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In the purchase, Paramount acquired Liberty's interest in three movies: It's a Wonderful Life, I Remember Mama (which George Stevens was filming at RKO), [N 2] and State of the Union (not yet filmed).
- Mixed Reviews
- Plot
- Origins and Production
- Show-Stopping Set
- Box Office Troubles
- The Film’S Resurgence
Considering how fond audiences are of the film nowadays, it’s hard to imagine that its first reviews were decidedly mixed. On 20 December 1946, the film received a charity preview screening at the Globe Theater in New York, one day before its official premiere. The New York Times described it as a “quaint and engaging modern parable” but concluded:...
The film’s story is well known. Jimmy Stewart plays George Bailey, a businessman facing financial ruin. On Christmas Eve, George attempts suicide but is saved by a guardian angel, Clarence, who is attempting to earn his wings. Clarence reveals to George the positive impact he has had on the lives of people in the town of Bedford Falls. With a new s...
Although the film’s script is credited to three screenwriters (Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Frank Capra), its beginnings went far back to 1938. The film began as a short story called The Greatest Gift, by Philip Van Doren Stern, and was conjured from a dream of Stern’s that mimicked Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. Whilst Stern set the s...
The set for Bedford Falls, the town where the story takes place, extended to four acres of the RKO lot. It included over 70 buildings, and a park with 20 fully grown oak trees. But Capra didn’t stop at a jaw dropping set. He wanted the snow for his Christmas movie – filmed during a stifling heat wave in California – to look (and sound!) as realisti...
The original plan was to release It’s a Wonderful Life in January 1947 to avoid Oscar deadlines, but the film’s distributor (RKO) needed a film to release in time for Christmas, and Capra’s film was an easy solution. The film was therefore released in December 1946. It’s a Wonderful Life’s saccharine tale touting old-time values was in sharp contra...
After decades in the shadows, it was a clerical error causing a lapse in the film’s copyright in the 1970s that eventually brought about its rise to iconic status. The 1909 Copyright Act stipulated that creative works were protected for 28 years, after which the copyright holder needed to renew the copyright. Thus in 1974, after the film’s copyrigh...
- Amy Irvine
Dec 24, 2021 · Liberty Films. The film technically started as a greeting card. When author Philip Van Doren Stern failed to find a publisher for his book about a man named George Pratt who considers suicide...
Jan 3, 2012 · – It was the first film made by Frank Capra’s production company Liberty Films. Capra also directed, produced and co-wrote the film. – It is said that the role of Mary was first offered to Jean Arthur, Ginger Rogers, Anne Dvorak, Olivia de Havilland, Laraine Day and Martha Scott before Donna Reed got the part.
It's A Wonderful Life (1946), originally made for Liberty Films, is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made by director Frank Capra. Frank Capra regarded this film as his own personal favorite - it was also James Stewart's favorite of all his feature films.
Stewart’s lead is braced by a full fan-spread of shimmering support. In femme lead, Donna Reed will reach full-fledged stardom with this effort.
Dec 21, 2018 · 1. couple of days ago, 72 years after its initial release, a Radio Times survey named It’s A Wonderful Life as the UK’s all-time favourite Christmas film. But, just like the lead...
