ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE 60TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION (DVD) DVD

It's a Wonderful Life
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. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cast James Stewart as George Bailey Donna Reed as Mary Hatch Bailey Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy Henry Travers as Clarence Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Bailey Ward Bond as Bert Carol Coomes as Janie Bailey William Edmunds as Mr. Martini Gloria Grahame as Violet Bick Sarah Edwards as Mrs. Hatch Argentina Brunetti as Mrs. Martini Frank Faylen as Ernie Jean Gale as Mary (younger) Karolyn Grimes as Zuzu Bailey Frank S. Hagney as Potter's Bodyguard Jim Hawkins as Tommy Bailey Samuel S. Hinds as Pa Bailey Todd Karns as Harry Bailey Sheldon Leonard as Nick Virginia Patton as Ruth Dakin Ronnie Ralph as Sam (younger) Lillian Randolph as Annie Larry Simms as Pete Bailey Mary Treen as Cousin Tilly H.B. Warner as Mr. Gower Charles Williams as Cousin Eustace

Crew Jack Okey - Art Director Edward Stevenson - Costume Designer Arthur S. Black, Jr. - First Assistant Director Frank Capra - Director William W. Hornbeck - Editor Dimitri Tiomkin - Composer (Music Score) Dimitri Tiomkin - Musical Direction/Supervision Gordon Bau - Makeup Joseph Biroc - Cinematographer Joseph Walker - Cinematographer Frank Capra - Producer Emile Kuri - Set Designer Russell A. Cully - Special Effects Clem Portman - Sound/Sound Designer Richard VanHessen - Sound/Sound Designer Jo Swerling - Screenwriter Frank Capra - Screenwriter Frances Goodrich - Screenwriter Albert Hackett - Screenwriter Philip Van Doren Stern - Short Story Author

It's a Wonderful Life
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. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
 

Frank Capra: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Director (nominated) Frank Capra: Golden Globe, Best Director (winner) James Stewart: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Actor (nominated) John Aalberg: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Sound (nominated) William W. Hornbeck: Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Editing (nominated)

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scie, Best Picture (nominated) American Film Institute, 100 Greatest American Movies (winner) Library of Congress, U.S. National Film Registry (winner) National Board of Review, Best Picture (nominated)

General Specifications: Language Options: English, French Subtitle Options: English Sound Processing: DD1: Dolby Digital Mono Additional 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 DVD Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1: Pre-1954 Standard MPAA Rating: NR DVD Discs Included: 1 DVD Sides: 1 DVD DVD Region Code: 1 Content Length: 130 min   DVD Chapters: Disc #1 -- It's a Wonderful Life [60th Anniversary Edition] 1. Opening Credits 2. 1919: Saving Harry 3. Mr. Gower's Drug Store 4. "You Put Something Bad in Those Capsules" 5. 1928: George Bailey, World Traveler 6. Last Meal 7. High School Reunion 8. The Big Charleston Contest 9. Walking Mary Home 10. Harry's Surprise 11. Courting Mary 12. Wedding Day 13. 320 Sycamore 14. Bailey Park 15. On the Nest 16. December 24, 1945 17. Uncle Billy at the Bank 18. Searching for $8,000 19. Something Wrong With Daddy 20. No Help From a Warped, Frustrated Old Man 21. At Martini's Bar 22. On the Bridge 23. Saving George 24. At Nick's Place 25. Pottersville 26. "I Want to Live Again" 27. Homecoming 28. The Richest Man in Town