It's a Wonderful Life [Colorized/B&W] [2 Discs] [With Bell and Booklet] [Blu-ray]

It's A Wonderful Life (With Bell) (2Pc) (W/Book)

Overview

This is director Frank Capra's classic bittersweet comedy/drama about George Bailey (James Stewart), the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the typical American small town of Bedford Falls. As the film opens, it's Christmas Eve, 1946, and George, who has long considered himself a failure, faces financial ruin and arrest and is seriously contemplating suicide. High above Bedford Falls, two celestial voices discuss Bailey's dilemma and decide to send down eternally bumbling angel Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers), who after 200 years has yet to earn his wings, to help George out. But first, Clarence is given a crash course on George's life, and the multitude of selfless acts he has performed: rescuing his younger brother from drowning, losing the hearing in his left ear in the process; enduring a beating rather than allow a grieving druggist (H.B. Warner) to deliver poison by mistake to an ailing child; foregoing college and a long-planned trip to Europe to keep the Bailey Building and Loan from letting its Depression-era customers down; and, most important, preventing town despot Potter (Lionel Barrymore) from taking over Bedford Mills and reducing its inhabitants to penury. Along the way, George has married his childhood sweetheart Mary (Donna Reed), who has stuck by him through thick and thin. But even the love of Mary and his children are insufficient when George, faced with an $8000 shortage in his books, becomes a likely candidate for prison thanks to the vengeful Potter. Bitterly, George declares that he wishes that he had never been born, and Clarence, hoping to teach George a lesson, shows him how different life would have been had he in fact never been born. After a nightmarish odyssey through a George Bailey-less Bedford Falls (now a glorified slum called Potterville), wherein none of his friends or family recognize him, George is made to realize how many lives he has touched, and helped, through his existence; and, just as Clarence had planned, George awakens to the fact that, despite all its deprivations, he has truly had a wonderful life. Capra's first production through his newly-formed Liberty Films, It's a Wonderful Life lost money in its original run, when it was percieved as a fairly downbeat view of small-town life. Only after it lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and became a Christmastime TV perennial did it don the mantle of a holiday classic.

Product Details

Release Date:	11/01/2011
UPC:	0097361450544
Original Release:	1946
Rating:	NR
Source:	Paramount
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	2:10:00
Sales rank:	4,492

Special Features

The Making of "It's A Wonderful Life" - a Documentary featurette hosted by Tom Bosley; ; A Personal Remembrance - A Special tribute to Frank Capra Narrated by his son, Frank Capra Jr.; ; Original Theatrical Trailer

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

James Stewart	George Bailey
Donna Reed	Mary Hatch
Lionel Barrymore	Mr. Potter
Henry Travers	Clarence
Beulah Bondi	Mrs. Bailey
Frank Faylen	Ernie
Ward Bond	Bert
Gloria Grahame	Violet Bick
H.B. Warner	Mr. Gower
Frank Albertson	Sam Wainwright
Samuel S. Hinds	Pa Bailey
Todd Karns	Harry Bailey
Mary Treen	Cousin Millie
Sarah Edwards	Mrs. Patch
Virginia Patton	Ruth Dakin
Charles Williams	Cousin Eustace
William Edmunds	Mr. Martini
Lillian Randolph	Annie
Argentina Brunetti	Mrs. Martini
Robert Anderson	Little George,Little George
Ronnie Ralph	Little Sam
Jean Gale	Little Mary
Jeanine Anne Roose	Little Violet
Danny Mummert	Little Marty Hatch
George Nokes	Little Harry Bailey
Sheldon Leonard	Nick
Frank Hagney	Potter's Bodyguard,Potter's Bodyguard
Ray Walker	Joe at Luggage Shop
Charles Lane	Real Estate Salesman
Edward Keane	Tom
Carol Coombs	Janie Bailey
Karolyn Grimes	Zuzu Bailey
Jimmy Hawkins	Tommy Bailey
Larry Simms	Pete Bailey
Carl "Alfalfa" Switzer	Freddie
Harold Landon	Marty Hatch
Harry Holman	High School Principal
Bob Scott	Mickey
Harry Cheshire	Dr. Campbell
Charles Halton	Bank Examiner
Eddie Featherston	Bank Teller
Stanley Andrews	Mr. Welch
J. Farrell MacDonald	House Owner
Marian Carr	Mrs. Wainwright
Garry Owen	Bill Poster
Lane Chandler	Actor
Ellen Corby	Miss Davis
Almira Sessions	Potter's Secretary
Robert Peyton	Actor
Bert Moorhouse	Man with Sheriff
Joseph Granby	Voices
Moroni Olsen	Voices
Thomas Mitchell	Uncle Billy
Tom Fadden	Tollhouse keeper
Al Bridge	Sheriff
Harry V. Cheshire	Dr. Campbell
Eddie Fetherstone	Bank Teller
Dick Elliott	Actor
Dimitri Tiomkin	Composer

Technical Credits

Frank Capra

Frances Goodrich

Albert Hackett

Jo Swerling

Frank Capra	Screenwriter,Producer
Frances Goodrich	Screenwriter
Albert Hackett	Screenwriter
Russell A. Cully	Special Effects
Clem Portman	Sound Effects,Sound/Sound Designer
John Aalberg	Sound Effects
Jo Swerling	Screenwriter
Richard VanHessen	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

The image of It's a Wonderful Life has undergone a complete transformation since its 1946 release. In its own time, Frank Capra's comedy-drama about the dark side of human nature was a modest failure, neither a box-office success nor a critical favorite, though it garnered some recognition in the form of 5 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture. For the next 28 years, the movie remained a cult favorite among movie buffs and Capra fans. Then the movie's copyright was allowed to lapse and suddenly, during the early 1980s around Christmas (the season in which the film is set), it seemed possible to flip on the TV at random some nights and find the movie playing somewhere on the dial, and that went double for Christmas Day, Christmas Eve, and New Year's. The public came out regarding the film as a lost classic; Capra lived just long enough to reap some of the belated acclaim, and his estate later benefitted from the sales of the films that he owned outright, such as Broadway Bill and Lady For a Day. The movie is in fact a dark, disturbing look at small-town American life between the two world wars, rife with class envy and fears of modernity, and featuring a before-its-time portrayal of George Bailey's middle-aged sense of failure that seems more appropriate for an American film of the Seventies. It is at once nostalgic and angry, and its reputation as a holiday chestnut has been mercilessly parodied for its conclusion on good spirits and generosity; Saturday Night Live, in particular, had vicious fun with it in a post-end-credits parody in which the people of Bedford Falls lynch Mr. Potter when they realize that he has the money.