$17.50 and a Reason to Live: It’s a Wonderful Life

You know the story: James Stewart is George Bailey, a man who has given up everything in his life to help others, while Henry Travers is Clarence Odbody, his guardian angel, here to intervene and show him how different and sorrowful everybody’s life would be if he had not been born. It became an instant classic after entering the public domain, but a masterpiece like It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) deserves to be owned by everyone. Especially in 2020.

On Christmas Eve 1945, 38-year-old George Bailey is thinking about killing himself. It was Clarence, an Angel Second Class, who was assigned to save George and thus earn his wings. In times like this, everybody seems to need a guardian angel, but this film might be the closest thing to one we could have. It’s sometimes cheesy, sometimes old-fashioned, but it still manages to send a message across space and time, saying there’s always something worth living for.

A traditionalist and a rebel, a conservative filmmaker and an insurgent creator, Frank Capra was one of the most influential directors of all time. Even though It’s a Wonderful Life performed poorly at the box office when first released, it soon became a classic among film critics and scholars and developed into a household tradition after falling into the public domain. Capra himself often stated that this film was one of his all-time favorites.

His stories are not original, but the way he presents them is, and no wonder that film scholar Ian Freer called him the “American Dream personified”. There’s always a David fighting against Goliath, and films like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), or You Can’t Take It With You (1938) are both films and parables, showing Capra’s Catholic background, eager to portray human behavior and to provide hope in times of trouble. And even though his films often show people overwhelmed by life’s trials, at the same time, they celebrate life itself.

Capra’s directing relied on improvisation. He stated that he did not want his actors to rehearse. For example, when one character was to be asked how much money she needed, he told her to say a weird number, even though the script said $17. Bailey and his uncle were trying to save their establishment and pay back everybody with their own money, and while people were requesting hundreds of dollars, the woman stated she needed $17.50. Stewart’s reaction was genuine, and he impulsively kissed her, so Capra decided to leave the scene.

Capra cared a lot about cinematography and set design as well. The town of Bedford Falls was built with transplanted oak trees, and winter scenes were created using thousands of tons of shaved ice, plaster, gypsum, and other chemicals. When Bailey is walking down the streets, sweating in a drunken stupor and in pain, it’s the real sweat on his face since the scenes were filmed during very hot days.

Frank Capra: No. The Audience has to cry, not the actors.

Capra described this movie as an individual’s belief in himself. Philip Van Doren Stern worked on his story The Greatest Gift for years, and kept showing it to various publishers, but no one was interested. So he took the 200 copies he had made to show the story to the publishers and used them as Christmas presents in 1943. The story eventually got to RKO producer David Hempstead. It seems that not only George Bailey fought against all odds, but also Stern and Capra. And if there’s anything this film teaches us, it’s to give something we believe in a shot. Even if the warmth has to be built out of fake snow.

---

References

• Cox, Stephen (2003). It’s a Wonderful Life: A Memory Book. Cumberland House.
• Frank Capra interview on filmmaking (1982)
• Freer, Ian (2009). Movie Makers: 50 Iconic Directors from Chaplin to the Coen Brothers. London: Quercus Publishing Plc.
• Mathews, Jack and Michael Wilmington (1991). The Timeless Gift of Frank Capra. LA Times.