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“Strange, isn’t it? Each man’s life touches so many other lives. When he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” – Clarence Oddbody
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Trivia junkies have unfairly made many discussions about this classic movie revolve around the copyright lapse and subsequent royalty-free airings that helped establish it as a holiday classic. We’ll avoid that. (Don’t get me started on the colorization of this movie.) I want to shine a light on the brilliance of its two main collaborators: lead actor James Stewart and director Frank Capra (each received Academy Award nominations for their work on the 1946 film) by taking a look at a few of the most important scenes in the movie.
An engrossing classic, It’s A Wonderful Life is the story of a man, George Bailey, whose hopes and dreams are constantly put on hold for the benefit of those around him. He has a wonderful family and a beautiful and supportive wife, Mary, played by Donna Reed. To end the cycle of suffering, which he has plenty of opportunities to do, he would have to completely turn his back on his brother, his father’s life’s work, the town, his family, and, ultimately, his life. After his incompetent, drunk uncle loses a significant amount of money for their business, George, knowing he has to be the one to take the fall, decides to take a literal fall by jumping off a bridge, only to be saved by his guardian angel, Clarence Oddbody, played by Henry Travers, who has yet to earn his wings. Clarence shows George what he means to the town, his family, and friends by giving him a chance to see things as they would have been had he never been born, including the death of his little brother, and as a result of that, the death of many soldiers on a transport in World War II. Naturally, this snaps George out of his funk. The townspeople raise enough money to keep him from jail, Clarence gets his wings, and everybody wins.
As saccharine as that sounds, the movie actually plays out quite a bit darker than that. There is a mindset that this is a goody-two-shoes type movie, and while there are many wonderfully sly and amusing one-liners, there are elements of noir are at play here, especially in the second half, as the protagonist simply cannot catch a break. It has just as many, if not more, dark moments than funny or tender ones.
Stewart’s pre-war performances and characters have no sense of hopelessness like that of George Bailey. A happy ending for George is to simply not go to prison. He’ll never travel or build bridges and skyscrapers, as he once dreamed of. The best outcome for him is to leave work and go there again the next day, supporting his loving family. And while Stewart does bust out his “aw, shucks” attributes early in the film, as the story turns, he goes places he never had before in a character. Capra’s prewar films were lighthearted, whimsical affairs, such as You Can’t Take It With You and Arsenic and Old Lace. He fought hard to get It’s A Wonderful Life made, actually purchasing the rights from RKO and funding its production with his own production company. It’s not hard to see that the sweet story with dark undertones very much appealed to him at this point in his life and career.
Just imagine Capra’s instruction to Stewart for the train scene. “Your brother drops the bomb that he will NOT be taking over the building and loan, even though you paid for his college and that was the deal he agreed to. So I want you to stop dead in your tracks, snap your head over to his new bride that is stealing him from you (along with your dreams and plans) and then walk over to her. On your walk, I want you to show me every emotion you would be feeling: confusion, anger, panic, the realization that you’re not going anywhere…all without dialogue. Then, by the time you get over to her, you will put on a happy face and welcome her to the family, because that’s the decent thing to do.”
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And of course Stewart nails it. He gives no lines at all, yet a perfectly clear conveying of the rush of thoughts and emotions going through his character’s head is displayed, all in the space of a twenty foot walk. Stewart was known to practice his character’s mannerisms more than their dialogue. So a scene like this, where the most potent element of the scene has no dialogue, is right in his wheelhouse. The next scene shows George throwing his travel pamphlets away in frustration, and we see that he knows he’s never getting out.
And in watching Stewart run the gamut of George’s life, it is easy to see the turn our hero takes, from start to finish. He starts off young, energetic, and excited, because he’s about to see the world and make all his dreams come true. After life knocks him down enough, he’s seen in a desperate light, even going to his family’s nemesis, Henry F. Potter, played by Lionel Barrymore, a man whom George has bawled out on multiple occasions, for financial help. Then he’s seen in his darkest hour, when he’s ready to throw it all away because he can’t see a way out. These changes in character are evident in not only his hair, his clothing and his shave, but in his eyes. Look at his eyes at different stages of the character’s journey. He goes from optimistic to resigned to hopeless and frantic. It’s an amazing portrayal of a wonderful character who really has an expansive arc.
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The ugliest scene in the film shows that George has just searched for the lost money with Uncle Billy, without success, and has reached his breaking point. Look how Capra blocked it out and placed small hints about our characters within the scene.
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Uncle Billy, played by Thomas Mitchell, is a lovable character. He’s also an incompetent drunk. We hate seeing him treated this way, even though George is well within his rights. We don’t want our hero in such despair, and Capra spares us actually seeing his face; he keeps George’s back to us the entire time, except when he storms out of the scene. George’s face is only seen on a portrait on top of the shelf, to the left of the screen, looking down on them. The face in the portrait on the right side of the screen is George’s mother, Uncle Billy’s sister, played by Beulah Bondi (who went on to play James Stewart’s mother three more times). This shows us that these people mean a lot to Uncle Billy. And I think Capra has them placed where they were for another reason: they are looking down at George in this enraged state. In the picture on the left he’s looking at himself, a mirror of what he usually is, or once was, and how far he’s fallen. And his mother, the tie between him and Uncle Billy, is looking on, reminding us that even though George insists he won’t be the one going to prison, we know better. Just like always, he’ll take the fall, for the family, if nothing else. Capra’s mise en scene shows us all this while simultaneously assaulting us with George’s furious rant toward Uncle Billy.
As much as the Uncle Billy scene spares us from George’s anger by hiding his face, the bar prayer scene shoves his despair front and center without reprieve.
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A wide shot establishes everything, including the man sitting to George’s left, (who will eventually bust George’s lip open), then it dollies in to a close up George’s face, pleading for some help. Capra then zooms in, getting as close to George as we have in the movie yet. He’s totally stripped down here, exposed to us at his very weakest point. The outcome of this scene, getting punched by another bar patron (the husband of a teacher whom George just yelled at for letting his daughter walk home from school without a jacket) is what pushes George to contemplate leaping from the bridge. Of course, Clarence Oddbody shows up and spoils George’s plans.
After Clarence saves George from himself, the following scene shows Capra staging his shot like this:
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Even if we don’t know who the angel was or who the downtrodden mortal was in this scene…if we’d just walked into the room and this scene was playing, this shot lets us know exactly what’s what. George is defeated and bundled up in a small heap to the lower right of the screen, and Clarence, with a little smirk on his face, is wearing white and standing upright in the top left corner. The two characters are separated by the clothesline, representing Heaven and Earth, who’s up and who’s down, however you want to phrase it. Furthermore, the chimney separates the screen again into quadrants, establishing even more distance between the two. Capra was one of the early masters of film, understanding how painting a picture on screen can help drive the point home or give another layer to the dialogue.
After showing George how his town would be had he never been born, including showing the town now motivated by money and booze that rings frighteningly true today, the movie is wrapped up in a tidy little bow. Perhaps this is where the film’s reputation as a happy-go-lucky piece of Americana comes from because it’s the last image we see before it fades to black (other than the bells ringing), the family singing “Auld Lang Syne” around the Christmas tree. Perhaps people aren’t paying attention to all the dark, brooding scenes that make up the middle, and arguably best, part of the movie.
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It’s not groundbreaking to suggest that putting two incredibly talented people in a room together is one way to watch great work be created. And, of course, it does not always work, but the passion put into It’s A Wonderful Life is evident and what sets it apart, in my opinion. It has a life affirming (yet pessimistic/realistic) story, pitch perfect screenplay, phenomenal supporting cast, and Academy Award nominated post-production work (it earned nominations for Best Picture, Editing and Sound, in addition to Capra and Stewart’s, although it won no Oscars).
Even though it is what thrust it into the holiday tradition lexicon, the copyright lapses in the past are not integral to the enjoyment of this movie. It is a work of art, worthy of any and all accolades it has been given over the decades, due in large part to the work of two of cinema’s great artists: James Stewart and Frank Capra. Each of them has stated that of all the movies either of them made, this was their favorite. Considering the collective body of work from the two, that speaks great volumes.