Wonderful, but not perfect

Rating: 8/10 (7 September 2012)

Rather late in the day - I'm 60 - I finally caught up with Frank Capra's 1946 feelgood morality tale.
George Bailey (James Stewart), after a lifetime of putting his own wishes on hold in order to do the best thing for everyone else, finally cracks one Christmas Eve when his uncle carelessly misplaces $8,000, leaving the family business facing ruin. Seeing suicide as the only way out, it is up to probationary angel Clarence to pull him round by showing him the difference he has made to the rest of the world.
Reading rather like an updated version of Dickens' A Christmas Carol, the first three quarters of this movie leads us in detail through George's life as set-up for the eventual climax. And the story works well, with Stewart, in one of his keynote performances, oozing decency and good humour throughout (except for the high contrast moments when he snaps).
Yet there are weaknesses. The 90 minutes spent on George's life story is, perhaps, a little too long, given that its dramatic purpose is mainly to set up the differences in a world without George - it rambles. Lionel Barrymore's Machiavellian Potter is a little bit one-note in his pantomime villainy - you get the feeling that he wishes he had moustachios to twirl villainously while tieing damsels to the railway line. And, worst of all, for me at least, the film ends without the issue of Potter's malicious retention of the missing $8,000 being resolved.
But these are minor quibbles with a film which deserves its happy reputation.
The DVD transfer I watched was beautifully crisp and sharp, with sensitive colorization (being British, I would prefer to spell that "colourisation", but I sacrifice technical correctness in favour of accuracy).