Holiday Classic!

Rating: 10/10 (27 April 2004)

It's A Wonderful Life (1946- Directed by Frank Capra) I suppose most of us are familiar with this holiday classic. It's hard to believe that on it's initial release the movie didn't really do well at the box office. Jimmy Stewart plays the Job-like George Bailey who gets taught the lesson of a lifetime by friendly angel Clarence Oddbody played by Henry Travers. With Donna Reed playing his wife Mary and a host of other familiar character actors, Capra weaves a tale of the importance of a single human life. Old timer Lionel Barrymore (great uncle of current Charlie's Angel, Drew) gives the quintessential performance of a rich soulless banker.
What's so great about this movie after repeated viewing is how well the story is constructed. Every scene ties so well into the overall plot and gives information about the action about to take place or explains events in the past. So many lines from this movie are quotable that it's hard to chose one for inclusion here. Although one of the sweetest is early on in the movie, when our heroine Mary, as a child whispers into her already man of her dreams, George's bad ear, "George Bailey, I'll love you till the day I die."
Don't rent this video. Buy it.