):
Oh, is that what we're doing? Excellent.
Dropping that on you from nowhere.
No problem, I'm all prepped for Bad Santa, but never mind.
That's why we're all here, just to help each other out a little
bit. Well, no, Paul, this time we did
just dive straight in like an underground swimming pool.
So we should probably explain. Matt, why are we talking about
it? It's a wonderful life.
Yes, I mean, like a lot of people, this one's very personal

(02:05):
to me. I remember it being on in the
background when I was a kid at Christmas, but I never paid that
much attention to it. But I can vividly remember one
year I'd finished sixth form forChristmas, came home, started
the Christmas holidays and thought, you know what, I'm
going to give this a proper watch.
I want to see what the deal is. Why do people like, love this
one so much? And since then, it's been the
absolute cornerstone of this time of year for me.
Like any other Christmas film, it's fine for don't get around

(02:27):
to watching it, but not this one.
And it's a very rare film in that the older I get, the more I
get out of it somehow, the more I sympathize and understand what
George is feeling and going through.
But also, more importantly, how to recognize your own importance
in life and view yourself through the perspective of
others, which I think is really important.
It takes you on an incredible journey and after all these

(02:49):
years of doing this podcast, I've never cried on a recording
yet. Let's see if I still hold to by
the end of this one. We shall see.
First time for everything, yeah?Well, it's sticking around for
yeah, yeah, 2 1/2. Hours and Luke, how about you?
When It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah, I mean, this is only a
matter of time. The best Christmas movie and the
best movie podcast together at last.

(03:11):
Nice. I didn't watch the film until
into my teens like Matt. Matt.
I'm not too sure if it was so much of A seasonal standard in
the UK as it is now. Obviously it was in the USI
don't really feel it took hold until the 90s.
So it wasn't really a thing whenI was that young over here, at
least anywhere. But I did love it on 1st watch.

(03:32):
I think there are a handful of films that have elite level
status. We've covered the majority of
them, the ones that could be considered the greatest in their
particular genre or greatest of all time, and I think this is
one of them. I think it's up there with the
likes of The Godfather of Citizen Kane.
Yeah. And a yearly Christmas table for
a good reason. A true classic.
And it's inclusion on the podcast.

(03:52):
I mean, it was just a certainty.Definitely.
It was going to happen at some point and I didn't say It's a
Wonderful Life when I was a child.
I mean, not a small one. I was about 1415 I think, first
time I saw it. It was on one Christmas Eve, I
think on BBC Two. It's on every Christmas Eve in
the UK isn't it? Yeah, obviously I heard about it
and knew it was a classic. Didn't massively interest me as

(04:13):
an uncultured kid. I was more interested in Home
Alone or A Charlie Brown Christmas.
Brilliant. Still great.
Which are both still awesome obviously, but when I watched it
as a teenager I did think it wasgreat.
Seen it many times since, so looking forward to getting into
how we all feel about it now. And beyond the emotions, of
which there's a lot, there's lawto talk about Jimmy Stewart in

(04:34):
the lead. Obviously don't.
I read opposite him first time for us with her and with Frank
Capra directing at the peak of his powers.
Some highly acclaimed filmmakingand a behind the scenes tale
that doesn't always match the joy we see on the screen, so
it's a really interesting one. Very true.
Yeah, it's a Christmas special. So we're about to go then.
It's a Wonderful Life, The True Meaning of Christmas Classic.

(04:56):
So this should be great I think.Yeah, no.
Guaranteed. And Westie, you're here to sing
the praises of Mr. Potter, presumably.
But possibly, yeah. I mean, he's the hero for me,
let's be honest. No, it's again, it's just it's
an absolute tradition for us. It was me.
Dad got into this and sat down. So you'll have to watch this on
Christmas Eve and every single year since then.

(05:17):
I remember the first time I saw it, and I just been absolutely
kind of transported by it. Just that feeling of joy.
Even now, if you've just watchedthe ending on YouTube, it still
hits you even though you know you haven't gone through the
whole film. It's very, very rare for a film
to do that. I think there's just everything
about this is just beautiful acting.
I think that you know, the way it's shot, the way it's all
realized, not only the ultimate Christmas film, but I think the

(05:38):
ultimate feel good film. It's just one of them films that
I worry every year that it's notgoing to hit as hard.
I keep thinking I've seen it toomany times that this isn't going
to work this year, and it alwaysdoes.
Somehow it always seems to pull it out of the bag and smack
home, and unfortunately it just gets more and more relevant
every single year. I think people forget the actual
message and the actual tone of this film is just, you know,

(06:00):
it's about community and it's about selflessness and it's
about caring about your fellow man and caring about somebody
else. And people keep forgetting that
every year. And every year this comes back
and reminds me. It just really, really is a
universal film. It's one for everybody.
I'll recommend it to anybody andI don't get sick of it and I'm
really excited to talk about it.Well, it's a Wonderful Life.
It's produced by Liberty Films, distributed by Archaeo Radio

(06:23):
Pictures, and released on December the 20th, 1946.
Filmed at Archaeopathy Studios in Culver City, CA, it was
directed by Frank Capra, writtenby Capra, Francis Goodrich and
Albert Hackett, based on the novella The Greatest Gift by
Philip Van Doren Stern, and it stars James Stewart as George
Bailey, Donna Read as Mary HatchBailey, Lionel Barrymore as Mr.

(06:43):
Potter, Thomas Mitchell as UncleBilly, and Henry Travers as
Clarence. Odd Body Angel second class, but
not for long. Not for long, no.
No. Shall we step into Christmas
then? Let's do it.
Let's go. OK, Brilliant.
Time to lasso the moon. It's Bedford Falls via deep
space, weirdly. Yeah, always forget about that.

(07:05):
It's the beginning of It's a Wonderful Life.
The beginning. Many of the famous moments and
It's a Wonderful Life come in the final act, but that's not to
say the first actors fella. Far from it.
And we're going to talk about some huge sequences, a young
George Bailey becoming reacquainted with a young Mary

(07:27):
Hatchet. A pool party is coming up, but
before that we're looking at some major character
introductions. We are.
So after a tote happened, Buffalo Gals opening credit
sequence to lead us in, we're thrown right into Bedford Falls.
It's Christmas Eve and everybody's praying for George
Bailey. The first scenes bring us a trip
to the cosmos to meet Clarence, a trip to 1919 to meet young

(07:48):
George and the youngsters life in his hometown.
Do you wish you had $1,000,000 Worth it?
Hot dog every time. What do you think of the opening
moments? I think the opening moments are
great. I especially love the
introduction to George here. I think he's great, so well
played and it's just it's lads in it, lads doing what lads do.
Lads, lads, lads. I mean, who, who hasn't done

(08:09):
this sliding down on a on a spade, you know, snowy bank?
Fantastic. Stuff I got shovel in it.
Really dangerous, really hazardous, but you know, that's
just kids in it. But I think it's a foreshadowing
in this of all the characters. It's Harry shows he's bravery,
says he's not scared, foreshadows what he's going to
do later on in the film. He shouts for George for help
even before he kind of gets intotrouble, just before he falls

(08:31):
in, he's screaming for help fromGeorge.
You know George is going to helpand it's how selfless George is.
He's just everything's off and he's straight in without
thinking about it. So it's just these great
character moments and sets of Sam Wainwright's E or you're
going to get that later. You're going to think he's going
to grow a bit, but he doesn't really.
Does he grow up, Sam get a hold of it?
No idea how he's successful in business, but I guess you've
just got to be childlike for that to work out.

(08:52):
But it's just a great introduction to everybody.
Marty's in there. You kind of get everybody and
know everybody. There's this individuality to
the group, but to me that doesn't seem that deep when
Harry falls in, does it? What's he bothered about?
Just get out. Just stand up.
Just terrified. But again, I mean, it's just a
foreshadow and I love in this, Ilove this like a sign there that

(09:12):
I'm not sure if that says it's Potter's Land or whatever.
And some people have said that, and it was in an early version
of the script, but there's just all these little bits that kind
of point to it. But yeah, it's great.
Great character. Settle.
Yeah, I love how it starts. The first thing we've seen in
the film is a montage of the shots of Bedford Falls and the
voice overs of all the people praying.
I love that sets up the final act, and it does establish this
is a Christmas film. You know the next 90 minutes

(09:33):
won't mention Christmas at all. Not at all.
And then in outer space with Godand Joseph as you do, and
Clarence, obviously, and that dissolved transition from space
to all the boys sledging to takeus in.
That's great. Yeah.
Really slow dissolving it. Yeah, it is.
Yeah. And narrativeia crumbs in Lords.
We meet George, we meet Harry, his brother, and Clarence.

(09:54):
The sledging accident that leadsto George going deaf in his left
ear. And the fact that George saves
Harry, he does set up a huge andpretty dark moment later on.
We'll talk about that, obviously, but I think it's
really beautifully shot as well.And I'm a big fan of young
George's Czech woolen jacket. It's great.
Lovely number. Don't make it.
I don't like that anymore. No.
Nice piece, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I love the visual

(10:16):
of this. It looks like it could be a
Christmas card, you know, just as Wesley's been saying, just
the lads going out sledging. Yeah.
But yeah, it's one of those scenes where when you come back
to it, it has so much more resonance because it's big
enough. Obviously saving your brother's
life, that's massive. But you don't expect that our
further ramifications. But it does.
As we've been saying. We'll get on now.
Yeah. Great.
We will indeed. You mentioned that there, John.

(10:38):
We see Clarence talking to God and Joseph about George through
the first act in one of the first versions of the script,
though it didn't cut to space, we actually saw them.
The big man wasn't their God. We would see Benjamin Franklin
as the head Angel going to see Joseph in his workshop where
Joseph was working on a new invention.
Franklin, like the. Big man.

(11:01):
Well, yeah, in the Bible, Josephthe Carpenter, hence the
workshop. So it's quite a funny little
idea. Yeah, but once it changed the
space, though, it would have been a bit odd if Ben Franklin
was just in there for no reason.Yeah, flashing.
Star is he sick? No.
Worse, he's discouraged. Is that close of.
Course it is. Miles Worth.

(11:21):
Yeah, in the first draft, the sequence where George says
Harry's life was different as well.
Originally, the boys weren't sledging.
Get this, They'll play an ice hockey even more dangerous.
Wayne Gretzky. The end of our plane on the
lake, which is part of Potter's property, which is what we've
touched on earlier there. As they're playing, Potter is
looking at them furiously from his mansion with his binoculars
probably, or a telescope, then hands up the space.

(11:43):
That would be great. When George hits the put into
Potter's yard, so Potter releases the dogs on them.
The boys make a run for it and that's how Harry falls in the
ice, where George then saves him.
Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns releasing the dogs.
Release the hounds. I mean, Pata pretty much is Mr.
Burns, isn't he? Pretty much, yeah.
Need to get muggy on the kids? Yeah, First thing to see is that

(12:07):
George is full of effervescent energy.
The kid George, that is just a bit.
Yeah. I love how he announces himself
to Mr. Gower with his full name.It's me, Mr. Gower.
George Beale. How many Georges are on staff?
2nd is the 2 actors playing young Mary and Violet.
They are absolutely glorious. Violet she's a bit of a floozy

(12:30):
but George sees right through it.
Help you down. Great.
The real winner here is Mary. She's full of poise with a back
to Violet. I'm still thinking.
And when it's when Violet leavesand it's just her and George, it
provides such an incredible strong foundation for the rest
of the film. These two go this far back when

(12:52):
Mary says, George Bailey, I loveyou to the day I die.
Oh, yeah, I'm gonna already forget about this.
And. She does.
Yeah, but is this scene sponsored by a National
Geographic? Because George proudly despairs
that here when he's talking about his adventure spirit is
like a TV ad. Yeah.
Want to get his name in the National Geographic?
Well, yes, explorers can get. Them.

(13:15):
I mean, it's a charming little scene, I think.
Ladies man, Young George, isn't he fighting them off with a
stick? Of course he is.
Shoelaces. Just tell them what you're
having. These haven't shoelaces, of
course. You.
I mean, obviously we'll see Violet and especially Mary
become adult characters later on, but yeah, even, yeah, Violet
knows what she wants. Mary goes, you're like, every
boy, what's wrong with that? And then George is like, I'm

(13:38):
going to travel and I'm going toown a couple of hair rooms and
maybe 3 or 4 wives. Isn't he like, 12?
But I love the set as well. Of the drugstore.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, almost all the films filmed on archaeo sound stages
in the production design is fantastic.
Start here. It's incredible.
Yeah, and then after this, you get like the next big event in
George's life and mark this one down because this is the first

(14:00):
time that I cry during this film.
But not the last. Well, I'll see I've no the last
trust you just. Start here and then it's
consistent from here. I mean, when he saves Mr. Gower
from poison, that kid, but Gowerdoesn't realize what he's done
and he thinks he's just been skiving.
I mean, it is still shocking to this day.
Just our brutal low slaps are inwhat it does.
This sets up the recurring themeof George's life in this film.

(14:22):
He tries to do something good and he just gets punished
forward straight away. He cannot catch a break.
But the way it cuts from Gower just laying into him to those
reaction shots of Mary flinchingat the sound of each slap, like
she can't even see what's happening.
But the sound is so effective. That's how I think it is.
But then you get Gala's realisation what George has just
done for him and what he's likely saved him from.

(14:43):
That is so effective when he goes to hug him and gratitude
and George just backs away from don't hurt my sorry again, Don't
hurt my sorry again like I'm 20 minutes in.
I don't think I'm going to take any more.
Yeah, no Jimmy Stewart yet, but I think all these kind of like
prequel scenes, they're really important in setting up Georges
character. You've already heard he wants to
see the world, then we'll see here that he's brave, he's

(15:05):
moral, he puts others perform himself even when it costs him.
And that's his character throughout the film really.
I think it's all really well setup in the writing and the
beating is pretty brutal. Capra doesn't shy away from it.
Is the go I get stuck right in? It's not.
I mean, for a film to remember there's this warm Christmas
classic. There is some dog stuff.
Very much. There's more to come, but this

(15:26):
is probably the first I think ofthose moments.
Yeah. Yeah, the actor who plays young
George is Bobby Anderson and he had an incredible career.
His film debut was The Grapes ofWrath in 1940.
Well, but this was his biggest role at the time.
And then he was in another Christmas classic a year later
in The Bishop's Wife. Yeah.
He then moved into production design and worked on Columbo.

(15:48):
Nice. The 70s series of Wonder Woman
and the last film he worked on was Demolition Man in 19. 83
I've read that, yeah. All the classics.
Imagine Snipes in Stallone showing up here.
Carnage in bed by 4. What's your boggle Be great.

(16:08):
I think Bobby Anderson's pretty good young George.
Yeah, he's great. Yeah.
Slightly theatrical at times, but that's fine, it all works.
Yeah, the time, isn't it? Yeah, it ties into the
excitability of them, I think, the ambition.
Yeah, and young Violet and Mary we should mention as well.
Jean and Rose played child violence, her only ever film
credit, and Jean Gale played Mary.
She was in loads of films afterwards, but not like as a

(16:29):
leader or anything. She's a chorus girl in Singing
in the Rain. Right.
Oh, wow. Nice.
OK. Great look out for her there,
yeah. And Mr. Gower is played by HB
Warner and his great preceded cinema.
He'd been in silent films as farback as 1914 and was most well
known at the time for playing Jesus Christ in Cecil B De
Mille's 1927 version of The Kingof Kings.

(16:52):
And that was a huge film. Being shoes to fill huge.
Huge sandals to fill there. And that was a huge film.
But Warner ended up typecast afterwards, and Capra kind of
brought him back into the Hollywood fold.
He cussed me. And you can't take it with you.
Mr. Smith goes to Washington andthen it's going in.
It's wonderful life. Typecast is Jesus Christ.

(17:13):
Yeah, like Robert Powell. Robert.
Powell. I'm surprised to learn that he
was a big star as you ain't got the HP Warner.
Do you know Sunset Blvd. Billy Wilder film?
Yes, the famous scene where we see a bunch of real silent film
stars playing poker. They're like playing themselves
in the film. Buster Keaton's there, Anna
Nielsen and one of them's HP Warner, he's in that scene as

(17:35):
well. Nice.
Cool, nice. Great.
I love this scene because there's no element of assumption
for the audience whatsoever. In the foreground.
Poison. You've got black players on
this. Tom and Jerry cartoon.
Skull on him with crossbones. As good of an actor as HP Warner
was, Bobby Anderson said that hewas actually drunk in this

(17:56):
scene. And it always kind of freaks me
out because it is such a genuinely good drunk
performance. He is gone.
When he sits down and looks at the picture of his son, it's
like, oh, there's nothing else on his mind.
And the tears that are coming down his face, the confusion
that's happening, and he was actually slapping Bobby Anderson
for real. Wow, like he was there, all them
tears were real and he just saidas soon as HP want to finish the

(18:20):
Capri L cut and he finished, youjust want to hug them and he's
just so apologetic. So that scene is actually how it
played out in real life, which is amazing.
Yeah, incredible. I mean, Christmas classic or
not, there's no reason for slapping a 12 year old.
Sure. No.
Definitely not, no. Didn't go slapping Buster Keaton
about I bet. I.
Bet. Wouldn't it?
But in an earlier draft of the script, the sequence played out

(18:41):
quite a bit differently. In the film, when George finds
out Mr. Gower has put poison in his prescriptions, he goes to
see his father gets kicked out of the office when he shouts at
Potter. He then goes back to the drug
store. But the earlier draft, George
turns to Uncle Billy next. Billy lights a cigar and throws
it in the wastebasket, which catches fire.
Billy starts yelling for help until George's cousin she puts

(19:01):
the fire out with a pot of coffee, which means George has
to deal with it all by himself. Piece a piece of work, Uncle
Billy like. A liability got on Mike.
Look at Norman Wisdom. But.
You know what's a well written film when even the scene to
leave out sound pretty good. Yeah.
Yeah. We do get a similar scene in the
building in law, and that's the first thing we see.

(19:22):
Uncle Billy and Potter and PeterBailey, George's dad.
Potter's being really horrible to Peter.
It's awful. Yeah, straight away, yeah.
So no, Jimmy Stewart is George just yet, but still a pretty
promising opening to It's a Wonderful Life.
Definitely crying already tears.From there we flash forward nine

(19:42):
years. George has turned into Jimmy
Stewart, Mary has become done our read, and their paths cross
once again. We attend a school, get
together, the tunes into a pool party, then see George walk Mary
home, giving us one of the most famous scenes and lines in the
film. Have you offered to lastly with
the Moon for a Woman before Luke?
No, but I'd often like to. Put your back out.

(20:08):
Yeah, I mean, it's all frivolityat the Bailey household before
the party, isn't it? Yeah.
Jolly James upstairs, everyone'shaving the best time.
Harry's having some fun with Annie asking about those pies
and chasing the kitchen like a Benny Hill sketch.
That big wind up slap that he gives us?
Absolutely outrageous. It's a full moon tonight.

(20:29):
But this is where the seeds of the rest of the film are sawn.
The way the family ties, the desire to break free.
Pot is evil omnipresence as well, the business of nickels
and Dimes. George doesn't want anything to
do with it. That's this film in a nutshell.
It also reinforces George's bad ear.
How's that? Yeah, every time.
I love that. Yeah.
And it ends with his dad tongue to go and chase his dreams.

(20:50):
But the writings on the wall forGeorge and it signs off
beautifully with him saying I think you're a great guy.
It's about time one of them lookhead said it.
Yeah, Yeah. There's some great jokes in
this. It goes from humor just to do
this absolute like, emotion. It's great.
And say, yeah, you got a match when he's walking past.
I love that every time. Just how every time.
Brilliant. Oh, let him have the plates,

(21:10):
mother. But yeah, Pop, you want a shock?
I love that. Yeah, beautiful.
It is great. It's not one of the most
spectacular famous scenes, I don't think in the film, but
really important. It is where we get the
introduction of one of the biggest themes, the value of
community, because Peter says normal people do most of the
working and paying and living and dying in this community, and
he wants to look after them. So it seems that this is where
George gets that bully from, from his dad.

(21:32):
Yeah. And it's great because it's the
start of George's arc, too. We kind of mocks the building in
loan here. He calls it a shabby little
office. And obviously by the end he
thought he loves the place a bittoo much because he learns its
value. It's about what it does for
people, really. So I think it's really well
written. And there is some humour in
there as well with Annie the housemaid, snooping about
clearing the plates. I mean, to call Annie a

(21:54):
stereotype nowadays is a bit of an understatement.
Yeah. A little bit.
But Lillian Randolph, who plays her, she's great.
Oh, she is. She's wonderful.
And get this about Lillian, Randolph, Tom and Jerry.
You know the housekeeper, ThomasThomas, Thomas.
You never see your legs. But it's Lillian Randolph's
voice. Oh wow, no way.
What a fact. How great that.

(22:14):
I was going to say that like just in jest, but that's
amazing. Brilliant.
Yeah, on RE watches as well. It kind of hits home.
That is possibly one of the lastconversations he ever has with
his dad. Probably is, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. The last time I seen him
together for sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And talking about him, Paul Bailey.
He's played by Samuel S Hines and he was also known to the

(22:36):
audiences at the time because he'd been in over 100 films by
this point. He'd been a regular and the
Doctor killed their medical drama series and had been in
Caprice, You Can't Take It With You in 1939, and that led him to
get them cast as Peter Bailey. Great.
I was hoping you wouldn't see was the voice of Yosemite Sam or
something there, but no. Yeah, but.
Yeah, he's on the film for long,but I think he's good.

(22:57):
Samuel Hines. Yeah, he makes impression.
Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, it happens off screen, but
I do kind of feel his death whenit comes a bit.
Later. Oh, it hangs over.
It doesn't hangs over. That's the film, definitely.
It does, yeah. So after this, George gets an
invite to go to Harry's party and he accepts.
Obviously, of course he does. Fantastic.
Loads of kids everywhere, no gymtonight, not one drop.

(23:18):
And I absolutely love this scene.
This scene is just such fun. It's just such a joy when he
sees Mary, like that introduction to Donna Reed is
just so incredible when she justturns and just, it's just
incredible every single time. She's the real Angel.
Yeah, I think of. Course she is.
It's just like a dream, and it'sjust the light and he is so soft

(23:39):
and just so welcoming and she just looks amazing.
It's just so, so good. I love the fact that there's
just all these little bits of this dialogue.
The more you watch this film, the more you get from it.
The fact that the pool underneath was his idea, the
fact that he's actually still doing and all of this
architecture and all of these designs and he still wants to do
it. And I'm watching this again.
Do you think this is like inspiration for the hand drive

(24:02):
sequence in Greece? Possibly it's got similar vibes
to it, yeah. Because they turn it into a
competition and say tapping people on the shoulder and you
have to leave. And it's like, that just reminds
me of Greece all of a sudden. It's just fantastic.
And so I love that. I think this has inspired scenes
in Lords of Classic. Films it has, the more you watch
it, you just think, Oh yeah, they've just taken that little
idea and made a kind of film outof the whole thing and it's just

(24:24):
great. I love the introduction of
Wainwright turns up here yet again.
You know, Harry's in the centre of the party.
Marty comes over and sets him upwith his sister.
He's younger sister. Like I wouldn't set anybody up
without a younger. Sister, any of you mates?
I'm like, why don't you just stay away, right?
I don't give a shit. Don't dance with her, don't get
anywhere near her. In the story, the Charleston
starts and they're not very goodat it.

(24:44):
And that pool starts open and it's just wonderful.
It's not, it's not funny where you are.
You don't roll your eyes at all.You just go, this is just
amazing. And just the dialogue, we must
be really good. Everybody just screaming is
getting closer and closer. Yeah, absolutely crap.
They're really not very good at what they're doing at all.

(25:05):
But that one line, I mean does he deserve of just telling that
kid just to stop annoying people?
And I have the key so I'm going to ruin the whole party because
it's George Baileys attitude. It's an over reaction like isn't
it? It definitely is, but it works
so well because it works in Georgio's favor because he gets
married. He's going to get married
anyway, but it's just such a joyto see and you just do not
expect it. I still like every time it

(25:27):
happens if I'm watching it. For someone who hasn't seen it,
the joy on the face when that pool starts opening is just
excellent. Great scene so early in the
film. Yeah, it's great.
It is. Yeah.
I love the inroads that have done our read, obviously.
Obviously. Neither George nor Mary are the
greatest dancers in the world. George's Charleston Crazy Legs
thing is outrageous. Spaghetti like.
It's funny though, he does something early in the Bedford

(25:48):
Falls streets as well where we waves at someone and does this
weird bend thing with his legs like Basil.
Fawlty. John Cleese and those two
pranksters have opened the floorto reveal the pool.
Really dangerous, that Surely? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Could kill somebody.
Yeah, but there's hundreds of people there.
The floor starts to move. Everyone realizes and stops.
Just except for George and Mary,who just think everyone stopped

(26:11):
to watch them. Crazy legs.
George. I don't think so.
Oh yeah, it is obviously a key plot point in the relationship
with George and Mary, and reallymemorable.
Weird away as well. Definitely.
I do find it, it's a little strange that Jimmy Stewart, a
man, let's be honest, a few years off, 40, is it a high
school party? Yeah.

(26:34):
And he's greeted here as these fears in town as well.
He's like Don Kane. Everybody wants a piece of him.
But. Yeah, I'm like you fellas.
That first shot of Mary, her reaction when she sees George.
Stunning. Yeah.
And that chump who's talking to her gets what's coming through.
George is like, why don't you stop annoying people?
Well, I'm sorry. Hey.

(26:56):
It's a word. Outrageous.
That dance. I'm not very good at this.
And then he does some kind of like Michael, flatly light
footedness, but he really lets himself down with that grandpa
hand knee. The party scene that we've been
taught about was filmed at the Beverly Hills High School.

(27:17):
It had a real retractable floor,which was state-of-the-art at
the time It was built in 1939, designed by an architect called
George Bailey, sorry Styles Clement.
It was a 25 yard swimming pool underneath a basketball court,
which if you don't know, is where the term slam dunk comes
from. Ah.
Brilliant. But not really.
I just made that up. But Capra had heard about it and

(27:39):
specifically went after it for the scene, which is great.
Great. The swim gym it was known as
which is a good. Name Slam Dunton would better
name. And it's still there.
It's still used by students in this day.
And the two guys who open the pool floor, one of them is
played by Carl Switzer. He was known to audiences at the
time. He'd been a child actor and he
played Alfalfa in The Little Rascals.

(28:00):
OK. Yes.
He's a little Rascal, all right.Yeah, he looks like the cover of
Mad Magazine. That guy with Mad Magazine?
Yeah. Yeah.
Alfred Newman. Which might have been based on
him in the rascals to be honest.The extras who volunteered to
jump in the pool were paid an extra 25 bucks as a bonus.
Nice. And apparently when they filmed
the moment that George and Mary fall in the pool was a bit of a

(28:20):
problem because Jimmy Stewart was wearing a two pair.
A rogue was he? Wow.
And the first time they filmed it, it fell off like Maury.
In the pool. Maury's wings don't come off.
They had a bit in the pool as well where they're in the water
and George Curry's on dancing with Mary and she's laughing her
head off. Yeah, yeah.

(28:41):
Surely not Live by Stuart that it looks like 1.
Yeah, it must have been. Yeah, yeah, it looks it.
And then after this, The Walkinghome and this film has got so
many shifts and tones, and when it wants to be romantic, it's
really, really romantic. Yeah.
Like they're saying. I mean, I think the chemistry
between these two, it's so convincing.
They've barely been able to taketheir eyes off each other since
the first met in the gym. They're not even thinking about

(29:03):
the fact that they're walking home in sopping wet clothes.
They're going to be freezing to death here.
And Stuart and Reed are so good when that fella shouted them
like, why don't you kiss him instead of talking to the death?
It's a shock because you think, oh, hang on, there's other
people around. It's just this feeling in the
scene. There's no one else in the world
apart from these two. They're just so caught up with
each other in that amazing dialogue about fauna.

(29:23):
Lasso around the moon and bring it down.
But as I say, it's the tonal shift.
It goes from romantic, it goes to playful when Mary loses A
robe and has to hide in the bushes and George is just.
This is a very interesting situation.
Really funny when you saw engaged with a back and forth
between the two of them. You'd be happy for this to be
the rest of the film. But then it shifts again into

(29:45):
tragedy when Uncle Billy and howwe pull up in the car and tells
when the father's had a stroke. So there's a lot of tones packed
in this little saying, but it's all about the end of play for
me. These two were great here.
It is great. So the film spans 26 years, 1919
and 1945. So over the course of it, Donna
Reed plays Mary between 18 and 35, and Donna Reed herself was

(30:05):
25 at the time, so that works pretty well.
Should all as believable as Marybelievable.
No way though, can 37 year old Jimmy Stewart pull off playing
21 year old George? Not at.
All. In this scene he's wearing like
a football strip when he walks Mary home like a bean.
Poor you amaze me of goofy like lolloping.
Down the street. My own shoes.

(30:26):
It is great though, we get some of the most iconic moments from
the film. The Sing Buffalo girls.
George says he's going to Lassieover the moon for Mary.
So massive stuff. And yeah, just some random
pervert across the road. Why don't you kiss her already?
You've done quite a few scenes adding characters like in the
background just for humour, which always works really well.
Yeah, very much. I think it's really important

(30:47):
that we see the Granville house in this sequence.
Yeah, that's just a a real kind of foreshadowing for what
happens later on. Jimmy Stewart, straightaway, top
window, boom. Absolutely amazing shot.
Yeah, it gets me every single time.
But the other thing that gets mehere as well is the foreshadow.
And it's very, very sort, but the more you see it, it's very,
very, very good. Because her wish almost ruins

(31:09):
his life because she wishes for him.
She wants to live there with himas soon, no matter what he
wishes for, it isn't going to come true.
Because her wish seems to be stronger.
And he doesn't expect that to break the glass.
And I think it's her desire for this, to have this life and for
this wish to come through that she actually does break the
glass. And it's believable that she
does it. I think it's just really, really
good and really, really good foreshadowing that he doesn't

(31:31):
really know what he's wishing for.
He's just a whole bunch of things.
I want to go here, I want to go there, I want to do this, I want
to do that. She knows exactly what she
wants. And I think if you know what you
want in life, you've got a very good chance of that wish coming
through. Yeah.
Yeah, you mentioned Jimmy Stewart's shot.
Yeah, in this scene, Mary throwsa stone as well.
Capra had actually hired an ace marksman to shoot out the window

(31:52):
on queue. I love.
That it's really 1946, that how else could you do it?
Billy freaking to get a sniper in?
Yeah, just have someone behind it with a hammer.
Now I'm going to get a sniper, all right?
I thought Donna Reed had played baseball in high school and she
did it herself in one crack shot.
Brilliant. Oh, amazing first take, wasn't
it? First take Yeah, hell of a Donna

(32:14):
Reed. Round of applause from the crew
as well of her Yeah, really, really good.
And we see adult Violet Vicky for the first time as well, and
she's played by Gloria Graham. And at the time she was under
contract at MGM and was loaded out to Orky or to play a Violet.
She had small roles in a couple of films before this, but this
was her biggest role at the timeand she went on to become a big
star. She was in The Greatest Show on

(32:35):
Earth, which also saw Jimmy Stewart I think and Oklahoma,
and also won an Oscar in 1952 for The Bad and the Beautiful.
Brilliant. All right.
Yeah, melodrama by Vincent Minnelli that.
Yeah, it's a good film. Yeah, she really in a few
scenes, yeah. But I think Violet's really
good. She's great.
She's great. Turning everyone's heads when
she's walking down the street. Yeah.
Bert and Ernie the Common, the taxi driver.

(32:57):
That's great. It's that horn sound as well.
Cartoon, Yeah. It's really you frame Roger
Rabbit at that point, yeah. It is.
It really is. It's pretty big at the end in
Pottersville as well. When we see Violet getting
kicked out of a club and she's like out of control.
I find that quite sad, yeah. I know Potter.
It's amazing. But yeah, I do like Gloria
Graham. She's not in it much, but even

(33:17):
here I think, and you can see she has star quality.
Yeah. Oh, definitely.
Yeah. She's really, really good.
So that's our opening. It's a Wonderful Life has a huge
reputation and with sequences like George saving Harry, Mr.
Gower beating George and then George and Mary swim dancing all
in the first half hour or so, it's easy to see why.
Oh yeah, definitely. Without doubt, to help us earn

(33:43):
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Incredible. We have double feature which

(34:04):
features three of us and we'll pick two films each that are
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(34:24):
And we also do the watch list. This is another monthly show
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(34:46):
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(35:09):
Yeah, no one's a failure who hasfriends, and there's plenty in
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well. Have we missed anything out?
I don't think so. Great, we've got a better memory
than Uncle Billy then, at least.Who hasn't?
String around our fingers. Well, that's not for now.

(35:32):
Let's get back to Bedford Falls,Should we?
Let's do it. Let's go.
The director. We've mentioned him already and
the director of It's a WonderfulLife was Francesco Rosario
Capra. Frank Capra for short.
To his friends. Born in Italy and raised in LA,

(35:52):
his career as a director startedback in the 1920s silent era and
before It's a Wonderful Life, hewas already a winner of three
Best Director Oscars. Wow.
Which were four It happened one night.
One of only three movies ever towin the Big 5 of the Oscars in
1935. The big one, yeah.
Mr. Deeds goes to town from 1936, and you can't take it with
you from 1938. So a Hollywood directing legend,

(36:14):
Westie. Yeah, Capra.
I mean, you're not there just yet.
Give it time. Yeah, we'll see.
But how is Francesco? Here is director of It's a
Wonderful Life. I think he's absolutely
fantastic. He's at that point in a career
where he's got such a command over the the medium.
He's got such a command over thetechnical, and he knows the
rules and he knows how to break the rules.
And he's one of the very first directors, if not the first

(36:36):
director to have his name above the title of the film.
Great. So be like Frank Capra.
It's a Wonderful Life, because that's where that was the
important thing. That was the draw.
But it's his like I've said, he's technical flailing for him
at the very start from Luke's amazing quote.
I want a big one. And it stops there.
And audiences must have just been thinking, well, this is
broken. Yeah, if clans didn't have that
voice over straight away they think about the reels.

(36:56):
Yeah, sack the projectedness would.
Get more money back. Yeah, easily.
Now, this is 13 years before 400blows, 23 years before Butch
Cassidy and the Sundance Kid didit at the end, and 44 years
before Scorsese utilize it so well.
And Goodfellas, he's really, really pioneering just the
freeze frame from the start. Then he breaks the 4th wall.
Yeah, exactly when he needs to. It's not just breaking the 4th

(37:18):
wall for for a laugh. He does it twice in the film.
One is the announcement of them coming in from the wedding where
the woman screams straight down the lens.
Oh, yeah, that's fantastic. Because you just.
Oh, that's if we're there and you're just witnessing it.
And then the second one is that breakdown from George where you
realize it's all gone wrong. It's almost the vertical shot,
but he uses the depth in that frame and he fills that frame.

(37:39):
And this is shot for cinema. You're going to cinema watch
this. That's going to fill the screen
and you're going to be terrified.
He is straight down the lens andhe knows it.
And then the humor that he brings to it, he has this real
light death touch. Like you said at the top, John,
this gets really, really dark really quickly.
Just really, really technically proficient, but again,
emotionally attached to the material, which really works for

(38:00):
me. Absolutely what strikes me.
About Capra's direction. Is is how he builds.
Bedford Falls is like a living, thriving place to live, a
community. This town's packed with
characters. Mr. Gower, Martini, Violet,
Uncle Billy, only the cab driver, but the cop.
And somehow each of them feel fully realized, like they've got

(38:21):
lives happening beyond the edgesof the frame.
Yeah, yeah, definitely. And.
That's obviously that's not accidental.
Katherine knows what he's doing,because the whole emotional
engine of this film depends on us believing that this community
is worth saving. If Bedford Falls feels thin or
generic or you don't care about the characters, then that ending
just falls flat. Oh, absolutely.
Yeah, But because. We've spent two hours getting

(38:43):
to. Know these people, seeing
George's small kindedness ripplethrough their lives when they
all pal into his living room at the end?
Niagara Falls? Forget about it.
Yeah, the term itself becomes a character.
And I think that's Capra's greatest trick here.
He's not just directing a film about one man.
He's directing a film about a whole community and how they

(39:03):
thrive off each other. Every person matters, Every
small act has consequences. And it's essentially A tapestry.
And Capra's weaving all these threads together so that
patiently, you don't even noticeit until he pulls it tight at
the end that it all comes together.
Yeah, it's incredible. It is.
I mean when you look at. His career and his filmography,
it's just sensational at standard three time Oscar.

(39:25):
Winner second only. John Ford, who won four Capro
was nominated another three times as well.
And what's strange is that it seems he was a bit
underappreciated at the time. You mentioned it, Westie, but
critics used to call his films Capricorn, like criticizing the
sentimental style. I think that kind of lack of
respects gone now, though. Clearly a talented film maker
and we'll see that in It's a Wonderful Life.

(39:46):
I think it's masterfully directed.
You get career defining performances from every main
cast member, even from another Hollywood legend in Jimmy
Stewart. And one of the most impressive
things, I think, is Capra's control of the tone.
I think in lesser hands, the tone of this film could have
been all over the place. At times, it's playing as a
comedy, and at that time, it's playing as a really dark drama.

(40:07):
And then at the end, it suddenlyflips to be like a Christmas
fantasy. Yeah.
But at no point is it ever jarring or does anything feel
our place. There's loads of examples, but I
think a good one is the final act.
We'll talk about it indeed later, obviously.
But it starts Christmas Eve whenUncle Billy comes across Potter
in the bank. Billy's all full of himself
taking the piss out of the Potter.
It's almost like a comedy skit. And then we realized he'd lost

(40:28):
the money and we started. Think oh shit, and the anxiety
kind of grows because he can't find it.
It's gradual but gets worse and worse until it's really dark.
I mean, we'll talk the details later, but Capright guide us
through that superbly. One of the best controls of tone
that we've seen, I think. And in terms of objective film
making quality, I think this stands head and shoulders above

(40:48):
all of its peers. The Citizen Kane of Christmas
movies, Yeah, without it's like fairy tale in New York
transcends the genre. It's not just a great Christmas
film, it's a great film, full stop.
And for me, it's still the benchmark that every other
Christmas film aspires to. We're still watching it not too
far off 100 years later. Wow.
And I think they'll still be watching it 100 years from now.

(41:10):
And it's Capra's film, top to bottom is all over it.
I think it's with what it became.
It's one of the all time great pieces of directing work from
Frank Capra. Yeah, I agree.
And The thing is. You don't even need Christmas.
For this to work, it's just a bonus that it's Christmas.
Yeah, you don't like Die Hard. Be the.
Weapon. You can name them all brings his

(41:32):
real conviction. To the material and a real
understanding that this needs contrast and balance.
The emotional highs you get at the end, they only hit because
he doesn't flinch from the darkness.
The violence of Mystic Hour, Josh's meltdown in front of his
family, and he has the conviction to make a film that
fully embraces the presence of God and angels throughout the
film. But at the same time, it's all

(41:53):
this humdrum minutiae of small town life, and the two fit
together seamlessly. You know, having the conviction
to have a scene where George literally prays to God at the
bar and you don't roll your eyesat it.
But again, it's about the balance.
Because right after that, Georgegets a smack in the drawer from
the teacher's husband and sends him on his way right in the.
Chops. Right in the chops.

(42:14):
And some of the. Visual storytelling still holds
up to Damian. The freeze frame that Wesley
mentioned. But that scene when George
returns home after Billy's lost the money, that's framed like a
Christmas card because he got the happy wife and kid put in
the decorations up in the background.
Father's just coming home from work.
Yeah. Except the contrast is George
isn't happy whatsoever to be wrong.
He's utterly defeated at that point.

(42:34):
And that contrast is so emotionally rich.
So visual storytelling, tonal control, narrative control.
He's just got it all here. The full package.
Yeah. And he?
Doesn't make it overly religious.
I don't think of this film as a religious film at all.
No, no, although it's in there isn't.
It it's definitely in there, butI mean it's it's.
The whole reason it works, if you look at it from that point
of view, you use that as the catalyst, but to me it doesn't

(42:55):
beat you over the head with it. So I believe it if you want to.
Yeah, it just works for George Bailey.
So right at the peak of Capra's.Career In 1930s forties we had
World War 2, of course. After the attack on Pearl Harbor
1941, Capra quit Hollywood, and he enlisted in the US Army.
He was 44 at the time, so he didn't need to.
But he said that in his films, he'd always championed the poor

(43:15):
and the downtrodden. So he felt that he had to
practice what he preached on a guy.
So amount of substance, it seemslike.
Yeah, Yeah. And.
And Capra was commissioned. As a major in the US Army he was
there for four years until the end of the war and his job in
that time was to direct a seriesof documentary films explaining
to soldiers why they were in uniform.
He directed or Co directed 7 documentaries called the Why We

(43:37):
Fight series. Yeah, nice.
Yeah. So we left.
The army when the war ended. 1945 And he said there's time in
the Army. Turned him into a perfect
pacifist, as he called it, Right.
And he said that mindset fed directly into It's a Wonderful
Life. Yeah, you can see that.
Yeah. Just a bit.
Yeah, yeah, the. Themes of community doing the
right thing. But what's weird is a capital

(43:57):
later called the making of the film.
A four month non-stop orgasm. Really.
Not a part of that. Description at all?
No. I wish you hadn't told us that,
John. I mean it sounds good though.
Maybe a month? So after the war ended, Capra
got. Together with two other Oscar
winning film makers, William Wyler and George Stevens and

(44:19):
they set up Liberty Films and the goal was to make movies
without interference by studio bosses.
Liberty had nine film distribution deal with RKO
Pictures, 3 from each director and the head of RKO, Charles
Koerner told Capra to read a shelf screenplay, the hat called
The Greatest Gift. Capra loved it.
Borrowed from RKO for $10,000. The name eventually changed to

(44:41):
Its Wonderful Life and the rest is Christmas movie history.
It certainly is. It is.
Indeed, Yeah, Caprolie I. Said the script was the story
I've been looking for all my life, so it was the greatest
gift. And in November 1945, Liberty
filmed announced It's a Wonderful Life as being their
first production. Right.
Which turned out all right, didn't it?
Good start. In the long run, yeah.

(45:01):
Eventually anyway. Eventually, yeah.
It didn't really work as the planet do.
I think there's only United Artists that was massively
successful from that kind of coming together of mind.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a.
Problem that Capra had to deal. With during production, the film
was shot in the summer months and California was going through
a heat wave at the time. It got so hot that at one point
Capra had to give the cast and crew a day off to recover.

(45:24):
Yeah, so the. Famous scene at the end where
George. Is running around Bedford Falls
shouting Merry Christmas to everybody.
It's snowing in the film, but there's certain shots where you
can see sweat glistening on Jimmy Stewart's face because it
was actually boiling hot when they filmed it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And production.
Began on April. 15th, 1946 and wrapped on July 27th, 1946.
It was scheduled for 90 days andCapra brought it in exactly on

(45:47):
90 days. Exacting nice, very good.
Some scenes were shot on. Location the.
Swim, gym, party that we talked about, the scene where George
meets Harry and his wife at the train station and the scene
outside the Martinis house in Bailey's Park were all filmed in
relocations. Yeah, that train station scenes.
When George meets Harry's wife for the first time and finds out
Harry's got a job so won't be taking over the building in loan

(46:08):
bad form from Harry, that isn't it.
It's a bombshell drops. George right in it.
Yeah, he apologises, but. He's still taking the job.
Of course he is. Yeah, yeah.
I know that. I'm sorry.
Yeah. So Liberty Films were a new.
Company and the budget was only $3,000,000.
So Capra hired Archaeos head of costumes Edward Stevenson as his

(46:29):
costume designer, and they'd also worked together in 1931
when Capra made a film called Platinum Blonde.
Yeah, comedy, romance with. Gene Harlow in it that but a
pretty natural fit. Then Stevenson knew Capra, Andy
knew the studio. So a shoe in I guess.
And because that money limitations.
Stevenson cut some corners. James Stewart was on clothing

(46:50):
for most of the film. Actually in Stevenson dressed
the rest of the cast, mostly by Raiden or key or stock wardrobe.
Surely that goofy football stripped.
Didn't belong to Stewart. Yeah, I was going to say they
weren't his shoes in that. Football.
Barry turned up with the car. Imagine I'm having.
To run home. With them shoes on.
The other costumes all work though, I think.

(47:10):
I mean. As soon as you say partner, it's
pretty obvious he's the bad guy.Oh yeah?
Black suit, starched collar shirts.
It's not exactly subtle. Yeah, yeah.
Well, before we signed. Off on Frank Capra.
It's time to hear from our patrons.
So like we said earlier, if you sign up as an ATRM patron,
you'll be able to pause questions that we answer on our
shows. The first coming now it's on
something Frank Capra has now associated with the festive

(47:33):
film, and it comes from Lou Pellegrino.
Hello, Lou. Hello.
Lou. Hello, Lou.
So. Lou asks.
A lot of Christmas. Movies come and go, but few have
the well deserved thing. Power of It's a Wonderful Life.
What are the elements of an enduring Christmas movie?
Good question from Lou there. Yeah, great one.
What do we think? What?
Makes a great festive. Flick, Luke.

(47:54):
Yeah, agreed. Well, obviously nostalgia.
Plays such a a huge part there aren't many.
Christmas films for me that I've.
Taken to My Heart that were released when I was an adult.
They're all pretty much. I was watching them when I was a
kid, probably apart from Elf andBad Santa, mainly the only ones
that watch every year without fail.
Yeah. But I also think that nostalgia
combined with that big dollop ofsentimentality and humour and

(48:17):
relatability, because if you cansee your family traditions and
traits, you know, a good or bad play out on the big screen,
there's something incredibly confident about that.
But finally. You know, abandoned all of.
That put me in front of a Christmas horror film, and I'm
as happy as Larry Black. Christmas, Christmas Evil,
Silent Night, Deadly Night. All winners for me.

(48:37):
Yeah, I mean. This There's a tone that goes.
Through all of the classic Christmas films, all of the best
Christmas films, I mean, Wonderful Life's up there,
obviously Home Alone is definitely in there.
Die Hards obviously talked aboutevery year and there's older
ones kind of predating this thathave a similar kind of theme.
If you haven't seen The Shop Around the Corner, check that
out, which came out 1940, which is an incredible Christmas film,

(48:59):
and Meet Me in Saint Louis as well as it was really, really
good. Love that one, but all of them
have something. In common and.
To me it's heart and reconciliation and forgiveness
and love and second chances. A great quote that if it weren't
for second chances, we'd all be alone.
And I think that's what a Christmas film is.
It's about forgiveness. And I think all of the greats

(49:20):
have got that. And if you don't have that
element, it doesn't really work.Beautiful.
Lovely sentiment I think for me.Don't make the Christmas
elements the only reason for making the film.
It's a Wonderful Life doesn't have to happen on Christmas Eve.
Die Hard doesn't have to happen on Christmas Eve.
The Apartment doesn't have to happen over Christmas.
Now obviously some do any adaptation of A Christmas Carol,

(49:41):
the whole of this very recent one Christmas vacation, but they
don't just put up Christmas elements on screen thing.
Oh, well, I'll do. That's there for Christmas Eve.
The ones that do that, all thosejust predictable, like Hallmark
Christmas movies. And that's the reason they don't
last in the memory. I think get the story right.
And the Christmas elements can really add to it in an emotional
way or a funny way or a horrificway if you look.

(50:03):
But if the story's not there, the Christmas elements.
Won't mean the thing. Well, there you go.
I think we've given Lou what he needs to go and write the next
Christmas classic there. Yeah.
Look forward to seeing where youcome out with us all your.
Ingredients give us a story. By credit.
That's all we have. Thanks please so.
About to It's a wonderful life that was.
Nominated for best pitcher at the Oscars and Capra was

(50:24):
nominated for Best director. They didn't win though.
The winners that year. Do we know what?
Same film for both. Matt.
Matt. The best years of our lives.
It was indeed, yes, every time. Love that.
And the. Director was William Wyler.
One of Capra's Liberty Films Co founders.
That's right, Dead End. William Wyler.
Yes, the very same. To end on Frank Capra I.

(50:47):
Have a quote? From the man himself about the
film. So he later said.
I didn't even think of It's a Wonderful Life as a Christmas
Story when I first ran across it.
I just liked the idea. But I thought it was the
greatest film I ever made. Better yet, I thought it was the
greatest film anybody ever made.Self phrase No phrase.
Brilliant. A man of substance, but not

(51:08):
modesty. No, Yeah, exactly.
I wonder what? Yeah, I wonder what?
Year he said that. But for us, as one of the.
Christmas classics still holdingup decades later.
It's a Wonderful Life. Exceptional stuff from Frank
Capra. One of the greatest.
Yeah, unbelievable. Nearly a century.
Old one. The cast, a Hollywood legend

(51:33):
directing things and. It's a wonderful life and the
same can be said for the cast. 5Oscar winning actors no less in
the film. Wow.
And we're going all in on three of the cast now.
Don't I read is Mary Hatch turned Bailey's on our agenda,
as is Lionel, Barry, Moores, Henry Potter.
But obviously we're starting with the big man.
Oh, yeah, of course we are. So, James.

(51:54):
Jimmy Stewart is. George Bailey, a building a loan
banker who sacrifices his dreamsto help his family and
community. George falls into a depression
and contemplates suicide before his guardian Angel shows him his
own value and his family and friends show him the true
meaning of Christmas. I mean, just saying that I'm
ready for a mince. Oh yeah, wonderful stuff.
You're always ready for a mints but.

(52:18):
How do I Jimmy Stewart as George?
Bailey I can't think of another performance.
Where an actor can so clearly feel everything his character
was going through because Stewart was going through a lot
himself after the war. And he pours all of that into
George Bailey. And you can see he's planned out
George's journey from beginning to end in his head completely.
Because the amount of time something bad or frustrating

(52:39):
happens to him and he doesn't quite blow a stack.
He bites his tongue, swallows the anger down.
You know, a little moment, side kick in the car door shut when
he realizes how much money he could have made if he'd got on
with Sam Wainwright. And I think one of the best bits
of acting you'll ever see in your life is when Harry returns
home from college. Which George thinks, right, this
is my opportunity I'm going to get a leave Bedford for, so he's

(53:00):
going to take over. But he doesn't count on Harry
coming back with a wife and an amazing job opportunity.
In that moment. No dialogue, maybe 10 seconds
long at most. The camera just holds on
Stewart's face. He takes and what this means for
him in his eyes, the shifting ashe's just thinking, I can't take
this away from Harry, but if I don't, I'm so clear for good.

(53:20):
I'm never going to leave BedfordFalls.
It's an incredible moment and hehas to be funny.
He has to be lovable, he has to be tragic.
He has to be scary at point. That's what I said.
He has to dance at the beginning.
And the fact that he can combineall these elements into one
performance in this journey fromyouth to middle age in one of
the most compelling journeys he'll ever see.

(53:40):
I mean, is it the best performance in cinema history?
I mean, that's a very different argument, but it's certainly my
favorite performance of all time.
Wow. Wonderful.
Huge prayers. Yes, yes, George.
Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. The man with a good face.
I mean, it's Jimmy. Stewart.
Isn't it? Yeah, one of the most beloved
actors ever in his signature role.
And it's signature for a reason.When we first introduced an

(54:03):
adult George, he is a friend to everyone in Bedford Falls.
He's been a good kid and there'ssuch a warm feeling with the
talk of him traveling. His physical performance is
wonderful. He's walking through this town
with that enormous suitcase. We haven't the people in the
street like JFK or something, greeting.
Everybody with a beaming smile that.
Leg thing that he does when he wears at the people in the

(54:24):
window. Wow, that's incredible.
But this ain't no one no performance either.
Capra doesn't shy away from the darkness inhumanity and neither
does Stuart. He head he head on with it.
He goes through this true emotional roller coaster and he
drags you through this film giving a relatable performance.
I think anyone can see themselves in elements of

(54:45):
George's frustration, of family ties, of small town commitments,
trying to break free and being pulled back.
I think Stuart is this film. There are many other elements
that home here, of course, but Stuart is on fire.
If he doesn't work, the film doesn't.
And the reason that the end it hits so hard is because of his
performance. He really, really earns it.
He's outstanding here, Yeah. I mean like.

(55:08):
Capra, Jimmy. Stewart was already a huge
Hollywood name by this point, he'd already won an Oscar for
The Philadelphia Story and already had that classics under
his belt. But even with a filmography like
his, I think George Bailey possibly still Stewarts
definitive role. The one he's most known for
today I think anyway. Sure, and for good reason.
He looks every inch the Hollywood powerhouse that he was

(55:30):
at this point. Oh yeah.
I mean, as George Stewart's whatwe've come to expect from him,
he's likable, he's charming, he's charismatic.
He leaves the whole thing as well as anyone's ever LED a
film. I would say he's funny when he
needs to be funny. All that Minsky of silly walk
stuff he does cracks me up. And when the dramatic moments
come, he's. Brilliant there as well.

(55:52):
I mentioned earlier that the tone shifts quite wildly
throughout the film. I think it would have been a
really big challenge for anyone playing George, but Stewart just
sails through it. When the dramatic moments come,
and when they come, they come big.
Stewart's more than up to the challenge.
We'll talk about it in more detail, but the final act in
Martino's bar on the bridge in the cemetery, he's magnificent.

(56:13):
I said that I think couple controls are torn in the form
brilliantly well. And part of that is because he's
got an actor in the lead in Stuart who can effortlessly
shift from comedy to drama to tragedy to fantasy and take us
with him as well. Yeah, I love him in The
Philadelphia Story, but with therange he has to cover here, I
think George Bailey isn't just his most iconic role.
I think it possibly is best performance as well.

(56:34):
In fact, I think it's underrated.
I think because of the statue ofthe film would take for granted
just how good he is. I agree.
Yeah, I think it's among the. Greatest lead performances.
I've ever seen incredible. He's incredible.
I. Love him almost as much as I
love Aragon. And Lord of the Rings, surely.
Almost, almost he is. He's.
Just absolutely. Electric fantastic, like you

(56:55):
said, the arcs that he has to gothrough and he's totally
believable in all of it and he doesn't actually carry the film.
I think it's just the way that Capra has directed it as a
community. You think it's like an ensemble
piece with everybody having thatspace.
He doesn't need to carry it, buthe just, he just leads it so
well that he's fantastic. Another character that I love
James Stewart playing is Elwood P Dowd from Harvey, which came

(57:16):
out in 1950. Nice.
Yeah. And it's very, very similar.
To George Bailey. Now, if you haven't seen Harvey
and you love George Bailey, that's a really good kind of
sequel to go to. It's very, very similar.
And I I just love Jimmy Stewart.Just an incredible human being.
Lovely. So like.
Capra as the. US became involved in the Second
World War. Jimmy Stewart decided he wanted
to enlist and as an amateur pilot he was commissioned into

(57:38):
the Air Corps, served in World War 2 and Ross to the rank of
Colonel yes so when he returned from the.
War. He was seriously considering
quitting Hollywood entirely, apparently, and he spent a few
months at home in Pennsylvania, working in his family's hardware
store. Yeah, right.
Amazing. Amazing.
Like Jay Fox and. Teen Wolf, Howard Hardware, The

(57:59):
King of the Nuts, and. Bolts.
Going to buy a hammer and Jimmy Stewart.
Serving you. Oh no, no, no, I want a big one.
Sled Jabber. So while the war was taking
place. Archaeo were writing The
Greatest Gift, which as we said,that's the original title if
It's a Wonderful Life and the first person that wanted to play
George was Cary Grant. Archaeo ended up selling the

(58:21):
script before Deal was struck, though.
Well, I mean, I love. Cary Grant, obviously, Oh, yeah,
I'm not being harsh saying I'm not sure he's got the dramatic
chops that Stuart brings to this.
We never saw that, did we? From Cary.
Grant Yeah, he is in the Bishop's wife.
He's very good in that. Yeah, he is North by Northwest
as. Well, but I just.
Don't think he's got that depth.No, you know, he's like a James
Bond kind of thing. And he, well, yeah, that's what

(58:43):
they wanted, James Bond. Wasn't it Exactly?
Yeah. And then after.
Capra bought the. Rights to the film with Liberty.
He briefly considered Henry Fonda as George Right, but he
did only ever really want one man James Stewart and Capra said
he spoke to Lou Wasserman, Stewart's agent, and Wasserman
said Stewart would gladly play the part without even hearing
the story. Nice.
Sounds like Ricky Gervais. Says you're an.

(59:03):
Extras. He will work with anyone.
But apparently Steel was planning to turn the part.
Down loving that hardware store.And according to reports, it was
Lionel Barrymore who convinced in the movies still matter to
people and that you should at least meet with Capra.
Yeah. So well done, Lionel.
If true. Wow, so.

(59:24):
Stuart did meet Capra. In an LA restaurant and Capra
told him the whole story of the film, but at the end Capra
himself said, actually this doesn't sound too good, does it?
And Stuart said in reply, Frank,if you want me to be in the
picture about a guy that wants to kill himself and an Angel
comes out who can't swim and I save him, when do we start?
Great, nice Lou Bottom. Was right you will.

(59:46):
Work with anyone? Georgio's daughter Zuzu was.
Played by Carolyn Grimes, who was six years old at the time,
years later she said Stuart was a joy on the set.
She said he'd always take her for walks and talk to her about
Christmas and angels. And she said it really helped
her in the scene when Zuzu was ill and gives George the petals
at the end, she felt a bond withStuart.

(01:00:07):
She didn't have to act much. Amazing.
It's a lovely moment. Beautiful, yeah.
His little ginger. Snap.
He calls. That.
Yeah, great. It's probably lost now, but the
reason George calls you with that is that in the US in the
1940s, Zuzu was a famous brand of ginger snap biscuits.
All right, great. OK, nice.
My kids bourbon and. Custard cream Jamie Dodgers

(01:00:30):
Messy Dodger George's mother, Mar Bailey is.
Played by Beulah Bondi, she had a unique acting relationship
with Stuart. She played his mother on screen
five times. Unbelievably.
Wow. Before this, they'd worked
together on The Vicious Lady of Human Hearts and Mr. Smith Goes
to Washington. She played his mother in

(01:00:50):
Stuart's 1976 on The Jimmy Stewart Show.
One of the great screen double act.
Yeah, definitely. So are the neck on.
So much then. I know on the lips.
Outrageous. Yeah, that is weird.
Not sure if. That was Norman in 1946.
Surely I wasn't. But you already used to call her
mom. Right up until her death in
1981, which is nice. Oh, lovely, lovely.

(01:01:12):
And she doesn't get loads to. Do in the film either.
But you love Bondy. But I think she's good.
Oh yeah, That's seen after Harry's engagement party when
she's convincing George to go and see Mary.
She's great. Cheers.
Bunny calls back and. She's.
At the guest house, it just comes to the door.
It's a lie. Yeah, it's.
Horrible. Yeah.
Another member of the Bailey family Worth.
Mentioning is Uncle Billy, of course.

(01:01:33):
Right? Yeah.
Lovable klutz. Yeah.
Obviously part of a major plot point leader.
He's played by Thomas Mitchell. Yeah.
How's he in the film, do we think?
I mean that moment when George is in.
Pottersville And he goes to see his mother and she says Uncle
Billy's been in the insane, the Sound, for the past 20 years.
You do go. You know what?
Yeah, that checks out. That's probably where.
He should be, actually. He gets nothing right.

(01:01:56):
At all. I mean, in the wrong hands, he
could be so annoying and frustrating, but luckily Thomas
Mitchell is just so likable, youcan't help but forgive him.
And then in amongst all the the kind of daffness that he does,
that bit where George is yellingat him, but you don't see
Stewart's face because he's he'sgot his back to camera and it's
all played on Mitchell's face. The terror in his eyes at that,
That's incredible. So, you know, when he needs to

(01:02:18):
be dramatic, he can be. Oh, he absolutely can.
He. Was known as one of Hollywood's
great character actors at the time, Thomas Mitchell.
He won an Oscar for Stagecoach. Yeah, that's right.
And in his acceptance speech, hesaid.
I didn't think I was that good, to be honest.
And. Apparently Capra, I thought.
About. Thomas Mitchell playing Potter
at one point, right. And he considered Walter Brennan

(01:02:40):
in WC Fields as Uncle Billy, which makes sense.
I think WC Field in the kind of like oblivious role.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Thomas Mitchell is
pretty great. It's Billy.
Well, he's wonderful. Spring wrong his fingers to
remember everything. Yeah.
Doesn't know much when it matters, but gets the wedding of
all things. Yeah.
Yeah, I wish I was there. Why?
Weren't you? Yeah.

(01:03:02):
That scene after Harry's engagement.
Party. Billy's leaving the Bailey home.
He's leaving his old building and lone pal behind.
And off camera it sounds like hestumbles into some trash cans.
But what actually happened was acrew member dropped a tray of
props just after he walked out of shot.
Right. And when we hear your Billy off
screen shout, I'm all right. That was improvised by Mitchell.

(01:03:23):
Brilliant. And Capra used this take.
In the final. Couldn't give the crew member
who dropped the props a $10 bonus for improving the sound.
I love that. Amazing.
I'm all. Right all.
Right. Stewarts laugh as well.
You can tell. That's.
Really. Genuine.
Well, that's it. Yeah, actually.
Not expecting, it's when. George laughs.
That's Jimmy Stewart laughing. Yeah.
He's just, like, crazy. Yeah.

(01:03:43):
Yeah, yeah, it's great. It really works for his
character as well. That the animals are just
attracted to Billy that's. That argument.
With George and George. Says one of us is going to
prison that isn't going to be meand leaves and puts his head on
the table and that little squirrel just sits on his
shoulder. Just like it's all right.
It's all right, but as well as the squirrel, Uncle Billy had a

(01:04:04):
pet crow. The bird was played by Jimmy the
Raven, one of Hollywood's most famous animal actors.
Capra had worked with Jimmy on You Can't Take It With You in
1938 and loved him so much that Jimmy was in every Capra film
for the rest of his career. Wow.
He earned $500 a week and Stuartsaid whenever Frank called Jimmy
were both answered. $500 a week.Apparently $200.

(01:04:28):
That went to the. Owner and the rest just went to
Jimmy. Just sound like seed and stuff.
Booze and fast cars and women, yeah.
And the Wizard of Oz, you know the bit where Crow lands on the
Scarecrow and starts like, pecking away them?
Oh yeah, that's Jimmy. There's.
Jimmy up the result tricks. Some filmography he's got.
Amazing, yeah. But yeah, if you know.
What? It's too Uncle Billy.

(01:04:48):
Has got a pet squirrel. He's also got a gerbil, a dog
and a parrot. Yeah, strange combo.
Yeah, his house. Fucking.
Stinks. He.
Does yeah. Shouldn't be a shot like Ace.
Ventura when he summons all the animals to him.
Really. What's the left food for fiber?
Well, back to James. Stewart and for his performance.
As George Bailey, he was nominated for an Oscar.

(01:05:10):
Lost out to do you know you'll do well to get this whoever was
in Best. Years of our lives, I can't
remember. I don't know that one.
It was Frederick March. For the best days of our lives,
OK, I mean, nowadays. I'm not sure.
That's much of A contest, is it?No, not at all.
Come on. No.
No, no, but Hollywood. Legend Jimmy Stewart, and it's a
wonderful. Life.
One of his biggest movies and greatest performances for us.

(01:05:32):
Absolutely one of the best ever.Yeah.
Behind every great man is a great woman.
So they say. And that phrase might just have
been coined after somebody watched It's a Wonderful Life.
Very true. Donna Reed plays.
Mary Hatch. Bailey, George's wife.
We follow her from being a nine year old girl in Bedford Falls
to a 35 year old mother of four.She's with George every step of

(01:05:54):
the way, through ruined honeymoons, broken dreams, and
at the end of the film rallies the town 4 together when George
needs her and them the most. And she's got.
A hell of a norm on her, but. She certainly does whatever I.
Thought I'm going to read as. Married.
I mean, look, I've got. As much sympathy for George as
the next man, he's been dealt a very bad hand in most respects.

(01:06:16):
But George, you've seen who you married to.
We've got to see your wife like life in a bad mate.
Just come on, have a word by yourself.
Mary is an. Absolute.
St. in this constantly puts up with all of George's crap and
moping and self pity and just always has the answer.
It's so bringing that when there's the run on the bank and

(01:06:38):
George thinks he's going to loseeverything to Potter, it's her
that comes up with a solution. Take our honeymoon money.
This will get us through it. When George is yelling at the
kids, the way she stands up to him like a lioness and just
tells him to get out and leave them alone.
Incredible. But as soon as he's gone, she
just snaps into action. She knows something's badly
wrong, and it's straight in action to get him help.
She's on the phone. Something's wrong with your dad.

(01:07:00):
Phone, Billy. Let's get this sorted.
Like I say, who wouldn't want tobe married to Mary?
Donna Reed is just brilliant in this.
Yeah, she really is. She is.
So patient. All the way through the film,
even before me. Donna Reed, when we're seeing 9
year old Mary, she's there in Gawa's drugstore when George
arrives. And then when he leaves to
deliver the prescription, she's sitting on a stool.
Yeah. When George gets back, Gawa says

(01:07:21):
the pills should have been delivered more than an hour ago.
Yeah. And Mary's still sitting there
on that stool without a word to complaint.
Yeah. She meant it when she said
she'll love until the day she dies.
Yeah. But yeah, Donna Reed is a
delight start to finish. Yeah.
And all that. She said that playing Mary was
the hardest role of her career. She said the Capra was extremely
demanding, but it doesn't show if she was having a hard time.

(01:07:41):
No, no. I mean, she also has a range of
styles to portray. I love it when she smashes the
record after George Stones out of the house.
Yeah, I love it. Yeah.
And when the drama? Comes at the end.
You can. Handle that as well.
I think she plays spinster Mary really well, too.
But I mean, a beautiful woman even by Hollywood standards,
brings a real elegance to everything.
She reminds me of Grace Kelly a bit.
Yeah, which is high praise, obviously, very much.

(01:08:04):
The characters may be more perfect than any real person,
but I'm not bothered that, you know, I'm glad she is.
Yeah. I think she's excellent.
Yeah. And when I think if It's a
Wonderful Life, I don't just think of Jimmy Stewart, to be
honest. I think it don't.
I read as well. Oh, yeah.
Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
Hatrick. I mean, is she the most
wonderful woman in movie history?
Probably. Definitely.
Possibly. Yeah, it's not far.

(01:08:24):
Off. In the first half of the.
Film She just lights. Up every frame.
She's an absolute joy. And because George goes on this
emotional rollercoaster, Mary's in the cart with him, so she's
got to traverse all of these different tones as well.
And that wide eyed joy and love for George, the innocence of
youths gets slowly eroded as shebecomes more world weary and

(01:08:44):
worn down by their misfortune, generally at the hands of
Potter. But unlike George, she does not
crumble under the weight of that.
No, she's strong and resolute, keeps things together for the
family, for the house, for her marriage.
And I really believe this performance from Donna Reed,
particularly at this time as well.
It could have been over the top.It could have been too
saccharine or too sickly sweet. And the film may not work if

(01:09:08):
Jimmy Stewart isn't in it, but Donna Reed provides that
emotional call of the film and keeps things grounded.
She's a really reassuring presence, which is all the more
remarkable that she doesn't havea huge amount of screen time.
No. Yeah.
It's focused mainly. On Jimmy Stewart.
And she's just a like a secondary character generally in
most of the scenes that she's in.
And she makes such a huge impression.

(01:09:29):
Yeah, she definitely does. But.
At the time she made it's wonderful.
Life Donna Reed was already established as a Hollywood
actress and was signed to MGM. She wasn't a huge star though,
so saw some other names were considered to play Mary.
Yeah, she'd be in 20 films before.
This Donna Mullinger was her real name and MGM changed it
because of anti German sentimentduring World War 2.
Right? OK, so.

(01:09:52):
Kappa's. First choice to play.
Mary was Jean Arthur, and he'd worked with her on You Can't
Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
But she turned it down to appearin a Broadway player.
OK, yeah. Born yesterday.
Was the player she? Apparently dropped out with that
as well due to exhaustion. Oh wow, Capra running her into
the ground? Probably.
Martha Scott and Dvorak. And Olivia de Havilland were all

(01:10:13):
considered to play Mary as well,and Ginger Rogers turned the
part down because she'd read thescript and said Mary was too
bland. But in her autobiography years
later, Rogers wrote about it, saying, Foolish, you say.
So she might have regretted it, probably.
For the best though. Imagine Jija Rogers dancing next
to crazy leg George. What this shit for?

(01:10:36):
Then saw the war. Film They.
Were expendable and he liked itsfemale leaders.
Mary Donna Reed So Liberty Filmsapproached MGM about Lawn and
her out John Ford film. They were expendable.
Yeah, yeah. And Donna Reed played at Navy
Nurse, which probably helped because maybe he's like everyone
in Bradford Falls as Nurse isn'tyou.
Yeah. And Donna Reed grew.
Up on a farm in. Iowa And because of that, Lionel

(01:10:57):
Barrymore, who will get to in a second, who played Potter in the
film, challenged out of a cow milk in contest.
Now, I'm not too sure how this works, how ferocious this needs
to be, but it kind of freaks us out a little bit.
But she'd won easily and said itwas the easiest $50.00 that she
ever made. That imagery, That imagery.
Is 2. Hands or with both of them side

(01:11:19):
by. Yeah, what's the contest?
Is it speed? Is it volume?
I don't know what were the. Rules.
Yeah, I need some rules like won't just be like.
Get a lot of fine clothes. Milk that cow.
How's this going to work? I think he does have a very
down. To earth quality.
Done. I read as well, which maybe
comes from that kind of background.
Yeah, I think one of those actresses that everyone likes,

(01:11:40):
surely. Oh yeah, no, she's incredible.
She's almost. Like Dorothy, was it of?
Oz In my mind, yeah. Yeah.
And two years after. It's a wonderful life.
Donna Reed was cast as the female lead in the Stratton
story. Van Johnson was the main
character, but when he was replaced by Jimmy Stewart, Reed
was replaced as well by June Allison.
According to some reports, it was Stewart that requested they
replace Reed because It's a Wonderful Life had flopped at

(01:12:02):
the box office. She had huge success in the
later years, though. In TV, she was the star of her
own sitcom, The Donna Reed Show.Yes.
Nice. Yeah.
With Massive. One loads of Emmys.
I think that's. Your yeah, yeah, huge, really
good. And the Stratton show, that was
a. Biopic about Monty Patton, a
baseball player, right? He was a pitcher.
So they should have cast on our Reed as the main character.
Exactly. Yeah, that would be great.

(01:12:24):
Yeah, with her arm. Yep.
Well, for playing Mary and it's a wonderful.
Life. Donna Reed didn't receive any
award recognition in 1953. She did win an Oscar for From
Here to Eternity. OK.
And for us here as Mary Hatch Bailey, we think she's pretty
fantastic. Oh yeah, red hot.
Yeah, integral of the film. Success I think.

(01:12:44):
Now for the villain of the piece.
Lionel Barrymore plays Henry F Potter, the richest, meanest man
in Bedford Falls. Is some Lord, banker and a.
Man who sees the Bailey buildingin lawn as a personal affront.
He spends the entire film tryingto crush George and everything
the Bailey family stands for theScrooge of.

(01:13:04):
Bedford Falls, W it. How is Lionel Barrymore as
Potter? I mean, he's just.
Incredible. Absolutely loving me You need.
An absolute bastard you need. This person to be.
Horrible. And he is the physical human
representation of a virus, of a cancer.
He just wants to eat this whole town and just bleed it dry.

(01:13:26):
He's just, he's horrible. His body's broke and his mind's
broke and his spirit's broke andhe's got no morals and he just
plays it so well that he's just has absolutely no happiness
anywhere. There's no joy anywhere.
It'll absolutely take anybody tothe cleaners.
This would have played probably a little bit too hard had they

(01:13:46):
kept the original scene and where he sets the dogs on the
kids. You can see him doing it.
You just take that 8 grand off Billy and watch him squirm and
then watch them walking down thestreet.
It's just bilious behaviour and he's horrible.
What is he getting from this? What is he getting from his
life? Barrymore's performance here,
it's just horrible on screen. But again, I think his

(01:14:06):
performance makes him so watchable.
He's just got that horrible villainous quality, like a
really good Bond bad guy. I just feel sorry for the guy.
He hasn't got accomplished what he wants to accomplish.
He's going to die very lonely, devoid of joy, and you know that
when he's getting pushed to the door, when he finds the money.
Come on, come on. He can't go any faster.

(01:14:27):
That massive wheelchair. He's just a flawed human being.
Disgusting, but brilliant. I agree.
I think Potter is. A great villain.
Yeah. And like an old school one.
He's all in black. He cackles.
He's just missing, like a twirling mustache dustedly.
But what's great is how cool he is.
He's really calculating, sittingin that wheelchair, just

(01:14:49):
scheming. That's him for the whole film,
basically. I mean, there's no nuance,
There's no development. But there doesn't need to be.
George handles all that kind of by himself.
Potter works great as just bad guy.
Yeah, yeah. And I think Lionel Barrymore is
a great piece of casting. You please him with such a like
stillness. There's no huge theatrics.
He shows all of his contempt foreverything with like mostly his

(01:15:11):
eyes and facial expressions. And he bloody hates the building
and loan. Absolutely.
He hates. The end of his life, isn't it?
Yeah, he gets joy from misery. It's amazing.
He does, and he's awful all the way through.
But at the end, when Potter discovers Uncle Billy's giving
him the $8000 and decides to keep it, that is diabolical
behaviour. Yeah, don't care who you.
Are that's awful. And he personally calls the

(01:15:34):
police to get George. Carter off the jail?
Inexcusable. I mean Lionel Barrymore was a
lovely man in real life by all accounts.
So Cabra Sports was makeup team and told him to create a look
for Potter influenced by American Gothic.
The famous painting from the 1930s by Grant Wood The farmer
was the pitchfork. Like a proper joyless face.
And that's perfect for Potter. And again, for me, I think he's

(01:15:55):
underrated. Potter never seems to get
mentioned in great villains lists.
No, you're right. But I think he definitely
should. He's a great bad guy and.
Perfectly. Played by Lionel Barrymore, just
this right piece of shit. Isn't he?
He's just irredeemable. And the worst thing about him is
he doesn't need to do any of these actions.

(01:16:16):
Doesn't he's already the richest?
Man in town how? Much more does he need like he
doesn't need to destroy the building and own, but he wants
to. It's like you know that bit and
there will be blood. When Daniel Plainview is looking
at the map of the country, he goes what's this, why don't I
own this? That is straight from Potter's
mouth. It's just nothing but pure it.
Naked greed for the sake of it, destroying things for the sake

(01:16:40):
of it with 0 consideration for who it affects.
I mean when George visits him begging him for a loan, I mean
he is practically rejoicing at George's predicament and pretty
much outright suggest you shouldjust kill yourself because I'm
going to get the cops on you. And he rejoices in it.
I mean I agree with you John. Just one of the great cinematic
villains of all time. And Barrymore?
Excellent, he really is. Capra had his eye.

(01:17:02):
On a number of actors. For the role of Potter Edward
Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan and Raymond Massey were
all considered. Vincent Price was obviously a
big name that he thought about before he offered the Potter
Lionel Barrymore. He'd started on stage in the
1890s, going all the way back and in Hollywood in the 1910s on
silent movies. He had previously worked with

(01:17:23):
Capra and Stewart on You Can't Take It With You.
Yeah, he'd won an Oscar in 19. 31 as well for a film called
Free Soul. But he was also well known at
the time for a radio version of A Christmas Carol that CBS had
broadcast every year since 1934.In that version, Barrymore
played Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course he did.
Of course he did. He's not Tiny, Tim is.

(01:17:44):
He backflips just out the wheelchair.
That plus Capra knew him. No brainer.
As part I, surely. Yeah.
I mean, pottery is screwed without the arc, isn't he?
Yeah yeah. Needs a few ghosts to show up.
Hit him with a toaster. Toaster.

(01:18:04):
But I was not. Originally written as.
Wheelchair bound Lionel Barrymore had suffered from
arthritis since the 1920s and inthe 1930s he fractured his hip
on two different film sets. Wow.
Leaving him, obviously. Needing a wheelchair?
So the role of Potter was adapted to be in the wheelchair.
Yeah. Not sure about you but.
I barely know it as Potter's in a wheelchair, to be honest.

(01:18:24):
His overall presence just seems to take over.
Every scene he's in. I always get a surprise.
Yeah, I think. It really works that he's.
Physically weak and that this kind of adds to his bitterness.
Yeah, Yeah, of course it definitely does.
And a shout out to. Frank Hagney, who plays Potter's
wordless assistant, pushing him around in that wheelchair.
Worst job ever. Yeah, just carting Potter on,
watching him be horrible to everyone.

(01:18:45):
The most evil man in the world. All you think about it though,
it is. Just Mr. Birds and Smithers, it
really is. Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah. New awards for Lionel Barrymore
for It's a. Wonderful Life.
But for us, as part out, we think he's a pretty great
Christmas villain. Amazing.
Incredible. One of the best.
A big cast and it's a wonderful life.
We've mentioned Thomas Mitchell's Uncle Billy, and

(01:19:06):
we'll talk about Henry Travers as Clarence a little later on,
but in those two leads and villain Jimmy Stewart as George,
Donna Reed as Mary, and Lionel Barrymore as Potter, 3 Oscar
winners, some star quality and an excellent lead cast.
Brilliant. Definitely.
Yeah, that's standing. Cast.

(01:19:28):
All the right movies will be back.
Shortly, thank you for supporting us by listening to
this episode. Sponsors.
Thanks for listening to our sponsors.
Now back to the show. The middle, we're moving into

(01:19:48):
the middle if it's a wonderful. Life now and things are really
developing. We're going to be talking about
George and Mary's wedding day, which is eventful to say the
least. Yeah, it is.
But first, it's some. Key life moments.
For George. Oh yeah, so.
After George's. Father Peter sadly passes away
the building and loans up for grabs, leading to George
stepping in. He then does the same at the Hut

(01:20:09):
residence, where he and Mary finally become an item in the
film's more sizzling scene. So how's it all going?
Look, Yeah, Yeah, well, I'm starting off.
Here, with the little sentimental hogwash, George's
foregone his trip to Europe to settle his dad's affairs in the
unfortunate circumstances, and he's about to go off to the
retirement home. Sorry school, but that all

(01:20:31):
changes. When the.
Dastardly, Mr. Potter's antics make him angry.
Yeah, Potter makes a play for the building and loan and talks
about Peter Bailey in the most disparaging terms, he says.
A man of high ideals, so-called,Yeah.
Picture in the background as well like.
Airplane. Yeah, and he just runs.

(01:20:53):
Him down in front of. His nearest and dearest
outrageous behaviour but George gives this beautifully
impassioned speech about the backbone of the community and
how the building in Lorne is central to making the town
thrive. Potter just yawning through the
speech. Yeah, I'm.
Not interested. In your book, I'm talking about
the building alone. This is just really wonderful,

(01:21:16):
the light and. Dark of the story trading blows
Barrymore hamming it right up asPotter and George isn't able to
the resist of the pull of familycommitments right at the end
yeah this is the moment where Georges.
Fate sealed, he's here for life.Yeah, and it's pretty hard
hitting because we're making thedecision to stay in real time.
I mean, the board have to take some serious responsibility.

(01:21:36):
Yeah, Potter's there. He's desperate to absorb the
building and loan into his bank.He's like a vulture.
And they're all like, yeah, let's put this guy in.
Yeah. Yeah, it's Ziggy and Mud.
It rings far too true for my legging.
Yeah, but the speech George gives to the.
Board. Is brilliant.
It's all emotion. Just slams Potter through the
floor. It's great, and Stuart delivers
him as great as everything else.But what I like, it's a cap that

(01:21:59):
doesn't frame George as entirelynoble.
There's grief there and there's duty, but there's also clear
resentment from George and having to take over the building
alone, which leads into the end brilliantly and makes him
cracking at the end more believable.
Yeah. And the final shot in this scene
when George is on his way out ofthe office and the guy says
they'll vote power in if you leave and George stops dead on
this huge close up of Stewart and then fade out.

(01:22:21):
Incredible that. Yeah.
Great. So, George.
Is committed to the building. Lawn and he's feeling very sorry
for himself, which is when he runs into Mary again.
And it's just more wonderful interplay between Stuart and
Reed here and one of the best examples of how Capra can just
shift the tone in one scene effortlessly.
I mean, I say George really feeling sorry for himself here.

(01:22:43):
And it's hilarious how Mary's attempts to cheer in him up just
fall flat on the face when she starts singing that song and
leaves it hanging for him to join in.
And he just goes, oh, yeah, yeah.
And just like, Waves has had it,like, completely uninterested.
And then when a mother gets involved, George Bailey, what
does he want? The look on his face is so

(01:23:05):
funny. Like, why is she having a pop?
Like I know business when he came.
In here to. Get warm.
And then Mary yells back up, he's making violent love to me
mother, and she goes off shrieking.
So it starts off very funny. But like I said, there's a tonal
shift because he storms out. Mary smashes the record to
pieces because she's upset and you feel his anger.

(01:23:26):
You feel his disappointment B you feel her hurt at this as
well. And then cup of shifts the torn
once again because he has to come back because summary and
writes on the phone and the attraction between them and you
said to John it is sizzling at this point between George and
Mary that incredible close up when they share on that phone
between them and then when they start kissing and then the break

(01:23:46):
in the sobs. You just say hold on.
I was laughing at this 30 seconds ago.
How's it ended up here and stillmakes sense.
Absolutely no acknowledgement from.
Mary's mother about smashing that record either, just didn't
happen. He's just horrible.
George for. The most part, you know that I
see it smells like pine needles in here.
Again, where is your action? Thank you.

(01:24:08):
No. Thank you.
Yeah, no, perfect. But what I got from this scene,
what we watching it just recently, that's how important
that phone call is to Sam Wainwright.
Someone else noticed that Georgegives him the idea to get the
factory there. Yes.
And half the town went out of work.
And he's basically in some way and writes like, yeah, look at
what I knew you'd come through. So that's where the factory is.
So he's given so many more people, so many more

(01:24:30):
opportunities and so many more jobs just as he said that
because it'd be selflessness. Incredible little moment, just,
you know, blinking. You'll miss it.
Absolutely. The whole sequence is.
Just red hot. No, but George, he's a bit
prickly when he turns up kickingthe gate open.
Yeah. Kicks the gate open.
Criticizes her is wrong. She's made of him.
Unbelievable. And it's funny when Mary asked

(01:24:51):
George if he likes Harry's wife and he's furious.
Like, 'cause I like her. She's a Peach.
Did you get that dressed? Do you like it?
It's. Alright, and it leads into that
almighty kiss. Obviously one of the best
romantic scenes ever to me. I mean, the whole sequence is,
what, maybe 10 minutes? And it takes us through more
than most ROM coms manage in 90 minutes or two hours, I think.

(01:25:12):
Yeah, Yeah. I would say the final act.
I think this is the best scene in the film.
Oh, wow. And one of the great Hollywood
screen kisses, certainly the angriest from George.
Impassioned, isn't it? Full of emotion.
It is full of emotion because sometimes.
I think it's this him falling inlove or is this him just giving
up? Yeah, Yeah.
This is who I'm going to be with.
But I'm going to have to take a fall to be with her.

(01:25:33):
And I know that. And he's kind of like falling in
love but doesn't want to at the same time.
It's loaded with all of that energy.
Yeah, it absolutely is. Yeah.
Because I. Think George loves Mary, but she
represents him giving up all of his dreams.
Yeah. Yeah, Stewart.
Later called Donna Reed the embodiment.
Of goodness. And he said he found being
around a disconcerting. It's one word forward.

(01:25:54):
With his. Break for the war this was.
His first love scene in years. So he put off film in this kiss
for weeks. He asked Reed if she wanted to
rehearse it beforehand. Of course he did.
The old devil. But Reed?
Said I think we should. Just do it.
No funny business, Cabra agreed.In our rehearsals and Stuart.
Said that when they did it, their hormones were out of

(01:26:16):
control. Quote UN quote.
His wife was delighted to hear that.
Yeah, I bet. We did in one take and Stuart.
Called it one of the best sceneshe's ever filmed.
Of course he did. Loved it he did.
Yeah, they can't remember. It.
When they're both on the receive.
I talked to Sam Wainwright. And then the noses are almost
touching. I mean, the tension, like,

(01:26:36):
through the roof. Electricity, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah. George grabs on starts.
Kicking off and then he's all over her like the angriest kiss
ever. But apparently Stuart and Reed
got so wrapped up that they skipped a page in the script
right. And the script supervisor said
the Capra hang on the left out loads of dialogue here.
And Capra was like, with that, who needs dialogue?
Yeah, Amazing. Wonderful, brilliant, brilliant.

(01:26:57):
So he knew what he had. I think the kiss.
Happens when George and Mary areon.
The phone to George's friend SamWainwright, and Sam is offering
George a job. Capra filmed all of it in real
time. This is amazing.
So there's one unit that Capra was part of filming Stuart and
Reed on one set, then on a different set, the second unit
was filming Frank Albertson, whoplayed Sam at the same time.
Oh yes. So Reed and Stuart and Albertson

(01:27:19):
were really on the phone to eachother, talking to each other
during the scene. Oh, that's great.
That's amazing. I would have done.
Like a Wes Anderson. And just went from one set to
the. Just on the track, just like
that's amazing. That, but that's brilliant.
Love that. Yeah, that's really cool when
you watch it knowing. That as well.
And Sam gets dumped through the floor, doesn't he?
Oh yeah, he even says to George.You're trying to steal.

(01:27:41):
My girl. Well, yes, and succeeding
actually, while you're on the phone, he hold.
Your way out of that, yeah. So there it is.
George is the man of. The building alone and finally
gets his woman in Mary. Some big moments for Georgie
boy. Oh yeah, huge.
From there the following segments all.
About the money as George gets to grips with the building alone

(01:28:03):
and has to deal with some problems, George and Mary's
wedding day is scuppered when George has to get involved in a
run on the bank and looking to take advantage of the situation,
Potter tries to make George an offer he can't refuse.
So how's? It going for USA?
I mean I haven't seen one before, but this looks like.
All the hallmarks of a run. To be perfectly honest, it's
the. Quickest wedding ever, Just

(01:28:24):
that. CrossFit.
Here they come. Bang.
Straight in we know where we. Are that's absolutely fine.
You know, they're having a greattime and he's finally, George is
there. He's got married, but he's going
to escape with her. He's got a way out.
He loves her, but he's actually going to live his dream with her
now. It's so tragic if you think
about it just from that point. Ernie's great in this scene.
If you see a stranger around here, it's me.

(01:28:46):
But yeah, there's a run. On the bank and it's just you.
Know absolute pandemonium. George cannot get a break, he
cannot get out of there. Every single time he just gets
close enough and just gets pulled back in.
It just feels like there's like this invisible orb around all of
Bedford Falls and he just can't escape.
It's like the Truman Show. Every time he gets close to the
edge, to the border, he has to get pulled back.
And he's in the building alone. George has let everybody in.

(01:29:09):
And here we'll go. What?
How are we going to save the day?
What are we going to do? And George has starts
explaining, you know, the theorybehind that place, like, your
money is not here. It's in the houses here.
It's in the community. It's everybody working together.
And nobody understands that. And it's selfishness that
completely takes over this scene.
And this is where Mary just really stands up.
She's been his wife for what, like 3 hours?

(01:29:30):
And she's perfectly George Bailey's wife here because she's
selfless. She's not thinking about herself
at all. She's completely thinking about
George at the same time she's thinking about the community.
It's not just to impress George.So literally it's nothing from
the situation and pulls out $2000.
How much do you need me? I wouldn't be pulling that 2
grand out. Yeah, on me way to the.

(01:29:52):
Honeymoon about. I mean, how much of a Dick is
Tom please? It's awful 200.
And $72. And that's a loan now.
I would have closed his account.I'm.
Farley cynical to be comment. About the happiness of this
film. So I wouldn't have done that.
And I'm like, Potter, I'm not interested in your book.

(01:30:12):
And just my favorite, favorite bit in this scene is absolutely
wonderful and comes from an actress called Ellen Corby, who
in the script she was meant to go up and ask for for $17.00.
Yeah, and Capra? Pulled out one side just.
Before they were film and said asking for 1750, just put that
50 in there and just see what happens.
And then asked him. And then this is James Stewart's

(01:30:32):
real reaction. Just like just everything goes
quiet. Can I have 1750?
And he just pauses for a second.And that kiss on the cheek is
just so genuine and wonderful. And you just lift from that
moment. And George forgets about it
because, again, he's thinking about everybody but himself.
Even on his wedding day. Yes.
And Ellen Corby? She went on the play of the
grandma in the wilderness. That's right.

(01:30:53):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. She.
Won three Emmys for that. Yeah, I mean this moment.
Starts off with absolute wedded bliss, the happy couple
surrounded by the whole town. Even Violet's got a smile on her
face. I love that.
Mum when they get in the. Cab Ernie asks where they're
going on this here honeymoon andthey've got it all mapped out.
The richest caviar, the oldest champagne, New York, Bermuda.

(01:31:15):
They've got a massive lot of cash.
Ernie's so wrapped up in their own plans he lets out the lions
roar. But you just know that all of
the plans. Are going to fall flat on their
face yet again. George thwarted at every turn.
Uncle Billy is under so much stress at the building in Lawn
that he's boozing on the job while he reveals the terrible

(01:31:36):
news. Pathetic.
Everyone's going to. Pull out and get. $0.50 on the
dollar from Potter Disaster. But really, the moment I love
here is that one long take at the door where George appeals to
the good nature of the community.
He's got pages and pages of dialogue, and he delivers them
faultlessly with no cuts, loads of emotion.
The intonation delivery is incredible.

(01:31:57):
But then he's joined by all the other actors in the scene,
hitting their marks after his dialogue.
Amazing time. And I think it's an acting
master class, that one, yeah, really is.
And the focus isn't on. George, either if you watch
where the camera is actually focused on the crowd, not on
him. Sideways on, isn't he?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, must be the worst wedding
day. Ever.
Surely. I'm not sure how George is
getting married and jetting off on his honeymoon and has no idea

(01:32:19):
what's going on at the bank. Yeah, he's left Billy in.
Charge doesn't need to worry. He's got his best man on the
job, hasn't he? Yeah.
But fine because. Once we're in there, the whole.
Scene is great George having to turn the customers demanding
their money back on side and Stuart at his charismatic best
holding thought is great one of the key moments around the
importance of community. I think I think the writings top

(01:32:41):
notch. It's like an indictment on
capitalism and it kind of demonstrates how it works.
George spells out how he's been beyond fair.
He says Ed remember last year when you couldn't make your
payments. Do you think Potter would let
you keep your house? I mean, you throw this poor head
right in front of the bus in front of everybody, but I think
they're saying. That's how it works.
It's Sniffer. Trouble it becomes every man,
woman for themselves. And that's when people like

(01:33:02):
Potter steam in to take advantage.
Yeah. But I think this is one of the
reasons the film is so highly regarded.
It's a Christmas classic but hassome really good writing and
themes with actual substance in there.
Yeah. And of course, it ends in a
lucky way with George and Mary pulling it back as they always
do, George leaping back and forth over the desk.
I love it. So, Yeah.

(01:33:22):
Excellent. And possibly George's finest
hour in the film. Saving the day.
Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
Mary's definitely. Mary's So it's been a very, very
long day for. George And he finally goes home
and you're just saying, is thereanything Mary can't do?
I mean, they've had to give awaythe honeymoon money.
There goes that dream and she's still sorting everything out for
him. Like she doesn't feel sorry for

(01:33:43):
herself for one minute, considering everything she's had
to give up here. Doesn't run and weave, just a
straight in with rope. George is working.
They had better make sure he's got some kind of home to come
back to. And the she ingenuity of cooking
those chickens over the fire by hooking them up to the record
player. That's great.
That's amazing. Just just the perfect woman at
this point. And then you've got the solid

(01:34:04):
friendship from Bert and Ernie, who are back in Georgia up here
putting the posters up. I love the little tip of the
hat. Yeah, with the water.
Yeah, with the water coming. Out because.
He's welcoming them in, but I'lltell you what, this is
technically still George and Mary's honeymoon.
I don't think Bert and Ernie need to stick around in the
piston rain singing to them outside.
Not really. We've got things to be getting
on. With lads.
Like. You know, if that was me, I

(01:34:25):
wouldn't want you serenading me outside on my honeymoon night.
Like go home please. It's amazing how to pull that
off. I mean, if anyone else if I've
tried it that chicken to be raw by the time you got home
freezing. No posters up, just playing
Megadeth and. The raw chicken.
Yeah, Mary is a dream come true.Isn't she?

(01:34:45):
Oh, what? Oh yeah.
Unbelievable. The building in Loma.
She ripped out the water cash. And then this, yeah, it's a
great moment. Yeah, skipping ahead a little
bit. The moment where George gets a
very tempting job offer from Potter, he's teetering on the
edge. Oh yeah, because Potter has been
trying to get his. Hooks in.
All the time and George has resisted.
We all know that Potter is an absolute bastard, but by this

(01:35:07):
point, George hasn't been able to catch a break and he's been
trapped by his circumstances, worn down.
Which is why he sees those dollar signs, all 20,000 of
them. The storytelling.
He is pretty wonderful. Because a lot of this scene is
powered by the previous scene where Sam's talking about the
missed opportunity of not getting in on the business at
the ground level. They aren't able to join them in

(01:35:27):
Florida. All the things that he would
just love to do. But George comes to his senses
in that wonderful moment when heshakes pot his hand.
He sees himself shaking hands with the devil and he does not
like what he sees. His facial expression is
amazing. Great.
I don't need 24 hours, yeah. Yeah, I think the writing is
really. Clever because to now.
George has already made sacrifices for the community and

(01:35:48):
for Harry, and it's custom. I mean, narratively, we don't
need this moment, but it's OK because it's George's chance to
get out of it, to get back to where he wanted to be.
And he still says no. I mean, any seamer pot has
dynamite. So it's already tense when
George is summoned to his officeand the setup tiny chair for
George, he's practically sittingon the floor.

(01:36:09):
That's for everybody though, isn't it?
So. I can feel more powerful.
Well, exactly. Yeah.
And 20. $1000 a year you offers him.
That was an astronomical salary.Massive in 1946.
He was massive now. And George is tempted.
He takes a. Cigar.
He accepts the job at 1st, and then as soon as he touches
Potter's called dead hands, it kind of snaps him back to
reality. Yeah.

(01:36:30):
Because Potter's not really making a job offer.
Yeah. He's trying to kill the building
and loan once and for all, and he's going for the sauce.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Stuart's fantastic again,
especially when he snaps and turns on Potter.
And then again, it's somehow thetone shifts at the end and ends
funny with George shouting And it goes for you too.
And everyone. I just love the visual
storytelling. He I mean.

(01:36:50):
We've said that thing about the small chair, but the more that
George considers Potter's offer,the lower he sinks into that
seat because he's being tempted into this moral abyss, and he's
sinking to Potter's level in that visual of George on one
side of the screen, Potter and his assistant on the other.
So even though they're trying totempt him with this offer, it's
actually about them ganging up on him.
That's so effective. And I think that gets repeated

(01:37:12):
later on when George begs Potterfor money.
But it's all much tighter in theframe.
And you've got the statue, whichis him and George in as well.
So great saying because this is all about Potter trying to trap
George, both narratively and then visually from Capra.
Yeah. So that's Act 2 of.
It's a wonderful. Life.
The Baileys get married, the bank gets a run on it, and
George rejects Potter. Seems to be setting us up quite

(01:37:34):
nicely through a huge finale. I wonder if we'll get one.
I wonder. Hope so.
The crew to make an all time Christmas classic.
You don't just need big names infront of the camera, you need
big talent behind it as well, and we're going to talk about
some of those people now by delving into the crew on It's a

(01:37:56):
Wonderful Life. We're talking Dmitri Tiomkin as
the composer on the film and Joseph Walker and Joseph Baraka
as the directors of photography.But let's begin with the
screenplay and writing. Should we?
Yes, indeed. So the credited screenwriters on
it's a. Wonderful life of Francis
Goodrich Albert Hackett and frank capra Goodrich and Hackett
were wife and husband writing team who'd already been Oscar

(01:38:18):
nominated for the thin man and after the thin man from 1934 and
36 frank capra though we had numerous story and dialogue
credit before this, this was just his second full screenplay
writing credit after that certain thing in 1928.
An accomplished Co writing team and it's a wonderful life.
Then Matt does it show? Really does, because it's so.

(01:38:40):
Patiently written, it's like a trail of bread crumbs and
everything will pay off once youget at the end.
I mean, when you're in Pottersville and you see what
has happened to Mr. Gower, you've kind of forgotten at that
point what George did from back then and you just get that
realization of oh God, of coursehe'd have gone to jail if George
hadn't stepped in to save him. The fact that George loses to

(01:39:00):
see and so early on it seems quite innocuous, but actually it
keeps him out of the war and it becomes his first clue that
actually Clarence has changed everything around him.
When the given where the honeymoon money to save the
building on when we've talked about how awful Tommy is because
he wants all of his money back, but that gets flipped on it's
head when he's one of the first people to turn up with George's
house to help him out with some money.

(01:39:22):
So it is filled with all these little setups along the way in
the same fairly low key because most of them are just George
being a decent guy, but they've got a monumental impact in the
sorry further down the line. And that really sends out in the
writing to me. It does me as well.
Yeah, I think it's got such a vein.
Of melancholy running through it's George can never catch a
break. He loses his here and he gets

(01:39:43):
roughed up by Mr. Gower. Abandons his dreams every single
time he's about to escape Bedford Falls, off to college,
off to see the world on his honeymoon.
Something pulls him back and thescreenplay just keeps twisting
that knife through every scene. Through every life.
Moment. And I think what's smart is that
it's never really one big tragedy.
It's death by 1000 cuts. Each sacrifice feels small and

(01:40:07):
noble in the moment. Of course he's going to let
Harry go to college. Of course he's going to give his
honeymoon money to the community.
But they all accumulate, and thescreenplay tracks that
accumulation so carefully that by the time we reached Christmas
Eve, we completely understand how this fundamentally decent
man has ended up on a bridge close to the very end.

(01:40:29):
I think it's structurally very brave.
The scripts spent so long in thedarkness, built in this case for
despair, that the redemption hasto work overtime.
But because the ground works so solid, it earns every bit of it.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they've got a lot
to cram in. In 130 Minutes, Lords telling
the story of the life of George Bailey.
Basically, the structure focuseson the big key moments of his

(01:40:52):
life. We jump from saving Harry to
meeting Mary to getting married.I mean, when that's all things
done in films, it sometimes doesn't work because it means
it's often a lot of coincidencesthat have to take place.
Lots of things happening at the same time, like the wedding day
slash run on the bank we just talked about.
But here it works brilliantly and I think the reason it works
so well is because of what I think is possibly the main theme

(01:41:15):
of the film, which is helping others.
There's other themes like capitalism, faith, community,
but I think the film explores sacrifice really well all the
way through. George sacrifices himself to
help with us, but every time he does, he's punished for it.
He saves Harry and loses the hearing in his left ear.
He saves Mr. Gower and takes a beating for it.
He stops Potter taking over the building alone and has to give

(01:41:37):
up college. He carries on margin the
building and loans of how he canaccept the job offer and he
gives up on travelling the world.
The message for the first two acts seems to be don't help
anyone else, because if you do, you'll bloody pay for it.
Yeah, but then Clarence comes along.
He sure was George or Bedford Falls would be like without him.
And George says how much value his life has.
And then we get the end where the townsfolk band around to

(01:41:58):
help George when he needs them, and they help him because of all
the times he's helped them. I mean, it's a huge, ambitious
ending, but they've earned it byputting the groundwork in with
all those other moments I'm talking about from George's
life. I'll buy 100% that Bedford Falls
turns up for George at the end. We'll talk about it more later.
But at that point, the message changes.

(01:42:19):
It becomes, you should help others because even if it feels
like you're losing out, you're not.
It gives your life value. Even if you can't see the
benefit, your life's enriched byhelping others.
And that theme, I think, clearlydrives every decision the
writers make start to finish. It's not just your standard
Christmas movie message of a symbol help others.
It really explores it like good writers do.

(01:42:40):
And it presents both sides of itas well.
And I think that message is a big reason people keep coming
back to the movie every year. Because it's a wonderful
message, isn't it? Yeah.
Wonderful life, wonderful message.
Yeah, might as well just call itthat.
Yeah, I mean, I think about this.
Film often and it's always a Christmas time and I think about

(01:43:01):
how impossible this is to be done again to remake.
It's an incredible story, but the writing for me just seems to
be so of the time so specific tothis one person, this one story.
I mean if you look at A Christmas Carol, which is
probably the closest to this, which is written well before it.
How many times have the remade that, oh, this guy's screwed
this time One know the story, would love to see the story, but

(01:43:23):
this you can't just go well, it's wonderful.
Like this guy's George Bailey. Now.
I think it's the dialogue. I think it's the characters.
I think it's the way that it is of the time, but the themes in
this are so specific that the can't be remade that can't be
taken anywhere else. It's not a generic story.
It just feels like the writing is very, very precise about this
one story and a lot of that is the dialogue, which absolutely

(01:43:47):
sings for me. Yes, it's of the time, but
there's a lot of it that just really makes sense.
Like, this completely makes sense.
It's just absolutely timeless and the themes that you've all
spoke about still relevant now, but nobody's ever done it this
well because it's not taken in afantastical way.
I mean, think about what happensin this film.
Angels turn up and praise. All of this stuff turns around

(01:44:10):
and this, you know, you didn't save this guy's life and you
didn't do it. But it doesn't seem fantastical.
It seems like it's grounded in this reality that I think they
were writing it with such a serious outlook and such a
serious tone. There's no fat on this
whatsoever. It is so lean and sort of the
point in such a direct message that I think if you read this
screenplay, you would go right, well, this needs to be made and

(01:44:34):
made once. We cannot replicate this ever
again. People have tried and the failed
time and time again. It's a piece of writing that is
just of the time to be made. Then take the tablets that you
Moses brought down, like the 10 Commandments, like it's just
written in stone and it's made for that time and you can't
replace it. I think it's just genius because
it's just so well done, so well explored, and like I say, it

(01:44:56):
just can't be replicated. Yeah, of the time, but with
Timeless. Themes as well.
I know it's it. It really makes sense.
It's. Just got this real directness to
it. It resonates.
Still. Relevant for certain.
Absolutely. Yeah.
So the film is based on a. Book and that's called The
Greatest Gift and that was written by Philip Van Doren
Stern and he said that in 1938 he woke up after a dream.

(01:45:17):
I was reminiscent of Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol when
he was shaving the whole story for The Greatest Gift came to
him. Yeah, the Christmas Carol.
Starting point, I think that's fairly obvious, isn't it?
Yeah, I think so. It's like start to finish.
Just about. But Van Dorenstein.
Struggle to. Sell the idea to a publisher.
So on Christmas 1943 what he didwas he adapted the story into a

(01:45:38):
21 page Christmas card, had 200 copies printed and send it out
to family and friends titled TheGreatest Gift, a Christmas Tale.
Imagine getting a 21 page. Christmas card massive effort is
this. Apparently Van Doren Stern.
Personally signed all the copiesas well, right, So might have
thought a little high leave himself even at that stage.

(01:45:58):
A little bit later, I'll sign that for you, Yeah.
Who are you? That'll.
Be worth something, Yeah. And Van Doren, Stern's daughter.
Marguerite later said that in March 1944, there was a phone
call at the house. She just heard her father yell
hold me up. I can't believe it.
It was his agent on the phone saying he'd received an offer

(01:46:19):
from RQ or Pictures to buy the greatest gift.
Amazing. Yeah, it happened.
Because the epic. Christmas card ended up in front
of David Hempstead, an archaeo producer.
Yeah. So Van Dorenstein was looking
for a boot publisher and Hollywood turned up.
Yeah, I'd collapse as well. Nice to know.
Wasn't the one of the people? That you sent the the whole
Christmas card to his actual agent, though.

(01:46:39):
Then his agent, then put it in the producer's desk.
Yeah, give it to your agent first.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, don't make him one of the.
200 people like. You kind of go straight to him.
And go. What do you think of this?
Maybe. Yeah, that will work.
The first writers. Archaeo Hired to work on the
screenplay were Clifford Odets, Mark Connelly and Dalton Trumbo,
who all wrote separate scripts in Trumbo's draft.

(01:47:01):
George Bailey was a politician who grows more cynical as the
story progresses, then tries to commit suicide after losing an
election. Clarence then shows in Bedford
Falls if he had gone into business instead of politics,
not as it would be if he'd neverbeen born.
Right, Right. Yeah, that's.
When they were writing. With Cary.
Grant in mind as George, that sounds like a might have suited
Grant a bit more, a little bit more definitely that.

(01:47:23):
Politician figure a much cooler story though.
Like be a. Businessman and you'll be a
success, where this is more about being a good human and
you'll be a success. Yeah, exactly.
And as we talked. About those scripts that
gathering dust, Frank Capra bought the rights of the
greatest gift. He hired Albert Hackett and
Francis Goodwich to help him write it because of their
reputation after the casting of Jimmy Stewart, maybe even
alongside it. Possibly the most important

(01:47:45):
higher cap I made was Hackett and Goodrich and the writers.
Did make quite a lot of changes to Van Dorensen's book for the
big screen. As we've been saying, the title
has changed from The Greatest Gift, but it wasn't immediately
changed to It's a Wonderful Life.
A title I was seriously considered first was The Man Who
Was Never Born. Sounds like the Hitchcock
version. Loads of.

(01:48:07):
Murders. No great of that one.
No, the greatest gift? Better than.
That and in the book George's surname.
Isn't Bailey, It's Pratt. In this minimal back story, the
book opens with George on Christmas Eve, ready to kill
himself. Yeah, it.
Sounds like a pretty great opener.
To be honest. But we need that back story
though, don't we? Oh absolutely.

(01:48:28):
Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so the opening 2 acts
were? All added for the film.
So a huge change straight off. It's got a massive start.
A lethal weapon open on a suicide.
It influenced everything. This hasn't.
It really has. Christmas.
Yeah, and also in the book there's no.
Clarence George is shown his alternate life by a mysterious

(01:48:49):
stranger. There's also no Uncle Billy or
Mr. Potter. They were created by Goodrich
and Hackett. Nice does that.
Mysterious. Strange.
End up being Benjamin Franklin. Ben.
Oh yeah, the. Whole an Angel getting his.
Wings thing isn't in the book. Pottersville isn't in the book.
The Mr. Gawa segment isn't in the book.

(01:49:10):
I mean, these are enormous contributions from good Rich and
Haggis. Yeah, no, definitely and.
The book ends very. Quietly, just with George back
at home thinking about how he nearly sent Mary to this never
born world where her life is much worse.
Yeah, the film. Not quite.
As quiet and. Ending.
Is it just the whole town in onehouse?

(01:49:31):
He just gets back and says. Few and then it ends.
But Van Dornstein told. A story later.
That on New Year's Eve 1946, he received a letter from Jimmy
Stewart that said thank you for giving us that idea.
I think it's the best one anyone's had for a long time.
Nice classy guy you might. Have been right.
Since Charles Dickens, anyway. Yeah, Capra had some.

(01:49:53):
Input into the script as. Well, he took elements from his
own life, so Harry becoming an engineer and Sam Wainwright
works in plastics. These both came from Capra's own
education and chemical engineering.
Lovely. And the Martinis, the family who
owned the bar and George move into Bailey Park.
They're based on Capra's own family who emigrated from Sicily
in 19 O3. Great.

(01:50:13):
You had got a goat in the car. Haven't it?
Yeah, I love the way. Mary, just like, holds the horns
because they're dangerous. Yeah.
But the Italian word for goat? Is Capra right?
There you go. OK.
Lovely personal. Touch.
Nice coming from Sicily in. 1903like Vito Collio.
I know, yeah. Not quite as dramatic, I

(01:50:34):
wouldn't imagine. Definitely Albert Hakinden.
Francis Goodrich. Didn't get on with Frank Capra,
Goodrich said. Oh, that horrid man.
He just couldn't wait to get writing it all by himself.
And when Hackett. And Goodrich were writing the.
Script Capra was rewriting what they sent him behind their backs
with a writer called Joe Swirlan.
He also brought in Dorothy Parker as a consultant.

(01:50:57):
Nasty. Yeah.
Stephen, Yeah. Joe Swirling had written 5.
Capra films before this, and Albert Hackett said about Capra,
he's a very arrogant son of a bitch, right?
You don't want to call Francis, my dear woman, and get away with
it. I can imagine.
That was the catalyst. Just called his wife my.
Ideal woman. Yeah.
And that was it. She never spoke to him again.
Brilliant. So because there were so many

(01:51:20):
names involved. In the writing process, the
Screenwriters Arbitration Committee had to get involved
hacked, and Goodrich wanted Copper and Joe Swirling's
credits removed entirely. Copper agreed to Swirling being
removed, but not himself. That's good of them.
Thanks, Frank. So that's why the.
Screenplay is credit to Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackett and

(01:51:40):
Frank Capra. Yeah, he agreed with Swirling.
Being removed but not him. I'll give you a swirling and,
unsurprisingly, Joe. Swirling.
Apparently never spoke to Capra again, no.
And Hackett and Goodrich never worked with him again.
Enemies all over the place. Yeah, so after all that.

(01:52:01):
Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackettand Frank Capra were not
nominated of the Oscars. Capra never wrote another full
screenplay ever again, but Goodrich and Hackett went on to
ride Father of the Bride, 7 Brides for Seven Brothers,
Easter Parade and The Diary of Anne Frank.
Right, right. Big career for them.
Brilliant. Some trouble with the writing
and It's a Wonderful Life it seems.
Then they pulled it all togetherthough.

(01:52:22):
And pretty exceptional Christmasfilm writing for us.
Yeah, absolutely. Without.
Doubt and some pretty great Christmas card writing as.
Well, definitely 21 pages. Of it some.
Dedicated Christmas card writing.
Moving on from the writing to the music.
And the composer, and It's a Wonderful Life was Dmitri
Tiomkin, a Russian born classical composer by trade.

(01:52:44):
By this point he's already been working in Hollywood for a
couple of decades and it worked with Capra 4 times before this,
including You Can't Take It WithYou and Mr. Smith Goes to
Washington and he had 4 Oscar nominations under his belt.
Big chops to meet with Tiomkin. Not exactly a household name
Luke, but a lot of Hollywood success houses music on It's a
Wonderful Life. I think he does something very

(01:53:06):
smart. In his music, in his work, it
knows when to step forward and when to disappear entirely.
For a film with such emotional peaks and valleys, a
heavy-handed score could have, you know, tipped everything over
the edge. But Tiankin shows a lot of
restraint. Yeah, I totally agree with that.
Yeah, often you. Don't notice that the.
Music is there. I do like the way that he weaves

(01:53:28):
Buffalo gals throughout the filmas George and Mary's theme.
It's playful at the start, hopeful.
But by the time we hear echoes of it later, it's it's
bittersweet. Same tune, just a different
emotional weight. Yeah, it's like a Radiohead
cover by the end. Terrifying.
And then there's that Pottersville sequence where the

(01:53:49):
score goes really dark. It's almost like noir, all
tension and nice. Tiompkins got a unique
understanding of the brief. He's not scoring a Christmas
film anymore. He's scoring a nightmare
sequence. But he also knows that silence
works as well. Some of the film's most
devastating moments play withoutany score at all.
And that restraint is just as important as his music.

(01:54:11):
Great work. Yeah, For me, it's not
necessarily. The fact that there is a score
in this film, for me, it's the flourishes that he does and he
really reads the emotion in the room.
He's not writing a score, he's writing emotion and he's doing
it really well and it doesn't smack you over the head with it.
But there's just a couple of little bits that really get me.
You mentioned the close up John when they said but George,

(01:54:33):
they're going to go with Potter.Otherwise that flourish of music
is just doom. It's just there and it's not.
Long. It doesn't hold on and age.
It's just just that moment whereyou just feel that sense of
dread and that's in the score. And it's not massively obvious,
but it's there. And there's the moment when
Potter gets the money. It's almost playful, but it's

(01:54:53):
Joker esque and it's it's kind of sickly.
It's like Potter's excitement, which is like this horrible
negative tingle, which is in thescore.
And he does that throughout the film.
I think he just really addressesthe emotion of the scenes
without the being an overlying org or an overlying score, let's
say. But I mean, if you if you
actually listen to It's a Wonderful Life, there's a lot of

(01:55:14):
music in there. But Luke's right.
It's just he knows when they putit in the background, when to
pull it forward. Yeah, very much yeah.
He does, I agree. I think you kind.
Of don't really notice the score.
And I mean that as a compliment.It's woven in so well.
It just feels natural. Yeah, definitely.
I think that's extra impressive because it has to match the tone
shift the film goes through. The early Bedford Falls scenes
are very like Americana, very Norman Rockwell.

(01:55:37):
Yeah, yeah. I can't believe we don't see
apple pie at some point. And the music matches all that.
And then by the end in Pottersville, it's a lot darker
and the music goes with it. It is kind of film noir like in
those scenes. And we're mentioning Buffalo
Girls, but similar with Auld Lang Syne at the end, the whole
town building it out together. Ridiculous but brilliant,
obviously. I do wonder how much that was

(01:55:58):
influenced by the Lamar Sier scene in Casablanca.
I mean, not as aggressive here, but not long after it and just
as famous. Yeah.
But I think what Tiumpkin got issomething maybe some audiences
at the time didn't, which is that as a film, it's funny, but
it's not just, it's just a comedy.
It's dark and serious, but it's not just a drama.
It's kind of something in between, a fantasy at times.

(01:56:19):
And the score has to hold all that together, which I think it
does. And Chunk went on to become a
bit of a legendary composer in Western.
So this probably isn't his most famous music, but I think he's a
bit of an unsung hero here. As to why the film works as well
as it does. Yeah, definitely.
There's a. Ridiculous.
Amount of variety in the score? Yeah, there is.
I mean, I know. He didn't write a Buffalo.
Gals as an absolute banger, isn't it?

(01:56:41):
It's a tuning of that. Absolutely, yeah.
Absolutely love that coming in for me.
It's what we talked about on ourlast episode, 12 Angry Men.
It's a different era for music and soundtracks.
And like I said then, unless youHitchcock working with Bernard
Herrmann on actual musical or it's gone with the wind where
you need a huge overture, it's just about accentuating tons and
scenes. So the real stand out for me is

(01:57:02):
when George makes out run back to the bridge in Pottersville,
and you just get this, like, quiet sweeping in and up on the
soundtrack behind him with this brass band behind, which does
sound very Christmassy, but it'snot in a, like, a sweet, sugary
way. There's a melancholy to it.
Yeah. And it's really impactful at
that moment. So, yeah, the kind of sound rack
where we don't really view it aswe view, like, common sound

(01:57:25):
racks a day. But it's one where when the
music hits, it really, really hits.
Yeah, that moment on the bridge at the end.
The music was really, really dark.
It's not like a tune. It's kind of just a mood.
It's really, really good. Yeah, I think it mixes perfectly
with. The sound design as well, I
think the sound design on this film deserves a shout because
that's absolutely insane. Like Pottersville and as a sound
landscape is horrible. You've got the steak, people

(01:57:48):
screaming and sirens, and then that music over the top and
everything else just totally works together.
And how quiet Bedford Falls is, but you can hear that snow
somehow you can't. Yeah, all about the sound
design. On this films.
Incredible. Tiumpkin and Capra had an.
Existent long term relationship,but that didn't stop Capra
replacing some of his music to make enemies left, right and

(01:58:08):
centre. Capra wasn't.
Keen on some of the. Cues, Tiumpkin came up with, so
replace them with stop music from the Archaeo library and the
finale as the townspeople pour into the Bailey house.
Tiumpkin had used Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, but Capra
replaced it with Hallelujah fromThe Hunchback of Notre Dame and
Archaeo film from 1939. Just does what he wants, doesn't

(01:58:29):
he? Yeah.
Yeah, I'm Frank Capra. I'll do what I want.
Yeah. Exactly.
Some melodies by Frank Capra. Well, we're into that couple of
pieces of. Tumkin composed for the Gower
drugstore sequence and Capra just ditched the music
completely but didn't bother to tell Tumkin right Kubrick.
Yeah. Although I do enjoy the names of

(01:58:49):
those pieces. One was called Gawas Deliverance
and the other was called the Death Telegram.
Merry Christmas, Death Telegram right on my street that.
Jingle Bells in a minor half time T.
Anthem is furious as we can. Imagine about all the cuts.
His autobiography was published in 1959.
It was called Please Don't Hate Me because when he gave feedback

(01:59:11):
to a director, Tiangkin had a reputation of starting with
Please Don't Hate Me, but great in that book, Tiangkin.
Praised. Capra for giving him his break
in Hollywood, but criticized themusic and It's a Wonderful Life,
calling it a scissors job. Tell you what, For all the peace
on earth. Goodwill to all men.
Message of It's a Wonderful Life, Capra.
Sure, I went over his way to piss everybody off when he was

(01:59:31):
making it. He did slap in the ears.
Left, right and centre. No Oscar nominations for Dimitri
Chomkin. And it's a Wonderful Life.
But he carried on having quite the career after it and scored
some classic films, High Noon, Giant, The Guns of Navarone, Rio
Bravo or feature music composed by Dimitri Chomkin.
And he went on to win three Oscars and be nominated for 14.

(01:59:52):
Wow. He might be the greatest
Hollywood composer that almost no one's ever heard of.
Yeah, don't hate me. But.
I'll get you an Oscar. Leaving the music, we're now
moving to the. Visuals and the cinematography
of It's a Wonderful Life. The credit of the direct of the
photography on the film are Joseph Walker and Joseph Berok.

(02:00:13):
Joseph Walker had been Capra's go to guy to this point and
they'd work together on 20 films.
Joseph Berok only had two features under his belt before
this one. So before we explain why the
film has two credit of the DPS, what do we think of how It's a
Wonderful Life looks? I mean, it looks incredible.
It still does. I mean, if you watch the 4K
version of it, it's absolutely sublime.

(02:00:35):
It's so clean, it's so crisp, it's so well lit, so well shot,
and it has to be in black and white.
Probably want to be favorite black and white films.
It's just so well captured on that negative.
It's just the light and it's just incredible.
And normally if you're shooting black and white, you would need
really hard light for it to workfor it to get the contrast
ratio. So your blacks are black, your
whites are white, and you've gotno kind of balance in the

(02:00:56):
middle. This film has the same contrast
ratio across the whole thing, but at the same time they're
using different light sources tohave different emotions.
So just like was spoke about with John King's music, if you
look at the cinematography here,so as an example, we've got soft
light with low contrast, but thecontrast ratio stays the same.

(02:01:17):
So you have the same amount of light and shadow.
Basically. That's Mary's mother's house,
right? So it's a very nice low contrast
situation, hard light, soft contrast.
That's the building and loan, soit's hard lit.
So there's a seriousness to it. Soft light, hard contrast.
That's after they've come out ofthe water and seven Clarence and
the dry and all the clothes. Oh yeah, yeah, it's a soft

(02:01:37):
light, but a. Hard contrast.
So you just see that there's something serious going on
there, but it's a soft tone of character with Clarence.
And then you've got hard light, hard contrast, which is when
they get into 320 Sycamore, it'sbeen abandoned.
They're all backlit. So it's basically just
highlighting the emotion by using tone and using black and
white. It was never ever going to be
shot in colour. Joseph Walker later said the

(02:01:59):
Capra's plan was to always shootthis film in black and white.
He wanted to portrait with visual poetry through shadows
and light and that's exactly what he does with all of them
scenes, but uses different shadows in different light and
it still looks the same all the way through.
Brilliant. The black and white does give it
a timeless. Quality.
I think absolutely, yeah, I think the cinematography.
Is really modern looking. And the freeze frame you

(02:02:19):
mentioned earlier on, How cool is that?
Oh yeah, they're using kind of state.
Of the art lenses here, these are really sharp and just
really, really shows on the negative.
Yeah, I just think it really pops.
Off the screen and the look of the film, of course, from the
likeness of Bedford Falls to Pottersville, where it just
becomes film noir and then actually horror at the end.
Like that seeded Harry's grave. That could come from a Universal

(02:02:41):
horror film at the time. You know, the kind of
Frankenstein and Dracula films. Yeah, a hand cook about the
grave. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I think like those shots of the Churn and River where George
is contemplating suicide, they are so bleak and terrifying.
But you can feel like the icy chill, just, like, coming out of
the screen because they're so well shot.

(02:03:01):
And what struck me as well is just all the really great use of
close up, particularly on James Stewart.
I mean, we've mentioned them already.
But, you know, when he's argued with Potter in the boardroom and
he goes to leave but they say, no, we'll vote against Potter if
you stay. And it's that huge close up on
Stewart's anguished face. He realizes what that means.
The scene at the bar when he prays that one, when he comes
out of Mark Bailey's house and he gets right up to that camera

(02:03:24):
and he practically stares down it in horror, is everything
that's hitting him. It's incredible stuff.
See, I mean, there's multiple. DPS on the film.
But I don't think you can tell to watch it.
Not in a bad way, anyway. It all feels and looks as one
piece. And I think it's just superbly
shot. Yeah, well, with notice about
the cinematography is how intimate it feels.
We're right there at the Bailey table during family dinners.

(02:03:47):
We're pressed up close as hell during that kiss scene.
I feel nearly as left out. With Sam Wainwright, you're
more. Involved than Sam Wainwright and
those shots are George on the bridge where he's going to end.
It all we're right there with him then as well, but they can
then pull back and give us thesestunning establishing shots.
Bedford Falls is pretty much a character in the film and the
wide shots we get at the Main Street are fantastic.

(02:04:11):
I think Capra was showing off a.Set Yard.
Build as well, which we'll talk about.
But one of the most impressive things I think is the contrast
between Bedford Falls and Pottersville is brilliantly
handled. Visually, Bedford Falls is all
soft and warm. It feels and looks like a very
safe place. Pottersville is much more harsh,
shadows and neon lights, clearlyno influence to gain.
It's the same set, but it doesn't look like it or feel

(02:04:33):
like it. And my favorite shot in the film
does come in the Pottersville sequence.
After George leaves Mar Bailey'sboarding house and he runs
towards the camera. We get that super close, close
up of his face, and he looks around the place.
You look right into the camera. Yeah, that shot is incredible.
I mean, that's just one moment of many.
I think it's a great visual storytelling all the way
through. It would have been amazing if
Pottersville was in. Color like Wizard of Oz?

(02:04:55):
Yeah, Yeah, with all the neons. And then it went back to black.
And White when he's back again. That would have been cool.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like Death Proof? What I find incredible here is
that one. Of the DPS Joseph Barack, he
shot airplane Yeah in 19. 80. From Bedford Falls to Don't Call
Me Shirley. Unbelievable.

(02:05:17):
Yeah, but I. Echo a lot.
Of the things that. You fellas were saying the
cinematography is outstanding. 2distinct worlds that are created
here. The warmth of Bedford.
Falls the. Noir of Pottersville.
When George enters that alternate reality, you feel it
before anybody says a word because the lightning tells you
that something's really wrong, like you were saying, Westie.

(02:05:39):
And what I really like is how they shoot the domestic scenes.
There's an intimacy to that Bailey household.
It feels lived in. It feels dirty, for want of a
better word. It's real, it's cluttered, the
camera doesn't keep its distanceand it's right there with the
family. And then you've got those big
set pieces, the dance floor openin the swimming pool, the snowy
streets of Bedford Falls. They handle scale and in the sea

(02:06:01):
equally well, which really isn'teasy.
I think it's classical Hollywoodcraftsmanship, nothing showy,
everything in service of the story itself.
You've just said there, that wasreally interesting.
When? You said the warmth of Bedford
Falls. It's nearly impossible to shoot
warmth in black and white. That's crazy.
Yeah. So I said before that there are
two. Credited directors of
photography and It's a WonderfulLife.

(02:06:23):
I also said we'd tell the story of why that is, and we're about
to now on your mat. I am indeed.
So. There's actually three DPS that
worked on the film. First of all, Capra Hyde, a
cinematographer called Victor Milner.
And he'd won an Oscar in 1934 for Cleopatra.
But Capra just wasn't happy withhow the film was looking.

(02:06:44):
This is outrageous. When Milner got ill after a few
weeks, Kappa took the chance to fire him and almost everything
that Milner filmed was reshot. Wow.
Get well soon. I mean if you did clear.
Patra, it's going to. Be huge.
Isn't it in scale? Like yeah, reshot everything.
Ridley Scott Capra's like. Every.
Demanding Director. Ever rolled into one like

(02:07:06):
nightmare package in this one production?
Yeah. In Victor Mill now, he'd worked.
With Cecil B De Mille several times and apparently he was very
meticulous, as you might expect.Capra just took it as being slow
and pretentious. So get out, get out.
So. Capra then turned to his
trusted. Collaborator Joseph Walker, They
had worked together 20 times, like we said, including Mr.

(02:07:27):
Deeds goes to town, You can't take it with you, and Mr. Smith
goes to Washington. They managed to get Walker on a
loan from Columbia Pictures, butmidway through the shoot,
Columbia demanded Walker returned to finish a film for
them. Yeah, some reports say that.
Capran Walker had a disagreementon how to shoot 1 scene so Capra
fired him. Surely even Capra wouldn't do
that after working together for so long and maybe don't know.

(02:07:50):
But yeah, I mean, I don't think so.
But before Walker. Left the production.
He trained one of his chief camera operators, Joseph Barack,
so he could take over from him. Now, it's not documented who
exactly shot what, but Walker shot most of the film, set the
film styles, and then Barack took over.
And it's likely that Barack shotmost of the Pottersville
sequence because that was scheduled for later in the

(02:08:12):
shoot. Great, right?
So Joseph Barack was a. Filmmaker World.
War 2 veteran like Capra. Apparently he was the first
American cameraman to film the liberation of Paris in August
1944. Wow.
So when you see that footage, it's pretty famous footage.
It's probably the guy who shot It's a Wonderful Life behind the
camera, which is a bit mad. And airplane and airplane.

(02:08:34):
And Blazing Saddles. I.
Blazing Saddles, Yeah. No word recognition.
For the cinematography. And it's a wonderful life.
Interestingly, after this film, Joseph Walker and Frank Capra
never worked together again. So was there some truth in them
falling out after all? Maybe.
Who knows. But.
On a happier. Note it did launch the career of
Joseph Barack Blazing Saddles. He was Co DP on the Towering

(02:08:55):
Inferno and yeah, airplane. There it is.
Pick the wrong week to stop. Sniffing glue coming right at
us. But whichever Joseph shot what?
Scene. Some outstanding cinematography
here. Yeah, no, yeah, that was Shadow
of a doubt. So a.
Lot to get through there, famous.
Screenplay work from Francis Goodrich and Albert Haggert,

(02:09:15):
although the fellow with Capra. Impressive stuff from composer
Dmitri Tiomkin. He also a fellow with Capra and
the fantastic DPS where nobody seems to know.
Fellow with who? But in the end, it all turned
out pretty wonderful somehow. Yeah, it did.
That's why. It didn't get many Oscars.
No one knew who to give, what do.

(02:09:42):
Into the end of It's a WonderfulLife.
And so far, we've had a lot of very engaging set up, building
up to a big final act. And that's what we're going to
talk about now. Yeah, yeah.
The famous finale. Where Bedford Falls.
Comes together to help. The Baileys is coming up, but
before we get there, we've got Bedford Falls without George
Pottersville and an Angel who wants his wings.

(02:10:02):
Great. Iconic.
So Christmas Eve, Bedford Falls and.
All is well, but not for long. Thank you Uncle Billy on his way
to deposit. The building and loans.
Funds into the bank, Billy accidentally gives the $8000 to
Potter, leading to George becoming a Christmas crackpot.
Yeah. How is it going for USD?
Oh Billy. Absolute clutch.

(02:10:25):
God, it's. Just the playfulness here.
Now, we've said that Thomas Mitchell is fantastic in this
film and this is where he's absolutely fantastic because he
plays it with such childlike Glee.
When he's going in there, he's top of the world.
Harry's coming back, he's got 8 grand to stick in the bank.
Nothing can go wrong at all. Everything's just top notch and

(02:10:48):
he's just has a Digger Potter now.
That's completely out of character for him to do that
because he feels like he's on top and that's the universe
coming back around and saying, no, your place, there's no point
because if you stalk the fire, you're going to get burnt.
So stay out the way. Stay apart from it that you
don't want any part of this. He tries to be and challenge
Potter at his own game and failsimmediately.

(02:11:09):
And when he gives him that paperevery single time, I'm like, no,
don't give him that news for you, man.
It's got the egg. Run in it.
Jesus. And then the guy behind the
counter search your Dick. He's like, try that finger.
All had this this. Anxiety, this, panic this where
you just check your pockets 8 times.

(02:11:30):
The same pockets are the same, pants are the same coat.
You go back to that same coat and you're like yeah you just
say it's got to be there, it's got to be somewhere.
Many players. That's so well that panic and
that anxiety that comes across on the screen is just wonderful.
I love how this is cross cut as well with George helping out
Violet, but he doesn't have to. I know you'll get a job, I know

(02:11:50):
you're going to be all right. But then when Uncle Billy goes
into his office and George comesin and he's like, what's matter
with you? Everything's fine.
What's? The matter with you and it
really needs to hit because if you don't feel this anxiety,
it's the audience, you're not going to buy the end.
You're not going to buy the factthat he falls apart.
It absolutely smacks you all over and I'm so pleased it does

(02:12:13):
because it really makes the end and sing it really does.
He's too full of. Himself, Uncle Billy.
Showing part of the paper with Harry Bailey, war hero, on it,
rubbing it in. He feels like he's won at that
point. It's Harper does.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Agonizing to watch.
I mean to be fair. Billy's a total scanner brain,
so it feels like it was a matterof time before something like
this happened. String on his fingers.

(02:12:33):
Don't give this guy $8000 on Christmas Eve.
He's just going to go across theroad though.
I can get fucked. But Thomas Mitchell is really
good. He's been a.
Comedic foil to this point. But then you totally feel this
complete panic. Yeah.
What's happening? Oh, that's awful.
Yeah. And the scene that follows.
Where George loses it with. Billy at Billy's place.
Yeah, how great that that's got one of the most devastating

(02:12:55):
lines in the film where George is like one of us has gone to
jail. Well, it's not going to be me
massive. Stewart's delivery of that is
ridiculous. Yeah.
There's no humor at the end of. This when he leaves, he doesn't
like go to the squirrel and say that goes for you too.
It just leaves you. Empty.
It does, but it's such a simple set up like a.
Mistake. But it's the moment the entire
theory that works from yeah. I think something Capra seemed

(02:13:17):
to always understand in his films is that the best drama
often comes from human errors rather than like, yeah, big
conspiracies and stuff. And this is the perfect example.
Understandable errors as well. Everyone's.
Done this. Yes, of course.
Yeah, yeah, it's. Excruciating to watch.
Even Billy's squirrel can't bearit.
Then George comes home and. This is what I mean when I said

(02:13:38):
Steel just mapped out the performance in the set because
he's only given these hints at this anger inside him.
But this scene is, it's that glacier.
It's the pan of water finally boiling over.
And this whole sequence is so difficult to watch because,
like, when he sits down with hisyoungest and he just starts
quietly crying to himself as thekids, putting tinsel in the

(02:13:58):
sand, trying to play with them. Yeah.
When I watched this for the first time, I've vividly
remembered to sitting there going, I don't like where this
is going. This is supposed to be a happy
film. What's going on now?
Don't like this? Don't like this?
This isn't. Cool.
But. It just gets worse and it.
Escalates when he's kicking the chair around the kitchen, but he
he's pulling back on it slightly, like he's trying to
restrain himself. I don't even think he knows what

(02:14:21):
he's saying at this stage. So, you know, why do we have to
have all these kids? They're right there in front of
them. But he can't keep it in anymore
and he's fractured. But when he finally loses it and
he smashes that room up and you realise what he's laying into
with his kicks and his punches, they are all his plans and
models. He's still building stuff, he
still has dreams, but they've literally been pushed into the

(02:14:41):
tiniest corner in the room because the family's taken over
everything else in the house andthat's all that's left.
His dream. It's brilliant visual
storytelling. And then when he turns around to
face his family and he realizes what he's done, that expression
on his face is just utter horror.
He's unrecognizable in the moment.
He doesn't look like Jimmy Stewart.
No, it's like a Jekyll and high thing.

(02:15:03):
And you can hear a pin drop in that moment.
It's it's terrifying. Genuinely.
It is very dark. Yeah.
I mean. There's a monster here, isn't
he? Smashing things up.
Yeah. Why do we have to have all these
kids? It's one of the most horrendous
lines in cinema. Yeah, yeah, It's unbelievable.
My parents always laughed at that though.

(02:15:25):
That explains a lot. Like.
Yeah, you little bastard, but you don't need any dialogue in
this. Scene It's all in Stuart's
physical performance. When he grabs a hold of Tommy so
tight with tears in his eyes. We know the way he's carrying
the potential implications of Uncle Billy's actions.
Billy bullshit. And one look at George and Mary

(02:15:46):
can see that too. It's devastating stuff.
Yeah, it is. I think it's the hardest.
Scene in the film. To watch it really is, yeah, I
think it's incredible. Because obviously when?
George snaps and starts trashingthe living room.
It's horrible, but the build up of that where he's walking
around the house just being a right miserable sword, There's
loads of humor in that. Yeah.
Tommy, his little son, followinghim around going excuse me, I

(02:16:06):
burped. Always makes me laugh.
Brilliant. George on the phone.
There's usually was teacher going absolutely crazy on
Christmas Eve. Yeah, I'll.
String her up, threatening to punch Mr. Walsh's lights out.
I mean, that didn't work out, did it?
Not really. But the tone balancing is
incredible. Yeah.

(02:16:26):
George, Dear Samaria White Raft have all these kids.
A horrific line. It's kind of funny as well at
the same time. Yeah, I think it's Stuart.
He's so good. He can skate all these lines.
Yeah. And he's superb all the way.
Through this sequence. If I'm picking 1 scene of his, I
might go for this one. Then again I might not.
He's like good. Yeah.
So after his spectacular. Dressing down from Potter,

(02:16:48):
George. Transit sorrows in Martinis.
There's a lovely bit of juxtaposition here.
The establishing shot at the barlooks so inviting from outside,
wonderful music playing. But then we go inside and George
is beyond despair, completely agitated, looking for anything
to take his pain away. And you can feel that pain.
The moment when he's praying is really telling.

(02:17:08):
I'm sure that when things have gotten so desperate for people
watching, maybe that they may have turned to a higher power to
save them when they might not necessarily have done in the
past. And that's what George does
here. He's not a praying man.
But he's got absolutely nowhere else to turn.
It's incredibly powerful stuff. But then to make matters worse,
Mr. Welsh, who I don't know whathe's doing here on Christmas

(02:17:31):
Eve, why isn't he with his wife?That's weird.
He's been crying for an hour. Yeah, he was with his wife and
he just left. How wonderful you deal with
that. I'm going to the pub.
Sick about crying and he catchesGeorgia Butte right in the mush.
Yeah, when, George. Starts to pray, How good.
Steve, are they? This is the guy who was.

(02:17:51):
Loving. Down the street like.
Goofy an hour ago, now completely by him as being on
the brink, but the scene just before this is when George goes
to Potters to beg him to bail him out and Potter just refuses.
Awful. I'm not sure there's another
scene anyway where I despise thevillain as much as I do Potter
in that moment. He's horrible.
It's a total dishonesty. He's got the.
Money and he's going to let thisGoodman go to jail to make

(02:18:14):
himself even richer and if he knows as well the way that
scenes framed because George is still sitting on the floor
basically but Potters looming over him and over Potter
shoulder there's a bust of Napoleon.
It also seems to be looking downon George.
Great. Like 2 dictators like bearing
down on him. Yeah, it's great.
And martinis, as well as some great.
Foreshadowing for the end. I think Martini himself is

(02:18:36):
absolutely fantastic when he's like, why you drink so much, my
friend? Yeah, he's, oh, go home, Mr.
Benny. He's just looking after him.
Nick's looking after him. But after he gets hit by Wall,
she goes, you've just hit my best friend.
Best friend. That's the impact he has.
Yeah, I'm sure Martini's got 8 grand in.
The safe he's. Pulling that money in, surely.
You might have. In the moment, in the bar where

(02:18:56):
George is praying. The camera slowly pushes in on
George as he talks. If you look closely, you'll see
the close up with Stewart is a bit grainy and unfocused.
That's because Capra didn't planto shoot a close up.
But Stewart was so good and portrayed so much desperation
that Capra had the editor, William Hornbeck, blow up the
shot and reframe it to zoom in. That's why the quality isn't as
good. Yes, you all said that he was

(02:19:17):
thinking. About all the loneliness and
hopelessness of some people in the world, especially on the
back of his experiences in the war.
And he started crying for real filming it.
Wow. And copyright filmed.
There's a wide shot because he wasn't expecting it.
So it's an incredible moment, isn't it?
Yeah, it is. And then it's time for Clarence
Odd Body to make his appearance.Angel Second class, played by
Henry Travers. He's got the IQ of a rabbit,

(02:19:40):
according to Joseph, which is harsh coming from a St.
How was he in the film? Though.
First class, that's what he is. I think.
He's already got a presence. And a personality before we even
see his face on account of this conversation with the big man.
He's got a great voice. Yeah.
And Travis? Brings such lovable charm.
To Clarence, such warmth. He is the embodiment of a

(02:20:02):
guardian Angel. He plays it so gentle, but he's
not afraid to get dirty either when he's required to bite a
policeman's wrist. And Henry Travers is from.
Near our neck of the woods. He's from Preta, which is what,
like 30 miles from us? Yeah, yeah.
Northeast from the northeast, Yeah, yeah.
Incredible. He's brilliant.
When Joyce had clown from the water.

(02:20:23):
George's dive in is like perfect.
That's unbelievable, Tom Daley. But I love the scene in the.
Cabin. Where?
Clarence grants George's wish toarise him from existence.
Kind of get Clarence's back story there as well.
I like it when the night watchman fella says where do you
come from? Heaven matter of fact.
Yeah, just slowly walks out. It's.

(02:20:44):
Great and Henry Travis had started as a.
Stage actor and he became known in Hollywood for playing warm,
bumbling older man. He'd been in some big films like
The Invisible Man, the Claude Rains Classic and Shadow of a
Doubt, the Hitchcock film, and Copper had actually passed
Travis over for a while and you can't take it with you, but
thought of him straight away forClarence instead.

(02:21:05):
Well, I'm glad he did, yes. But seeing the Watchmen?
'S cabin you've got. Clarence, who has loads of
comedy lines, talking to George,who was like, contemplating
suicide. And I believe both of them.
Yeah. And it's in the same scene.
It's all, like, handled so well.It is.
So Clarence is here. But as far as?
Bedford Falls is concerned George is gone.
Should we take a trip into Pottersville?

(02:21:26):
Let's do it if we have to go on.Let's go.
So George Bailey is no longer with us.
Clarence has deleted them from history, so we now see what the
world would have looked like without George.
In one of the most famous sequences from the film, George
returns to Bedford Falls, now called Pottersville, to find
nobody knows who he is. I was all playing out for all

(02:21:48):
devastating stuff. Yeah, but obviously he's never
been. Born so he could do with a
couple of stiff drinks. So it's back to Martini Slash
Nix with his new best friend. I mean, Clarence could look more
out of place at that bar. Yeah, asking for mulled wine.
But he put his hands on Nick's like.
Thank you my lovely man. Nick's unbelievable here that.

(02:22:13):
Accent We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get
drunk fast. Is that clear?
Do I have to slip in my left fora convincer to Clarence?
Like a nice old man, but he has like.
Given them your. Orders to get on the drinks menu
as soon as possible. Come on now, things are
beginning. To get a little odd and it's.
Dawning on us, just like it is on George that this is actually

(02:22:35):
real. Nick doesn't know who he is
without judges existence. Mr. Gower poisons a kid and has
spent time in the joint. The start of the tragedy and
George's road back to redemptionreally hits with a bang.
It does, I think what's great. About Pottersville.
Is it's not just things are bad now it's really specific, like
really personal CD, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, Mr. Gower wasn't

(02:22:55):
saved by George. If he went to prison, he became
an alcoholic. He lost everything.
Yeah. And then he gets water sprayed
in his face. I mean, even though Gower wasn't
exactly nice to George earlier, it's still pretty sad seeing
him, like, totally humiliated like that.
Yeah. Mr. Cower.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, so after this. George, he's doing the rounds.
He's trying to find someone thatrecognizes him or something that

(02:23:16):
he recognizes. So he's off to Bailey Park, but
that's no longer there and it's Harry's grave instead.
And I don't know if this is my favorite scene in the film, but
Stephanie got my favorite line from the film.
And I mentioned this in the Cinema Trophy, but this is
basically a scene from a horror film.
It is that whaling on the. Soundtrack the howl.
And wind the black and white starkness of it all.

(02:23:37):
And then obviously Harry's Graf,which just feels like a really
big tip of the hat to A Christmas Carol when Scrooge
sees his own grave. But it's the conversation
between George and Clarence herewhen George refuses to believe
Harry drowned as a kid. He went to war.
He saved the lives of every man on that transport.
And it's Clarence's reply. Every man on that transport
died. Harry wasn't there to save them

(02:23:57):
because you weren't there to save Harry.
Like, I get goosebumps just thinking about that line, just
thinking about the ramificationsof George's actions.
Like all those mothers without sons, children without fathers,
because George wasn't around to do something when he was just 12
years old. Yeah.
And that's the point of the film.
You can't know the ripple effectof you being in the world.

(02:24:19):
You've just got to trust in it. Yeah.
The delivery there as well. It's just it's like a child
delivery man you can save. Them because you were there,
save Harry. Come on, it's obvious, isn't it?
Yeah, it's it's it's so well done.
Yeah, yeah. The symmetry is the darkest
moment. In the film, it is like a
universal horror. You're right, man.
It's all the mist. Yeah.
Like half expecting lunch and you have someone to show up.

(02:24:39):
Yeah. But in the kind of unspoken
thing as. Well, is that, yeah, Bailey Park
that George built, that no longer exists now as well?
Yeah, one of. Many scenes.
That highlights the impact that people have in other people's
lives. Like you've been saying, it just
makes you stop and think about your impact on others.
Yeah. It does things that we just take
for granted. Yeah.

(02:24:59):
But I mean, this is taken directly from A Christmas Carol.
Yeah. Yeah.
Like we've been seeing the wholestory is pretty much a carbon
copy for It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah.
And then Back to the Future too.Took.
This pretty much exactly, Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really.
Interesting. It's Bailey Park.
Is now a. Cemetery in that George wasn't

(02:25:20):
there to build it up, instead itgoes down.
So it's the opposite of everything that he tried to do.
Yeah. And he.
Really now? Needs the one person who knows
him better than he knows himself.
And he needs to find Mary, because surely that is still.
The same surely? Love prevails throughout all of
this madness. She'll recognize him and he's
just a wide eyed maniac at this point.

(02:25:43):
She's just about. To close the library.
He needs some kind. Of sense.
He just needs to find himself again.
He's completely lost and this isthe last straw.
The way this is played as well by Donna Reed is fantastic.
She looks lonely, she looks miserable, she looks like she's
lost her purpose, so that she never really had a purpose in

(02:26:05):
life and that George was her purpose.
She's Adrian from Rocky, isn't she?
More or less. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she.
Means she works in the library, so she's not really allowed to
talk, but you get the feeling that she doesn't really know
anyone or doesn't converse with anybody.
Yeah, it has that sense of loneliness to this character, to
be honest. He doesn't approach it very
well. He's fucking terrifying.
No grabbing a hold of it. She's like, it's absolutely

(02:26:26):
insane there. She just runs away from him.
But the thing that I get from this is not just Mary's
reaction, it's everyone that he knows.
When he goes into that bar and she runs into the back and hides
herself, she's like, that's my wife.
And she's like, this is just toomuch for everybody.
But then he names everyone and it's a similar shot to what he's
in the building alone and he's trying to convince them but

(02:26:46):
everyone's looking at with such disdain and such hatred.
And then birds outside starts shooting at him.
What shots? Doesn't even aim, just.
Bird straight on the gun like Alfrom.
Diehard, you had a Is that goingto be his excuse?
But I mean, this to me is what hits home with George and hits

(02:27:07):
home with me that he wanted to build things and he's built
something that even he didn't see.
He built something that's even more important than a bridge,
more important than a building. He built a family and he built a
relationship, and that has gone and he wants it back.
Yeah. Mary is a lonely.
Spinster should have had men queuing around the block for a
Surely some would have been backon the scene, yeah?

(02:27:28):
Don't I? Reed sells it.
Though she's, like, unrecognizable.
Is this Mary? She is.
And there's a nice bit of foreshadowing before this as
well. The scene in bed when Mary tells
George she's pregnant. He says, why do you marry a guy
like me? And she says to keep from being
an old maid. Yeah.
Which is kind of what she becomes.
And to keep from marrying Sam Wainwright, obviously.
Yeah. Yeah.
Last, who's a stork? Yeah, he's had him on the nest.

(02:27:50):
Mary's. Far too good for.
All that he. Horse shit.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. We see more of Bedford Falls.
Slash pottersville in the final act here, and the set for the
town was rather impressive. It was designed by Emil Curry,
the set decorator, and overseen by Jack Okey, the art director.
It was built over two months at Encino Ranch and at the time was

(02:28:11):
one of the biggest sets that hadever been made with massive.
It covered 4 acres including 75 stores and buildings, 20
transplanted oak trees, a work and bank, amaze, a factory
district, a residential and slumarea which is insane.
The Main Street was 300 yards long, the length of three city
blocks and cats and dogs were allowed to roam the set to give

(02:28:33):
it a lived in feel. Amazing.
Did they ever use it for anything?
Else to live in afterwards. I am just.
Live in? Yeah, that's fine.
Work and bank. That's unnecessary.
What I said, one of the best. Well, it was adapted.
From the set that IKEA would build for Cimarron like a
western epic in 1931, right OK yeah yeah, but the only bad
thing is that the. Raised the set in. 1954 that
could have been a real money spinner.

(02:28:55):
Christmas tours from the BedfordFalls set.
Oh, good credit in the tour, yeah.
I would just live there to be honest.
And. As we know, the final act of
the. Film all takes place on
Christmas Eve and Bedford, Folsom, Pottersville are both
covered in snow because of this.So to create the snow cap
returned to the head of Archaeoseffects team, Russell Sheeman,
and they developed a new chemical snort made from

(02:29:17):
formite, gypsum, ground ice water, soap flakes and sugar.
Yeah. So at the time, snow in.
Hollywood films are usually being created by painting
cornflakes, whitening and dropping them onto the set,
right? Well, that always needed loads
of post production dubbing because of the sound of the
cornflakes, like crunching underpeople's feet and cap.
I wanted to record the dialogue live, so that's why the need of
the different solution for this.Yeah, you can tell that

(02:29:40):
dialogues recorded. Live as well, yeah, yeah,
definitely. You can tell that's a.
Solution as well. When he pulls Clarence out of
the water, when he's swimming with him, when he's face, it's
like coagulated on the face, isn't?
It Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looks like when he slams his
face. In the cake and misses
Doubtfire. Dropping in the coffee, Yeah.

(02:30:01):
It's a little Cupertino. And to create all the snow for
the. Film They used 300 tons of
shaved ice, 300 tons of gypsum, 300 tons of plaster and 6000
gallons of formite soap and water, with huge wind machines
blowing the mixture over the setto make it look like snowfall.
And as we said, this replaced cornflakes as the Hollywood
standard. And Shaman won a technical

(02:30:22):
achievement Oscar forward, whichis the only Oscar of the film.
One. Yeah, I think the snowfall.
Especially as it's falling around the streets.
That looks really, really good. Yeah, it does.
It looks realistic. Oh, looks amazing.
It looks better than the. Snow in Home Alone, OH.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Yeah. But when he's.
Running up the street, he's skidding in it.
That feels like it's just layingdown on the ground.
Yeah, Frosty's not being better.Before we finish on

(02:30:48):
Pottersville. We have our second DHRM patron
question and it comes from DianeJones.
Hi, Dean. Hello, Dean.
Hi, Dean. So Dean's asking.
Where would you rather? Live Bedford Falls or
Pottersville and why? I think Pottersville looks way
more fun, says Deanne. Right.
It definitely does. All those neon signs, one of
them just says girls, girls, girls.

(02:31:10):
Yeah, like. A Mötley Crüe song?
Yeah. It's a Mötley Crüe album.
So let's see what you're going for.
I mean, I don't know, I'm reallytorn.
To be honest, I love Bedford Falls.
I think the older I get I'm going to be in Bedford Falls.
To be honest, when I was a youngman, maybe Pottersville, but I
would like to kind of cheat a little bit and say Bedford Falls

(02:31:33):
up until about half 7 and then go through Pottersville.
That's. What I would enjoy but if.
I have to choose 100% Bedford Falls.
It doesn't look more. Fun though everyone is.
Miserable in Pottersville. And like, the point is, it's not
about whether it looks fun or not.
The point is the film is about George, and this isn't George's
hometown anymore. Like everything he's worked for,

(02:31:55):
everything he's done to protect it from Potter is gone, and
Potter's one. And that's why everyone's
miserable in a place where someone like Potter reels the
roost. That's not that's not where I
want to go. I'm just saying it's a gaudy,
loud neo nightmare. And I already live and see him.
So it's Bedford Faults for me. Deep cut.
Deep cut, yeah. Neon Gordie Nightmare.

(02:32:17):
Get it? In there, midnight dancing,
cocktails, bars, fights every Wednesday night, Yeah.
The glitz and the glam was. Not to love.
I mean, it does look like a lot of fun, but I think you could
get in a farm. Far too much trouble in
Pottersville. One wrong word in to the wrong
person. You're picking up your teeth

(02:32:38):
with a broken arm for certain. Getting pot shots that you're
from bed. Yeah.
Yeah, definitely, yeah. I think it's like.
Vegas. Great for a week.
Of debauchery but it's absolutely unsustainable to live
there so I'm going with Bedford Falls yeah another influence on
back of the. Future as well Pottersville and
when Biff takes over definitely but.
Biffsville basically is Niffsville.
Yeah. Yeah.

(02:32:58):
Well, I think Bedford Falls is like Hill Valley, isn't it?
It is, Yeah. Oh, yeah.
Yeah. Nice.
So that is Pottersville. We've been through the.
Nightmare Before Christmas. So I think we deserve the joyous
aftermath, don't we? Oh, let's do it.
Thank goodness. The closing minutes if it's a
wonderful. Life or a festive feast.
Clarence reverses George's wish,putting him back into existence

(02:33:21):
and unbridled joy breaks loose. We see George running through
Bedford Falls wishing everyone and everything Merry Christmas,
Clarence getting his much deserved wings and the people of
the town coming together to helpthe Bailey's.
Yes, try and keep it together. Matt, what do you think of this?
I can do it. I can do it.
I can do it. Come on man.
Get mad to go first. Great idea.

(02:33:44):
Here we go. Come on, do it.
If you look it up, the. Actual dictionary definition of
joy is the last 10 minutes of It's a Wonderful Life.
When he's back on that bridge, the.
Timing is so perfect. It's when he literally asks God
to let him live again, with all the consequences that he knows

(02:34:04):
he's going to face or he thinks he's going to face.
That's when the snow starts to fall, and that's when you know
it's not back. And Bert arrives.
Bert knows him. Zeus, whose pedals are in his
pocket. And then the tricky thing about
talking about the ending for me is like everything from this
moment on, it's just blurry because it's just tears.
From now on, I've not actually seen properly the ending.

(02:34:25):
George sprinting. Down that street is.
So iconic. It's really funny when he bangs
on Potter's window and he says like.
Because Potter must be thinking so.
He's not before. Like.
What's going on? Yeah, yeah, he's going to jail.
That he's going to kill. Himself last time.
Also. But then it's the reunion and
group hug to end all group hugs when George gets home and

(02:34:46):
everyone is pouring into the house.
But it comes down to two momentsfor me.
The 1st is when Ernie reads out the telegram from Sam who says
he's sending $25,000 to help George out.
Because all throughout the film George has treated Sam quite
shitty. He's never had a good thing to
say about him, but there's a lovely touch from Suit when he
he is this and he just bows his head ever so slightly, as if

(02:35:08):
he's thinking I should have beena much better friend of Sam
because I did not deserve this. And it's a really humbling
moment for him. But then he would.
It's the moment Harry's home, and it's that toast to my Big
Brother George, the richest man in town.
Boom, there it is. Niagara Falls.

(02:35:28):
It's just unbelievable. It's.
So so. Good because you feel exactly
the way he feels. You are elated.
Every single thing is just fine.There's not a problem.
Everything's just wonderful and you know it's just Mary yet
again saving the day that you would don't really realize.

(02:35:49):
I mean basically she sets up thebest Kickstarter I've ever seen
in me like. Rallying around, she doesn't say
we need money. She said he needs help and then
just say, well, what does he need?
It doesn't matter. It could have been anything, you
know, but that it just happens to be money that he needs and
that's fine. From Billy emptying that money
out, I'm absolutely gone. Yeah, me too.

(02:36:10):
From that moment on, it's. Just this.
Absolute avalanche of joy. It's just this waterfall of
overpowering human nature, and it's like purest form.
And it's just, it's nicest form.It's just the way the world
should be and it's not allowed to be.
And it's just really gets to me that everybody loves this,
everybody wants to feel like this, but you just can't quite

(02:36:31):
get there. And it takes films like this to
show that it's possible to feel like that.
That toast from Harry, ah, the richest man in town.
He's done it. He's beat pottery, he's won.
He's absolutely won by not caring about himself or his
whole life. He can go anywhere he wants now,
do anything he wants. He's a success.
The building alone is going to be fine.
Everything's going to be OK. It's just a wonderful thing.

(02:36:53):
And the my absolute favorite from this whole end. 7 minutes
or so, Harry gets a telegram, Bird goes to pick him up from
the airport. I got him here as quick as I
could. He still has a chance to go home
and get his fucking accordion. I love that.
You've got to get Harry there, man 2.
Seconds. This is going to kick off.

(02:37:14):
I need this shit. It's not in the back of his.
Cruiser do. You know what I mean?
He's picked that up either on the way to the airport or on the
way back to get Harry. Harry, 2 minutes, man, I know
you're going to see your brother, but we're like, break
this out of the party. His favorite film about the end
gets me every time. Love it.
Yeah. George Bailey running through
the. Streets of Bedford Falls
shouting Merry Christmas to everyone.

(02:37:35):
Basically is Christmas to me. Yeah.
One of the most beautiful thingsin any film.
It's because of earned it. Two hours of back story, which
is there to basically set up thefinal 10 minutes.
Yeah. But that two hours is still so
engaging in its own right. Yeah.
So when this Combs, the feelingsjust go through the roof.
Yeah. I look forward to all being shot
as well as the differences in lighting that we talked about in
Pottersville. George was filmed in all tight

(02:37:56):
framing, loads of close-ups to make it all very restrictive.
Claustrophobic, wasn't it? Yeah.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
And then back in Bedford. Falls.
The cinematography completely changes.
It's all wide shots, lots of open framing.
The camera seems to move more fluidly, and that contrast works
great. Yeah, and the Merry Christmases,
Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter is great Pot almost think George is
completely flipped at that point.

(02:38:17):
Yeah, just mortal. He's been a martinis.
Yeah. But my.
Favorite Merry Christmas, you wonderful.
Old building in loan. Yeah, yeah, get out.
It's them tracking shots. As well when you get the shot of
the building. That's going the same pace as he
is. Brilliant.
So the crosscuts per valley, Yeah, it's really great.
Then that final scene, one of the most.
Iconic final scenes in any movie.

(02:38:38):
First of all, how nice is Mary? She comes in and she saves
strangers in a house and she just goes, oh, hello, you're so
welcoming starting. The rest warrant I'll just.
Stick a chicken over the fire. Give us 5.
And the narratives are all pulled together and wrapped.
Up perfectly. We managed to get references to
all the previous characters without it feeling crammed in.

(02:38:59):
Sam Wainwright, you said, mentioned Tom shows back up.
Great to see Annie back in there.
Yeah, and obviously Harry. Coming back in.
But the bit for me that gives megoosebumps and gets tears in me
eyes is when he gets the book and the message from Clarence.
That's a message from a very dear friend of mine.
What you're doing. Yeah.
Yeah. But George is all completes.
Clarence gets his wings. The theme resolves itself when

(02:39:21):
it turns out George was right tohelp people all the time.
I mean, what more can you say? The greatest final scene of a
Christmas film they'll ever be? Surely it's unbeatable.
It's got to be. It's just that message as well.
You've said it there from. Clarence, it's just unbelief.
Just thanks for the wings. Yeah, I love that.
Attaboy, Clarence. Attaboy, Clarence.
And then the bell. Rings and then thanks for the

(02:39:42):
wings. Imagine if it just cut a
Clarence in KFC. Buffalo Wings, KFC.
Mr. Trick there. That should be the.
Advert every Christmas? Sure.
Definitely. Clarence getting his wings?
Yeah, definitely. I mean.
What more is that I say that everybody hasn't said because we

(02:40:04):
all this, this end sequence is just so effective.
We all think the same thing, butthis is what it's been gearing
up to. This is what we're seeing about
this ending is earned 100% because it's been misery on top
of misery on top of despair on top of suicide.
And then the snow comes back andsuch a weird is lifted.

(02:40:27):
I mean, Elia doesn't even come interest George running like a
madman through Bedford Falls screaming his head off crazy
when he gets back home. It's probably my favorite final
scene of any film. It never fails to slug me right
in the good like we've been seeing.
The image of George surrounded by Mary and the kids is

(02:40:49):
wonderful enough, but when everybody in town begins to pour
in, dump and money on the table,I mean, just getting goosebumps
talking about it. I generally go to see this film
at the cinema every year. You know, it's always playing
around here. And I always dread this moment
because it's guaranteed Niagara Falls, meaning credits roll and

(02:41:09):
I have to walk out of the cinemawith like a BLOB and mess.
So I'm usually like, digging my nails into my hand or biting my
hand. So to take away like the
possibility of tease, like Clarence biting.
Your own wrist, yeah. Joseph.
It is a perfect end, that bit when.
He takes the end of the banners known as.
Kisses it, puts it back. Oh, it's great.

(02:41:31):
Love for everything. Like that?
Yeah, kids. But the one.
Thread in the film that isn't. Tied up is that we never find
out what happens to Potter for keeping the $8000 if anything
actually does happen to him at all.
And Hollywood films at the time was still operating under the
hears court and that stated antagonists and movies must
either be punished or repent fortheir actions, which Potter

(02:41:52):
never does. Yeah, as far as we know what he
makes off. With the $8000, yeah, I guess
Capra didn't want to interrupt. The ending.
By cutting away to another sequence with Potter or
something like that? Yeah, wouldn't that wouldn't
have worked. There's no.
Way to put it, no. But the haze.
Code. They did demand some changes to
the script. Good.
Richard Hackett had to remove some words.
They had to take out. Jerk.

(02:42:13):
Dang, impotent, lousy. I swear to God and nuts to you,
they all have to go. I thought the last one was going
to be motherfucker just from nowhere.
Merry Christmas. Motherfucker, actually, at that

(02:42:33):
moment, possibly. You could have done that way.
He's Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter.
And then the the money's there on the desk and he's he's
assistant who pushes him around.Could have shaken his head, not
said anything, just left the room.
Yeah, Potter shouting after him and just left completely by
himself. So I think you wouldn't know
it's first time around as well wouldn't.
It, which would be nice, yeah, just leaving the room, yeah.
In an early script there is a scene.
Where we see Potter approaching the Bailey house while the

(02:42:55):
celebrations are ongoing, planning to return the $8000.
And there was another plan scenewhere Clarence confronted Potter
about stealing the 8 grand but in this end and Potter would get
told he was going to hell and die after having a heart attack.
But Capra decided this ending was a little too grim.
Yeah, it is a bit. A little bit.
Imagine the role that the house was safe or.

(02:43:16):
Strapped to his wheelchair. I'm not interested in Europe.
So. We're at the end.
The narrative threads, aside from the pot I want, are all
pulled together pretty expertly.To say their land is a bit of an
understatement. And when you're talking famous
movie moments, the whole final act and final scene of It's a
Wonderful Life is about as big as it gets.

(02:43:39):
The biggest Huge. Gargantuan.
Reception and awards. It's a Wonderful life with a
Stone Cold. Christmas classic nowadays, of
course, but it wasn't always that way, was it?
No, no, no. ATR.
Amazonian. Jill.
First Class is yet to fill us inon the reception of the film

(02:44:00):
after it's released on December the 20th, 1946.
So take it away please, Matt. Yep, just got me wings and
everything. So budget was. $3.7 million.
Which was very expensive for thetime, but it made just 3.3
million at the box office and left Capra half $1,000,000 in
debt. It did well at the Oscars, all

(02:44:20):
nominated for five best picture,best director, best actor for
James Stewart, best from editingfor William Hornbeck and best
sound editing for John Ahlberg. And as we've said, Russell
Sheeman and Archaeo's effects department won a special
technical achievement award. Amazing.
A bomb at the box. Office then.
So Liberty had taken out a one and a half million dollar bank
loan to pay for the film. So when it didn't make its money

(02:44:42):
back, it put them in massive trouble and cap right as
partners. The sole Liberty to Paramount
Pictures in 1947, which is a real shame.
Yeah, yeah. The film Bowman came.
As a bit of a shock, Archaeo hadmoved the release date forward
from January 47th to December 46th as they were so confident
with the film. Just before the premier, Liberty
Films held a private preview at the Ambassador Hotel in LA,

(02:45:06):
attended by over 350 people, including Clark Gable, Gary
Cooper and Claudette Colbert. Right.
The audience reaction was so enthusiastic that fans mobbed
the actors and the celebrities. Yeah, the police had to be
called, apparently. To control the crowd.
Incredible riding over George Bailey.
But I mean, you might think it would be.
The perfect time to. Release it like post war people
looking for something comfortingof course.

(02:45:27):
Or maybe that's just what they were looking for at the time.
I don't know. Maybe.
Yeah, looks like it could have been the plans to release it in
January. Is crazy.
Yeah, that's insane. Ridiculous.
I mean the. Critics were on board over with
it. At the time, either Bosley
Crowther, writing for the New York Times, said the weakness of
this picture is the sentimentality of it.
It's illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are

(02:45:48):
charming and his small town's a beguiling place, but somehow
they don't resemble reality, right.
OK, but Clarence doesn't? I'll give him that.
Yeah, Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I think, George.
Is fairly complex. And grounded, though.
Really grounded. Completely realistic, yeah.
Yeah, 100%, yeah. And also at the time, Manny
Farber wrote. In the New Republic, to make his

(02:46:09):
points, Capra always takes an easy, simple minded path that
doesn't give much credit to the intelligence of the audience.
Wow. I'd say it does cut.
Some corners and the. Storytelling, maybe, like George
and Mary getting married in the same sequences that run on the
bank. But it works for me.
It doesn't feel convoluted. It's nothing easy in the film.
I think it's just because it's. Simple it.

(02:46:29):
Seems easy and the finisherman. Rog Roger Ebert, He reviewed
It's a Wonderful Life in 1999. So over 50 years after it came
out, what did he rated out of four?
Do we think anything other than 4?
Yeah, of course it was 4 stars. Out of four, to the surprise of
nobody. And he said what's remarkable is
how well it holds up over the years.

(02:46:50):
It's one of those ageless movies, like Casablanca, that
improves with age. So movies should only be seen
once. Others can be viewed an
indefinite number of times. They improve with familiarity.
It's a Wonderful Life falls in the second category.
Sure does. Too true, Rogers.
Nailed it, yeah. Yeah, as always, nothing new
there in 1947 the year. After the film came out, the FBI

(02:47:12):
placed the film on their list ofsuspected communist propaganda.
They issued a memo called And It's a Wonderful Life, a
potential communist infiltrationof the motion picture industry,
that said that Potter was written as an attempt to
discredit bankers, which according to them, was a common
trick used by communists. Common trick?
Always. Casting Lionel Barrymore,
Scrooge type figures other thesecommunists, bloody commies all

(02:47:37):
that. Bankers are not a nice guy.
Well, yeah, yeah. It's a Wonderful Life was a real
Christmas. Turkey at the time, then, but
that didn't last, did it? Nah, no, because after.
Liberty Films was sold a Paramount It's a Wonderful Life
sat gathering dust for years andthen in 1974, due to an error,
the copyright wasn't renewed properly and that led to the

(02:47:59):
film passing into public domain and that means it was free for
TV stations to broadcast. So it started being shown on
television every Christmas. The status of the film grew and
grew and then by the mid 80s it was a firm Christmas classic.
And since then, after all the copyright issues were sorted
out, NBC broadcast the film every Christmas Eve in the
United States, and Channel 4 do the same in the UK.

(02:48:21):
Wow. Yeah, and you watch it every.
Year, right, Matt? Absolutely do.
Yeah, yeah. So quite a story for.
It's a wonderful life. Then off the screen as well as
on a flop on release and pretty much forgotten for 30 years
before mounting A comeback Rockywill be proud of.
Absolutely became a must see movie and maybe the biggest
Christmas classic of them all. It's definitely up there.

(02:48:41):
That's. What it is I?
Would agree. Sequels and influence There were
never any sequels made to it's a.
Wonderful Life, but there maybe could have been one.
In 2013, two producers called Alan J Schwalb and Bob
Farnsworth announced they would be continuing the tale in the
sequel called It's a Wonderful Life.

(02:49:04):
The rest of the story I didn't realize there was a rest.
Of the story to be. Honest.
No. That's got Hallmark written all
over. It it really has.
Yes, so the. Synopsis for the sequel is on.
IMDb Do you want to hear it or not?
Definitely OK. George Bailey's troubled
grandson also named George Bailey, so not not cutting
corners there is forever changedwhen his Aunt Zuzu, played again

(02:49:27):
by Carolyn Grimes, comes back asan Angel and reveals how much
better the world would have beenif he had never been born right,
Right. Sounds a bit depressing just.
Go and kill yourself, George. Yeah, miserable.
That's it. And never got.
Far though. Paramount.
Put the kibosh on it and they said no project relating to It's
a Wonderful Life can proceed without a license from
Paramount. Yeah.

(02:49:48):
I mean, obviously a couple of absolute chances these guys.
Yeah, that's ridiculous. Yeah.
There been no sequels but both Jimmy.
Stewart and Donna Reed reprise their roles of George and Mary
more than once when they appeared in a few radio versions
in the 40s and 50's, The Luxe Radio Theatre and Screen Guild
Theatre both broadcast versions.You can find those broadcasts

(02:50:09):
online, so search. For them, if you'd like to hear
them, they're always good for getting into the Christmas
spirit. Yeah, great.
In terms of the legacy. Of It's a Wonderful Life.
Then obviously a huge Christmas classic nowadays and a stable of
the festive television schedule.How can we see its influence
since 1946 though? I think any Christmas film.
That has made since, yeah, has elements of it.

(02:50:29):
And I mean, we've touched on so many references that we've just
popped into our head as we've been talking about it, to be
honest, over the last few hours.But anything that deals with the
main characters redemption within a redemption arc with
that kind of, you know, the search for truth, I guess, is
always there. But I mean, the Bishop's Wife,
which came out a year after this, I think that's got
elements to it. Wings of Desires got elements to

(02:50:51):
it. And then further up the road,
you've got Groundhog Day, which I think has massive elements to
it. Oh yeah.
Yeah. And then I think.
They tried to. Remake it.
Well, in my opinion, they tried to remake it with Nicolas Cage
and the family man. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember
that. It's just absolute testimony.
To this original idea, the original script, the ACT and the
technical prowess, everything, it just can't be duplicated.

(02:51:13):
There's a lot of elements from this that have been taken or
we've mentioned about the future.
I've mentioned lots of other films, Grease, there's a lot
that we've touched on, but nothing direct because it can't
be copied. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, one of the. Most influential?
Films ever made. It's very difficult to summarize
unless we've got a whole podcast.
It's certainly proved you could go to genuinely dark places with

(02:51:33):
a main, with a mainstream heartwarming film and audiences
would follow you there as well, which is surprising considering
the time. But I'm just going to zoom into
two different films which are clearly indebted to It's a
Wonderful Life. We've talked about 1 already.
You can draw a Direct Line from Pottersville to the Alternative
1985 and Back to the Future two,complete with that scene at the

(02:51:54):
cemetery. And Hill Valley is Bedford Falls
as well. Bedford Falls, that town is
pretty much a carbon copy of thetown in Gremlins as well.
Yeah. Along with Mrs. Deagle as
partner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Which is also Hill Valley. It's the same set, isn't it?
Yeah, yeah, it. Is the same set and the. 2nd is
a little left field. It's Blue Velvet, particularly

(02:52:15):
the character of Mary. She's got such an evangelic
quality, just like Laura Dern. Sandy in that film.
Yeah. And David Lynch.
Was often referred to as Jimmy. Stewart from Mars for good
reason. Yes, we are.
Yeah, I. Think the legacy is huge,
probably more. Strongly felt today than it was
in 1946, it seems like. I mean, nowadays it's part of
Christmas. We said that it's on every

(02:52:35):
Christmas Eve. It's become a ritual for
millions of families. I think that's great.
A film about community and togetherness becoming a kind of
communal experience itself. Yeah.
I mean, the influence on other films is huge.
You guys have mentioned all the main ones, I think.
But what I still notice about islegacy is that the message still
resonates in the time of like social media where everyone's

(02:52:56):
making highlights, reels and comparing themselves to others
far too much. This kind of says your life,
your ordinary life. It has value, which feels more
relevant than ever. And it's proved that you can
make a Christmas film that wasn't all fairies and lights.
This cause actually genuinely dark deals with despair and
suicide and corruption. So it changed what a Christmas

(02:53:17):
movie could be. I mean, that's just scratching
the surface, probably. It's an enormous film with a
legacy to match. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I mean, you can talk. About the influence and.
Legacy, this one, and you'd findit hard to stop.
You can see it's legacy in otherChristmas films.
Billy's mother's watching it andGremlins, Rusty is watching it
in Christmas Vacation and it really has become a generation
of film. It's one that's passed down

(02:53:38):
again and again. And I think another part of its
legacy is the legends making this in terms of their personal
legacy. It's Capra's best film.
It's Jimmy Stewart's best film to the point where, and I'm sure
we'll cover this at some point, but part of the horror of
Vertigo is watching James Stewart and that going but but
he's George Bailey. He he can't be this disgusting
and seedy and horrible. Yeah, Yeah.

(02:54:01):
Outside of film. Making the film has also had.
A big impact on a town in New York State.
Bedford Falls is a fictitious place made-up for the film, of
course, but there's a town in New York called Seneca Falls
that claims to be the real life inspiration for Bedford Falls.
Although there's no documented proof that Capra was inspired by
Seneca Falls, there are similarities between the two
towns. Both have famous bridges,

(02:54:22):
Victorian E remain streets and awarm small town community.
And Frank Capra is said to have visited Seneca Falls in 1945
when he was developing. It's a Wonderful Life.
Also, Rochester is where Sam is going to build his factory.
Yeah. And Buffalo is where Harry is
going to work for his new father-in-law.
Both of those towns are only around 100 miles away from
Seneca Falls in upstate New York.

(02:54:44):
Well, a Barber from Seneca Falls.
Said that he cut Capra's hair in1945.
So that's like some of the main proof, apparently.
All right. OK, that's convinced.
That's it, yeah. Well, if you're.
Interested though, you can have a look.
At their website therealbedfordfalls.com right
and actually put some pretty cool stuff on every year you can

(02:55:04):
take a ride on the Bedford FallsExpress or you can go to Mrs.
Martini's pasta dinner or visit the Bells of Bedford Falls or
take part in the it's a wonderful life participation
movie. Nice.
Wow, so sounds. Like the place you're meant to
be? Matt, get yourself over.
Go on there next Christmas tell you that now.
That's all. Go a big.
Legacy left by it's. A Wonderful Life, then It's

(02:55:24):
Become part of Christmas. Had a huge impact on pretty much
every Christmas movie since. And if you're ever in New York
during the holidays, maybe pop over to Seneca Falls for some of
Mrs. Martini's pasta. Oh yeah, bring us some back.
Go for it be. A carbonara, probably.
All the right movies ranking. So that's that and it's a

(02:55:47):
wonderful. Life.
We've been through the full making of story, the film in
detail and it's legacy and now is the time when we decide where
the film will sit in the all theright movies Canon.
So, Matt, do you want to start? Us off your.
Summary and score for it's a wonderful life please yeah you
fellas know this we. Talk about all the time, but
I'll go and see this on the big screen every Christmas.

(02:56:08):
The Tyneside Cinema Neos, they make that film the centre of
their festive season. Like the screen it every day,
usually a couple of times a day.And I usually go on the 23rd or
Christmas Eve. And it's also sold out
screening, which is about 200 people.
And at the end there's always this huge round of applause as
the credit troll led by you, obviously led by me.
I'll stand up as well. I mean stand up, stand up for

(02:56:31):
this kicking. Off, Yeah, kicking off at the.
Dawn And I think that's remarkable how much it sent you
it. And I think that tells you
everything you need to know about how beloved this film is
by people, how important it is to people.
And as I said in the legacy section, it's a generational
film. It gets passed down from
generation to generation like a gift because that is absolutely

(02:56:52):
what it is. The amount of people who would
be very different if it wasn't for this film, the way it makes
them feel about things and look at things is tribute to the
power of it. And I'm certainly one of them.
A 10 is not enough to do this film justice, but that is what I
have to give it anyway. Lovely. 11 for this one, then
no. Surprise and rusty.
I mean, we've sang its praises all.

(02:57:13):
The way through, it's incrediblepiece of work.
It's astonishing that everyone kind of knows it now and it's
just astonishing that that happens because for 30 years it
didn't exist, it was just gone. Everybody loves it.
There's not one person who I've ever met who says I'm not that
keen in It's Wonderful Life. It doesn't happen because it's
just such a human story. There's just so many human

(02:57:34):
emotions. It's so relevant, it's so
powerful, it's so well made, it's so well acted.
Jimmy Stewarts legacy, just well, he will live forever
because of this film. Don't I Read will live forever
because of this film, and I havefound new ways of looking at
things. And every year I look forward to
it because I love how this film makes me feel.
And us for talking about it. We're all quite different people

(02:57:57):
with different interests and different, you know, ways of
life, but we all feel exactly the same.
For a film to do that is one of the primary reasons I love this
medium. And for me, this is one of the
very, very best of them all. It's an easy 10.
Lovely easy 10. Yeah, I mean, it's a wonderful
life, much loved by millions of people.
No question, the definitive filmof one of Hollywood's great

(02:58:19):
directors and Frank Capra and one of its great stars.
And Jimmy Stewart. No question.
The rest of the cast are brilliant as well.
Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travels are all excellent.
The writing was a few people hadtheir hands in it, but it
doesn't show in fleshing out themuch shorter version from Philip
Van Doren Stern into a full feature screenplay.
They did a brilliant job. It's great filmmaking all round.

(02:58:43):
So I think talking about It's a Wonderful Life in those terms
doesn't really tell the whole story.
It's not just a great film, and it is a great film, it's the
Christmas classic. I mean, not my favorite
Christmas film personally, but Ithink objectively, undoubtedly
the best Christmas film to me. The message in the themes we
talked about kindness, community, helping others, you

(02:59:05):
stand that Christmas fair. But capitalist exploration of
that message is way deeper and much more thought provoking than
what you get anywhere else in any other Christmas movie.
Yeah, I think it's the most artistic Christmas film, the
best Christmas film. Still, many decades later.
That's some achievement and I'llwatch it almost every Christmas
and never grow tired of it, always love it.
So I also have to go top Marks and give a 10 out of 10.

(02:59:27):
Of course, this higher powers. At work here that.
This film, it's Clarence. It's Clarence.
It is. Yeah, and look your summary and
score for it's a. Wonderful life place.
Yeah. I'm like you, John I.
Don't think it's my favorite Christmas film, but personal
preferences aside, it's almost certainly the best.
I mean, without doubt. There's a reason why it's such

(02:59:48):
an Evergreen classic that it's on repeat every year and always
will be. There are channels that are
dedicated back-to-back to back marathons of it for days on end.
I can't imagine anyone would saythat they don't like this film.
I just like you saying Westie. That's an impossibility.
It is the directions. Deaf, the right and.
Superb, as are all the performances and that's hugely

(03:00:09):
under playing everything at workhere.
I will watch it every year and every year it'll make me look at
my life and reinforce the thingsthat should be treasured.
The simple things, things you maybe take for granted, love,
family relationship, friendships, huge universal
things that are relatable acrossthe globe and they resonate,
like you said, right to the top mat.

(03:00:30):
They resonate more and more witheach passenger.
I couldn't contemplate giving itanything other than 10 out of
10. It is a perfect film.
Amazing. So another.
Benefit of being an ATR. M patron is that your vote will
count towards the overall scoresfor movies we cover.
So some of the comments on It's a wonderful life from our own
wonderful community. First up, Bill Heiss, who said a

(03:00:52):
Christmas movie that goes dark. The pain on Mr. Gawa's face as
he's beating the shit out of George.
George yelling at his kids and making them cry.
Mr. Potter getting away with it because the fat assholes at the
bank always get away with it. An uplifting ending where
humanity and empathy might not save the world, but they might
make a little corner where we can live. 10 out of 10.
I'm crying just thinking about it.

(03:01:13):
Oh, wonderful words, beautiful sentiments.
A man whose words. Have more poetry?
Than mine. I think it's an interesting
point Bill makes there. I'm not sure it was capital's
intention, but pot are getting away with it as a rich guy kind
of takes on a meaning of its ownas well.
Yeah, it does. Yeah.
Corey steps. Up said.
I give it a nine. These were my thoughts about it
when I first watched the movie in 2011 and they still hold true

(03:01:36):
today. Even though I can be a cynical,
bitter and anti social bastard, I really enjoy this movie and it
did put a smile on my face. I also got teary eyed during
certain scenes cheering up all the.
Misery go to this one isn't. It isn't it just.
That'll be a 10. Next year and.
Andrew Shaw said. I've watched it every year for

(03:01:58):
as long as I can remember and I'm always surprised by how it
never loses its power to move and delight.
Easiest 10 I've ever given. Beautiful.
There you go. So it's one of the best things
about. Christmas for our.
Patrons this and pigs in blankets for me were fair enough
every. Year I eat about. 5000 of them,
yeah, yeah, as many as possible.And all together, our patrons.

(03:02:20):
Rank the film as what do you think?
Got to be straight 10 kicking. Off if it's another 10.
It's got to be a 50. A real Christmas.
Gift this one, of course. It was 10 out of 10.
Beautiful 70. Percent of votes.
Were a ten wow there you go wow so.
That gives us a wonderful life. 50 out of 50 in total.
Biggest score we've ever given, Yeah, I think.

(03:02:42):
It's the biggest score, it is. Yeah, but it must have
surprises. It no not.
At all. Not at all.
So that's everything we have, and it's a.
Wonderful life, we hope everybody's enjoyed it.
And you don't wish that you'd never been born.
That would be drastic. Well, next time out Luke Martin.
Westie, you're going deep undercover.
She thinks he's a boring computer salesman.
Yeah, he's actually a governmentspy.

(03:03:03):
And he's Arnold I and Jim and Jimmy Lee Curtis as well as you
talk True lies. Yeah, that's a.
Big 1, isn't it? Lords again, 2 on that one, the
most expensive. Film ever at the time, I
believe. Yeah, yeah, it was huge.
And the final? Reminder.
If you've enjoyed this episode and want to support what we do,
you can become an ATR M Patron over on Patreon.

(03:03:24):
You get early access to our archived episodes, bonus
episodes. You can submit questions for us
to answer on the show like the ones who've answered today.
Vote on future episodes. Join the community.
It's full of great movie fans. You'll get film recommendations
in there, great chat, lots more,and you get to be part of it
all. It's like our very own Bedford.
Falls it. Is what are you waiting for a

(03:03:45):
wonderful community? So head over to Patreon.
Dot com forward. Slash all the right movies to
sign up. Yes indeed.
Also you can find us on X. At AT right.
Movies on YouTube, on Instagram threads, Blue Sky, TikTok, we've
got a Facebook group and our website is all the right
movies.com we're. All off now to see if any of.
Us have got our wings. I've not heard any bells ringing

(03:04:06):
mind, so not looking good. No looks.
A call for us. Yeah, but simply have a.
Wonderful Christmas time. Everybody and we'll be back with
you with TRUE LIES very soon. Merry Christmas everyone.
Merry. Christmas, everyone merry.
Christmas.

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It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Ep. 126

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Ep. 126