Classic Movie Still Young After Six Decades
I don’t know how many classic movie buffs are out there, but if you haven’t seen the 1948 movie It’s A Wonderful Life, rent it if you can. Who knows? After watching the 132-minute film of flawless acting, you’ll probably buy it.
Starring James Stewart as businessman George Bailey and Donna Reed (Mary Hatch Bailey) as his wife, a married couple of a small, Mayberry-like town called Bedford Falls, suddenly know the meaning of hard times. One of Bailey’s colleagues and relatives, Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), misplaces $8,000 of the company’s money, while on his way to make a deposit. It is Christmas Eve and both Bailey and Billy frantically try to retrace Billy’s last steps, before he realized the money went missing, but to no avail. Bailey, a devoted husband and father of four, doesn’t know what he’s going to tell his family. When he finally arrives home for the evening, his wife and children, all presumably under age fifteen, can immediately sense Bailey’s negative energy. He flies off the handle at anyone who vexes him easily, until he abruptly leaves home. He starts to consider suicide because he doesn’t know how to break the news to his family that they’re suddenly bankrupt. So, it takes an angel named Clarence (Henry Travers) to come along to teach Bailey that regardless of his misfortune, “no man is a failure.” Moreover, Clarence shows him what the world would be like without Bailey and if he listens, Clarence, an angel-in-training, could finally get his wings.
This family movie is in black and white. The entire cast, not to mention the storyline, makes the film worth watching. With Stewart's believable acting of someone experiencing financial woes and his evoking laughter along the way, it’s hard not to watch this movie from beginning to end, and over and over again.
Directed by Frank Capra and written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett and others, It’s A Wonderful Life, is described by reviewers at IMDB as “A Wonderful Film and Timeless Classic.”
To see a few excerpts from the movie, check them out at Youtube.com and simply type in It’s A Wonderful Life.