Dormant for decades before it became a classic

Rating: Null/10 (16 March 2002)

I first saw "It's a Wonderful Life" when baby sitting at my cousin's
house on New Year's eve of 1962-1963. For almost 20 years after that,
whenever asked what my favorite movie was, I responded, "It's a
Wonderful Life" and saw blank faces which said, "Never heard of it."
Later in 1963 I saw a special hour-long interview with James Stewart on
television in which he was asked which of his movies was his favorite.
He drawled, "Well you know, until recently I didn't have one. But now
when I look back on it, I do. And it is a little embarrassing to
mention it because it is a film nobody saw. It is called, 'It's a
Wonderful Life.' It is what we called in those days a five
handkerchief picture. And there is a scene in it that I now think of
as my favorite scene. It's when I say a kind of prayer."
I started living in Japan in 1971. During the Christmas season of
1984 I was in Hawaii for a business convention and was quite surprised
to turn on the hotel television and see not only the film but a report
on the advent of "It's a Wonderful Life" as an American classic.
Now, both the title "It's a Wonderful Life" and the character name of
George Bailey are metaphors for family values and the scene of George
Bailey cheerfully running down the street of Bedford Falls seems to pop
up in other movies whenever there is a scene of a housewife watching
television at Christmas time.