Nothing Short of Superb!!!

Rating: 10/10 (21 December 2014)

Producer & director Frank Capra's crowning glory "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946) with James Stewart and Donna Reed ranks as one of the greatest Hollywood movies. This warm-hearted epic about life in the small town of Bedford Falls and protagonist George Bailey (James Stewart) and his eternal battle with the corrupt and evil Potter (Lionel Barrymore) captures the spirit of America after the end of World War II. A box office flop, "It's A Wonderful Life" acquired a new lease on life when copyright holders National Telefilm Associates neglected to renew it in 1973. Consequently, television stations ran it ad nauseam until Republic Pictures renewed the copyright in the 1990s. Everybody considers Capra's film an example of the classic Christmas movie, but Christmas doesn't play a part in the plot until more than half way through it. George Bailey epitomizes optimism and plans to break out of the confinement of rural America to globe trot around the world until events larger than he compels him to remain in Bedford Falls.
After his long-suffering father dies, George steps into the breach and continues his age-old struggle against the greedy Potter and he triumphs in the end. Winning, however, isn't a picnic for our hometown hero. George Bailey comes mighty close to losing. At one point, he contemplates suicide when the bank examiner arrives at his savings and loan office and poor Uncle Billy (Oscar winner Thomas Mitchell) has lost $8-thousand dollars. Capra and scenarists Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Jo Swerling, working from an original story by Philip Van Doren Stern, paint our hero into a corner when Uncle Billy lost $8-thousand dollars when he encounter the despicable Potter in the bank. Of course, Potter kept the money that poor Uncle Billy inadvertently handed to him in a folded up newspaper. At this point, fearing scandal, prison, and humiliation, George got drunk, slammed his ancient automobile into a tree, and wandered onto a bridge where he contemplated suicide. Mind you, Potter put the idea into George's head when George turned in desperation to Potter for a loan to cover his shortfall of cash. At this point, an angel second class without wings, Clarence (Henry Travers of "Shadow of a Doubt"), is dispatched from Heaven to save George. When George mentions that he wished that he had never been born, Clarence comes up with the imaginative idea of showing George what Bedford Falls would be like if George had never been born! George is shocked not only when he notes that the town is now called Pottersville but also that his brother died in an ice-skating accident. Earlier, George had saved his younger brother's life when the latter fell through thin ice and nearly drowned. George is so horrified by everything that he sees that he decides that he'd rather be born so he can face the music. As Capra has said himself in interviews about "It's A Wonderful Life," he describes it as a celebration of the individual. Basically, one man can make a difference in this world.
Naturally, for George's sake, he receives a second chance. Meaning, "It's A Wonderful Life" is a life-affirming movie.