It's a Wonderful Life (1946) or, The Big, Marvelous, Sappy Christmas Miracle for George Bailey

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Images of family and rapturous love make up this bright, uplifting poster for Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life

George Bailey has been a good person, who put his own ambitions aside in order to run a little town's loan's bank, when his father passed away, but now, due to a kind of accident, he is falling on his heels and considers ending things. Guardian angel Clarence must attempt to salvage him.

 

It's a Wonderful Life is written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett  (A Certain Smile (1958), both) and Italian-American master filmmaker Frank Capra (The Strong Man (1926)), whose 32th feature it was. Jo Swerling (Thunder in the East (1952)) and Michael Wilson (Friendly Persuasion (1956)) made screenplay contributions. It is based on the short story The Greatest Gift (1943) by Philip Von Doren Stern (They Were There (1959)), in turn inspired by Charles Dickens' novella A Christmas Carol (1843).

Capra's grand Christmas narrative quickly conquers one's heart and plays American football with it until its end. There are wonderful performances from James Stewart (Rope (1948)) and Lionel Barrymore (The Tender Hearted Boy (1913)) as the dastardly Potter. Stewart's Bailey is a matter of taste. I actually find him fairly intolerable both at his peak of positivity and when he hits bottom, as well as after this.

But It's a Wonderful Life is also a very funny picture, which always elects 'the high road': More is better here in the thick tale; Bailey does not get romance; all the townspeople bring buckets of cash to help out their fellow man etc. It is childishly sentimental in the extreme, yet also inventive and highly memorable. There are continuity issues and a high count of jump cuts. But a bona fide classic it is.

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 3.18 mil. $

Box office: In excess of 16.4 mil. $ (projected original release and post 2000 re-releases only)

= Initial flop, later hit (projected original return of 2.10 times its cost; later grown to more than 5.15 times its cost)

[It's a Wonderful Life premiered 20 December (New York) and runs 131 minutes. Capra claimed to have paid 50k $ for the rights to the story from RKO Pictures, who claimed it was 10k $, the same amount they had paid for it before also paying for screenplays written. Husband and wife writing team Goodrich and Hackett soured over Capra's involvement with the script, and Hackett summed up that the filmmaker was "a very arrogant son of a bitch." Shooting took place from April - July 1946 in New York and California, including in Los Angeles. The fictional Bedford Falls town was a massive movie set. Composer Dmitri Tiomkin also fell out with Capra over the film, as his work was left out or cut needlessly, in his opinion. Capra also had issues with the cinematographer Victor Milner, and once he fell ill had him replaced, until the replacement also needed to be replaced. The film was the year's 26th highest-grossing domestically of the year (out of +400 released pictures) but reportedly resulted in a 525k $ loss for distributor RKO. We may from this presume a total original gross around 6.7 mil. $. Box Office Mojo records post 2000 re-release earnings of 9.7 mil. $, especially from North America and the UK, where the film is extremely popular. It was nominated for 5 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actor (Stewart) to Fredric March for The Best Years of Our Lives, Director to William Wyler for the same film, Editing and Picture also to The Best Years of Our Lives, and Sound, Recording to The Jolson Story. It won a Golden Globe and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. It was Capra's favorite of all his films, and he was thrilled to experience how its popularity blossomed, as it became grew into a Christmas stable on TV decades after its release. IMDb's users have rated the film in at #21 on the site's Top 250 list, sitting between Se7en (1995) and Seven Samurai (1954). Capra returned with State of the Union (1948). Stewart returned in Magic Town (1947). It's a Wonderful Life is certified fresh at 94 % with a 9.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of It's a Wonderful Life? 

How the West Was Won (1962) - Western star cascade is a visual feast

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An overwhelming number of stars and an incredible amount of epic sequences are teased on this yellow-toned poster for Henry Hathaway, John Ford, Richard Thorpe and George Marshall's How the West Was Won

From the frontier men and women on rafts down the river, in the American Civil War, through the Indian Wars, the revolution of the railway system and the arrival of law and order: - This is how the west was won!

 

How the West Was Won is written by James R. Webb (Kings of the Sun (1963)) and John Gay (Final Notice (1989, TV movie)) and directed by great Californian filmmaker Henry Hathaway (Heritage of the Desert (1932)), Mainer master filmmaker John Ford (Straight Shooting (1917)), George Marshall (Love's Lariat (1916)) and Richard Thorpe (Rough Ridin' (1924)).

Variegated and (putting it squarely) shapeless anthology type largesse western epic: Starts by treating the West more or less as an enjoyable amusement park; later becomes more thrilling, - especially in the railroad section and towards the end, featuring outlaws. Stars replace stars as if delivered to us on a conveyor belt, where none of them have time to form whole characters that develop, and some of them simply chew up the scenery.

But How the West Was Won is worth watching as a photographic spectacle due to its laborious Cinerama three-strip film process, originally theatrically projected onto a curved screen. (The only other film made this way is The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962).) Enjoy it for its enormously wide, crystal clear, beautiful images, which are incredible to look at, when for instance grand vistas, buffaloes and dramas on the river come to life in extraordinary detail, so that you nearly feel that you're there. (Cinematography by William H. Daniels (The Prize (1963)), Milton R. Krasner (The Singing Nun (1966)), Charles Lang (Hotel (1967)) and Joseph LaShelle (The Outsider (1961)).)

Outstanding stunts and production design and popping colors also work magic. The West is almost entirely kept in positive turns in this nationalistic, fly-over work, which captivates visually.

 

Related posts:

John Ford: Fort Apache (1948) - Wayne and Fonda clash in Ford's solid western of a massacre of Indians 

Top 10: Best Twentieth Century Fox titles 

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) - Ford's Steinbeck adaptation is a cinematic crown jewel 
Henry Hathaway: Airport (1970) or, A Genre Is Born (uncredited director of winter outdoor scenes)  
Circus World/The Magnificent Showman (1964) - Hathaway and Bronston's grand, ill-fated curio 

The Dark Corner (1946) - Hathaway's great film noir

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 14.483 mil. $

Box office: 50 mil. $

= Box office success (returned 3.45 times its cost)

[How the West Was Won premiered 1 November (London) and runs 164 minutes. The film was originally intended to be charitable for St. Johns Hospital, but the hospital later sued to get its profits. Shooting took place from May 1961 - January 1962 in Kentucky, Arizona, Illinois and Colorado. During production the budget ballooned from 8 mil. $. Hathaway later said about the making of the film: (it was) "goddam trouble. They had an idiot for a producer and Sol Siegel was drunk most of the time. We spent so much money on the picture they almost decided not to do the last part. We had a meeting, and I said, 'You can't quit. You've got to show how the West was won. The West was won when the law took over'." At the London Casino Cinerama where the film premiered, it went on to play for 123 weeks, ending its impressive reign in April 1965. The film made 20.9 mil. $ in North-American rentals, becoming the year's 2nd highest-grossing in rentals. Elsewhere it is put down for a 46.5 mil. $ North-American gross. With considerable foreign numbers, there is a discrepancy concerning the alleged 50 mil. $ world gross. In any case it was a success. It was also nominated for 8 Oscars, winning 3, for Best Screenplay, Sound and Editing. It lost Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Color to Cleopatra, Cinematography, Color to Leon Shamroy for Cleopatra, Costume Design, Color to Cleopatra, Score (Alfred Newman (The Counterfeit Traitor (1962)), Ken Darby (Meet Me After the Show (1951))) to John Addison for Tom Jones and Picture also to Tom Jones. It also won a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Through restorative efforts, the very visible three image lines have been mostly disguised on newer home video releases of the film. Hathaway returned with Circus World (1964); Ford with Donovan's Reef (1963); Marshall with Papa's Delicate Condition (1963); and Thorpe with Follow the Boys (1963). James Stewart (Rope (1948)) returned in My Three Sons (1963, TV-series) and theatrically in Take Her, She's Mine (1963); John Wayne (The War Wagon (1967)) in Donovan's Reef (1963). How the West Was Won is fresh at 87 % with a 7.10/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of How the West Was Won?

Film Excess' 3rd birthday movie masterpiece: Anatomy of a Murder (1959) - The courtroom movie to rule them all

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The elegant, iconic poster for Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder

A laid back but good-hearted attorney decides to assume the defense responsibility in a difficult murder trial, in which a distinguished soldier has killed a man who has allegedly raped his wife.

Anatomy of a Murder is a sober, stringent and compelling portrait of a murder trial. It is very realistic because of its masterful and careful staging and its basis on Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker's (Anatomy of a Fisherman (1964)) same-titled 1958 best-selling novel, written under the penname of Robert Traver, which portrays a 1952 murder trial that Voelker acted as defense in.
The film is lined with a splendid row of performances: James Stewart (The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962)) exudes uprightness, - although the morality of his defense of the soldier is up for debate, - Ben Gazzara (Buffalo '66 (1998)) as the indicted soldier, Lee Remick (Touch Me Not (1974)) as his oversexed wife and George C. Scott (Hardcore (1979)) as the insidious prosecutor are all perfect. Joseph N. Welch, a real-life lawyer, who was key to the fall of Senator Joseph McCarthy in the Army-McCarthy hearings, plays the judge, and he is priceless in the part.
Anatomy of a Murder also has an outstanding score by Duke Ellington (Change of Mind (1969))). It is written by Wendell Mayes (Von Ryan's Express (1965)) and directed and produced by Austrian-Hungarian master filmmaker Otto Preminger (Exodus (1960)). It is a true classic and an outstanding film.

Related reviews:

Film Excess' 1st birthday movie masterpiece: Broadway Danny Rose (1984) or, Keep Your Heart  
Film Excess' 2nd birthday movie masterpiece: The King's Speech (2010) - Hooper's soaring, royal masterpiece about overcoming human frailty

Ben Gazzara and James Stewart in Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder

Watch a promo trailer with footage from the film's premiere here

Cost: Unknown
Box office: 11 mil. $
= Uncertainty (but likely a big to huge hit)
[Anatomy of a Murder was released July 1 and runs 160 minutes. It was shot on location in Michigan, near to where the actual trial had taken place, and incorporating members of the original jury as well as local residents. The film was revolutionary for its time as a mainstream American film in its frank verbalization of rape and sex, which also wore down on the institution of the MPPDA, which ended its decades long reign in the US in 1960. It was released unrated and the mayor of Chicago was so outraged that he banned it in the city, though a court later reversed the decision at Preminger's initiative. The film grossed 5.5 mil. $ domestically in its first year of release. Though its budget is not known, it is likely that it had a cost of perhaps 2 mil. $ and should therefore be counted as a big to huge hit. It was critically praised at its release and is highly esteemed within the legal system. The film was nominated for 7 Oscars: Best Picture, Actor, two Supporting Actor nominations and Editing (losing all to Ben-Hur), Adapted Screenplay (losing to Room at the Top) and B/W Cinematography (losing to The Diary of Anne Frank). It was also nominated for 4 Golden Globes and 3 BAFTAs. Anatomy of a Murder is certified fresh at 100 % with a 8.6 critical average on Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Anatomy of a Murder?
Do you agree that it is the best courtroom film of all time?