It's a Wonderful Life (Part I) (1946)

December 20, 1946, release date

Directed by Frank Capra

Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra

Based on the story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern

Music by Dimitri Tiomkin

Edited by William Hornbeck

Cinematography by Joseph Walker, Joseph Biroc

James Stewart as George Bailey

Donna Reed as Mary Hatch Bailey

Henry Travers as Angel Clarency Odbody

Lionel Barrymore as Henry F. Potter

Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy Bailey

Beulah Bondi as Ma Bailey

Frank Faylen as Ernie Bishop, the cab driver

Ward Bond as Bert, the cop

Gloria Grahame as Violet Bick

H. B. Warner as Mr. Gower, druggist

Frank Albertson as Sam Wainwright

Todd Karns as Harry Bailey

Samuel S. Hinds as Peter (Pop) Bailey, George’s father

Lillian Randolph as Annie, the Baileys’ maid

Virginia Patton as Ruth Dakin Bailey, Harry’s wife

Mary Treen as Cousin Tilly, Building and Loan employee

Charles Williams as Cousin Eustace, Building and Loan employee

Sarah Edwards as Mrs. Hatch, Mary’s mother

Harold Landon as Marty Hatch

William Edmunds as Mr. Giuseppe Martini

Argentina Brunetti as Mrs. Martini

Sheldon Leonard as Nick, Martini’s bartender

Bobby Anderson as Little George Bailey

Jean Gale as Little Mary Hatch

Jeanine Ann Roose as Little Violet Bick

George Nokes as Little Harry Bailey

Frank Hagney as Potter’s mute aide

Charles Lane as Potter’s rent collector

Karolyn Grimes as Zuzu Bailey

Larry Simms as Pete Bailey

Carol Coomes as Janie Bailey

Jimmy Hawkins as Tommy Bailey

Produced by Liberty Films

Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures

Why would anyone think of It’s a Wonderful Life as a film noir? That’s the question I asked myself when I first listened to Shannon Clute’s and Richard Edwards’s podcast about the film at Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir. (You can listen to Clute’s and Edwards’s podcast about the noir elements in It’s a Wonderful Life by going to the right-hand column of this blog, clicking on the link for Out of the Past: Investigating Film Noir, scrolling down to Episode 13, and clicking on the link provided there.)

It’s a Wonderful Life is presented as a film about a man’s desperation at Christmastime. But I’ve always thought it was such a dark film with its central theme of suicide. Released on December 20, 1946, almost exactly 69 years ago, it’s still watched today, mostly during the Christmas season. According to the DVD special feature “A Personal Remembrance,” hosted by Frank Capra, Jr., however, the film was considered too depressing for the holiday season when it was first released.

But is it film noir?

Clute and Edwards maintain that It’s a Wonderful Life addresses the central philosophical (and film noir) question: Is life worth living? It’s an existential dilemma, as presented in Albert Camus’s The Myth of Sisyphus.

I have to agree with them here. Such philosophical underpinnings were the hallmark of postwar films noir. Jimmy Stewart convinces me every time that George Bailey had it with his life in Bedford Falls. The despair he feels on the bridge and even before arriving there is a great bit of acting from Stewart: It’s convincing and believable.

From Clute and Edwards: Capra’s war experience during World War II making film documentaries, the Why We Fight series, influenced the making of It’s a Wonderful Life. This is Capra’s first film after making these war documentaries, and documentary realism played a role in Capra’s approach to this film. Jimmy Stewart is also back from his recent war experience, which he can draw on to depict a character suffering through an existential crisis.

Edwards: The critical sequence that qualifies this as a film noir is the sequence when George Bailey sees what his life would be like if he had never been born. But the film is actually bleak for most of its duration.

Clute: The noir segment actually starts sooner: when George Bailey realizes that Uncle Billy has lost the bank deposit. He is despairing before he gets to the bridge and he treats his wife, children, and Uncle Billy pretty badly.

Again, I agree, but I would go a step further: after years of covering for Uncle Billy, I thought George deserved to feel a little put out. Maybe he didn’t have to rough up his uncle, but it creates more noir in this film.

More points from Clute and Edwards:

• Pottersville: a noir city, with pool halls, strip clubs, bars, dance halls, and pawnshops.

• Gloria Grahame is a noir star in the making. She is vicious in the sequence about George never having been born. She’s a femme fatale, although in a limited role.

• Some details in It’s a Wonderful Life are similar to Meet John Doe and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. But before World War II, Capra’s films show the power of the people. After World War II, Capra’s themes revolve around the family, not the community. The family is rebuilt in response to trauma.

But even more than these points from Clute and Edwards makes It’s a Wonderful Life a dark story. So many of the details discussed in the film involve tragic periods in American history, not just in George Bailey’s life. For example, the druggist (Gower) drinks himself into a stupor after receiving a telegram from the president of Hammerton College explaining that his son Robert died of influenza. It’s 1919, and I’m sure audiences in the 1940s put two and two together: Robert Gower may have escaped the trench warfare of World War I but not the flu epidemic in 1918 and 1919, which struck down mostly young adults. (You can learn more about the flu epidemic via an online search.) As a result of his grief, Gower mistakenly adds poison to the capsules that are meant for a young child suffering from diphtheria (a childhood disease Americans in the 1940s also would have known all too well). When George points this out to Gower, Gower boxes him about the ears.

World War II features prominently in the film, and I bet the clips about the war are taken from Capra’s documentary work. The details added to the film about the war experiences of various characters in It’s a Wonderful Life would also have been familiar to 1940s audiences. For instance, Potter runs the draft board in Bedford Falls, and we learn that he assigns 1-A to most of the Selective Service registrants (a 1-A designation meant the recruit was available for unrestricted military service). George Bailey carries a 4-F card because of the hearing loss in his ear (4-F meant the registrant was not acceptable for military service). I had to research this information about conscription designations, but movie audiences in 1946 would have known these details.

Poor Uncle Billy wouldn’t have kept his sanity (his job, his family) without his nephew George. George Bailey often covered for Uncle Billy’s mistakes and forgetfulness. He overlooks his uncle’s drinking in the office when there is a run on the Building and Loan. When Uncle Billy has lost the bank deposit (the one that Potter finds and keeps), George doesn’t want to hear him say, “I can’t think any more, George. I can’t think any more. It hurts.” He manhandles Uncle Billy a bit, but he is still willing to take responsibility, just like he always has. He threatens Uncle Billy about letting him go to jail, but that’s not the story George tells Potter when he asks for a loan, and he doesn’t divulge Uncle Billy’s mistakes to the bank examiner. But the audience knows that Uncle Billy has always needed to be taken care of.

The plot of It’s a Wonderful Life includes some traumatic and heartbreaking details. The story alone has many noir elements. But other details of the film also give it some noir characteristics: flashbacks, unusual narration, dark and innovative cinematography. I’ll cover those characteristics in another blog post—after the Christmas season.