Latest / All The Right Movies / It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Ep. 70 - Part 1

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It's a Wonderful Life (1946) | Ep. 70 - Part 1 · All The Right Movies

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  All the right movies. It's a Wonderful Life was
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  released in 1946 and has become the definitive Christmas movie.
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  Frank Capra's tale of a suicidal man shown the value of his life
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  by a wingless Angel. The film is a story of hope,
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  community and the impact we have on those around us.
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  My name is John and the building and loan associates with me are
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  Luke. I want a big one.
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  Westie. That does it out.
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  You 2 Pixies go through the door or out the window.
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  And Matt? Happy New Year to you.
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  In jail. It's Christmas Eve in Bedford
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  Falls and ATRM are spreading some holiday cheer as we talk
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  the film that proves no one is a failure who has friends.
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  Hot dog. Hello and welcome to All the
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  Right Movies. We serve hard drinks for men who
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  want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around
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  to give the joint atmosphere correct.
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  I'm looking at you, Matt. Yeah, I'm going after this.
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  Don't worry, we tell the story of Hollywood one film at a time
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  here. And this Christmas, all four of
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  us are here because we've got one of the biggest theories.
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  We sure do. We do.
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  We're going all the way back to 1946 to talk Jimmy Stewart
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  Angels without wings and spread general yield tide fun as we
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  bring you the making of Frank Capra's holiday treasure, It's a
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  Wonderful life. Nice.
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  Perfect. See.
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  And that as if we didn't know what was coming.
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  Oh, we're here. It's a wonderful life.
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  Oh, is that what we're doing? Excellent.
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  Dropping that on you from nowhere.
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  No problem, I'm all prepped for Bad Santa, but never mind.
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  That's why we're all here, just to help each other out a little
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  bit. Well, no, Paul, this time we did
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  just dive straight in like an underground swimming pool.
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  So we should probably explain. Matt, why are we talking about
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  it? It's a wonderful life.
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  Yes, I mean, like a lot of people, this one's very personal
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  to me. I remember it being on in the
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  background when I was a kid at Christmas, but I never paid that
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  much attention to it. But I can vividly remember one
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  year I'd finished sixth form for Christmas, came home, started
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  the Christmas holidays and thought, you know what, I'm
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  going to give this a proper watch.
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  I want to see what the deal is. Why do people like, love this
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  one so much? And since then, it's been the
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  absolute cornerstone of this time of year for me.
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  Like any other Christmas film, it's fine for don't get around
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  to watching it, but not this one.
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  And it's a very rare film in that the older I get, the more I
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  get out of it somehow, the more I sympathize and understand what
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  George is feeling and going through.
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  But also, more importantly, how to recognize your own importance
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  in life and view yourself through the perspective of
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  others, which I think is really important.
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  It takes you on an incredible journey and after all these
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  years of doing this podcast, I've never cried on a recording
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  yet. Let's see if I still hold to by
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  the end of this one. We shall see.
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  First time for everything, yeah? Well, it's sticking around for
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  yeah, yeah, 2 1/2. Hours and Luke, how about you?
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  When It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah, I mean, this is only a
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  matter of time. The best Christmas movie and the
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  best movie podcast together at last.
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  Nice. I didn't watch the film until
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  into my teens like Matt. Matt.
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  I'm not too sure if it was so much of A seasonal standard in
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  the UK as it is now. Obviously it was in the USI
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  don't really feel it took hold until the 90s.
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  So it wasn't really a thing when I was that young over here, at
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  least anywhere. But I did love it on 1st watch.
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  I think there are a handful of films that have elite level
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  status. We've covered the majority of
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  them, the ones that could be considered the greatest in their
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  particular genre or greatest of all time, and I think this is
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  one of them. I think it's up there with the
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  likes of The Godfather of Citizen Kane.
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  Yeah. And a yearly Christmas table for
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  a good reason. A true classic.
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  And it's inclusion on the podcast.
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  I mean, it was just a certainty. Definitely.
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  It was going to happen at some point and I didn't say It's a
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  Wonderful Life when I was a child.
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  I mean, not a small one. I was about 1415 I think, first
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  time I saw it. It was on one Christmas Eve, I
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  think on BBC Two. It's on every Christmas Eve in
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  the UK isn't it? Yeah, obviously I heard about it
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  and knew it was a classic. Didn't massively interest me as
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  an uncultured kid. I was more interested in Home
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  Alone or A Charlie Brown Christmas.
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  Brilliant. Still great.
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  Which are both still awesome obviously, but when I watched it
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  as a teenager I did think it was great.
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  Seen it many times since, so looking forward to getting into
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  how we all feel about it now. And beyond the emotions, of
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  which there's a lot, there's law to talk about Jimmy Stewart in
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  the lead. Obviously don't.
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  I read opposite him first time for us with her and with Frank
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  Capra directing at the peak of his powers.
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  Some highly acclaimed filmmaking and a behind the scenes tale
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  that doesn't always match the joy we see on the screen, so
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  it's a really interesting one. Very true.
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  Yeah, it's a Christmas special. So we're about to go then.
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  It's a Wonderful Life, The True Meaning of Christmas Classic.
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  So this should be great I think. Yeah, no.
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  Guaranteed. And Westie, you're here to sing
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  the praises of Mr. Potter, presumably.
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  But possibly, yeah. I mean, he's the hero for me,
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  let's be honest. No, it's again, it's just it's
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  an absolute tradition for us. It was me.
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  Dad got into this and sat down. So you'll have to watch this on
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  Christmas Eve and every single year since then.
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  I remember the first time I saw it, and I just been absolutely
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  kind of transported by it. Just that feeling of joy.
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  Even now, if you've just watched the ending on YouTube, it still
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  hits you even though you know you haven't gone through the
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  whole film. It's very, very rare for a film
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  to do that. I think there's just everything
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  about this is just beautiful acting.
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  I think that you know, the way it's shot, the way it's all
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  realized, not only the ultimate Christmas film, but I think the
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  ultimate feel good film. It's just one of them films that
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  I worry every year that it's not going to hit as hard.
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  I keep thinking I've seen it too many times that this isn't going
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  to work this year, and it always does.
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  Somehow it always seems to pull it out of the bag and smack
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  home, and unfortunately it just gets more and more relevant
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  every single year. I think people forget the actual
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  message and the actual tone of this film is just, you know,
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  it's about community and it's about selflessness and it's
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  about caring about your fellow man and caring about somebody
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  else. And people keep forgetting that
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  every year. And every year this comes back
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  and reminds me. It just really, really is a
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  universal film. It's one for everybody.
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  I'll recommend it to anybody and I don't get sick of it and I'm
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  really excited to talk about it. Well, it's a Wonderful Life.
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  It's produced by Liberty Films, distributed by Archaeo Radio
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  Pictures, and released on December the 20th, 1946.
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  Filmed at Archaeopathy Studios in Culver City, CA, it was
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  directed by Frank Capra, written by Capra, Francis Goodrich and
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  Albert Hackett, based on the novella The Greatest Gift by
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  Philip Van Doren Stern, and it stars James Stewart as George
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  Bailey, Donna Read as Mary Hatch Bailey, Lionel Barrymore as Mr.
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  Potter, Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy, and Henry Travers as
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  Clarence. Odd Body Angel second class, but
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  not for long. Not for long, no.
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  No. Shall we step into Christmas
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  then? Let's do it.
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  Let's go. OK, Brilliant.
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  Time to lasso the moon. It's Bedford Falls via deep
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  space, weirdly. Yeah, always forget about that.
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  It's the beginning of It's a Wonderful Life.
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  The beginning. Many of the famous moments and
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  It's a Wonderful Life come in the final act, but that's not to
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  say the first actors fella. Far from it.
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  And we're going to talk about some huge sequences, a young
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  George Bailey becoming reacquainted with a young Mary
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  Hatchet. A pool party is coming up, but
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  before that we're looking at some major character
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  introductions. We are.
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  So after a tote happened, Buffalo Gals opening credit
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  sequence to lead us in, we're thrown right into Bedford Falls.
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  It's Christmas Eve and everybody's praying for George
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  Bailey. The first scenes bring us a trip
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  to the cosmos to meet Clarence, a trip to 1919 to meet young
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  George and the youngsters life in his hometown.
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  Do you wish you had $1,000,000 Worth it?
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  Hot dog every time. What do you think of the opening
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  moments? I think the opening moments are
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  great. I especially love the
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  introduction to George here. I think he's great, so well
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  played and it's just it's lads in it, lads doing what lads do.
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  Lads, lads, lads. I mean, who, who hasn't done
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  this sliding down on a on a spade, you know, snowy bank?
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  Fantastic. Stuff I got shovel in it.
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  Really dangerous, really hazardous, but you know, that's
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  just kids in it. But I think it's a foreshadowing
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  in this of all the characters. It's Harry shows he's bravery,
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  says he's not scared, foreshadows what he's going to
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  do later on in the film. He shouts for George for help
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  even before he kind of gets into trouble, just before he falls
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  in, he's screaming for help from George.
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  You know George is going to help and it's how selfless George is.
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  He's just everything's off and he's straight in without
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  thinking about it. So it's just these great
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  character moments and sets of Sam Wainwright's E or you're
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  going to get that later. You're going to think he's going
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  to grow a bit, but he doesn't really.
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  Does he grow up, Sam get a hold of it?
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  No idea how he's successful in business, but I guess you've
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  just got to be childlike for that to work out.
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  But it's just a great introduction to everybody.
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  Marty's in there. You kind of get everybody and
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  know everybody. There's this individuality to
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  the group, but to me that doesn't seem that deep when
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  Harry falls in, does it? What's he bothered about?
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  Just get out. Just stand up.
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  Just terrified. But again, I mean, it's just a
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  foreshadow and I love in this, I love this like a sign there that
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  I'm not sure if that says it's Potter's Land or whatever.
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  And some people have said that, and it was in an early version
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  of the script, but there's just all these little bits that kind
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  of point to it. But yeah, it's great.
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  Great character. Settle.
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  Yeah, I love how it starts. The first thing we've seen in
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  the film is a montage of the shots of Bedford Falls and the
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  voice overs of all the people praying.
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  I love that sets up the final act, and it does establish this
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  is a Christmas film. You know the next 90 minutes
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  won't mention Christmas at all. Not at all.
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  And then in outer space with God and Joseph as you do, and
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  Clarence, obviously, and that dissolved transition from space
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  to all the boys sledging to take us in.
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  That's great. Yeah.
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  Really slow dissolving it. Yeah, it is.
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  Yeah. And narrativeia crumbs in Lords.
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  We meet George, we meet Harry, his brother, and Clarence.
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  The sledging accident that leads to George going deaf in his left
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  ear. And the fact that George saves
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  Harry, he does set up a huge and pretty dark moment later on.
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  We'll talk about that, obviously, but I think it's
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  really beautifully shot as well. And I'm a big fan of young
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  George's Czech woolen jacket. It's great.
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  Lovely number. Don't make it.
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  I don't like that anymore. No.
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  Nice piece, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I love the visual
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  of this. It looks like it could be a
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  Christmas card, you know, just as Wesley's been saying, just
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  the lads going out sledging. Yeah.
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  But yeah, it's one of those scenes where when you come back
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  to it, it has so much more resonance because it's big
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  enough. Obviously saving your brother's
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  life, that's massive. But you don't expect that our
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  further ramifications. But it does.
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  As we've been saying. We'll get on now.
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  Yeah. Great.
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  We will indeed. You mentioned that there, John.
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  We see Clarence talking to God and Joseph about George through
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  the first act in one of the first versions of the script,
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  though it didn't cut to space, we actually saw them.
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  The big man wasn't their God. We would see Benjamin Franklin
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  as the head Angel going to see Joseph in his workshop where
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  Joseph was working on a new invention.
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  Franklin, like the. Big man.
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  Well, yeah, in the Bible, Joseph the Carpenter, hence the
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  workshop. So it's quite a funny little
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  idea. Yeah, but once it changed the
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  space, though, it would have been a bit odd if Ben Franklin
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  was just in there for no reason. Yeah, flashing.
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  Star is he sick? No.
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  Worse, he's discouraged. Is that close of.
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  Course it is. Miles Worth.
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  Yeah, in the first draft, the sequence where George says
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  Harry's life was different as well.
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  Originally, the boys weren't sledging.
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  Get this, They'll play an ice hockey even more dangerous.
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  Wayne Gretzky. The end of our plane on the
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  lake, which is part of Potter's property, which is what we've
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  touched on earlier there. As they're playing, Potter is
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  looking at them furiously from his mansion with his binoculars
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  probably, or a telescope, then hands up the space.
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  That would be great. When George hits the put into
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  Potter's yard, so Potter releases the dogs on them.
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  The boys make a run for it and that's how Harry falls in the
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  ice, where George then saves him.
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  Mr. Burns. Mr. Burns releasing the dogs.
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  Release the hounds. I mean, Pata pretty much is Mr.
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  Burns, isn't he? Pretty much, yeah.
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  Need to get muggy on the kids? Yeah, First thing to see is that
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  George is full of effervescent energy.
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  The kid George, that is just a bit.
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  Yeah. I love how he announces himself
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  to Mr. Gower with his full name. It's me, Mr. Gower.
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  George Beale. How many Georges are on staff?
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  2nd is the 2 actors playing young Mary and Violet.
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  They are absolutely glorious. Violet she's a bit of a floozy
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  but George sees right through it.
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  Help you down. Great.
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  The real winner here is Mary. She's full of poise with a back
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  to Violet. I'm still thinking.
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  And when it's when Violet leaves and it's just her and George, it
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  provides such an incredible strong foundation for the rest
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  of the film. These two go this far back when
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  Mary says, George Bailey, I love you to the day I die.
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  Oh, yeah, I'm gonna already forget about this.
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  And. She does.
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  Yeah, but is this scene sponsored by a National
• 13:02
  Geographic? Because George proudly despairs
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  that here when he's talking about his adventure spirit is
• 13:07
  like a TV ad. Yeah.
• 13:08
  Want to get his name in the National Geographic?
• 13:11
  Well, yes, explorers can get. Them.
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  I mean, it's a charming little scene, I think.
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  Ladies man, Young George, isn't he fighting them off with a
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  stick? Of course he is.
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  Shoelaces. Just tell them what you're
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  having. These haven't shoelaces, of
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  course. You.
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  I mean, obviously we'll see Violet and especially Mary
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  become adult characters later on, but yeah, even, yeah, Violet
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  knows what she wants. Mary goes, you're like, every
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  boy, what's wrong with that? And then George is like, I'm
• 13:38
  going to travel and I'm going to own a couple of hair rooms and
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  maybe 3 or 4 wives. Isn't he like, 12?
• 13:44
  But I love the set as well. Of the drugstore.
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  Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:47
  I mean, almost all the films filmed on archaeo sound stages
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  in the production design is fantastic.
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  Start here. It's incredible.
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  Yeah, and then after this, you get like the next big event in
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  George's life and mark this one down because this is the first
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  time that I cry during this film.
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  But not the last. Well, I'll see I've no the last
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  trust you just. Start here and then it's
• 14:06
  consistent from here. I mean, when he saves Mr. Gower
• 14:10
  from poison, that kid, but Gower doesn't realize what he's done
• 14:12
  and he thinks he's just been skiving.
• 14:14
  I mean, it is still shocking to this day.
• 14:16
  Just our brutal low slaps are in what it does.
• 14:19
  This sets up the recurring theme of George's life in this film.
• 14:22
  He tries to do something good and he just gets punished
• 14:25
  forward straight away. He cannot catch a break.
• 14:27
  But the way it cuts from Gower just laying into him to those
• 14:30
  reaction shots of Mary flinching at the sound of each slap, like
• 14:34
  she can't even see what's happening.
• 14:35
  But the sound is so effective. That's how I think it is.
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  But then you get Gala's realisation what George has just
• 14:41
  done for him and what he's likely saved him from.
• 14:43
  That is so effective when he goes to hug him and gratitude
• 14:46
  and George just backs away from don't hurt my sorry again, Don't
• 14:49
  hurt my sorry again like I'm 20 minutes in.
• 14:53
  I don't think I'm going to take any more.
• 14:56
  Yeah, no Jimmy Stewart yet, but I think all these kind of like
• 14:59
  prequel scenes, they're really important in setting up Georges
• 15:01
  character. You've already heard he wants to
• 15:03
  see the world, then we'll see here that he's brave, he's
• 15:05
  moral, he puts others perform himself even when it costs him.
• 15:08
  And that's his character throughout the film really.
• 15:11
  I think it's all really well set up in the writing and the
• 15:13
  beating is pretty brutal. Capra doesn't shy away from it.
• 15:17
  Is the go I get stuck right in? It's not.
• 15:20
  I mean, for a film to remember there's this warm Christmas
• 15:22
  classic. There is some dog stuff.
• 15:24
  Very much. There's more to come, but this
• 15:26
  is probably the first I think of those moments.
• 15:28
  Yeah. Yeah, the actor who plays young
• 15:31
  George is Bobby Anderson and he had an incredible career.
• 15:35
  His film debut was The Grapes of Wrath in 1940.
• 15:38
  Well, but this was his biggest role at the time.
• 15:40
  And then he was in another Christmas classic a year later
• 15:43
  in The Bishop's Wife. Yeah.
• 15:45
  He then moved into production design and worked on Columbo.
• 15:48
  Nice. The 70s series of Wonder Woman
• 15:51
  and the last film he worked on was Demolition Man in 19. 83
• 15:56
  I've read that, yeah. All the classics.
• 15:59
  Imagine Snipes in Stallone showing up here.
• 16:01
  Carnage in bed by 4. What's your boggle Be great.
• 16:08
  I think Bobby Anderson's pretty good young George.
• 16:10
  Yeah, he's great. Yeah.
• 16:11
  Slightly theatrical at times, but that's fine, it all works.
• 16:14
  Yeah, the time, isn't it? Yeah, it ties into the
• 16:16
  excitability of them, I think, the ambition.
• 16:19
  Yeah, and young Violet and Mary we should mention as well.
• 16:22
  Jean and Rose played child violence, her only ever film
• 16:25
  credit, and Jean Gale played Mary.
• 16:27
  She was in loads of films afterwards, but not like as a
• 16:29
  leader or anything. She's a chorus girl in Singing
• 16:32
  in the Rain. Right.
• 16:33
  Oh, wow. Nice.
• 16:34
  OK. Great look out for her there,
• 16:36
  yeah. And Mr. Gower is played by HB
• 16:39
  Warner and his great preceded cinema.
• 16:42
  He'd been in silent films as far back as 1914 and was most well
• 16:45
  known at the time for playing Jesus Christ in Cecil B De
• 16:49
  Mille's 1927 version of The King of Kings.
• 16:52
  And that was a huge film. Being shoes to fill huge.
• 16:55
  Huge sandals to fill there. And that was a huge film.
• 17:00
  But Warner ended up typecast afterwards, and Capra kind of
• 17:03
  brought him back into the Hollywood fold.
• 17:05
  He cussed me. And you can't take it with you.
• 17:07
  Mr. Smith goes to Washington and then it's going in.
• 17:09
  It's wonderful life. Typecast is Jesus Christ.
• 17:13
  Yeah, like Robert Powell. Robert.
• 17:16
  Powell. I'm surprised to learn that he
• 17:20
  was a big star as you ain't got the HP Warner.
• 17:22
  Do you know Sunset Blvd. Billy Wilder film?
• 17:25
  Yes, the famous scene where we see a bunch of real silent film
• 17:28
  stars playing poker. They're like playing themselves
• 17:30
  in the film. Buster Keaton's there, Anna
• 17:32
  Nielsen and one of them's HP Warner, he's in that scene as
• 17:35
  well. Nice.
• 17:36
  Cool, nice. Great.
• 17:37
  I love this scene because there's no element of assumption
• 17:40
  for the audience whatsoever. In the foreground.
• 17:43
  Poison. You've got black players on
• 17:45
  this. Tom and Jerry cartoon.
• 17:50
  Skull on him with crossbones. As good of an actor as HP Warner
• 17:53
  was, Bobby Anderson said that he was actually drunk in this
• 17:56
  scene. And it always kind of freaks me
• 17:58
  out because it is such a genuinely good drunk
• 18:01
  performance. He is gone.
• 18:04
  When he sits down and looks at the picture of his son, it's
• 18:07
  like, oh, there's nothing else on his mind.
• 18:09
  And the tears that are coming down his face, the confusion
• 18:11
  that's happening, and he was actually slapping Bobby Anderson
• 18:14
  for real. Wow, like he was there, all them
• 18:16
  tears were real and he just said as soon as HP want to finish the
• 18:20
  Capri L cut and he finished, you just want to hug them and he's
• 18:22
  just so apologetic. So that scene is actually how it
• 18:24
  played out in real life, which is amazing.
• 18:26
  Yeah, incredible. I mean, Christmas classic or
• 18:28
  not, there's no reason for slapping a 12 year old.
• 18:31
  Sure. No.
• 18:31
  Definitely not, no. Didn't go slapping Buster Keaton
• 18:34
  about I bet. I.
• 18:35
  Bet. Wouldn't it?
• 18:38
  But in an earlier draft of the script, the sequence played out
• 18:41
  quite a bit differently. In the film, when George finds
• 18:43
  out Mr. Gower has put poison in his prescriptions, he goes to
• 18:46
  see his father gets kicked out of the office when he shouts at
• 18:49
  Potter. He then goes back to the drug
• 18:51
  store. But the earlier draft, George
• 18:53
  turns to Uncle Billy next. Billy lights a cigar and throws
• 18:56
  it in the wastebasket, which catches fire.
• 18:58
  Billy starts yelling for help until George's cousin she puts
• 19:01
  the fire out with a pot of coffee, which means George has
• 19:03
  to deal with it all by himself. Piece a piece of work, Uncle
• 19:07
  Billy like. A liability got on Mike.
• 19:10
  Look at Norman Wisdom. But.
• 19:15
  You know what's a well written film when even the scene to
• 19:17
  leave out sound pretty good. Yeah.
• 19:19
  Yeah. We do get a similar scene in the
• 19:20
  building in law, and that's the first thing we see.
• 19:22
  Uncle Billy and Potter and Peter Bailey, George's dad.
• 19:25
  Potter's being really horrible to Peter.
• 19:27
  It's awful. Yeah, straight away, yeah.
• 19:30
  So no, Jimmy Stewart is George just yet, but still a pretty
• 19:34
  promising opening to It's a Wonderful Life.
• 19:36
  Definitely crying already tears. From there we flash forward nine
• 19:42
  years. George has turned into Jimmy
• 19:44
  Stewart, Mary has become done our read, and their paths cross
• 19:47
  once again. We attend a school, get
• 19:50
  together, the tunes into a pool party, then see George walk Mary
• 19:53
  home, giving us one of the most famous scenes and lines in the
• 19:56
  film. Have you offered to lastly with
• 19:59
  the Moon for a Woman before Luke?
• 20:01
  No, but I'd often like to. Put your back out.
• 20:08
  Yeah, I mean, it's all frivolity at the Bailey household before
• 20:11
  the party, isn't it? Yeah.
• 20:12
  Jolly James upstairs, everyone's having the best time.
• 20:15
  Harry's having some fun with Annie asking about those pies
• 20:18
  and chasing the kitchen like a Benny Hill sketch.
• 20:22
  That big wind up slap that he gives us?
• 20:24
  Absolutely outrageous. It's a full moon tonight.
• 20:29
  But this is where the seeds of the rest of the film are sawn.
• 20:31
  The way the family ties, the desire to break free.
• 20:34
  Pot is evil omnipresence as well, the business of nickels
• 20:37
  and Dimes. George doesn't want anything to
• 20:39
  do with it. That's this film in a nutshell.
• 20:42
  It also reinforces George's bad ear.
• 20:44
  How's that? Yeah, every time.
• 20:46
  I love that. Yeah.
• 20:47
  And it ends with his dad tongue to go and chase his dreams.
• 20:50
  But the writings on the wall for George and it signs off
• 20:53
  beautifully with him saying I think you're a great guy.
• 20:56
  It's about time one of them look head said it.
• 20:58
  Yeah, Yeah. There's some great jokes in
• 21:00
  this. It goes from humor just to do
• 21:02
  this absolute like, emotion. It's great.
• 21:05
  And say, yeah, you got a match when he's walking past.
• 21:07
  I love that every time. Just how every time.
• 21:09
  Brilliant. Oh, let him have the plates,
• 21:10
  mother. But yeah, Pop, you want a shock?
• 21:12
  I love that. Yeah, beautiful.
• 21:14
  It is great. It's not one of the most
• 21:16
  spectacular famous scenes, I don't think in the film, but
• 21:18
  really important. It is where we get the
• 21:20
  introduction of one of the biggest themes, the value of
• 21:22
  community, because Peter says normal people do most of the
• 21:25
  working and paying and living and dying in this community, and
• 21:28
  he wants to look after them. So it seems that this is where
• 21:30
  George gets that bully from, from his dad.
• 21:32
  Yeah. And it's great because it's the
• 21:34
  start of George's arc, too. We kind of mocks the building in
• 21:36
  loan here. He calls it a shabby little
• 21:37
  office. And obviously by the end he
• 21:40
  thought he loves the place a bit too much because he learns its
• 21:44
  value. It's about what it does for
• 21:45
  people, really. So I think it's really well
• 21:47
  written. And there is some humour in
• 21:49
  there as well with Annie the housemaid, snooping about
• 21:51
  clearing the plates. I mean, to call Annie a
• 21:54
  stereotype nowadays is a bit of an understatement.
• 21:57
  Yeah. A little bit.
• 21:58
  But Lillian Randolph, who plays her, she's great.
• 22:00
  Oh, she is. She's wonderful.
• 22:01
  And get this about Lillian, Randolph, Tom and Jerry.
• 22:05
  You know the housekeeper, Thomas Thomas, Thomas.
• 22:08
  You never see your legs. But it's Lillian Randolph's
• 22:10
  voice. Oh wow, no way.
• 22:12
  What a fact. How great that.
• 22:14
  I was going to say that like just in jest, but that's
• 22:17
  amazing. Brilliant.
• 22:19
  Yeah, on RE watches as well. It kind of hits home.
• 22:22
  That is possibly one of the last conversations he ever has with
• 22:24
  his dad. Probably is, isn't it?
• 22:26
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. The last time I seen him
• 22:28
  together for sure, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 22:30
  And talking about him, Paul Bailey.
• 22:32
  He's played by Samuel S Hines and he was also known to the
• 22:36
  audiences at the time because he'd been in over 100 films by
• 22:39
  this point. He'd been a regular and the
• 22:41
  Doctor killed their medical drama series and had been in
• 22:44
  Caprice, You Can't Take It With You in 1939, and that led him to
• 22:47
  get them cast as Peter Bailey. Great.
• 22:50
  I was hoping you wouldn't see was the voice of Yosemite Sam or
• 22:52
  something there, but no. Yeah, but.
• 22:55
  Yeah, he's on the film for long, but I think he's good.
• 22:57
  Samuel Hines. Yeah, he makes impression.
• 22:59
  Yeah, Yeah. Yeah, it happens off screen, but
• 23:01
  I do kind of feel his death when it comes a bit.
• 23:03
  Later. Oh, it hangs over.
• 23:04
  It doesn't hangs over. That's the film, definitely.
• 23:06
  It does, yeah. So after this, George gets an
• 23:09
  invite to go to Harry's party and he accepts.
• 23:11
  Obviously, of course he does. Fantastic.
• 23:13
  Loads of kids everywhere, no gym tonight, not one drop.
• 23:18
  And I absolutely love this scene.
• 23:19
  This scene is just such fun. It's just such a joy when he
• 23:23
  sees Mary, like that introduction to Donna Reed is
• 23:26
  just so incredible when she just turns and just, it's just
• 23:31
  incredible every single time. She's the real Angel.
• 23:33
  Yeah, I think of. Course she is.
• 23:35
  It's just like a dream, and it's just the light and he is so soft
• 23:39
  and just so welcoming and she just looks amazing.
• 23:42
  It's just so, so good. I love the fact that there's
• 23:45
  just all these little bits of this dialogue.
• 23:46
  The more you watch this film, the more you get from it.
• 23:48
  The fact that the pool underneath was his idea, the
• 23:51
  fact that he's actually still doing and all of this
• 23:53
  architecture and all of these designs and he still wants to do
• 23:56
  it. And I'm watching this again.
• 23:59
  Do you think this is like inspiration for the hand drive
• 24:02
  sequence in Greece? Possibly it's got similar vibes
• 24:06
  to it, yeah. Because they turn it into a
• 24:08
  competition and say tapping people on the shoulder and you
• 24:10
  have to leave. And it's like, that just reminds
• 24:13
  me of Greece all of a sudden. It's just fantastic.
• 24:14
  And so I love that. I think this has inspired scenes
• 24:17
  in Lords of Classic. Films it has, the more you watch
• 24:19
  it, you just think, Oh yeah, they've just taken that little
• 24:21
  idea and made a kind of film out of the whole thing and it's just
• 24:24
  great. I love the introduction of
• 24:25
  Wainwright turns up here yet again.
• 24:28
  You know, Harry's in the centre of the party.
• 24:29
  Marty comes over and sets him up with his sister.
• 24:31
  He's younger sister. Like I wouldn't set anybody up
• 24:34
  without a younger. Sister, any of you mates?
• 24:36
  I'm like, why don't you just stay away, right?
• 24:37
  I don't give a shit. Don't dance with her, don't get
• 24:39
  anywhere near her. In the story, the Charleston
• 24:42
  starts and they're not very good at it.
• 24:44
  And that pool starts open and it's just wonderful.
• 24:48
  It's not, it's not funny where you are.
• 24:49
  You don't roll your eyes at all. You just go, this is just
• 24:52
  amazing. And just the dialogue, we must
• 24:54
  be really good. Everybody just screaming is
• 24:57
  getting closer and closer. Yeah, absolutely crap.
• 25:03
  They're really not very good at what they're doing at all.
• 25:05
  But that one line, I mean does he deserve of just telling that
• 25:08
  kid just to stop annoying people?
• 25:10
  And I have the key so I'm going to ruin the whole party because
• 25:12
  it's George Baileys attitude. It's an over reaction like isn't
• 25:15
  it? It definitely is, but it works
• 25:17
  so well because it works in Georgio's favor because he gets
• 25:21
  married. He's going to get married
• 25:22
  anyway, but it's just such a joy to see and you just do not
• 25:25
  expect it. I still like every time it
• 25:27
  happens if I'm watching it. For someone who hasn't seen it,
• 25:29
  the joy on the face when that pool starts opening is just
• 25:31
  excellent. Great scene so early in the
• 25:33
  film. Yeah, it's great.
• 25:35
  It is. Yeah.
• 25:36
  I love the inroads that have done our read, obviously.
• 25:38
  Obviously. Neither George nor Mary are the
• 25:40
  greatest dancers in the world. George's Charleston Crazy Legs
• 25:43
  thing is outrageous. Spaghetti like.
• 25:46
  It's funny though, he does something early in the Bedford
• 25:48
  Falls streets as well where we waves at someone and does this
• 25:51
  weird bend thing with his legs like Basil.
• 25:53
  Fawlty. John Cleese and those two
• 25:58
  pranksters have opened the floor to reveal the pool.
• 26:00
  Really dangerous, that Surely? Yeah.
• 26:02
  Yeah, yeah. Could kill somebody.
• 26:03
  Yeah, but there's hundreds of people there.
• 26:05
  The floor starts to move. Everyone realizes and stops.
• 26:07
  Just except for George and Mary, who just think everyone stopped
• 26:11
  to watch them. Crazy legs.
• 26:12
  George. I don't think so.
• 26:16
  Oh yeah, it is obviously a key plot point in the relationship
• 26:18
  with George and Mary, and really memorable.
• 26:20
  Weird away as well. Definitely.
• 26:22
  I do find it, it's a little strange that Jimmy Stewart, a
• 26:26
  man, let's be honest, a few years off, 40, is it a high
• 26:30
  school party? Yeah.
• 26:34
  And he's greeted here as these fears in town as well.
• 26:36
  He's like Don Kane. Everybody wants a piece of him.
• 26:39
  But. Yeah, I'm like you fellas.
• 26:42
  That first shot of Mary, her reaction when she sees George.
• 26:46
  Stunning. Yeah.
• 26:48
  And that chump who's talking to her gets what's coming through.
• 26:50
  George is like, why don't you stop annoying people?
• 26:53
  Well, I'm sorry. Hey.
• 26:56
  It's a word. Outrageous.
• 27:00
  That dance. I'm not very good at this.
• 27:02
  And then he does some kind of like Michael, flatly light
• 27:05
  footedness, but he really lets himself down with that grandpa
• 27:08
  hand knee. The party scene that we've been
• 27:14
  taught about was filmed at the Beverly Hills High School.
• 27:17
  It had a real retractable floor, which was state-of-the-art at
• 27:20
  the time It was built in 1939, designed by an architect called
• 27:24
  George Bailey, sorry Styles Clement.
• 27:26
  It was a 25 yard swimming pool underneath a basketball court,
• 27:30
  which if you don't know, is where the term slam dunk comes
• 27:32
  from. Ah.
• 27:33
  Brilliant. But not really.
• 27:35
  I just made that up. But Capra had heard about it and
• 27:39
  specifically went after it for the scene, which is great.
• 27:42
  Great. The swim gym it was known as
• 27:45
  which is a good. Name Slam Dunton would better
• 27:46
  name. And it's still there.
• 27:49
  It's still used by students in this day.
• 27:51
  And the two guys who open the pool floor, one of them is
• 27:53
  played by Carl Switzer. He was known to audiences at the
• 27:56
  time. He'd been a child actor and he
• 27:58
  played Alfalfa in The Little Rascals.
• 28:00
  OK. Yes.
• 28:01
  He's a little Rascal, all right. Yeah, he looks like the cover of
• 28:04
  Mad Magazine. That guy with Mad Magazine?
• 28:06
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 28:08
  Alfred Newman. Which might have been based on
• 28:10
  him in the rascals to be honest. The extras who volunteered to
• 28:13
  jump in the pool were paid an extra 25 bucks as a bonus.
• 28:17
  Nice. And apparently when they filmed
• 28:18
  the moment that George and Mary fall in the pool was a bit of a
• 28:20
  problem because Jimmy Stewart was wearing a two pair.
• 28:23
  A rogue was he? Wow.
• 28:25
  And the first time they filmed it, it fell off like Maury.
• 28:30
  In the pool. Maury's wings don't come off.
• 28:35
  They had a bit in the pool as well where they're in the water
• 28:37
  and George Curry's on dancing with Mary and she's laughing her
• 28:39
  head off. Yeah, yeah.
• 28:41
  Surely not Live by Stuart that it looks like 1.
• 28:43
  Yeah, it must have been. Yeah, yeah, it looks it.
• 28:45
  And then after this, The Walking home and this film has got so
• 28:49
  many shifts and tones, and when it wants to be romantic, it's
• 28:51
  really, really romantic. Yeah.
• 28:53
  Like they're saying. I mean, I think the chemistry
• 28:55
  between these two, it's so convincing.
• 28:57
  They've barely been able to take their eyes off each other since
• 29:00
  the first met in the gym. They're not even thinking about
• 29:03
  the fact that they're walking home in sopping wet clothes.
• 29:05
  They're going to be freezing to death here.
• 29:07
  And Stuart and Reed are so good when that fella shouted them
• 29:10
  like, why don't you kiss him instead of talking to the death?
• 29:13
  It's a shock because you think, oh, hang on, there's other
• 29:15
  people around. It's just this feeling in the
• 29:17
  scene. There's no one else in the world
• 29:19
  apart from these two. They're just so caught up with
• 29:21
  each other in that amazing dialogue about fauna.
• 29:23
  Lasso around the moon and bring it down.
• 29:26
  But as I say, it's the tonal shift.
• 29:27
  It goes from romantic, it goes to playful when Mary loses A
• 29:31
  robe and has to hide in the bushes and George is just.
• 29:34
  This is a very interesting situation.
• 29:37
  Really funny when you saw engaged with a back and forth
• 29:40
  between the two of them. You'd be happy for this to be
• 29:43
  the rest of the film. But then it shifts again into
• 29:45
  tragedy when Uncle Billy and how we pull up in the car and tells
• 29:47
  when the father's had a stroke. So there's a lot of tones packed
• 29:50
  in this little saying, but it's all about the end of play for
• 29:53
  me. These two were great here.
• 29:55
  It is great. So the film spans 26 years, 1919
• 29:59
  and 1945. So over the course of it, Donna
• 30:01
  Reed plays Mary between 18 and 35, and Donna Reed herself was
• 30:05
  25 at the time, so that works pretty well.
• 30:08
  Should all as believable as Mary believable.
• 30:10
  No way though, can 37 year old Jimmy Stewart pull off playing
• 30:13
  21 year old George? Not at.
• 30:15
  All. In this scene he's wearing like
• 30:17
  a football strip when he walks Mary home like a bean.
• 30:20
  Poor you amaze me of goofy like lolloping.
• 30:22
  Down the street. My own shoes.
• 30:26
  It is great though, we get some of the most iconic moments from
• 30:29
  the film. The Sing Buffalo girls.
• 30:30
  George says he's going to Lassie over the moon for Mary.
• 30:32
  So massive stuff. And yeah, just some random
• 30:35
  pervert across the road. Why don't you kiss her already?
• 30:40
  You've done quite a few scenes adding characters like in the
• 30:42
  background just for humour, which always works really well.
• 30:44
  Yeah, very much. I think it's really important
• 30:47
  that we see the Granville house in this sequence.
• 30:49
  Yeah, that's just a a real kind of foreshadowing for what
• 30:52
  happens later on. Jimmy Stewart, straightaway, top
• 30:54
  window, boom. Absolutely amazing shot.
• 30:58
  Yeah, it gets me every single time.
• 31:00
  But the other thing that gets me here as well is the foreshadow.
• 31:03
  And it's very, very sort, but the more you see it, it's very,
• 31:06
  very, very good. Because her wish almost ruins
• 31:09
  his life because she wishes for him.
• 31:12
  She wants to live there with him as soon, no matter what he
• 31:14
  wishes for, it isn't going to come true.
• 31:16
  Because her wish seems to be stronger.
• 31:18
  And he doesn't expect that to break the glass.
• 31:20
  And I think it's her desire for this, to have this life and for
• 31:23
  this wish to come through that she actually does break the
• 31:25
  glass. And it's believable that she
• 31:26
  does it. I think it's just really, really
• 31:28
  good and really, really good foreshadowing that he doesn't
• 31:31
  really know what he's wishing for.
• 31:32
  He's just a whole bunch of things.
• 31:34
  I want to go here, I want to go there, I want to do this, I want
• 31:36
  to do that. She knows exactly what she
• 31:38
  wants. And I think if you know what you
• 31:39
  want in life, you've got a very good chance of that wish coming
• 31:41
  through. Yeah.
• 31:43
  Yeah, you mentioned Jimmy Stewart's shot.
• 31:45
  Yeah, in this scene, Mary throws a stone as well.
• 31:48
  Capra had actually hired an ace marksman to shoot out the window
• 31:52
  on queue. I love.
• 31:53
  That it's really 1946, that how else could you do it?
• 31:57
  Billy freaking to get a sniper in?
• 31:59
  Yeah, just have someone behind it with a hammer.
• 32:00
  Now I'm going to get a sniper, all right?
• 32:04
  I thought Donna Reed had played baseball in high school and she
• 32:07
  did it herself in one crack shot.
• 32:09
  Brilliant. Oh, amazing first take, wasn't
• 32:11
  it? First take Yeah, hell of a Donna
• 32:14
  Reed. Round of applause from the crew
• 32:15
  as well of her Yeah, really, really good.
• 32:18
  And we see adult Violet Vicky for the first time as well, and
• 32:21
  she's played by Gloria Graham. And at the time she was under
• 32:24
  contract at MGM and was loaded out to Orky or to play a Violet.
• 32:28
  She had small roles in a couple of films before this, but this
• 32:30
  was her biggest role at the time and she went on to become a big
• 32:33
  star. She was in The Greatest Show on
• 32:35
  Earth, which also saw Jimmy Stewart I think and Oklahoma,
• 32:39
  and also won an Oscar in 1952 for The Bad and the Beautiful.
• 32:42
  Brilliant. All right.
• 32:44
  Yeah, melodrama by Vincent Minnelli that.
• 32:46
  Yeah, it's a good film. Yeah, she really in a few
• 32:48
  scenes, yeah. But I think Violet's really
• 32:50
  good. She's great.
• 32:51
  She's great. Turning everyone's heads when
• 32:53
  she's walking down the street. Yeah.
• 32:55
  Bert and Ernie the Common, the taxi driver.
• 32:57
  That's great. It's that horn sound as well.
• 33:01
  Cartoon, Yeah. It's really you frame Roger
• 33:04
  Rabbit at that point, yeah. It is.
• 33:06
  It really is. It's pretty big at the end in
• 33:07
  Pottersville as well. When we see Violet getting
• 33:09
  kicked out of a club and she's like out of control.
• 33:11
  I find that quite sad, yeah. I know Potter.
• 33:14
  It's amazing. But yeah, I do like Gloria
• 33:15
  Graham. She's not in it much, but even
• 33:17
  here I think, and you can see she has star quality.
• 33:19
  Yeah. Oh, definitely.
• 33:20
  Yeah. She's really, really good.
• 33:22
  So that's our opening. It's a Wonderful Life has a huge
• 33:25
  reputation and with sequences like George saving Harry, Mr.
• 33:28
  Gower beating George and then George and Mary swim dancing all
• 33:31
  in the first half hour or so, it's easy to see why.
• 33:35
  Oh yeah, definitely. Without doubt, to help us earn
• 33:43
  our wings, we'd love to let you all know about the wonderful
• 33:46
  community supporting what we do. If you're a regular listener to
• 33:50
  our podcast, you can help support what we do by becoming
• 33:52
  an ATRM patron. You get access to the full
• 33:55
  archive of this or main show, as well as bonus shows like Double
• 33:58
  Feature and The Watch List. They're both pretty good as
• 34:01
  well. Are they?
• 34:02
  Incredible. We have double feature which
• 34:04
  features three of us and we'll pick two films each that are
• 34:06
  thematically linked, either with it being a director or an actor
• 34:09
  or whatever else. One thing of to bring 2 films
• 34:11
  together really, we compare we can trust and then the winner
• 34:14
  from the actual episode gets a chance to be featured on this,
• 34:17
  our classic episode. Two films per episode.
• 34:20
  It's like Sherry and the mince pie.
• 34:24
  And we also do the watch list. This is another monthly show
• 34:27
  where we each talk about two films we've seen recently, and
• 34:30
  it's very simple. We either recommend them or we
• 34:32
  say no. Given the big swerve, could be
• 34:34
  something recent, could be something that needs a bit of a
• 34:36
  rediscovery. 6 movies there then that'll get you through the
• 34:40
  holiday period no problem. Indeed.
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  But the benefits don't end there.
• 34:44
  You'd also get the chance to ask questions on our main show, like
• 34:46
  the ones we'll be answering on this very episode, and you get
• 34:49
  to vote on future films that we cover as well.
• 34:51
  So what like that, Potter? We actually listen to what
• 34:53
  people want. Definitely, yeah.
• 34:57
  ATR Ms. Ville. And you'll become part of the
• 34:59
  ever growing ATRM community where you get a talk film.
• 35:02
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• 35:09
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  our community, so head to patreon.com/all the Right Movies
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  to find out more. Or you can access the archived
• 35:18
  episode Towards the Cross Apple Podcast, Spotify and YouTube as
• 35:21
  well. Have we missed anything out?
• 35:23
  I don't think so. Great, we've got a better memory
• 35:25
  than Uncle Billy then, at least. Who hasn't?
• 35:28
  String around our fingers. Well, that's not for now.
• 35:32
  Let's get back to Bedford Falls, Should we?
• 35:34
  Let's do it. Let's go.
• 35:38
  The director. We've mentioned him already and
• 35:43
  the director of It's a Wonderful Life was Francesco Rosario
• 35:47
  Capra. Frank Capra for short.
• 35:49
  To his friends. Born in Italy and raised in LA,
• 35:52
  his career as a director started back in the 1920s silent era and
• 35:56
  before It's a Wonderful Life, he was already a winner of three
• 35:59
  Best Director Oscars. Wow.
• 36:01
  Which were four It happened one night.
• 36:02
  One of only three movies ever to win the Big 5 of the Oscars in
• 36:05
  1935. The big one, yeah.
• 36:07
  Mr. Deeds goes to town from 1936, and you can't take it with
• 36:10
  you from 1938. So a Hollywood directing legend,
• 36:14
  Westie. Yeah, Capra.
• 36:16
  I mean, you're not there just yet.
• 36:18
  Give it time. Yeah, we'll see.
• 36:20
  But how is Francesco? Here is director of It's a
• 36:22
  Wonderful Life. I think he's absolutely
• 36:24
  fantastic. He's at that point in a career
• 36:26
  where he's got such a command over the the medium.
• 36:28
  He's got such a command over the technical, and he knows the
• 36:31
  rules and he knows how to break the rules.
• 36:33
  And he's one of the very first directors, if not the first
• 36:36
  director to have his name above the title of the film.
• 36:38
  Great. So be like Frank Capra.
• 36:39
  It's a Wonderful Life, because that's where that was the
• 36:41
  important thing. That was the draw.
• 36:43
  But it's his like I've said, he's technical flailing for him
• 36:46
  at the very start from Luke's amazing quote.
• 36:48
  I want a big one. And it stops there.
• 36:50
  And audiences must have just been thinking, well, this is
• 36:52
  broken. Yeah, if clans didn't have that
• 36:54
  voice over straight away they think about the reels.
• 36:56
  Yeah, sack the projectedness would.
• 36:58
  Get more money back. Yeah, easily.
• 37:00
  Now, this is 13 years before 400 blows, 23 years before Butch
• 37:03
  Cassidy and the Sundance Kid did it at the end, and 44 years
• 37:07
  before Scorsese utilize it so well.
• 37:09
  And Goodfellas, he's really, really pioneering just the
• 37:11
  freeze frame from the start. Then he breaks the 4th wall.
• 37:15
  Yeah, exactly when he needs to. It's not just breaking the 4th
• 37:18
  wall for for a laugh. He does it twice in the film.
• 37:21
  One is the announcement of them coming in from the wedding where
• 37:25
  the woman screams straight down the lens.
• 37:27
  Oh, yeah, that's fantastic. Because you just.
• 37:28
  Oh, that's if we're there and you're just witnessing it.
• 37:30
  And then the second one is that breakdown from George where you
• 37:32
  realize it's all gone wrong. It's almost the vertical shot,
• 37:35
  but he uses the depth in that frame and he fills that frame.
• 37:39
  And this is shot for cinema. You're going to cinema watch
• 37:41
  this. That's going to fill the screen
• 37:43
  and you're going to be terrified.
• 37:44
  He is straight down the lens and he knows it.
• 37:46
  And then the humor that he brings to it, he has this real
• 37:50
  light death touch. Like you said at the top, John,
• 37:52
  this gets really, really dark really quickly.
• 37:55
  Just really, really technically proficient, but again,
• 37:57
  emotionally attached to the material, which really works for
• 38:00
  me. Absolutely what strikes me.
• 38:03
  About Capra's direction. Is is how he builds.
• 38:05
  Bedford Falls is like a living, thriving place to live, a
• 38:09
  community. This town's packed with
• 38:12
  characters. Mr. Gower, Martini, Violet,
• 38:14
  Uncle Billy, only the cab driver, but the cop.
• 38:18
  And somehow each of them feel fully realized, like they've got
• 38:21
  lives happening beyond the edges of the frame.
• 38:23
  Yeah, yeah, definitely. And.
• 38:25
  That's obviously that's not accidental.
• 38:27
  Katherine knows what he's doing, because the whole emotional
• 38:29
  engine of this film depends on us believing that this community
• 38:32
  is worth saving. If Bedford Falls feels thin or
• 38:35
  generic or you don't care about the characters, then that ending
• 38:38
  just falls flat. Oh, absolutely.
• 38:40
  Yeah, But because. We've spent two hours getting
• 38:43
  to. Know these people, seeing
• 38:44
  George's small kindedness ripple through their lives when they
• 38:48
  all pal into his living room at the end?
• 38:51
  Niagara Falls? Forget about it.
• 38:53
  Yeah, the term itself becomes a character.
• 38:56
  And I think that's Capra's greatest trick here.
• 38:58
  He's not just directing a film about one man.
• 39:00
  He's directing a film about a whole community and how they
• 39:03
  thrive off each other. Every person matters, Every
• 39:06
  small act has consequences. And it's essentially A tapestry.
• 39:10
  And Capra's weaving all these threads together so that
• 39:12
  patiently, you don't even notice it until he pulls it tight at
• 39:16
  the end that it all comes together.
• 39:18
  Yeah, it's incredible. It is.
• 39:20
  I mean when you look at. His career and his filmography,
• 39:22
  it's just sensational at standard three time Oscar.
• 39:25
  Winner second only. John Ford, who won four Capro
• 39:28
  was nominated another three times as well.
• 39:31
  And what's strange is that it seems he was a bit
• 39:33
  underappreciated at the time. You mentioned it, Westie, but
• 39:35
  critics used to call his films Capricorn, like criticizing the
• 39:39
  sentimental style. I think that kind of lack of
• 39:41
  respects gone now, though. Clearly a talented film maker
• 39:44
  and we'll see that in It's a Wonderful Life.
• 39:46
  I think it's masterfully directed.
• 39:48
  You get career defining performances from every main
• 39:51
  cast member, even from another Hollywood legend in Jimmy
• 39:53
  Stewart. And one of the most impressive
• 39:55
  things, I think, is Capra's control of the tone.
• 39:59
  I think in lesser hands, the tone of this film could have
• 40:01
  been all over the place. At times, it's playing as a
• 40:04
  comedy, and at that time, it's playing as a really dark drama.
• 40:07
  And then at the end, it suddenly flips to be like a Christmas
• 40:10
  fantasy. Yeah.
• 40:11
  But at no point is it ever jarring or does anything feel
• 40:13
  our place. There's loads of examples, but I
• 40:15
  think a good one is the final act.
• 40:17
  We'll talk about it indeed later, obviously.
• 40:19
  But it starts Christmas Eve when Uncle Billy comes across Potter
• 40:22
  in the bank. Billy's all full of himself
• 40:24
  taking the piss out of the Potter.
• 40:25
  It's almost like a comedy skit. And then we realized he'd lost
• 40:28
  the money and we started. Think oh shit, and the anxiety
• 40:31
  kind of grows because he can't find it.
• 40:33
  It's gradual but gets worse and worse until it's really dark.
• 40:37
  I mean, we'll talk the details later, but Capright guide us
• 40:39
  through that superbly. One of the best controls of tone
• 40:42
  that we've seen, I think. And in terms of objective film
• 40:45
  making quality, I think this stands head and shoulders above
• 40:48
  all of its peers. The Citizen Kane of Christmas
• 40:51
  movies, Yeah, without it's like fairy tale in New York
• 40:54
  transcends the genre. It's not just a great Christmas
• 40:57
  film, it's a great film, full stop.
• 40:59
  And for me, it's still the benchmark that every other
• 41:01
  Christmas film aspires to. We're still watching it not too
• 41:04
  far off 100 years later. Wow.
• 41:07
  And I think they'll still be watching it 100 years from now.
• 41:10
  And it's Capra's film, top to bottom is all over it.
• 41:13
  I think it's with what it became.
• 41:14
  It's one of the all time great pieces of directing work from
• 41:18
  Frank Capra. Yeah, I agree.
• 41:20
  And The thing is. You don't even need Christmas.
• 41:21
  For this to work, it's just a bonus that it's Christmas.
• 41:24
  Yeah, you don't like Die Hard. Be the.
• 41:27
  Weapon. You can name them all brings his
• 41:32
  real conviction. To the material and a real
• 41:34
  understanding that this needs contrast and balance.
• 41:37
  The emotional highs you get at the end, they only hit because
• 41:40
  he doesn't flinch from the darkness.
• 41:42
  The violence of Mystic Hour, Josh's meltdown in front of his
• 41:45
  family, and he has the conviction to make a film that
• 41:48
  fully embraces the presence of God and angels throughout the
• 41:51
  film. But at the same time, it's all
• 41:53
  this humdrum minutiae of small town life, and the two fit
• 41:56
  together seamlessly. You know, having the conviction
• 41:59
  to have a scene where George literally prays to God at the
• 42:01
  bar and you don't roll your eyes at it.
• 42:04
  But again, it's about the balance.
• 42:05
  Because right after that, George gets a smack in the drawer from
• 42:08
  the teacher's husband and sends him on his way right in the.
• 42:12
  Chops. Right in the chops.
• 42:14
  And some of the. Visual storytelling still holds
• 42:16
  up to Damian. The freeze frame that Wesley
• 42:18
  mentioned. But that scene when George
• 42:20
  returns home after Billy's lost the money, that's framed like a
• 42:23
  Christmas card because he got the happy wife and kid put in
• 42:25
  the decorations up in the background.
• 42:27
  Father's just coming home from work.
• 42:28
  Yeah. Except the contrast is George
• 42:30
  isn't happy whatsoever to be wrong.
• 42:32
  He's utterly defeated at that point.
• 42:34
  And that contrast is so emotionally rich.
• 42:36
  So visual storytelling, tonal control, narrative control.
• 42:40
  He's just got it all here. The full package.
• 42:42
  Yeah. And he?
• 42:43
  Doesn't make it overly religious.
• 42:44
  I don't think of this film as a religious film at all.
• 42:46
  No, no, although it's in there isn't.
• 42:48
  It it's definitely in there, but I mean it's it's.
• 42:50
  The whole reason it works, if you look at it from that point
• 42:53
  of view, you use that as the catalyst, but to me it doesn't
• 42:55
  beat you over the head with it. So I believe it if you want to.
• 42:57
  Yeah, it just works for George Bailey.
• 42:59
  So right at the peak of Capra's. Career In 1930s forties we had
• 43:03
  World War 2, of course. After the attack on Pearl Harbor
• 43:06
  1941, Capra quit Hollywood, and he enlisted in the US Army.
• 43:10
  He was 44 at the time, so he didn't need to.
• 43:12
  But he said that in his films, he'd always championed the poor
• 43:15
  and the downtrodden. So he felt that he had to
• 43:17
  practice what he preached on a guy.
• 43:18
  So amount of substance, it seems like.
• 43:21
  Yeah, Yeah. And.
• 43:22
  And Capra was commissioned. As a major in the US Army he was
• 43:24
  there for four years until the end of the war and his job in
• 43:27
  that time was to direct a series of documentary films explaining
• 43:30
  to soldiers why they were in uniform.
• 43:32
  He directed or Co directed 7 documentaries called the Why We
• 43:37
  Fight series. Yeah, nice.
• 43:39
  Yeah. So we left.
• 43:40
  The army when the war ended. 1945 And he said there's time in
• 43:43
  the Army. Turned him into a perfect
• 43:45
  pacifist, as he called it, Right.
• 43:47
  And he said that mindset fed directly into It's a Wonderful
• 43:50
  Life. Yeah, you can see that.
• 43:51
  Yeah. Just a bit.
• 43:52
  Yeah, yeah, the. Themes of community doing the
• 43:55
  right thing. But what's weird is a capital
• 43:57
  later called the making of the film.
• 43:59
  A four month non-stop orgasm. Really.
• 44:04
  Not a part of that. Description at all?
• 44:05
  No. I wish you hadn't told us that,
• 44:07
  John. I mean it sounds good though.
• 44:10
  Maybe a month? So after the war ended, Capra
• 44:15
  got. Together with two other Oscar
• 44:17
  winning film makers, William Wyler and George Stevens and
• 44:19
  they set up Liberty Films and the goal was to make movies
• 44:23
  without interference by studio bosses.
• 44:25
  Liberty had nine film distribution deal with RKO
• 44:28
  Pictures, 3 from each director and the head of RKO, Charles
• 44:32
  Koerner told Capra to read a shelf screenplay, the hat called
• 44:35
  The Greatest Gift. Capra loved it.
• 44:37
  Borrowed from RKO for $10,000. The name eventually changed to
• 44:41
  Its Wonderful Life and the rest is Christmas movie history.
• 44:44
  It certainly is. It is.
• 44:46
  Indeed, Yeah, Caprolie I. Said the script was the story
• 44:48
  I've been looking for all my life, so it was the greatest
• 44:52
  gift. And in November 1945, Liberty
• 44:55
  filmed announced It's a Wonderful Life as being their
• 44:56
  first production. Right.
• 44:58
  Which turned out all right, didn't it?
• 44:59
  Good start. In the long run, yeah.
• 45:01
  Eventually anyway. Eventually, yeah.
• 45:03
  It didn't really work as the planet do.
• 45:05
  I think there's only United Artists that was massively
• 45:07
  successful from that kind of coming together of mind.
• 45:10
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. There was a.
• 45:12
  Problem that Capra had to deal. With during production, the film
• 45:15
  was shot in the summer months and California was going through
• 45:17
  a heat wave at the time. It got so hot that at one point
• 45:20
  Capra had to give the cast and crew a day off to recover.
• 45:24
  Yeah, so the. Famous scene at the end where
• 45:26
  George. Is running around Bedford Falls
• 45:27
  shouting Merry Christmas to everybody.
• 45:29
  It's snowing in the film, but there's certain shots where you
• 45:31
  can see sweat glistening on Jimmy Stewart's face because it
• 45:34
  was actually boiling hot when they filmed it.
• 45:36
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And production.
• 45:38
  Began on April. 15th, 1946 and wrapped on July 27th, 1946.
• 45:43
  It was scheduled for 90 days and Capra brought it in exactly on
• 45:47
  90 days. Exacting nice, very good.
• 45:50
  Some scenes were shot on. Location the.
• 45:52
  Swim, gym, party that we talked about, the scene where George
• 45:54
  meets Harry and his wife at the train station and the scene
• 45:57
  outside the Martinis house in Bailey's Park were all filmed in
• 46:00
  relocations. Yeah, that train station scenes.
• 46:02
  When George meets Harry's wife for the first time and finds out
• 46:05
  Harry's got a job so won't be taking over the building in loan
• 46:08
  bad form from Harry, that isn't it.
• 46:10
  It's a bombshell drops. George right in it.
• 46:13
  Yeah, he apologises, but. He's still taking the job.
• 46:16
  Of course he is. Yeah, yeah.
• 46:19
  I know that. I'm sorry.
• 46:20
  Yeah. So Liberty Films were a new.
• 46:23
  Company and the budget was only $3,000,000.
• 46:26
  So Capra hired Archaeos head of costumes Edward Stevenson as his
• 46:29
  costume designer, and they'd also worked together in 1931
• 46:33
  when Capra made a film called Platinum Blonde.
• 46:36
  Yeah, comedy, romance with. Gene Harlow in it that but a
• 46:39
  pretty natural fit. Then Stevenson knew Capra, Andy
• 46:42
  knew the studio. So a shoe in I guess.
• 46:45
  And because that money limitations.
• 46:46
  Stevenson cut some corners. James Stewart was on clothing
• 46:50
  for most of the film. Actually in Stevenson dressed
• 46:52
  the rest of the cast, mostly by Raiden or key or stock wardrobe.
• 46:56
  Surely that goofy football stripped.
• 46:57
  Didn't belong to Stewart. Yeah, I was going to say they
• 47:00
  weren't his shoes in that. Football.
• 47:03
  Barry turned up with the car. Imagine I'm having.
• 47:05
  To run home. With them shoes on.
• 47:09
  The other costumes all work though, I think.
• 47:10
  I mean. As soon as you say partner, it's
• 47:12
  pretty obvious he's the bad guy. Oh yeah?
• 47:14
  Black suit, starched collar shirts.
• 47:16
  It's not exactly subtle. Yeah, yeah.
• 47:19
  Well, before we signed. Off on Frank Capra.
• 47:20
  It's time to hear from our patrons.
• 47:22
  So like we said earlier, if you sign up as an ATRM patron,
• 47:26
  you'll be able to pause questions that we answer on our
• 47:27
  shows. The first coming now it's on
• 47:30
  something Frank Capra has now associated with the festive
• 47:33
  film, and it comes from Lou Pellegrino.
• 47:36
  Hello, Lou. Hello.
• 47:38
  Lou. Hello, Lou.
• 47:39
  So. Lou asks.
• 47:40
  A lot of Christmas. Movies come and go, but few have
• 47:42
  the well deserved thing. Power of It's a Wonderful Life.
• 47:45
  What are the elements of an enduring Christmas movie?
• 47:48
  Good question from Lou there. Yeah, great one.
• 47:51
  What do we think? What?
• 47:51
  Makes a great festive. Flick, Luke.
• 47:54
  Yeah, agreed. Well, obviously nostalgia.
• 47:56
  Plays such a a huge part there aren't many.
• 47:59
  Christmas films for me that I've.
• 48:01
  Taken to My Heart that were released when I was an adult.
• 48:04
  They're all pretty much. I was watching them when I was a
• 48:06
  kid, probably apart from Elf and Bad Santa, mainly the only ones
• 48:09
  that watch every year without fail.
• 48:11
  Yeah. But I also think that nostalgia
• 48:14
  combined with that big dollop of sentimentality and humour and
• 48:17
  relatability, because if you can see your family traditions and
• 48:20
  traits, you know, a good or bad play out on the big screen,
• 48:23
  there's something incredibly confident about that.
• 48:27
  But finally. You know, abandoned all of.
• 48:28
  That put me in front of a Christmas horror film, and I'm
• 48:31
  as happy as Larry Black. Christmas, Christmas Evil,
• 48:34
  Silent Night, Deadly Night. All winners for me.
• 48:37
  Yeah, I mean. This There's a tone that goes.
• 48:39
  Through all of the classic Christmas films, all of the best
• 48:42
  Christmas films, I mean, Wonderful Life's up there,
• 48:44
  obviously Home Alone is definitely in there.
• 48:46
  Die Hards obviously talked about every year and there's older
• 48:49
  ones kind of predating this that have a similar kind of theme.
• 48:53
  If you haven't seen The Shop Around the Corner, check that
• 48:56
  out, which came out 1940, which is an incredible Christmas film,
• 48:59
  and Meet Me in Saint Louis as well as it was really, really
• 49:01
  good. Love that one, but all of them
• 49:03
  have something. In common and.
• 49:05
  To me it's heart and reconciliation and forgiveness
• 49:09
  and love and second chances. A great quote that if it weren't
• 49:13
  for second chances, we'd all be alone.
• 49:15
  And I think that's what a Christmas film is.
• 49:17
  It's about forgiveness. And I think all of the greats
• 49:20
  have got that. And if you don't have that
• 49:22
  element, it doesn't really work. Beautiful.
• 49:24
  Lovely sentiment I think for me. Don't make the Christmas
• 49:28
  elements the only reason for making the film.
• 49:30
  It's a Wonderful Life doesn't have to happen on Christmas Eve.
• 49:32
  Die Hard doesn't have to happen on Christmas Eve.
• 49:35
  The Apartment doesn't have to happen over Christmas.
• 49:38
  Now obviously some do any adaptation of A Christmas Carol,
• 49:41
  the whole of this very recent one Christmas vacation, but they
• 49:45
  don't just put up Christmas elements on screen thing.
• 49:47
  Oh, well, I'll do. That's there for Christmas Eve.
• 49:49
  The ones that do that, all those just predictable, like Hallmark
• 49:52
  Christmas movies. And that's the reason they don't
• 49:55
  last in the memory. I think get the story right.
• 49:57
  And the Christmas elements can really add to it in an emotional
• 50:00
  way or a funny way or a horrific way if you look.
• 50:03
  But if the story's not there, the Christmas elements.
• 50:07
  Won't mean the thing. Well, there you go.
• 50:10
  I think we've given Lou what he needs to go and write the next
• 50:12
  Christmas classic there. Yeah.
• 50:13
  Look forward to seeing where you come out with us all your.
• 50:15
  Ingredients give us a story. By credit.
• 50:17
  That's all we have. Thanks please so.
• 50:20
  About to It's a wonderful life that was.
• 50:21
  Nominated for best pitcher at the Oscars and Capra was
• 50:24
  nominated for Best director. They didn't win though.
• 50:27
  The winners that year. Do we know what?
• 50:29
  Same film for both. Matt.
• 50:30
  Matt. The best years of our lives.
• 50:34
  It was indeed, yes, every time. Love that.
• 50:38
  And the. Director was William Wyler.
• 50:39
  One of Capra's Liberty Films Co founders.
• 50:42
  That's right, Dead End. William Wyler.
• 50:44
  Yes, the very same. To end on Frank Capra I.
• 50:47
  Have a quote? From the man himself about the
• 50:48
  film. So he later said.
• 50:51
  I didn't even think of It's a Wonderful Life as a Christmas
• 50:53
  Story when I first ran across it.
• 50:55
  I just liked the idea. But I thought it was the
• 50:57
  greatest film I ever made. Better yet, I thought it was the
• 51:01
  greatest film anybody ever made. Self phrase No phrase.
• 51:07
  Brilliant. A man of substance, but not
• 51:08
  modesty. No, Yeah, exactly.
• 51:10
  I wonder what? Yeah, I wonder what?
• 51:12
  Year he said that. But for us, as one of the.
• 51:17
  Christmas classics still holding up decades later.
• 51:19
  It's a Wonderful Life. Exceptional stuff from Frank
• 51:22
  Capra. One of the greatest.
• 51:23
  Yeah, unbelievable. Nearly a century.
• 51:25
  Old one. The cast, a Hollywood legend
• 51:33
  directing things and. It's a wonderful life and the
• 51:36
  same can be said for the cast. 5 Oscar winning actors no less in
• 51:40
  the film. Wow.
• 51:41
  And we're going all in on three of the cast now.
• 51:44
  Don't I read is Mary Hatch turned Bailey's on our agenda,
• 51:47
  as is Lionel, Barry, Moores, Henry Potter.
• 51:49
  But obviously we're starting with the big man.
• 51:52
  Oh, yeah, of course we are. So, James.
• 51:54
  Jimmy Stewart is. George Bailey, a building a loan
• 51:57
  banker who sacrifices his dreams to help his family and
• 52:00
  community. George falls into a depression
• 52:02
  and contemplates suicide before his guardian Angel shows him his
• 52:05
  own value and his family and friends show him the true
• 52:08
  meaning of Christmas. I mean, just saying that I'm
• 52:11
  ready for a mince. Oh yeah, wonderful stuff.
• 52:13
  You're always ready for a mints but.
• 52:18
  How do I Jimmy Stewart as George?
• 52:20
  Bailey I can't think of another performance.
• 52:22
  Where an actor can so clearly feel everything his character
• 52:25
  was going through because Stewart was going through a lot
• 52:27
  himself after the war. And he pours all of that into
• 52:31
  George Bailey. And you can see he's planned out
• 52:33
  George's journey from beginning to end in his head completely.
• 52:37
  Because the amount of time something bad or frustrating
• 52:39
  happens to him and he doesn't quite blow a stack.
• 52:41
  He bites his tongue, swallows the anger down.
• 52:45
  You know, a little moment, side kick in the car door shut when
• 52:47
  he realizes how much money he could have made if he'd got on
• 52:49
  with Sam Wainwright. And I think one of the best bits
• 52:52
  of acting you'll ever see in your life is when Harry returns
• 52:55
  home from college. Which George thinks, right, this
• 52:57
  is my opportunity I'm going to get a leave Bedford for, so he's
• 53:00
  going to take over. But he doesn't count on Harry
• 53:02
  coming back with a wife and an amazing job opportunity.
• 53:06
  In that moment. No dialogue, maybe 10 seconds
• 53:09
  long at most. The camera just holds on
• 53:10
  Stewart's face. He takes and what this means for
• 53:13
  him in his eyes, the shifting as he's just thinking, I can't take
• 53:17
  this away from Harry, but if I don't, I'm so clear for good.
• 53:20
  I'm never going to leave Bedford Falls.
• 53:22
  It's an incredible moment and he has to be funny.
• 53:26
  He has to be lovable, he has to be tragic.
• 53:28
  He has to be scary at point. That's what I said.
• 53:30
  He has to dance at the beginning.
• 53:32
  And the fact that he can combine all these elements into one
• 53:35
  performance in this journey from youth to middle age in one of
• 53:38
  the most compelling journeys he'll ever see.
• 53:40
  I mean, is it the best performance in cinema history?
• 53:43
  I mean, that's a very different argument, but it's certainly my
• 53:45
  favorite performance of all time.
• 53:47
  Wow. Wonderful.
• 53:48
  Huge prayers. Yes, yes, George.
• 53:51
  Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy. The man with a good face.
• 53:54
  I mean, it's Jimmy. Stewart.
• 53:56
  Isn't it? Yeah, one of the most beloved
• 53:58
  actors ever in his signature role.
• 54:00
  And it's signature for a reason. When we first introduced an
• 54:03
  adult George, he is a friend to everyone in Bedford Falls.
• 54:08
  He's been a good kid and there's such a warm feeling with the
• 54:10
  talk of him traveling. His physical performance is
• 54:13
  wonderful. He's walking through this town
• 54:15
  with that enormous suitcase. We haven't the people in the
• 54:17
  street like JFK or something, greeting.
• 54:21
  Everybody with a beaming smile that.
• 54:22
  Leg thing that he does when he wears at the people in the
• 54:24
  window. Wow, that's incredible.
• 54:28
  But this ain't no one no performance either.
• 54:30
  Capra doesn't shy away from the darkness inhumanity and neither
• 54:33
  does Stuart. He head he head on with it.
• 54:35
  He goes through this true emotional roller coaster and he
• 54:39
  drags you through this film giving a relatable performance.
• 54:42
  I think anyone can see themselves in elements of
• 54:45
  George's frustration, of family ties, of small town commitments,
• 54:49
  trying to break free and being pulled back.
• 54:52
  I think Stuart is this film. There are many other elements
• 54:54
  that home here, of course, but Stuart is on fire.
• 54:58
  If he doesn't work, the film doesn't.
• 55:00
  And the reason that the end it hits so hard is because of his
• 55:02
  performance. He really, really earns it.
• 55:05
  He's outstanding here, Yeah. I mean like.
• 55:08
  Capra, Jimmy. Stewart was already a huge
• 55:10
  Hollywood name by this point, he'd already won an Oscar for
• 55:13
  The Philadelphia Story and already had that classics under
• 55:16
  his belt. But even with a filmography like
• 55:18
  his, I think George Bailey possibly still Stewarts
• 55:21
  definitive role. The one he's most known for
• 55:24
  today I think anyway. Sure, and for good reason.
• 55:27
  He looks every inch the Hollywood powerhouse that he was
• 55:30
  at this point. Oh yeah.
• 55:31
  I mean, as George Stewart's what we've come to expect from him,
• 55:34
  he's likable, he's charming, he's charismatic.
• 55:37
  He leaves the whole thing as well as anyone's ever LED a
• 55:40
  film. I would say he's funny when he
• 55:42
  needs to be funny. All that Minsky of silly walk
• 55:45
  stuff he does cracks me up. And when the dramatic moments
• 55:49
  come, he's. Brilliant there as well.
• 55:52
  I mentioned earlier that the tone shifts quite wildly
• 55:54
  throughout the film. I think it would have been a
• 55:55
  really big challenge for anyone playing George, but Stewart just
• 55:59
  sails through it. When the dramatic moments come,
• 56:01
  and when they come, they come big.
• 56:03
  Stewart's more than up to the challenge.
• 56:05
  We'll talk about it in more detail, but the final act in
• 56:08
  Martino's bar on the bridge in the cemetery, he's magnificent.
• 56:13
  I said that I think couple controls are torn in the form
• 56:15
  brilliantly well. And part of that is because he's
• 56:17
  got an actor in the lead in Stuart who can effortlessly
• 56:20
  shift from comedy to drama to tragedy to fantasy and take us
• 56:24
  with him as well. Yeah, I love him in The
• 56:26
  Philadelphia Story, but with the range he has to cover here, I
• 56:29
  think George Bailey isn't just his most iconic role.
• 56:31
  I think it possibly is best performance as well.
• 56:34
  In fact, I think it's underrated.
• 56:36
  I think because of the statue of the film would take for granted
• 56:39
  just how good he is. I agree.
• 56:41
  Yeah, I think it's among the. Greatest lead performances.
• 56:43
  I've ever seen incredible. He's incredible.
• 56:46
  I. Love him almost as much as I
• 56:47
  love Aragon. And Lord of the Rings, surely.
• 56:49
  Almost, almost he is. He's.
• 56:53
  Just absolutely. Electric fantastic, like you
• 56:55
  said, the arcs that he has to go through and he's totally
• 56:57
  believable in all of it and he doesn't actually carry the film.
• 57:00
  I think it's just the way that Capra has directed it as a
• 57:02
  community. You think it's like an ensemble
• 57:04
  piece with everybody having that space.
• 57:06
  He doesn't need to carry it, but he just, he just leads it so
• 57:10
  well that he's fantastic. Another character that I love
• 57:13
  James Stewart playing is Elwood P Dowd from Harvey, which came
• 57:16
  out in 1950. Nice.
• 57:17
  Yeah. And it's very, very similar.
• 57:19
  To George Bailey. Now, if you haven't seen Harvey
• 57:21
  and you love George Bailey, that's a really good kind of
• 57:23
  sequel to go to. It's very, very similar.
• 57:26
  And I I just love Jimmy Stewart. Just an incredible human being.
• 57:29
  Lovely. So like.
• 57:31
  Capra as the. US became involved in the Second
• 57:33
  World War. Jimmy Stewart decided he wanted
• 57:35
  to enlist and as an amateur pilot he was commissioned into
• 57:38
  the Air Corps, served in World War 2 and Ross to the rank of
• 57:41
  Colonel yes so when he returned from the.
• 57:43
  War. He was seriously considering
• 57:45
  quitting Hollywood entirely, apparently, and he spent a few
• 57:48
  months at home in Pennsylvania, working in his family's hardware
• 57:51
  store. Yeah, right.
• 57:52
  Amazing. Amazing.
• 57:53
  Like Jay Fox and. Teen Wolf, Howard Hardware, The
• 57:59
  King of the Nuts, and. Bolts.
• 58:01
  Going to buy a hammer and Jimmy Stewart.
• 58:03
  Serving you. Oh no, no, no, I want a big one.
• 58:09
  Sled Jabber. So while the war was taking
• 58:11
  place. Archaeo were writing The
• 58:13
  Greatest Gift, which as we said, that's the original title if
• 58:16
  It's a Wonderful Life and the first person that wanted to play
• 58:18
  George was Cary Grant. Archaeo ended up selling the
• 58:21
  script before Deal was struck, though.
• 58:23
  Well, I mean, I love. Cary Grant, obviously, Oh, yeah,
• 58:26
  I'm not being harsh saying I'm not sure he's got the dramatic
• 58:29
  chops that Stuart brings to this.
• 58:31
  We never saw that, did we? From Cary.
• 58:33
  Grant Yeah, he is in the Bishop's wife.
• 58:34
  He's very good in that. Yeah, he is North by Northwest
• 58:37
  as. Well, but I just.
• 58:38
  Don't think he's got that depth. No, you know, he's like a James
• 58:41
  Bond kind of thing. And he, well, yeah, that's what
• 58:43
  they wanted, James Bond. Wasn't it Exactly?
• 58:44
  Yeah. And then after.
• 58:46
  Capra bought the. Rights to the film with Liberty.
• 58:47
  He briefly considered Henry Fonda as George Right, but he
• 58:50
  did only ever really want one man James Stewart and Capra said
• 58:54
  he spoke to Lou Wasserman, Stewart's agent, and Wasserman
• 58:57
  said Stewart would gladly play the part without even hearing
• 58:59
  the story. Nice.
• 59:01
  Sounds like Ricky Gervais. Says you're an.
• 59:03
  Extras. He will work with anyone.
• 59:10
  But apparently Steel was planning to turn the part.
• 59:12
  Down loving that hardware store. And according to reports, it was
• 59:15
  Lionel Barrymore who convinced in the movies still matter to
• 59:18
  people and that you should at least meet with Capra.
• 59:20
  Yeah. So well done, Lionel.
• 59:22
  If true. Wow, so.
• 59:24
  Stuart did meet Capra. In an LA restaurant and Capra
• 59:27
  told him the whole story of the film, but at the end Capra
• 59:30
  himself said, actually this doesn't sound too good, does it?
• 59:33
  And Stuart said in reply, Frank, if you want me to be in the
• 59:36
  picture about a guy that wants to kill himself and an Angel
• 59:39
  comes out who can't swim and I save him, when do we start?
• 59:43
  Great, nice Lou Bottom. Was right you will.
• 59:46
  Work with anyone? Georgio's daughter Zuzu was.
• 59:52
  Played by Carolyn Grimes, who was six years old at the time,
• 59:54
  years later she said Stuart was a joy on the set.
• 59:57
  She said he'd always take her for walks and talk to her about
• 1:00:00
  Christmas and angels. And she said it really helped
• 1:00:02
  her in the scene when Zuzu was ill and gives George the petals
• 1:00:05
  at the end, she felt a bond with Stuart.
• 1:00:07
  She didn't have to act much. Amazing.
• 1:00:10
  It's a lovely moment. Beautiful, yeah.
• 1:00:12
  His little ginger. Snap.
• 1:00:13
  He calls. That.
• 1:00:14
  Yeah, great. It's probably lost now, but the
• 1:00:16
  reason George calls you with that is that in the US in the
• 1:00:18
  1940s, Zuzu was a famous brand of ginger snap biscuits.
• 1:00:22
  All right, great. OK, nice.
• 1:00:24
  My kids bourbon and. Custard cream Jamie Dodgers
• 1:00:30
  Messy Dodger George's mother, Mar Bailey is.
• 1:00:36
  Played by Beulah Bondi, she had a unique acting relationship
• 1:00:39
  with Stuart. She played his mother on screen
• 1:00:41
  five times. Unbelievably.
• 1:00:43
  Wow. Before this, they'd worked
• 1:00:45
  together on The Vicious Lady of Human Hearts and Mr. Smith Goes
• 1:00:48
  to Washington. She played his mother in
• 1:00:50
  Stuart's 1976 on The Jimmy Stewart Show.
• 1:00:53
  One of the great screen double act.
• 1:00:55
  Yeah, definitely. So are the neck on.
• 1:00:57
  So much then. I know on the lips.
• 1:00:59
  Outrageous. Yeah, that is weird.
• 1:01:01
  Not sure if. That was Norman in 1946.
• 1:01:03
  Surely I wasn't. But you already used to call her
• 1:01:07
  mom. Right up until her death in
• 1:01:09
  1981, which is nice. Oh, lovely, lovely.
• 1:01:12
  And she doesn't get loads to. Do in the film either.
• 1:01:14
  But you love Bondy. But I think she's good.
• 1:01:16
  Oh yeah, That's seen after Harry's engagement party when
• 1:01:18
  she's convincing George to go and see Mary.
• 1:01:19
  She's great. Cheers.
• 1:01:21
  Bunny calls back and. She's.
• 1:01:22
  At the guest house, it just comes to the door.
• 1:01:24
  It's a lie. Yeah, it's.
• 1:01:27
  Horrible. Yeah.
• 1:01:29
  Another member of the Bailey family Worth.
• 1:01:30
  Mentioning is Uncle Billy, of course.
• 1:01:33
  Right? Yeah.
• 1:01:33
  Lovable klutz. Yeah.
• 1:01:35
  Obviously part of a major plot point leader.
• 1:01:37
  He's played by Thomas Mitchell. Yeah.
• 1:01:39
  How's he in the film, do we think?
• 1:01:41
  I mean that moment when George is in.
• 1:01:42
  Pottersville And he goes to see his mother and she says Uncle
• 1:01:46
  Billy's been in the insane, the Sound, for the past 20 years.
• 1:01:48
  You do go. You know what?
• 1:01:50
  Yeah, that checks out. That's probably where.
• 1:01:52
  He should be, actually. He gets nothing right.
• 1:01:56
  At all. I mean, in the wrong hands, he
• 1:01:58
  could be so annoying and frustrating, but luckily Thomas
• 1:02:01
  Mitchell is just so likable, you can't help but forgive him.
• 1:02:04
  And then in amongst all the the kind of daffness that he does,
• 1:02:07
  that bit where George is yelling at him, but you don't see
• 1:02:09
  Stewart's face because he's he's got his back to camera and it's
• 1:02:12
  all played on Mitchell's face. The terror in his eyes at that,
• 1:02:15
  That's incredible. So, you know, when he needs to
• 1:02:18
  be dramatic, he can be. Oh, he absolutely can.
• 1:02:20
  He. Was known as one of Hollywood's
• 1:02:22
  great character actors at the time, Thomas Mitchell.
• 1:02:24
  He won an Oscar for Stagecoach. Yeah, that's right.
• 1:02:26
  And in his acceptance speech, he said.
• 1:02:29
  I didn't think I was that good, to be honest.
• 1:02:33
  And. Apparently Capra, I thought.
• 1:02:35
  About. Thomas Mitchell playing Potter
• 1:02:37
  at one point, right. And he considered Walter Brennan
• 1:02:40
  in WC Fields as Uncle Billy, which makes sense.
• 1:02:43
  I think WC Field in the kind of like oblivious role.
• 1:02:46
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think Thomas Mitchell is
• 1:02:48
  pretty great. It's Billy.
• 1:02:50
  Well, he's wonderful. Spring wrong his fingers to
• 1:02:51
  remember everything. Yeah.
• 1:02:53
  Doesn't know much when it matters, but gets the wedding of
• 1:02:56
  all things. Yeah.
• 1:02:57
  Yeah, I wish I was there. Why?
• 1:02:58
  Weren't you? Yeah.
• 1:03:02
  That scene after Harry's engagement.
• 1:03:04
  Party. Billy's leaving the Bailey home.
• 1:03:07
  He's leaving his old building and lone pal behind.
• 1:03:10
  And off camera it sounds like he stumbles into some trash cans.
• 1:03:13
  But what actually happened was a crew member dropped a tray of
• 1:03:16
  props just after he walked out of shot.
• 1:03:18
  Right. And when we hear your Billy off
• 1:03:20
  screen shout, I'm all right. That was improvised by Mitchell.
• 1:03:23
  Brilliant. And Capra used this take.
• 1:03:25
  In the final. Couldn't give the crew member
• 1:03:26
  who dropped the props a $10 bonus for improving the sound.
• 1:03:30
  I love that. Amazing.
• 1:03:32
  I'm all. Right all.
• 1:03:34
  Right. Stewarts laugh as well.
• 1:03:36
  You can tell. That's.
• 1:03:37
  Really. Genuine.
• 1:03:38
  Well, that's it. Yeah, actually.
• 1:03:39
  Not expecting, it's when. George laughs.
• 1:03:40
  That's Jimmy Stewart laughing. Yeah.
• 1:03:42
  He's just, like, crazy. Yeah.
• 1:03:43
  Yeah, yeah, it's great. It really works for his
• 1:03:46
  character as well. That the animals are just
• 1:03:48
  attracted to Billy that's. That argument.
• 1:03:53
  With George and George. Says one of us is going to
• 1:03:54
  prison that isn't going to be me and leaves and puts his head on
• 1:03:57
  the table and that little squirrel just sits on his
• 1:04:00
  shoulder. Just like it's all right.
• 1:04:02
  It's all right, but as well as the squirrel, Uncle Billy had a
• 1:04:04
  pet crow. The bird was played by Jimmy the
• 1:04:06
  Raven, one of Hollywood's most famous animal actors.
• 1:04:09
  Capra had worked with Jimmy on You Can't Take It With You in
• 1:04:12
  1938 and loved him so much that Jimmy was in every Capra film
• 1:04:16
  for the rest of his career. Wow.
• 1:04:18
  He earned $500 a week and Stuart said whenever Frank called Jimmy
• 1:04:22
  were both answered. $500 a week. Apparently $200.
• 1:04:28
  That went to the. Owner and the rest just went to
• 1:04:30
  Jimmy. Just sound like seed and stuff.
• 1:04:33
  Booze and fast cars and women, yeah.
• 1:04:36
  And the Wizard of Oz, you know the bit where Crow lands on the
• 1:04:38
  Scarecrow and starts like, pecking away them?
• 1:04:40
  Oh yeah, that's Jimmy. There's.
• 1:04:42
  Jimmy up the result tricks. Some filmography he's got.
• 1:04:46
  Amazing, yeah. But yeah, if you know.
• 1:04:47
  What? It's too Uncle Billy.
• 1:04:48
  Has got a pet squirrel. He's also got a gerbil, a dog
• 1:04:51
  and a parrot. Yeah, strange combo.
• 1:04:55
  Yeah, his house. Fucking.
• 1:04:56
  Stinks. He.
• 1:04:57
  Does yeah. Shouldn't be a shot like Ace.
• 1:04:59
  Ventura when he summons all the animals to him.
• 1:05:01
  Really. What's the left food for fiber?
• 1:05:05
  Well, back to James. Stewart and for his performance.
• 1:05:07
  As George Bailey, he was nominated for an Oscar.
• 1:05:10
  Lost out to do you know you'll do well to get this whoever was
• 1:05:14
  in Best. Years of our lives, I can't
• 1:05:16
  remember. I don't know that one.
• 1:05:18
  It was Frederick March. For the best days of our lives,
• 1:05:20
  OK, I mean, nowadays. I'm not sure.
• 1:05:22
  That's much of A contest, is it? No, not at all.
• 1:05:25
  Come on. No.
• 1:05:26
  No, no, but Hollywood. Legend Jimmy Stewart, and it's a
• 1:05:28
  wonderful. Life.
• 1:05:29
  One of his biggest movies and greatest performances for us.
• 1:05:32
  Absolutely one of the best ever. Yeah.
• 1:05:37
  Behind every great man is a great woman.
• 1:05:39
  So they say. And that phrase might just have
• 1:05:41
  been coined after somebody watched It's a Wonderful Life.
• 1:05:44
  Very true. Donna Reed plays.
• 1:05:46
  Mary Hatch. Bailey, George's wife.
• 1:05:48
  We follow her from being a nine year old girl in Bedford Falls
• 1:05:51
  to a 35 year old mother of four. She's with George every step of
• 1:05:54
  the way, through ruined honeymoons, broken dreams, and
• 1:05:58
  at the end of the film rallies the town 4 together when George
• 1:06:01
  needs her and them the most. And she's got.
• 1:06:04
  A hell of a norm on her, but. She certainly does whatever I.
• 1:06:08
  Thought I'm going to read as. Married.
• 1:06:10
  I mean, look, I've got. As much sympathy for George as
• 1:06:13
  the next man, he's been dealt a very bad hand in most respects.
• 1:06:16
  But George, you've seen who you married to.
• 1:06:19
  We've got to see your wife like life in a bad mate.
• 1:06:23
  Just come on, have a word by yourself.
• 1:06:26
  Mary is an. Absolute.
• 1:06:27
  St. in this constantly puts up with all of George's crap and
• 1:06:31
  moping and self pity and just always has the answer.
• 1:06:34
  It's so bringing that when there's the run on the bank and
• 1:06:38
  George thinks he's going to lose everything to Potter, it's her
• 1:06:40
  that comes up with a solution. Take our honeymoon money.
• 1:06:43
  This will get us through it. When George is yelling at the
• 1:06:46
  kids, the way she stands up to him like a lioness and just
• 1:06:49
  tells him to get out and leave them alone.
• 1:06:51
  Incredible. But as soon as he's gone, she
• 1:06:54
  just snaps into action. She knows something's badly
• 1:06:56
  wrong, and it's straight in action to get him help.
• 1:06:58
  She's on the phone. Something's wrong with your dad.
• 1:07:00
  Phone, Billy. Let's get this sorted.
• 1:07:02
  Like I say, who wouldn't want to be married to Mary?
• 1:07:04
  Donna Reed is just brilliant in this.
• 1:07:07
  Yeah, she really is. She is.
• 1:07:08
  So patient. All the way through the film,
• 1:07:11
  even before me. Donna Reed, when we're seeing 9
• 1:07:13
  year old Mary, she's there in Gawa's drugstore when George
• 1:07:15
  arrives. And then when he leaves to
• 1:07:17
  deliver the prescription, she's sitting on a stool.
• 1:07:19
  Yeah. When George gets back, Gawa says
• 1:07:21
  the pills should have been delivered more than an hour ago.
• 1:07:23
  Yeah. And Mary's still sitting there
• 1:07:24
  on that stool without a word to complaint.
• 1:07:27
  Yeah. She meant it when she said
• 1:07:28
  she'll love until the day she dies.
• 1:07:29
  Yeah. But yeah, Donna Reed is a
• 1:07:32
  delight start to finish. Yeah.
• 1:07:34
  And all that. She said that playing Mary was
• 1:07:35
  the hardest role of her career. She said the Capra was extremely
• 1:07:38
  demanding, but it doesn't show if she was having a hard time.
• 1:07:41
  No, no. I mean, she also has a range of
• 1:07:43
  styles to portray. I love it when she smashes the
• 1:07:46
  record after George Stones out of the house.
• 1:07:48
  Yeah, I love it. Yeah.
• 1:07:49
  And when the drama? Comes at the end.
• 1:07:50
  You can. Handle that as well.
• 1:07:51
  I think she plays spinster Mary really well, too.
• 1:07:54
  But I mean, a beautiful woman even by Hollywood standards,
• 1:07:58
  brings a real elegance to everything.
• 1:07:59
  She reminds me of Grace Kelly a bit.
• 1:08:01
  Yeah, which is high praise, obviously, very much.
• 1:08:04
  The characters may be more perfect than any real person,
• 1:08:06
  but I'm not bothered that, you know, I'm glad she is.
• 1:08:09
  Yeah. I think she's excellent.
• 1:08:10
  Yeah. And when I think if It's a
• 1:08:11
  Wonderful Life, I don't just think of Jimmy Stewart, to be
• 1:08:14
  honest. I think it don't.
• 1:08:15
  I read as well. Oh, yeah.
• 1:08:16
  Yeah, definitely. Yeah.
• 1:08:18
  Hatrick. I mean, is she the most
• 1:08:19
  wonderful woman in movie history?
• 1:08:21
  Probably. Definitely.
• 1:08:23
  Possibly. Yeah, it's not far.
• 1:08:24
  Off. In the first half of the.
• 1:08:26
  Film She just lights. Up every frame.
• 1:08:28
  She's an absolute joy. And because George goes on this
• 1:08:31
  emotional rollercoaster, Mary's in the cart with him, so she's
• 1:08:34
  got to traverse all of these different tones as well.
• 1:08:38
  And that wide eyed joy and love for George, the innocence of
• 1:08:41
  youths gets slowly eroded as she becomes more world weary and
• 1:08:44
  worn down by their misfortune, generally at the hands of
• 1:08:47
  Potter. But unlike George, she does not
• 1:08:49
  crumble under the weight of that.
• 1:08:51
  No, she's strong and resolute, keeps things together for the
• 1:08:53
  family, for the house, for her marriage.
• 1:08:56
  And I really believe this performance from Donna Reed,
• 1:09:00
  particularly at this time as well.
• 1:09:01
  It could have been over the top. It could have been too
• 1:09:03
  saccharine or too sickly sweet. And the film may not work if
• 1:09:08
  Jimmy Stewart isn't in it, but Donna Reed provides that
• 1:09:10
  emotional call of the film and keeps things grounded.
• 1:09:12
  She's a really reassuring presence, which is all the more
• 1:09:15
  remarkable that she doesn't have a huge amount of screen time.
• 1:09:18
  No. Yeah.
• 1:09:19
  It's focused mainly. On Jimmy Stewart.
• 1:09:22
  And she's just a like a secondary character generally in
• 1:09:25
  most of the scenes that she's in.
• 1:09:27
  And she makes such a huge impression.
• 1:09:29
  Yeah, she definitely does. But.
• 1:09:31
  At the time she made it's wonderful.
• 1:09:32
  Life Donna Reed was already established as a Hollywood
• 1:09:35
  actress and was signed to MGM. She wasn't a huge star though,
• 1:09:38
  so saw some other names were considered to play Mary.
• 1:09:41
  Yeah, she'd be in 20 films before.
• 1:09:42
  This Donna Mullinger was her real name and MGM changed it
• 1:09:46
  because of anti German sentiment during World War 2.
• 1:09:49
  Right? OK, so.
• 1:09:52
  Kappa's. First choice to play.
• 1:09:53
  Mary was Jean Arthur, and he'd worked with her on You Can't
• 1:09:56
  Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
• 1:09:58
  But she turned it down to appear in a Broadway player.
• 1:10:01
  OK, yeah. Born yesterday.
• 1:10:03
  Was the player she? Apparently dropped out with that
• 1:10:04
  as well due to exhaustion. Oh wow, Capra running her into
• 1:10:07
  the ground? Probably.
• 1:10:10
  Martha Scott and Dvorak. And Olivia de Havilland were all
• 1:10:13
  considered to play Mary as well, and Ginger Rogers turned the
• 1:10:16
  part down because she'd read the script and said Mary was too
• 1:10:19
  bland. But in her autobiography years
• 1:10:22
  later, Rogers wrote about it, saying, Foolish, you say.
• 1:10:25
  So she might have regretted it, probably.
• 1:10:28
  For the best though. Imagine Jija Rogers dancing next
• 1:10:30
  to crazy leg George. What this shit for?
• 1:10:36
  Then saw the war. Film They.
• 1:10:38
  Were expendable and he liked its female leaders.
• 1:10:40
  Mary Donna Reed So Liberty Films approached MGM about Lawn and
• 1:10:43
  her out John Ford film. They were expendable.
• 1:10:46
  Yeah, yeah. And Donna Reed played at Navy
• 1:10:48
  Nurse, which probably helped because maybe he's like everyone
• 1:10:51
  in Bradford Falls as Nurse isn't you.
• 1:10:53
  Yeah. And Donna Reed grew.
• 1:10:54
  Up on a farm in. Iowa And because of that, Lionel
• 1:10:57
  Barrymore, who will get to in a second, who played Potter in the
• 1:11:00
  film, challenged out of a cow milk in contest.
• 1:11:02
  Now, I'm not too sure how this works, how ferocious this needs
• 1:11:06
  to be, but it kind of freaks us out a little bit.
• 1:11:08
  But she'd won easily and said it was the easiest $50.00 that she
• 1:11:12
  ever made. That imagery, That imagery.
• 1:11:15
  Is 2. Hands or with both of them side
• 1:11:19
  by. Yeah, what's the contest?
• 1:11:21
  Is it speed? Is it volume?
• 1:11:23
  I don't know what were the. Rules.
• 1:11:25
  Yeah, I need some rules like won't just be like.
• 1:11:28
  Get a lot of fine clothes. Milk that cow.
• 1:11:31
  How's this going to work? I think he does have a very
• 1:11:33
  down. To earth quality.
• 1:11:34
  Done. I read as well, which maybe
• 1:11:35
  comes from that kind of background.
• 1:11:37
  Yeah, I think one of those actresses that everyone likes,
• 1:11:40
  surely. Oh yeah, no, she's incredible.
• 1:11:42
  She's almost. Like Dorothy, was it of?
• 1:11:44
  Oz In my mind, yeah. Yeah.
• 1:11:46
  And two years after. It's a wonderful life.
• 1:11:47
  Donna Reed was cast as the female lead in the Stratton
• 1:11:50
  story. Van Johnson was the main
• 1:11:52
  character, but when he was replaced by Jimmy Stewart, Reed
• 1:11:55
  was replaced as well by June Allison.
• 1:11:57
  According to some reports, it was Stewart that requested they
• 1:12:00
  replace Reed because It's a Wonderful Life had flopped at
• 1:12:02
  the box office. She had huge success in the
• 1:12:05
  later years, though. In TV, she was the star of her
• 1:12:07
  own sitcom, The Donna Reed Show. Yes.
• 1:12:10
  Nice. Yeah.
• 1:12:10
  With Massive. One loads of Emmys.
• 1:12:12
  I think that's. Your yeah, yeah, huge, really
• 1:12:14
  good. And the Stratton show, that was
• 1:12:16
  a. Biopic about Monty Patton, a
• 1:12:17
  baseball player, right? He was a pitcher.
• 1:12:20
  So they should have cast on our Reed as the main character.
• 1:12:22
  Exactly. Yeah, that would be great.
• 1:12:24
  Yeah, with her arm. Yep.
• 1:12:25
  Well, for playing Mary and it's a wonderful.
• 1:12:27
  Life. Donna Reed didn't receive any
• 1:12:28
  award recognition in 1953. She did win an Oscar for From
• 1:12:32
  Here to Eternity. OK.
• 1:12:34
  And for us here as Mary Hatch Bailey, we think she's pretty
• 1:12:37
  fantastic. Oh yeah, red hot.
• 1:12:40
  Yeah, integral of the film. Success I think.
• 1:12:44
  Now for the villain of the piece.
• 1:12:46
  Lionel Barrymore plays Henry F Potter, the richest, meanest man
• 1:12:49
  in Bedford Falls. Is some Lord, banker and a.
• 1:12:55
  Man who sees the Bailey building in lawn as a personal affront.
• 1:12:58
  He spends the entire film trying to crush George and everything
• 1:13:01
  the Bailey family stands for the Scrooge of.
• 1:13:04
  Bedford Falls, W it. How is Lionel Barrymore as
• 1:13:07
  Potter? I mean, he's just.
• 1:13:10
  Incredible. Absolutely loving me You need.
• 1:13:13
  An absolute bastard you need. This person to be.
• 1:13:17
  Horrible. And he is the physical human
• 1:13:20
  representation of a virus, of a cancer.
• 1:13:23
  He just wants to eat this whole town and just bleed it dry.
• 1:13:26
  He's just, he's horrible. His body's broke and his mind's
• 1:13:30
  broke and his spirit's broke and he's got no morals and he just
• 1:13:33
  plays it so well that he's just has absolutely no happiness
• 1:13:38
  anywhere. There's no joy anywhere.
• 1:13:41
  It'll absolutely take anybody to the cleaners.
• 1:13:44
  This would have played probably a little bit too hard had they
• 1:13:46
  kept the original scene and where he sets the dogs on the
• 1:13:48
  kids. You can see him doing it.
• 1:13:50
  You just take that 8 grand off Billy and watch him squirm and
• 1:13:54
  then watch them walking down the street.
• 1:13:56
  It's just bilious behaviour and he's horrible.
• 1:13:59
  What is he getting from this? What is he getting from his
• 1:14:02
  life? Barrymore's performance here,
• 1:14:04
  it's just horrible on screen. But again, I think his
• 1:14:06
  performance makes him so watchable.
• 1:14:08
  He's just got that horrible villainous quality, like a
• 1:14:11
  really good Bond bad guy. I just feel sorry for the guy.
• 1:14:14
  He hasn't got accomplished what he wants to accomplish.
• 1:14:17
  He's going to die very lonely, devoid of joy, and you know that
• 1:14:21
  when he's getting pushed to the door, when he finds the money.
• 1:14:23
  Come on, come on. He can't go any faster.
• 1:14:27
  That massive wheelchair. He's just a flawed human being.
• 1:14:33
  Disgusting, but brilliant. I agree.
• 1:14:35
  I think Potter is. A great villain.
• 1:14:37
  Yeah. And like an old school one.
• 1:14:38
  He's all in black. He cackles.
• 1:14:40
  He's just missing, like a twirling mustache dustedly.
• 1:14:43
  But what's great is how cool he is.
• 1:14:46
  He's really calculating, sitting in that wheelchair, just
• 1:14:49
  scheming. That's him for the whole film,
• 1:14:51
  basically. I mean, there's no nuance,
• 1:14:53
  There's no development. But there doesn't need to be.
• 1:14:55
  George handles all that kind of by himself.
• 1:14:57
  Potter works great as just bad guy.
• 1:15:00
  Yeah, yeah. And I think Lionel Barrymore is
• 1:15:02
  a great piece of casting. You please him with such a like
• 1:15:05
  stillness. There's no huge theatrics.
• 1:15:08
  He shows all of his contempt for everything with like mostly his
• 1:15:11
  eyes and facial expressions. And he bloody hates the building
• 1:15:15
  and loan. Absolutely.
• 1:15:16
  He hates. The end of his life, isn't it?
• 1:15:18
  Yeah, he gets joy from misery. It's amazing.
• 1:15:21
  He does, and he's awful all the way through.
• 1:15:23
  But at the end, when Potter discovers Uncle Billy's giving
• 1:15:25
  him the $8000 and decides to keep it, that is diabolical
• 1:15:29
  behaviour. Yeah, don't care who you.
• 1:15:31
  Are that's awful. And he personally calls the
• 1:15:34
  police to get George. Carter off the jail?
• 1:15:36
  Inexcusable. I mean Lionel Barrymore was a
• 1:15:38
  lovely man in real life by all accounts.
• 1:15:40
  So Cabra Sports was makeup team and told him to create a look
• 1:15:43
  for Potter influenced by American Gothic.
• 1:15:46
  The famous painting from the 1930s by Grant Wood The farmer
• 1:15:49
  was the pitchfork. Like a proper joyless face.
• 1:15:52
  And that's perfect for Potter. And again, for me, I think he's
• 1:15:55
  underrated. Potter never seems to get
• 1:15:57
  mentioned in great villains lists.
• 1:15:59
  No, you're right. But I think he definitely
• 1:16:01
  should. He's a great bad guy and.
• 1:16:03
  Perfectly. Played by Lionel Barrymore, just
• 1:16:06
  this right piece of shit. Isn't he?
• 1:16:10
  He's just irredeemable. And the worst thing about him is
• 1:16:14
  he doesn't need to do any of these actions.
• 1:16:16
  Doesn't he's already the richest?
• 1:16:18
  Man in town how? Much more does he need like he
• 1:16:21
  doesn't need to destroy the building and own, but he wants
• 1:16:24
  to. It's like you know that bit and
• 1:16:26
  there will be blood. When Daniel Plainview is looking
• 1:16:28
  at the map of the country, he goes what's this, why don't I
• 1:16:31
  own this? That is straight from Potter's
• 1:16:34
  mouth. It's just nothing but pure it.
• 1:16:36
  Naked greed for the sake of it, destroying things for the sake
• 1:16:40
  of it with 0 consideration for who it affects.
• 1:16:42
  I mean when George visits him begging him for a loan, I mean
• 1:16:46
  he is practically rejoicing at George's predicament and pretty
• 1:16:49
  much outright suggest you should just kill yourself because I'm
• 1:16:52
  going to get the cops on you. And he rejoices in it.
• 1:16:55
  I mean I agree with you John. Just one of the great cinematic
• 1:16:57
  villains of all time. And Barrymore?
• 1:16:59
  Excellent, he really is. Capra had his eye.
• 1:17:02
  On a number of actors. For the role of Potter Edward
• 1:17:04
  Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan and Raymond Massey were
• 1:17:08
  all considered. Vincent Price was obviously a
• 1:17:11
  big name that he thought about before he offered the Potter
• 1:17:13
  Lionel Barrymore. He'd started on stage in the
• 1:17:15
  1890s, going all the way back and in Hollywood in the 1910s on
• 1:17:20
  silent movies. He had previously worked with
• 1:17:23
  Capra and Stewart on You Can't Take It With You.
• 1:17:25
  Yeah, he'd won an Oscar in 19. 31 as well for a film called
• 1:17:28
  Free Soul. But he was also well known at
• 1:17:31
  the time for a radio version of A Christmas Carol that CBS had
• 1:17:34
  broadcast every year since 1934. In that version, Barrymore
• 1:17:38
  played Ebenezer Scrooge. Of course he did.
• 1:17:41
  Of course he did. He's not Tiny, Tim is.
• 1:17:44
  He backflips just out the wheelchair.
• 1:17:50
  That plus Capra knew him. No brainer.
• 1:17:52
  As part I, surely. Yeah.
• 1:17:53
  I mean, pottery is screwed without the arc, isn't he?
• 1:17:56
  Yeah yeah. Needs a few ghosts to show up.
• 1:17:59
  Hit him with a toaster. Toaster.
• 1:18:04
  But I was not. Originally written as.
• 1:18:05
  Wheelchair bound Lionel Barrymore had suffered from
• 1:18:08
  arthritis since the 1920s and in the 1930s he fractured his hip
• 1:18:12
  on two different film sets. Wow.
• 1:18:15
  Leaving him, obviously. Needing a wheelchair?
• 1:18:17
  So the role of Potter was adapted to be in the wheelchair.
• 1:18:20
  Yeah. Not sure about you but.
• 1:18:22
  I barely know it as Potter's in a wheelchair, to be honest.
• 1:18:24
  His overall presence just seems to take over.
• 1:18:27
  Every scene he's in. I always get a surprise.
• 1:18:29
  Yeah, I think. It really works that he's.
• 1:18:31
  Physically weak and that this kind of adds to his bitterness.
• 1:18:33
  Yeah, Yeah, of course it definitely does.
• 1:18:35
  And a shout out to. Frank Hagney, who plays Potter's
• 1:18:38
  wordless assistant, pushing him around in that wheelchair.
• 1:18:41
  Worst job ever. Yeah, just carting Potter on,
• 1:18:43
  watching him be horrible to everyone.
• 1:18:45
  The most evil man in the world. All you think about it though,
• 1:18:48
  it is. Just Mr. Birds and Smithers, it
• 1:18:51
  really is. Yeah, absolutely.
• 1:18:53
  Yeah. New awards for Lionel Barrymore
• 1:18:55
  for It's a. Wonderful Life.
• 1:18:56
  But for us, as part out, we think he's a pretty great
• 1:18:59
  Christmas villain. Amazing.
• 1:19:01
  Incredible. One of the best.
• 1:19:03
  A big cast and it's a wonderful life.
• 1:19:04
  We've mentioned Thomas Mitchell's Uncle Billy, and
• 1:19:06
  we'll talk about Henry Travers as Clarence a little later on,
• 1:19:09
  but in those two leads and villain Jimmy Stewart as George,
• 1:19:12
  Donna Reed as Mary, and Lionel Barrymore as Potter, 3 Oscar
• 1:19:15
  winners, some star quality and an excellent lead cast.
• 1:19:19
  Brilliant. Definitely.
• 1:19:20
  Yeah, that's standing. Cast.
• 1:19:28
  All the right movies will be back.
• 1:19:29
  Shortly, thank you for supporting us by listening to
• 1:19:32
  this episode. Sponsors.
• 1:19:37
  Thanks for listening to our sponsors.
• 1:19:39
  Now back to the show. The middle, we're moving into
• 1:19:48
  the middle if it's a wonderful. Life now and things are really
• 1:19:51
  developing. We're going to be talking about
• 1:19:53
  George and Mary's wedding day, which is eventful to say the
• 1:19:56
  least. Yeah, it is.
• 1:19:57
  But first, it's some. Key life moments.
• 1:19:59
  For George. Oh yeah, so.
• 1:20:02
  After George's. Father Peter sadly passes away
• 1:20:04
  the building and loans up for grabs, leading to George
• 1:20:07
  stepping in. He then does the same at the Hut
• 1:20:09
  residence, where he and Mary finally become an item in the
• 1:20:12
  film's more sizzling scene. So how's it all going?
• 1:20:16
  Look, Yeah, Yeah, well, I'm starting off.
• 1:20:18
  Here, with the little sentimental hogwash, George's
• 1:20:22
  foregone his trip to Europe to settle his dad's affairs in the
• 1:20:25
  unfortunate circumstances, and he's about to go off to the
• 1:20:28
  retirement home. Sorry school, but that all
• 1:20:31
  changes. When the.
• 1:20:32
  Dastardly, Mr. Potter's antics make him angry.
• 1:20:35
  Yeah, Potter makes a play for the building and loan and talks
• 1:20:38
  about Peter Bailey in the most disparaging terms, he says.
• 1:20:42
  A man of high ideals, so-called, Yeah.
• 1:20:49
  Picture in the background as well like.
• 1:20:50
  Airplane. Yeah, and he just runs.
• 1:20:53
  Him down in front of. His nearest and dearest
• 1:20:55
  outrageous behaviour but George gives this beautifully
• 1:20:58
  impassioned speech about the backbone of the community and
• 1:21:01
  how the building in Lorne is central to making the town
• 1:21:03
  thrive. Potter just yawning through the
• 1:21:06
  speech. Yeah, I'm.
• 1:21:09
  Not interested. In your book, I'm talking about
• 1:21:11
  the building alone. This is just really wonderful,
• 1:21:16
  the light and. Dark of the story trading blows
• 1:21:19
  Barrymore hamming it right up as Potter and George isn't able to
• 1:21:22
  the resist of the pull of family commitments right at the end
• 1:21:26
  yeah this is the moment where Georges.
• 1:21:27
  Fate sealed, he's here for life. Yeah, and it's pretty hard
• 1:21:30
  hitting because we're making the decision to stay in real time.
• 1:21:34
  I mean, the board have to take some serious responsibility.
• 1:21:36
  Yeah, Potter's there. He's desperate to absorb the
• 1:21:39
  building and loan into his bank. He's like a vulture.
• 1:21:41
  And they're all like, yeah, let's put this guy in.
• 1:21:44
  Yeah. Yeah, it's Ziggy and Mud.
• 1:21:46
  It rings far too true for my legging.
• 1:21:48
  Yeah, but the speech George gives to the.
• 1:21:50
  Board. Is brilliant.
• 1:21:51
  It's all emotion. Just slams Potter through the
• 1:21:54
  floor. It's great, and Stuart delivers
• 1:21:55
  him as great as everything else. But what I like, it's a cap that
• 1:21:59
  doesn't frame George as entirely noble.
• 1:22:01
  There's grief there and there's duty, but there's also clear
• 1:22:04
  resentment from George and having to take over the building
• 1:22:06
  alone, which leads into the end brilliantly and makes him
• 1:22:09
  cracking at the end more believable.
• 1:22:10
  Yeah. And the final shot in this scene
• 1:22:13
  when George is on his way out of the office and the guy says
• 1:22:15
  they'll vote power in if you leave and George stops dead on
• 1:22:18
  this huge close up of Stewart and then fade out.
• 1:22:21
  Incredible that. Yeah.
• 1:22:23
  Great. So, George.
• 1:22:24
  Is committed to the building. Lawn and he's feeling very sorry
• 1:22:27
  for himself, which is when he runs into Mary again.
• 1:22:30
  And it's just more wonderful interplay between Stuart and
• 1:22:33
  Reed here and one of the best examples of how Capra can just
• 1:22:37
  shift the tone in one scene effortlessly.
• 1:22:40
  I mean, I say George really feeling sorry for himself here.
• 1:22:43
  And it's hilarious how Mary's attempts to cheer in him up just
• 1:22:46
  fall flat on the face when she starts singing that song and
• 1:22:49
  leaves it hanging for him to join in.
• 1:22:51
  And he just goes, oh, yeah, yeah.
• 1:22:55
  And just like, Waves has had it, like, completely uninterested.
• 1:22:58
  And then when a mother gets involved, George Bailey, what
• 1:23:01
  does he want? The look on his face is so
• 1:23:05
  funny. Like, why is she having a pop?
• 1:23:07
  Like I know business when he came.
• 1:23:10
  In here to. Get warm.
• 1:23:12
  And then Mary yells back up, he's making violent love to me
• 1:23:15
  mother, and she goes off shrieking.
• 1:23:16
  So it starts off very funny. But like I said, there's a tonal
• 1:23:20
  shift because he storms out. Mary smashes the record to
• 1:23:23
  pieces because she's upset and you feel his anger.
• 1:23:26
  You feel his disappointment B you feel her hurt at this as
• 1:23:29
  well. And then cup of shifts the torn
• 1:23:31
  once again because he has to come back because summary and
• 1:23:34
  writes on the phone and the attraction between them and you
• 1:23:37
  said to John it is sizzling at this point between George and
• 1:23:40
  Mary that incredible close up when they share on that phone
• 1:23:43
  between them and then when they start kissing and then the break
• 1:23:46
  in the sobs. You just say hold on.
• 1:23:47
  I was laughing at this 30 seconds ago.
• 1:23:49
  How's it ended up here and still makes sense.
• 1:23:52
  Absolutely no acknowledgement from.
• 1:23:54
  Mary's mother about smashing that record either, just didn't
• 1:23:57
  happen. He's just horrible.
• 1:23:59
  George for. The most part, you know that I
• 1:24:02
  see it smells like pine needles in here.
• 1:24:04
  Again, where is your action? Thank you.
• 1:24:08
  No. Thank you.
• 1:24:09
  Yeah, no, perfect. But what I got from this scene,
• 1:24:11
  what we watching it just recently, that's how important
• 1:24:14
  that phone call is to Sam Wainwright.
• 1:24:16
  Someone else noticed that George gives him the idea to get the
• 1:24:19
  factory there. Yes.
• 1:24:21
  And half the town went out of work.
• 1:24:23
  And he's basically in some way and writes like, yeah, look at
• 1:24:25
  what I knew you'd come through. So that's where the factory is.
• 1:24:28
  So he's given so many more people, so many more
• 1:24:30
  opportunities and so many more jobs just as he said that
• 1:24:33
  because it'd be selflessness. Incredible little moment, just,
• 1:24:36
  you know, blinking. You'll miss it.
• 1:24:38
  Absolutely. The whole sequence is.
• 1:24:39
  Just red hot. No, but George, he's a bit
• 1:24:42
  prickly when he turns up kicking the gate open.
• 1:24:45
  Yeah. Kicks the gate open.
• 1:24:47
  Criticizes her is wrong. She's made of him.
• 1:24:49
  Unbelievable. And it's funny when Mary asked
• 1:24:51
  George if he likes Harry's wife and he's furious.
• 1:24:53
  Like, 'cause I like her. She's a Peach.
• 1:24:58
  Did you get that dressed? Do you like it?
• 1:25:00
  It's. Alright, and it leads into that
• 1:25:02
  almighty kiss. Obviously one of the best
• 1:25:04
  romantic scenes ever to me. I mean, the whole sequence is,
• 1:25:07
  what, maybe 10 minutes? And it takes us through more
• 1:25:09
  than most ROM coms manage in 90 minutes or two hours, I think.
• 1:25:12
  Yeah, Yeah. I would say the final act.
• 1:25:14
  I think this is the best scene in the film.
• 1:25:16
  Oh, wow. And one of the great Hollywood
• 1:25:18
  screen kisses, certainly the angriest from George.
• 1:25:22
  Impassioned, isn't it? Full of emotion.
• 1:25:24
  It is full of emotion because sometimes.
• 1:25:25
  I think it's this him falling in love or is this him just giving
• 1:25:28
  up? Yeah, Yeah.
• 1:25:29
  This is who I'm going to be with.
• 1:25:30
  But I'm going to have to take a fall to be with her.
• 1:25:33
  And I know that. And he's kind of like falling in
• 1:25:34
  love but doesn't want to at the same time.
• 1:25:36
  It's loaded with all of that energy.
• 1:25:38
  Yeah, it absolutely is. Yeah.
• 1:25:39
  Because I. Think George loves Mary, but she
• 1:25:41
  represents him giving up all of his dreams.
• 1:25:43
  Yeah. Yeah, Stewart.
• 1:25:45
  Later called Donna Reed the embodiment.
• 1:25:47
  Of goodness. And he said he found being
• 1:25:49
  around a disconcerting. It's one word forward.
• 1:25:54
  With his. Break for the war this was.
• 1:25:56
  His first love scene in years. So he put off film in this kiss
• 1:25:59
  for weeks. He asked Reed if she wanted to
• 1:26:02
  rehearse it beforehand. Of course he did.
• 1:26:03
  The old devil. But Reed?
• 1:26:07
  Said I think we should. Just do it.
• 1:26:09
  No funny business, Cabra agreed. In our rehearsals and Stuart.
• 1:26:13
  Said that when they did it, their hormones were out of
• 1:26:16
  control. Quote UN quote.
• 1:26:19
  His wife was delighted to hear that.
• 1:26:21
  Yeah, I bet. We did in one take and Stuart.
• 1:26:25
  Called it one of the best scenes he's ever filmed.
• 1:26:27
  Of course he did. Loved it he did.
• 1:26:28
  Yeah, they can't remember. It.
• 1:26:31
  When they're both on the receive.
• 1:26:32
  I talked to Sam Wainwright. And then the noses are almost
• 1:26:35
  touching. I mean, the tension, like,
• 1:26:36
  through the roof. Electricity, isn't it?
• 1:26:38
  Yeah, yeah. George grabs on starts.
• 1:26:40
  Kicking off and then he's all over her like the angriest kiss
• 1:26:43
  ever. But apparently Stuart and Reed
• 1:26:45
  got so wrapped up that they skipped a page in the script
• 1:26:48
  right. And the script supervisor said
• 1:26:49
  the Capra hang on the left out loads of dialogue here.
• 1:26:52
  And Capra was like, with that, who needs dialogue?
• 1:26:55
  Yeah, Amazing. Wonderful, brilliant, brilliant.
• 1:26:57
  So he knew what he had. I think the kiss.
• 1:26:59
  Happens when George and Mary are on.
• 1:27:00
  The phone to George's friend Sam Wainwright, and Sam is offering
• 1:27:03
  George a job. Capra filmed all of it in real
• 1:27:06
  time. This is amazing.
• 1:27:07
  So there's one unit that Capra was part of filming Stuart and
• 1:27:10
  Reed on one set, then on a different set, the second unit
• 1:27:13
  was filming Frank Albertson, who played Sam at the same time.
• 1:27:16
  Oh yes. So Reed and Stuart and Albertson
• 1:27:19
  were really on the phone to each other, talking to each other
• 1:27:21
  during the scene. Oh, that's great.
• 1:27:23
  That's amazing. I would have done.
• 1:27:24
  Like a Wes Anderson. And just went from one set to
• 1:27:26
  the. Just on the track, just like
• 1:27:30
  that's amazing. That, but that's brilliant.
• 1:27:32
  Love that. Yeah, that's really cool when
• 1:27:33
  you watch it knowing. That as well.
• 1:27:36
  And Sam gets dumped through the floor, doesn't he?
• 1:27:38
  Oh yeah, he even says to George. You're trying to steal.
• 1:27:41
  My girl. Well, yes, and succeeding
• 1:27:44
  actually, while you're on the phone, he hold.
• 1:27:46
  Your way out of that, yeah. So there it is.
• 1:27:49
  George is the man of. The building alone and finally
• 1:27:52
  gets his woman in Mary. Some big moments for Georgie
• 1:27:55
  boy. Oh yeah, huge.
• 1:27:58
  From there the following segments all.
• 1:28:00
  About the money as George gets to grips with the building alone
• 1:28:03
  and has to deal with some problems, George and Mary's
• 1:28:06
  wedding day is scuppered when George has to get involved in a
• 1:28:08
  run on the bank and looking to take advantage of the situation,
• 1:28:12
  Potter tries to make George an offer he can't refuse.
• 1:28:16
  So how's? It going for USA?
• 1:28:18
  I mean I haven't seen one before, but this looks like.
• 1:28:20
  All the hallmarks of a run. To be perfectly honest, it's
• 1:28:23
  the. Quickest wedding ever, Just
• 1:28:24
  that. CrossFit.
• 1:28:25
  Here they come. Bang.
• 1:28:27
  Straight in we know where we. Are that's absolutely fine.
• 1:28:29
  You know, they're having a great time and he's finally, George is
• 1:28:32
  there. He's got married, but he's going
• 1:28:33
  to escape with her. He's got a way out.
• 1:28:35
  He loves her, but he's actually going to live his dream with her
• 1:28:38
  now. It's so tragic if you think
• 1:28:39
  about it just from that point. Ernie's great in this scene.
• 1:28:42
  If you see a stranger around here, it's me.
• 1:28:46
  But yeah, there's a run. On the bank and it's just you.
• 1:28:48
  Know absolute pandemonium. George cannot get a break, he
• 1:28:51
  cannot get out of there. Every single time he just gets
• 1:28:54
  close enough and just gets pulled back in.
• 1:28:57
  It just feels like there's like this invisible orb around all of
• 1:28:59
  Bedford Falls and he just can't escape.
• 1:29:01
  It's like the Truman Show. Every time he gets close to the
• 1:29:03
  edge, to the border, he has to get pulled back.
• 1:29:06
  And he's in the building alone. George has let everybody in.
• 1:29:09
  And here we'll go. What?
• 1:29:10
  How are we going to save the day?
• 1:29:12
  What are we going to do? And George has starts
• 1:29:14
  explaining, you know, the theory behind that place, like, your
• 1:29:17
  money is not here. It's in the houses here.
• 1:29:18
  It's in the community. It's everybody working together.
• 1:29:20
  And nobody understands that. And it's selfishness that
• 1:29:22
  completely takes over this scene.
• 1:29:24
  And this is where Mary just really stands up.
• 1:29:27
  She's been his wife for what, like 3 hours?
• 1:29:30
  And she's perfectly George Bailey's wife here because she's
• 1:29:34
  selfless. She's not thinking about herself
• 1:29:36
  at all. She's completely thinking about
• 1:29:37
  George at the same time she's thinking about the community.
• 1:29:40
  It's not just to impress George. So literally it's nothing from
• 1:29:42
  the situation and pulls out $2000.
• 1:29:45
  How much do you need me? I wouldn't be pulling that 2
• 1:29:48
  grand out. Yeah, on me way to the.
• 1:29:52
  Honeymoon about. I mean, how much of a Dick is
• 1:29:56
  Tom please? It's awful 200.
• 1:29:59
  And $72. And that's a loan now.
• 1:30:02
  I would have closed his account. I'm.
• 1:30:05
  Farley cynical to be comment. About the happiness of this
• 1:30:08
  film. So I wouldn't have done that.
• 1:30:09
  And I'm like, Potter, I'm not interested in your book.
• 1:30:12
  And just my favorite, favorite bit in this scene is absolutely
• 1:30:16
  wonderful and comes from an actress called Ellen Corby, who
• 1:30:19
  in the script she was meant to go up and ask for for $17.00.
• 1:30:22
  Yeah, and Capra? Pulled out one side just.
• 1:30:25
  Before they were film and said asking for 1750, just put that
• 1:30:28
  50 in there and just see what happens.
• 1:30:30
  And then asked him. And then this is James Stewart's
• 1:30:32
  real reaction. Just like just everything goes
• 1:30:34
  quiet. Can I have 1750?
• 1:30:36
  And he just pauses for a second. And that kiss on the cheek is
• 1:30:39
  just so genuine and wonderful. And you just lift from that
• 1:30:43
  moment. And George forgets about it
• 1:30:45
  because, again, he's thinking about everybody but himself.
• 1:30:47
  Even on his wedding day. Yes.
• 1:30:50
  And Ellen Corby? She went on the play of the
• 1:30:51
  grandma in the wilderness. That's right.
• 1:30:53
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. She.
• 1:30:54
  Won three Emmys for that. Yeah, I mean this moment.
• 1:30:58
  Starts off with absolute wedded bliss, the happy couple
• 1:31:01
  surrounded by the whole town. Even Violet's got a smile on her
• 1:31:03
  face. I love that.
• 1:31:06
  Mum when they get in the. Cab Ernie asks where they're
• 1:31:08
  going on this here honeymoon and they've got it all mapped out.
• 1:31:11
  The richest caviar, the oldest champagne, New York, Bermuda.
• 1:31:15
  They've got a massive lot of cash.
• 1:31:16
  Ernie's so wrapped up in their own plans he lets out the lions
• 1:31:20
  roar. But you just know that all of
• 1:31:25
  the plans. Are going to fall flat on their
• 1:31:27
  face yet again. George thwarted at every turn.
• 1:31:31
  Uncle Billy is under so much stress at the building in Lawn
• 1:31:33
  that he's boozing on the job while he reveals the terrible
• 1:31:36
  news. Pathetic.
• 1:31:38
  Everyone's going to. Pull out and get. $0.50 on the
• 1:31:40
  dollar from Potter Disaster. But really, the moment I love
• 1:31:43
  here is that one long take at the door where George appeals to
• 1:31:47
  the good nature of the community.
• 1:31:49
  He's got pages and pages of dialogue, and he delivers them
• 1:31:52
  faultlessly with no cuts, loads of emotion.
• 1:31:55
  The intonation delivery is incredible.
• 1:31:57
  But then he's joined by all the other actors in the scene,
• 1:31:59
  hitting their marks after his dialogue.
• 1:32:02
  Amazing time. And I think it's an acting
• 1:32:04
  master class, that one, yeah, really is.
• 1:32:06
  And the focus isn't on. George, either if you watch
• 1:32:08
  where the camera is actually focused on the crowd, not on
• 1:32:10
  him. Sideways on, isn't he?
• 1:32:11
  Yeah, yeah. Yeah, must be the worst wedding
• 1:32:14
  day. Ever.
• 1:32:15
  Surely. I'm not sure how George is
• 1:32:17
  getting married and jetting off on his honeymoon and has no idea
• 1:32:19
  what's going on at the bank. Yeah, he's left Billy in.
• 1:32:23
  Charge doesn't need to worry. He's got his best man on the
• 1:32:25
  job, hasn't he? Yeah.
• 1:32:26
  But fine because. Once we're in there, the whole.
• 1:32:28
  Scene is great George having to turn the customers demanding
• 1:32:31
  their money back on side and Stuart at his charismatic best
• 1:32:35
  holding thought is great one of the key moments around the
• 1:32:38
  importance of community. I think I think the writings top
• 1:32:41
  notch. It's like an indictment on
• 1:32:42
  capitalism and it kind of demonstrates how it works.
• 1:32:45
  George spells out how he's been beyond fair.
• 1:32:47
  He says Ed remember last year when you couldn't make your
• 1:32:50
  payments. Do you think Potter would let
• 1:32:51
  you keep your house? I mean, you throw this poor head
• 1:32:53
  right in front of the bus in front of everybody, but I think
• 1:32:57
  they're saying. That's how it works.
• 1:32:58
  It's Sniffer. Trouble it becomes every man,
• 1:33:00
  woman for themselves. And that's when people like
• 1:33:02
  Potter steam in to take advantage.
• 1:33:04
  Yeah. But I think this is one of the
• 1:33:06
  reasons the film is so highly regarded.
• 1:33:07
  It's a Christmas classic but has some really good writing and
• 1:33:10
  themes with actual substance in there.
• 1:33:13
  Yeah. And of course, it ends in a
• 1:33:14
  lucky way with George and Mary pulling it back as they always
• 1:33:17
  do, George leaping back and forth over the desk.
• 1:33:20
  I love it. So, Yeah.
• 1:33:22
  Excellent. And possibly George's finest
• 1:33:24
  hour in the film. Saving the day.
• 1:33:26
  Yeah. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:33:27
  Mary's definitely. Mary's So it's been a very, very
• 1:33:30
  long day for. George And he finally goes home
• 1:33:32
  and you're just saying, is there anything Mary can't do?
• 1:33:35
  I mean, they've had to give away the honeymoon money.
• 1:33:38
  There goes that dream and she's still sorting everything out for
• 1:33:41
  him. Like she doesn't feel sorry for
• 1:33:43
  herself for one minute, considering everything she's had
• 1:33:46
  to give up here. Doesn't run and weave, just a
• 1:33:48
  straight in with rope. George is working.
• 1:33:50
  They had better make sure he's got some kind of home to come
• 1:33:52
  back to. And the she ingenuity of cooking
• 1:33:54
  those chickens over the fire by hooking them up to the record
• 1:33:57
  player. That's great.
• 1:33:58
  That's amazing. Just just the perfect woman at
• 1:34:01
  this point. And then you've got the solid
• 1:34:04
  friendship from Bert and Ernie, who are back in Georgia up here
• 1:34:06
  putting the posters up. I love the little tip of the
• 1:34:08
  hat. Yeah, with the water.
• 1:34:10
  Yeah, with the water coming. Out because.
• 1:34:11
  He's welcoming them in, but I'll tell you what, this is
• 1:34:14
  technically still George and Mary's honeymoon.
• 1:34:16
  I don't think Bert and Ernie need to stick around in the
• 1:34:18
  piston rain singing to them outside.
• 1:34:21
  Not really. We've got things to be getting
• 1:34:22
  on. With lads.
• 1:34:23
  Like. You know, if that was me, I
• 1:34:25
  wouldn't want you serenading me outside on my honeymoon night.
• 1:34:28
  Like go home please. It's amazing how to pull that
• 1:34:31
  off. I mean, if anyone else if I've
• 1:34:32
  tried it that chicken to be raw by the time you got home
• 1:34:34
  freezing. No posters up, just playing
• 1:34:37
  Megadeth and. The raw chicken.
• 1:34:42
  Yeah, Mary is a dream come true. Isn't she?
• 1:34:45
  Oh, what? Oh yeah.
• 1:34:46
  Unbelievable. The building in Loma.
• 1:34:47
  She ripped out the water cash. And then this, yeah, it's a
• 1:34:50
  great moment. Yeah, skipping ahead a little
• 1:34:53
  bit. The moment where George gets a
• 1:34:55
  very tempting job offer from Potter, he's teetering on the
• 1:34:58
  edge. Oh yeah, because Potter has been
• 1:35:00
  trying to get his. Hooks in.
• 1:35:01
  All the time and George has resisted.
• 1:35:03
  We all know that Potter is an absolute bastard, but by this
• 1:35:07
  point, George hasn't been able to catch a break and he's been
• 1:35:09
  trapped by his circumstances, worn down.
• 1:35:12
  Which is why he sees those dollar signs, all 20,000 of
• 1:35:15
  them. The storytelling.
• 1:35:17
  He is pretty wonderful. Because a lot of this scene is
• 1:35:20
  powered by the previous scene where Sam's talking about the
• 1:35:22
  missed opportunity of not getting in on the business at
• 1:35:25
  the ground level. They aren't able to join them in
• 1:35:27
  Florida. All the things that he would
• 1:35:29
  just love to do. But George comes to his senses
• 1:35:32
  in that wonderful moment when he shakes pot his hand.
• 1:35:34
  He sees himself shaking hands with the devil and he does not
• 1:35:37
  like what he sees. His facial expression is
• 1:35:40
  amazing. Great.
• 1:35:41
  I don't need 24 hours, yeah. Yeah, I think the writing is
• 1:35:44
  really. Clever because to now.
• 1:35:46
  George has already made sacrifices for the community and
• 1:35:48
  for Harry, and it's custom. I mean, narratively, we don't
• 1:35:52
  need this moment, but it's OK because it's George's chance to
• 1:35:55
  get out of it, to get back to where he wanted to be.
• 1:35:57
  And he still says no. I mean, any seamer pot has
• 1:36:01
  dynamite. So it's already tense when
• 1:36:02
  George is summoned to his office and the setup tiny chair for
• 1:36:06
  George, he's practically sitting on the floor.
• 1:36:09
  That's for everybody though, isn't it?
• 1:36:11
  So. I can feel more powerful.
• 1:36:12
  Well, exactly. Yeah.
• 1:36:14
  And 20. $1000 a year you offers him.
• 1:36:15
  That was an astronomical salary. Massive in 1946.
• 1:36:19
  He was massive now. And George is tempted.
• 1:36:23
  He takes a. Cigar.
• 1:36:24
  He accepts the job at 1st, and then as soon as he touches
• 1:36:27
  Potter's called dead hands, it kind of snaps him back to
• 1:36:29
  reality. Yeah.
• 1:36:30
  Because Potter's not really making a job offer.
• 1:36:31
  Yeah. He's trying to kill the building
• 1:36:33
  and loan once and for all, and he's going for the sauce.
• 1:36:34
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Stuart's fantastic again,
• 1:36:37
  especially when he snaps and turns on Potter.
• 1:36:39
  And then again, it's somehow the tone shifts at the end and ends
• 1:36:43
  funny with George shouting And it goes for you too.
• 1:36:45
  And everyone. I just love the visual
• 1:36:49
  storytelling. He I mean.
• 1:36:50
  We've said that thing about the small chair, but the more that
• 1:36:52
  George considers Potter's offer, the lower he sinks into that
• 1:36:56
  seat because he's being tempted into this moral abyss, and he's
• 1:36:59
  sinking to Potter's level in that visual of George on one
• 1:37:02
  side of the screen, Potter and his assistant on the other.
• 1:37:05
  So even though they're trying to tempt him with this offer, it's
• 1:37:08
  actually about them ganging up on him.
• 1:37:09
  That's so effective. And I think that gets repeated
• 1:37:12
  later on when George begs Potter for money.
• 1:37:14
  But it's all much tighter in the frame.
• 1:37:16
  And you've got the statue, which is him and George in as well.
• 1:37:19
  So great saying because this is all about Potter trying to trap
• 1:37:22
  George, both narratively and then visually from Capra.
• 1:37:25
  Yeah. So that's Act 2 of.
• 1:37:27
  It's a wonderful. Life.
• 1:37:28
  The Baileys get married, the bank gets a run on it, and
• 1:37:31
  George rejects Potter. Seems to be setting us up quite
• 1:37:34
  nicely through a huge finale. I wonder if we'll get one.
• 1:37:38
  I wonder. Hope so.
• 1:37:42
  The crew to make an all time Christmas classic.
• 1:37:48
  You don't just need big names in front of the camera, you need
• 1:37:50
  big talent behind it as well, and we're going to talk about
• 1:37:53
  some of those people now by delving into the crew on It's a
• 1:37:56
  Wonderful Life. We're talking Dmitri Tiomkin as
• 1:37:59
  the composer on the film and Joseph Walker and Joseph Baraka
• 1:38:02
  as the directors of photography. But let's begin with the
• 1:38:05
  screenplay and writing. Should we?
• 1:38:07
  Yes, indeed. So the credited screenwriters on
• 1:38:10
  it's a. Wonderful life of Francis
• 1:38:11
  Goodrich Albert Hackett and frank capra Goodrich and Hackett
• 1:38:15
  were wife and husband writing team who'd already been Oscar
• 1:38:18
  nominated for the thin man and after the thin man from 1934 and
• 1:38:21
  36 frank capra though we had numerous story and dialogue
• 1:38:25
  credit before this, this was just his second full screenplay
• 1:38:29
  writing credit after that certain thing in 1928.
• 1:38:33
  An accomplished Co writing team and it's a wonderful life.
• 1:38:35
  Then Matt does it show? Really does, because it's so.
• 1:38:40
  Patiently written, it's like a trail of bread crumbs and
• 1:38:43
  everything will pay off once you get at the end.
• 1:38:45
  I mean, when you're in Pottersville and you see what
• 1:38:48
  has happened to Mr. Gower, you've kind of forgotten at that
• 1:38:51
  point what George did from back then and you just get that
• 1:38:54
  realization of oh God, of course he'd have gone to jail if George
• 1:38:57
  hadn't stepped in to save him. The fact that George loses to
• 1:39:00
  see and so early on it seems quite innocuous, but actually it
• 1:39:04
  keeps him out of the war and it becomes his first clue that
• 1:39:06
  actually Clarence has changed everything around him.
• 1:39:09
  When the given where the honeymoon money to save the
• 1:39:12
  building on when we've talked about how awful Tommy is because
• 1:39:14
  he wants all of his money back, but that gets flipped on it's
• 1:39:18
  head when he's one of the first people to turn up with George's
• 1:39:20
  house to help him out with some money.
• 1:39:22
  So it is filled with all these little setups along the way in
• 1:39:25
  the same fairly low key because most of them are just George
• 1:39:28
  being a decent guy, but they've got a monumental impact in the
• 1:39:31
  sorry further down the line. And that really sends out in the
• 1:39:33
  writing to me. It does me as well.
• 1:39:36
  Yeah, I think it's got such a vein.
• 1:39:38
  Of melancholy running through it's George can never catch a
• 1:39:41
  break. He loses his here and he gets
• 1:39:43
  roughed up by Mr. Gower. Abandons his dreams every single
• 1:39:47
  time he's about to escape Bedford Falls, off to college,
• 1:39:49
  off to see the world on his honeymoon.
• 1:39:51
  Something pulls him back and the screenplay just keeps twisting
• 1:39:55
  that knife through every scene. Through every life.
• 1:39:58
  Moment. And I think what's smart is that
• 1:40:01
  it's never really one big tragedy.
• 1:40:03
  It's death by 1000 cuts. Each sacrifice feels small and
• 1:40:07
  noble in the moment. Of course he's going to let
• 1:40:09
  Harry go to college. Of course he's going to give his
• 1:40:12
  honeymoon money to the community.
• 1:40:14
  But they all accumulate, and the screenplay tracks that
• 1:40:18
  accumulation so carefully that by the time we reached Christmas
• 1:40:21
  Eve, we completely understand how this fundamentally decent
• 1:40:25
  man has ended up on a bridge close to the very end.
• 1:40:29
  I think it's structurally very brave.
• 1:40:31
  The scripts spent so long in the darkness, built in this case for
• 1:40:34
  despair, that the redemption has to work overtime.
• 1:40:37
  But because the ground works so solid, it earns every bit of it.
• 1:40:41
  Yeah. Yeah, I mean, they've got a lot
• 1:40:44
  to cram in. In 130 Minutes, Lords telling
• 1:40:47
  the story of the life of George Bailey.
• 1:40:49
  Basically, the structure focuses on the big key moments of his
• 1:40:52
  life. We jump from saving Harry to
• 1:40:54
  meeting Mary to getting married. I mean, when that's all things
• 1:40:57
  done in films, it sometimes doesn't work because it means
• 1:41:00
  it's often a lot of coincidences that have to take place.
• 1:41:03
  Lots of things happening at the same time, like the wedding day
• 1:41:06
  slash run on the bank we just talked about.
• 1:41:09
  But here it works brilliantly and I think the reason it works
• 1:41:11
  so well is because of what I think is possibly the main theme
• 1:41:15
  of the film, which is helping others.
• 1:41:17
  There's other themes like capitalism, faith, community,
• 1:41:20
  but I think the film explores sacrifice really well all the
• 1:41:24
  way through. George sacrifices himself to
• 1:41:26
  help with us, but every time he does, he's punished for it.
• 1:41:29
  He saves Harry and loses the hearing in his left ear.
• 1:41:32
  He saves Mr. Gower and takes a beating for it.
• 1:41:34
  He stops Potter taking over the building alone and has to give
• 1:41:37
  up college. He carries on margin the
• 1:41:39
  building and loans of how he can accept the job offer and he
• 1:41:41
  gives up on travelling the world.
• 1:41:43
  The message for the first two acts seems to be don't help
• 1:41:45
  anyone else, because if you do, you'll bloody pay for it.
• 1:41:49
  Yeah, but then Clarence comes along.
• 1:41:51
  He sure was George or Bedford Falls would be like without him.
• 1:41:53
  And George says how much value his life has.
• 1:41:55
  And then we get the end where the townsfolk band around to
• 1:41:58
  help George when he needs them, and they help him because of all
• 1:42:01
  the times he's helped them. I mean, it's a huge, ambitious
• 1:42:04
  ending, but they've earned it by putting the groundwork in with
• 1:42:07
  all those other moments I'm talking about from George's
• 1:42:10
  life. I'll buy 100% that Bedford Falls
• 1:42:13
  turns up for George at the end. We'll talk about it more later.
• 1:42:16
  But at that point, the message changes.
• 1:42:19
  It becomes, you should help others because even if it feels
• 1:42:21
  like you're losing out, you're not.
• 1:42:23
  It gives your life value. Even if you can't see the
• 1:42:25
  benefit, your life's enriched by helping others.
• 1:42:28
  And that theme, I think, clearly drives every decision the
• 1:42:31
  writers make start to finish. It's not just your standard
• 1:42:34
  Christmas movie message of a symbol help others.
• 1:42:37
  It really explores it like good writers do.
• 1:42:40
  And it presents both sides of it as well.
• 1:42:42
  And I think that message is a big reason people keep coming
• 1:42:44
  back to the movie every year. Because it's a wonderful
• 1:42:47
  message, isn't it? Yeah.
• 1:42:49
  Wonderful life, wonderful message.
• 1:42:50
  Yeah, might as well just call it that.
• 1:42:55
  Yeah, I mean, I think about this.
• 1:42:56
  Film often and it's always a Christmas time and I think about
• 1:43:01
  how impossible this is to be done again to remake.
• 1:43:05
  It's an incredible story, but the writing for me just seems to
• 1:43:08
  be so of the time so specific to this one person, this one story.
• 1:43:13
  I mean if you look at A Christmas Carol, which is
• 1:43:15
  probably the closest to this, which is written well before it.
• 1:43:18
  How many times have the remade that, oh, this guy's screwed
• 1:43:20
  this time One know the story, would love to see the story, but
• 1:43:23
  this you can't just go well, it's wonderful.
• 1:43:26
  Like this guy's George Bailey. Now.
• 1:43:28
  I think it's the dialogue. I think it's the characters.
• 1:43:30
  I think it's the way that it is of the time, but the themes in
• 1:43:33
  this are so specific that the can't be remade that can't be
• 1:43:37
  taken anywhere else. It's not a generic story.
• 1:43:39
  It just feels like the writing is very, very precise about this
• 1:43:43
  one story and a lot of that is the dialogue, which absolutely
• 1:43:47
  sings for me. Yes, it's of the time, but
• 1:43:50
  there's a lot of it that just really makes sense.
• 1:43:52
  Like, this completely makes sense.
• 1:43:54
  It's just absolutely timeless and the themes that you've all
• 1:43:57
  spoke about still relevant now, but nobody's ever done it this
• 1:44:01
  well because it's not taken in a fantastical way.
• 1:44:05
  I mean, think about what happens in this film.
• 1:44:07
  Angels turn up and praise. All of this stuff turns around
• 1:44:10
  and this, you know, you didn't save this guy's life and you
• 1:44:12
  didn't do it. But it doesn't seem fantastical.
• 1:44:14
  It seems like it's grounded in this reality that I think they
• 1:44:17
  were writing it with such a serious outlook and such a
• 1:44:21
  serious tone. There's no fat on this
• 1:44:23
  whatsoever. It is so lean and sort of the
• 1:44:26
  point in such a direct message that I think if you read this
• 1:44:30
  screenplay, you would go right, well, this needs to be made and
• 1:44:34
  made once. We cannot replicate this ever
• 1:44:36
  again. People have tried and the failed
• 1:44:38
  time and time again. It's a piece of writing that is
• 1:44:41
  just of the time to be made. Then take the tablets that you
• 1:44:45
  Moses brought down, like the 10 Commandments, like it's just
• 1:44:48
  written in stone and it's made for that time and you can't
• 1:44:51
  replace it. I think it's just genius because
• 1:44:53
  it's just so well done, so well explored, and like I say, it
• 1:44:56
  just can't be replicated. Yeah, of the time, but with
• 1:44:59
  Timeless. Themes as well.
• 1:45:00
  I know it's it. It really makes sense.
• 1:45:02
  It's. Just got this real directness to
• 1:45:03
  it. It resonates.
• 1:45:05
  Still. Relevant for certain.
• 1:45:06
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 1:45:07
  So the film is based on a. Book and that's called The
• 1:45:10
  Greatest Gift and that was written by Philip Van Doren
• 1:45:13
  Stern and he said that in 1938 he woke up after a dream.
• 1:45:17
  I was reminiscent of Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol when
• 1:45:20
  he was shaving the whole story for The Greatest Gift came to
• 1:45:23
  him. Yeah, the Christmas Carol.
• 1:45:25
  Starting point, I think that's fairly obvious, isn't it?
• 1:45:27
  Yeah, I think so. It's like start to finish.
• 1:45:29
  Just about. But Van Dorenstein.
• 1:45:32
  Struggle to. Sell the idea to a publisher.
• 1:45:34
  So on Christmas 1943 what he did was he adapted the story into a
• 1:45:38
  21 page Christmas card, had 200 copies printed and send it out
• 1:45:42
  to family and friends titled The Greatest Gift, a Christmas Tale.
• 1:45:46
  Imagine getting a 21 page. Christmas card massive effort is
• 1:45:50
  this. Apparently Van Doren Stern.
• 1:45:53
  Personally signed all the copies as well, right, So might have
• 1:45:57
  thought a little high leave himself even at that stage.
• 1:45:58
  A little bit later, I'll sign that for you, Yeah.
• 1:46:02
  Who are you? That'll.
• 1:46:04
  Be worth something, Yeah. And Van Doren, Stern's daughter.
• 1:46:08
  Marguerite later said that in March 1944, there was a phone
• 1:46:12
  call at the house. She just heard her father yell
• 1:46:14
  hold me up. I can't believe it.
• 1:46:16
  It was his agent on the phone saying he'd received an offer
• 1:46:19
  from RQ or Pictures to buy the greatest gift.
• 1:46:22
  Amazing. Yeah, it happened.
• 1:46:23
  Because the epic. Christmas card ended up in front
• 1:46:26
  of David Hempstead, an archaeo producer.
• 1:46:28
  Yeah. So Van Dorenstein was looking
• 1:46:30
  for a boot publisher and Hollywood turned up.
• 1:46:32
  Yeah, I'd collapse as well. Nice to know.
• 1:46:34
  Wasn't the one of the people? That you sent the the whole
• 1:46:36
  Christmas card to his actual agent, though.
• 1:46:39
  Then his agent, then put it in the producer's desk.
• 1:46:41
  Yeah, give it to your agent first.
• 1:46:43
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah, don't make him one of the.
• 1:46:45
  200 people like. You kind of go straight to him.
• 1:46:48
  And go. What do you think of this?
• 1:46:49
  Maybe. Yeah, that will work.
• 1:46:51
  The first writers. Archaeo Hired to work on the
• 1:46:54
  screenplay were Clifford Odets, Mark Connelly and Dalton Trumbo,
• 1:46:58
  who all wrote separate scripts in Trumbo's draft.
• 1:47:01
  George Bailey was a politician who grows more cynical as the
• 1:47:03
  story progresses, then tries to commit suicide after losing an
• 1:47:07
  election. Clarence then shows in Bedford
• 1:47:09
  Falls if he had gone into business instead of politics,
• 1:47:12
  not as it would be if he'd never been born.
• 1:47:15
  Right, Right. Yeah, that's.
• 1:47:16
  When they were writing. With Cary.
• 1:47:17
  Grant in mind as George, that sounds like a might have suited
• 1:47:21
  Grant a bit more, a little bit more definitely that.
• 1:47:23
  Politician figure a much cooler story though.
• 1:47:26
  Like be a. Businessman and you'll be a
• 1:47:27
  success, where this is more about being a good human and
• 1:47:29
  you'll be a success. Yeah, exactly.
• 1:47:31
  And as we talked. About those scripts that
• 1:47:33
  gathering dust, Frank Capra bought the rights of the
• 1:47:35
  greatest gift. He hired Albert Hackett and
• 1:47:37
  Francis Goodwich to help him write it because of their
• 1:47:39
  reputation after the casting of Jimmy Stewart, maybe even
• 1:47:43
  alongside it. Possibly the most important
• 1:47:45
  higher cap I made was Hackett and Goodrich and the writers.
• 1:47:49
  Did make quite a lot of changes to Van Dorensen's book for the
• 1:47:53
  big screen. As we've been saying, the title
• 1:47:55
  has changed from The Greatest Gift, but it wasn't immediately
• 1:47:57
  changed to It's a Wonderful Life.
• 1:47:59
  A title I was seriously considered first was The Man Who
• 1:48:02
  Was Never Born. Sounds like the Hitchcock
• 1:48:05
  version. Loads of.
• 1:48:07
  Murders. No great of that one.
• 1:48:09
  No, the greatest gift? Better than.
• 1:48:11
  That and in the book George's surname.
• 1:48:15
  Isn't Bailey, It's Pratt. In this minimal back story, the
• 1:48:18
  book opens with George on Christmas Eve, ready to kill
• 1:48:20
  himself. Yeah, it.
• 1:48:23
  Sounds like a pretty great opener.
• 1:48:24
  To be honest. But we need that back story
• 1:48:26
  though, don't we? Oh absolutely.
• 1:48:28
  Yeah, 100%. Yeah, so the opening 2 acts
• 1:48:31
  were? All added for the film.
• 1:48:32
  So a huge change straight off. It's got a massive start.
• 1:48:36
  A lethal weapon open on a suicide.
• 1:48:40
  It influenced everything. This hasn't.
• 1:48:41
  It really has. Christmas.
• 1:48:43
  Yeah, and also in the book there's no.
• 1:48:46
  Clarence George is shown his alternate life by a mysterious
• 1:48:49
  stranger. There's also no Uncle Billy or
• 1:48:52
  Mr. Potter. They were created by Goodrich
• 1:48:54
  and Hackett. Nice does that.
• 1:48:56
  Mysterious. Strange.
• 1:48:57
  End up being Benjamin Franklin. Ben.
• 1:49:03
  Oh yeah, the. Whole an Angel getting his.
• 1:49:04
  Wings thing isn't in the book. Pottersville isn't in the book.
• 1:49:07
  The Mr. Gawa segment isn't in the book.
• 1:49:10
  I mean, these are enormous contributions from good Rich and
• 1:49:12
  Haggis. Yeah, no, definitely and.
• 1:49:15
  The book ends very. Quietly, just with George back
• 1:49:18
  at home thinking about how he nearly sent Mary to this never
• 1:49:20
  born world where her life is much worse.
• 1:49:23
  Yeah, the film. Not quite.
• 1:49:24
  As quiet and. Ending.
• 1:49:25
  Is it just the whole town in one house?
• 1:49:31
  He just gets back and says. Few and then it ends.
• 1:49:36
  But Van Dornstein told. A story later.
• 1:49:38
  That on New Year's Eve 1946, he received a letter from Jimmy
• 1:49:41
  Stewart that said thank you for giving us that idea.
• 1:49:43
  I think it's the best one anyone's had for a long time.
• 1:49:47
  Nice classy guy you might. Have been right.
• 1:49:49
  Since Charles Dickens, anyway. Yeah, Capra had some.
• 1:49:53
  Input into the script as. Well, he took elements from his
• 1:49:56
  own life, so Harry becoming an engineer and Sam Wainwright
• 1:49:59
  works in plastics. These both came from Capra's own
• 1:50:01
  education and chemical engineering.
• 1:50:03
  Lovely. And the Martinis, the family who
• 1:50:05
  owned the bar and George move into Bailey Park.
• 1:50:07
  They're based on Capra's own family who emigrated from Sicily
• 1:50:10
  in 19 O3. Great.
• 1:50:13
  You had got a goat in the car. Haven't it?
• 1:50:15
  Yeah, I love the way. Mary, just like, holds the horns
• 1:50:18
  because they're dangerous. Yeah.
• 1:50:21
  But the Italian word for goat? Is Capra right?
• 1:50:24
  There you go. OK.
• 1:50:26
  Lovely personal. Touch.
• 1:50:27
  Nice coming from Sicily in. 1903 like Vito Collio.
• 1:50:30
  I know, yeah. Not quite as dramatic, I
• 1:50:34
  wouldn't imagine. Definitely Albert Hakinden.
• 1:50:37
  Francis Goodrich. Didn't get on with Frank Capra,
• 1:50:40
  Goodrich said. Oh, that horrid man.
• 1:50:42
  He just couldn't wait to get writing it all by himself.
• 1:50:46
  And when Hackett. And Goodrich were writing the.
• 1:50:48
  Script Capra was rewriting what they sent him behind their backs
• 1:50:51
  with a writer called Joe Swirlan.
• 1:50:53
  He also brought in Dorothy Parker as a consultant.
• 1:50:57
  Nasty. Yeah.
• 1:50:58
  Stephen, Yeah. Joe Swirling had written 5.
• 1:51:01
  Capra films before this, and Albert Hackett said about Capra,
• 1:51:04
  he's a very arrogant son of a bitch, right?
• 1:51:07
  You don't want to call Francis, my dear woman, and get away with
• 1:51:09
  it. I can imagine.
• 1:51:12
  That was the catalyst. Just called his wife my.
• 1:51:13
  Ideal woman. Yeah.
• 1:51:14
  And that was it. She never spoke to him again.
• 1:51:16
  Brilliant. So because there were so many
• 1:51:20
  names involved. In the writing process, the
• 1:51:22
  Screenwriters Arbitration Committee had to get involved
• 1:51:25
  hacked, and Goodrich wanted Copper and Joe Swirling's
• 1:51:28
  credits removed entirely. Copper agreed to Swirling being
• 1:51:31
  removed, but not himself. That's good of them.
• 1:51:35
  Thanks, Frank. So that's why the.
• 1:51:37
  Screenplay is credit to Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackett and
• 1:51:40
  Frank Capra. Yeah, he agreed with Swirling.
• 1:51:43
  Being removed but not him. I'll give you a swirling and,
• 1:51:51
  unsurprisingly, Joe. Swirling.
• 1:51:52
  Apparently never spoke to Capra again, no.
• 1:51:55
  And Hackett and Goodrich never worked with him again.
• 1:51:58
  Enemies all over the place. Yeah, so after all that.
• 1:52:01
  Francis Goodrich, Albert Hackett and Frank Capra were not
• 1:52:04
  nominated of the Oscars. Capra never wrote another full
• 1:52:07
  screenplay ever again, but Goodrich and Hackett went on to
• 1:52:10
  ride Father of the Bride, 7 Brides for Seven Brothers,
• 1:52:12
  Easter Parade and The Diary of Anne Frank.
• 1:52:15
  Right, right. Big career for them.
• 1:52:17
  Brilliant. Some trouble with the writing
• 1:52:18
  and It's a Wonderful Life it seems.
• 1:52:20
  Then they pulled it all together though.
• 1:52:22
  And pretty exceptional Christmas film writing for us.
• 1:52:25
  Yeah, absolutely. Without.
• 1:52:27
  Doubt and some pretty great Christmas card writing as.
• 1:52:29
  Well, definitely 21 pages. Of it some.
• 1:52:32
  Dedicated Christmas card writing.
• 1:52:36
  Moving on from the writing to the music.
• 1:52:38
  And the composer, and It's a Wonderful Life was Dmitri
• 1:52:40
  Tiomkin, a Russian born classical composer by trade.
• 1:52:44
  By this point he's already been working in Hollywood for a
• 1:52:46
  couple of decades and it worked with Capra 4 times before this,
• 1:52:50
  including You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes to
• 1:52:52
  Washington and he had 4 Oscar nominations under his belt.
• 1:52:57
  Big chops to meet with Tiomkin. Not exactly a household name
• 1:52:59
  Luke, but a lot of Hollywood success houses music on It's a
• 1:53:03
  Wonderful Life. I think he does something very
• 1:53:06
  smart. In his music, in his work, it
• 1:53:10
  knows when to step forward and when to disappear entirely.
• 1:53:14
  For a film with such emotional peaks and valleys, a
• 1:53:18
  heavy-handed score could have, you know, tipped everything over
• 1:53:20
  the edge. But Tiankin shows a lot of
• 1:53:22
  restraint. Yeah, I totally agree with that.
• 1:53:24
  Yeah, often you. Don't notice that the.
• 1:53:26
  Music is there. I do like the way that he weaves
• 1:53:28
  Buffalo gals throughout the film as George and Mary's theme.
• 1:53:31
  It's playful at the start, hopeful.
• 1:53:34
  But by the time we hear echoes of it later, it's it's
• 1:53:36
  bittersweet. Same tune, just a different
• 1:53:39
  emotional weight. Yeah, it's like a Radiohead
• 1:53:41
  cover by the end. Terrifying.
• 1:53:47
  And then there's that Pottersville sequence where the
• 1:53:49
  score goes really dark. It's almost like noir, all
• 1:53:53
  tension and nice. Tiompkins got a unique
• 1:53:57
  understanding of the brief. He's not scoring a Christmas
• 1:53:59
  film anymore. He's scoring a nightmare
• 1:54:01
  sequence. But he also knows that silence
• 1:54:03
  works as well. Some of the film's most
• 1:54:05
  devastating moments play without any score at all.
• 1:54:08
  And that restraint is just as important as his music.
• 1:54:11
  Great work. Yeah, For me, it's not
• 1:54:13
  necessarily. The fact that there is a score
• 1:54:16
  in this film, for me, it's the flourishes that he does and he
• 1:54:20
  really reads the emotion in the room.
• 1:54:22
  He's not writing a score, he's writing emotion and he's doing
• 1:54:25
  it really well and it doesn't smack you over the head with it.
• 1:54:27
  But there's just a couple of little bits that really get me.
• 1:54:30
  You mentioned the close up John when they said but George,
• 1:54:33
  they're going to go with Potter. Otherwise that flourish of music
• 1:54:36
  is just doom. It's just there and it's not.
• 1:54:40
  Long. It doesn't hold on and age.
• 1:54:42
  It's just just that moment where you just feel that sense of
• 1:54:44
  dread and that's in the score. And it's not massively obvious,
• 1:54:48
  but it's there. And there's the moment when
• 1:54:50
  Potter gets the money. It's almost playful, but it's
• 1:54:53
  Joker esque and it's it's kind of sickly.
• 1:54:57
  It's like Potter's excitement, which is like this horrible
• 1:54:59
  negative tingle, which is in the score.
• 1:55:02
  And he does that throughout the film.
• 1:55:04
  I think he just really addresses the emotion of the scenes
• 1:55:07
  without the being an overlying org or an overlying score, let's
• 1:55:11
  say. But I mean, if you if you
• 1:55:12
  actually listen to It's a Wonderful Life, there's a lot of
• 1:55:14
  music in there. But Luke's right.
• 1:55:17
  It's just he knows when they put it in the background, when to
• 1:55:19
  pull it forward. Yeah, very much yeah.
• 1:55:21
  He does, I agree. I think you kind.
• 1:55:23
  Of don't really notice the score.
• 1:55:24
  And I mean that as a compliment. It's woven in so well.
• 1:55:27
  It just feels natural. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:55:28
  I think that's extra impressive because it has to match the tone
• 1:55:31
  shift the film goes through. The early Bedford Falls scenes
• 1:55:34
  are very like Americana, very Norman Rockwell.
• 1:55:37
  Yeah, yeah. I can't believe we don't see
• 1:55:38
  apple pie at some point. And the music matches all that.
• 1:55:42
  And then by the end in Pottersville, it's a lot darker
• 1:55:44
  and the music goes with it. It is kind of film noir like in
• 1:55:47
  those scenes. And we're mentioning Buffalo
• 1:55:49
  Girls, but similar with Auld Lang Syne at the end, the whole
• 1:55:52
  town building it out together. Ridiculous but brilliant,
• 1:55:56
  obviously. I do wonder how much that was
• 1:55:58
  influenced by the Lamar Sier scene in Casablanca.
• 1:56:01
  I mean, not as aggressive here, but not long after it and just
• 1:56:04
  as famous. Yeah.
• 1:56:05
  But I think what Tiumpkin got is something maybe some audiences
• 1:56:08
  at the time didn't, which is that as a film, it's funny, but
• 1:56:11
  it's not just, it's just a comedy.
• 1:56:12
  It's dark and serious, but it's not just a drama.
• 1:56:15
  It's kind of something in between, a fantasy at times.
• 1:56:19
  And the score has to hold all that together, which I think it
• 1:56:21
  does. And Chunk went on to become a
• 1:56:23
  bit of a legendary composer in Western.
• 1:56:25
  So this probably isn't his most famous music, but I think he's a
• 1:56:28
  bit of an unsung hero here. As to why the film works as well
• 1:56:31
  as it does. Yeah, definitely.
• 1:56:33
  There's a. Ridiculous.
• 1:56:34
  Amount of variety in the score? Yeah, there is.
• 1:56:36
  I mean, I know. He didn't write a Buffalo.
• 1:56:38
  Gals as an absolute banger, isn't it?
• 1:56:41
  It's a tuning of that. Absolutely, yeah.
• 1:56:43
  Absolutely love that coming in for me.
• 1:56:45
  It's what we talked about on our last episode, 12 Angry Men.
• 1:56:48
  It's a different era for music and soundtracks.
• 1:56:50
  And like I said then, unless you Hitchcock working with Bernard
• 1:56:53
  Herrmann on actual musical or it's gone with the wind where
• 1:56:56
  you need a huge overture, it's just about accentuating tons and
• 1:57:00
  scenes. So the real stand out for me is
• 1:57:02
  when George makes out run back to the bridge in Pottersville,
• 1:57:05
  and you just get this, like, quiet sweeping in and up on the
• 1:57:09
  soundtrack behind him with this brass band behind, which does
• 1:57:12
  sound very Christmassy, but it's not in a, like, a sweet, sugary
• 1:57:16
  way. There's a melancholy to it.
• 1:57:18
  Yeah. And it's really impactful at
• 1:57:19
  that moment. So, yeah, the kind of sound rack
• 1:57:22
  where we don't really view it as we view, like, common sound
• 1:57:25
  racks a day. But it's one where when the
• 1:57:26
  music hits, it really, really hits.
• 1:57:29
  Yeah, that moment on the bridge at the end.
• 1:57:31
  The music was really, really dark.
• 1:57:32
  It's not like a tune. It's kind of just a mood.
• 1:57:35
  It's really, really good. Yeah, I think it mixes perfectly
• 1:57:38
  with. The sound design as well, I
• 1:57:39
  think the sound design on this film deserves a shout because
• 1:57:41
  that's absolutely insane. Like Pottersville and as a sound
• 1:57:44
  landscape is horrible. You've got the steak, people
• 1:57:48
  screaming and sirens, and then that music over the top and
• 1:57:50
  everything else just totally works together.
• 1:57:52
  And how quiet Bedford Falls is, but you can hear that snow
• 1:57:56
  somehow you can't. Yeah, all about the sound
• 1:57:58
  design. On this films.
• 1:57:59
  Incredible. Tiumpkin and Capra had an.
• 1:58:02
  Existent long term relationship, but that didn't stop Capra
• 1:58:05
  replacing some of his music to make enemies left, right and
• 1:58:08
  centre. Capra wasn't.
• 1:58:10
  Keen on some of the. Cues, Tiumpkin came up with, so
• 1:58:13
  replace them with stop music from the Archaeo library and the
• 1:58:16
  finale as the townspeople pour into the Bailey house.
• 1:58:19
  Tiumpkin had used Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, but Capra
• 1:58:22
  replaced it with Hallelujah from The Hunchback of Notre Dame and
• 1:58:25
  Archaeo film from 1939. Just does what he wants, doesn't
• 1:58:29
  he? Yeah.
• 1:58:29
  Yeah, I'm Frank Capra. I'll do what I want.
• 1:58:31
  Yeah. Exactly.
• 1:58:32
  Some melodies by Frank Capra. Well, we're into that couple of
• 1:58:37
  pieces of. Tumkin composed for the Gower
• 1:58:39
  drugstore sequence and Capra just ditched the music
• 1:58:42
  completely but didn't bother to tell Tumkin right Kubrick.
• 1:58:46
  Yeah. Although I do enjoy the names of
• 1:58:49
  those pieces. One was called Gawas Deliverance
• 1:58:52
  and the other was called the Death Telegram.
• 1:58:54
  Merry Christmas, Death Telegram right on my street that.
• 1:58:58
  Jingle Bells in a minor half time T.
• 1:59:03
  Anthem is furious as we can. Imagine about all the cuts.
• 1:59:06
  His autobiography was published in 1959.
• 1:59:08
  It was called Please Don't Hate Me because when he gave feedback
• 1:59:11
  to a director, Tiangkin had a reputation of starting with
• 1:59:14
  Please Don't Hate Me, but great in that book, Tiangkin.
• 1:59:18
  Praised. Capra for giving him his break
• 1:59:20
  in Hollywood, but criticized the music and It's a Wonderful Life,
• 1:59:23
  calling it a scissors job. Tell you what, For all the peace
• 1:59:26
  on earth. Goodwill to all men.
• 1:59:27
  Message of It's a Wonderful Life, Capra.
• 1:59:29
  Sure, I went over his way to piss everybody off when he was
• 1:59:31
  making it. He did slap in the ears.
• 1:59:34
  Left, right and centre. No Oscar nominations for Dimitri
• 1:59:36
  Chomkin. And it's a Wonderful Life.
• 1:59:38
  But he carried on having quite the career after it and scored
• 1:59:40
  some classic films, High Noon, Giant, The Guns of Navarone, Rio
• 1:59:44
  Bravo or feature music composed by Dimitri Chomkin.
• 1:59:48
  And he went on to win three Oscars and be nominated for 14.
• 1:59:52
  Wow. He might be the greatest
• 1:59:54
  Hollywood composer that almost no one's ever heard of.
• 1:59:57
  Yeah, don't hate me. But.
• 1:59:59
  I'll get you an Oscar. Leaving the music, we're now
• 2:00:05
  moving to the. Visuals and the cinematography
• 2:00:07
  of It's a Wonderful Life. The credit of the direct of the
• 2:00:09
  photography on the film are Joseph Walker and Joseph Berok.
• 2:00:13
  Joseph Walker had been Capra's go to guy to this point and
• 2:00:16
  they'd work together on 20 films.
• 2:00:18
  Joseph Berok only had two features under his belt before
• 2:00:21
  this one. So before we explain why the
• 2:00:24
  film has two credit of the DPS, what do we think of how It's a
• 2:00:27
  Wonderful Life looks? I mean, it looks incredible.
• 2:00:31
  It still does. I mean, if you watch the 4K
• 2:00:33
  version of it, it's absolutely sublime.
• 2:00:35
  It's so clean, it's so crisp, it's so well lit, so well shot,
• 2:00:39
  and it has to be in black and white.
• 2:00:41
  Probably want to be favorite black and white films.
• 2:00:43
  It's just so well captured on that negative.
• 2:00:45
  It's just the light and it's just incredible.
• 2:00:47
  And normally if you're shooting black and white, you would need
• 2:00:49
  really hard light for it to work for it to get the contrast
• 2:00:52
  ratio. So your blacks are black, your
• 2:00:54
  whites are white, and you've got no kind of balance in the
• 2:00:56
  middle. This film has the same contrast
• 2:00:58
  ratio across the whole thing, but at the same time they're
• 2:01:03
  using different light sources to have different emotions.
• 2:01:06
  So just like was spoke about with John King's music, if you
• 2:01:08
  look at the cinematography here, so as an example, we've got soft
• 2:01:12
  light with low contrast, but the contrast ratio stays the same.
• 2:01:17
  So you have the same amount of light and shadow.
• 2:01:19
  Basically. That's Mary's mother's house,
• 2:01:21
  right? So it's a very nice low contrast
• 2:01:23
  situation, hard light, soft contrast.
• 2:01:26
  That's the building and loan, so it's hard lit.
• 2:01:28
  So there's a seriousness to it. Soft light, hard contrast.
• 2:01:32
  That's after they've come out of the water and seven Clarence and
• 2:01:35
  the dry and all the clothes. Oh yeah, yeah, it's a soft
• 2:01:37
  light, but a. Hard contrast.
• 2:01:39
  So you just see that there's something serious going on
• 2:01:41
  there, but it's a soft tone of character with Clarence.
• 2:01:43
  And then you've got hard light, hard contrast, which is when
• 2:01:46
  they get into 320 Sycamore, it's been abandoned.
• 2:01:49
  They're all backlit. So it's basically just
• 2:01:52
  highlighting the emotion by using tone and using black and
• 2:01:55
  white. It was never ever going to be
• 2:01:57
  shot in colour. Joseph Walker later said the
• 2:01:59
  Capra's plan was to always shoot this film in black and white.
• 2:02:01
  He wanted to portrait with visual poetry through shadows
• 2:02:04
  and light and that's exactly what he does with all of them
• 2:02:07
  scenes, but uses different shadows in different light and
• 2:02:10
  it still looks the same all the way through.
• 2:02:12
  Brilliant. The black and white does give it
• 2:02:13
  a timeless. Quality.
• 2:02:14
  I think absolutely, yeah, I think the cinematography.
• 2:02:17
  Is really modern looking. And the freeze frame you
• 2:02:19
  mentioned earlier on, How cool is that?
• 2:02:21
  Oh yeah, they're using kind of state.
• 2:02:23
  Of the art lenses here, these are really sharp and just
• 2:02:25
  really, really shows on the negative.
• 2:02:27
  Yeah, I just think it really pops.
• 2:02:29
  Off the screen and the look of the film, of course, from the
• 2:02:31
  likeness of Bedford Falls to Pottersville, where it just
• 2:02:35
  becomes film noir and then actually horror at the end.
• 2:02:37
  Like that seeded Harry's grave. That could come from a Universal
• 2:02:41
  horror film at the time. You know, the kind of
• 2:02:43
  Frankenstein and Dracula films. Yeah, a hand cook about the
• 2:02:46
  grave. Like, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:02:48
  And I think like those shots of the Churn and River where George
• 2:02:52
  is contemplating suicide, they are so bleak and terrifying.
• 2:02:55
  But you can feel like the icy chill, just, like, coming out of
• 2:02:59
  the screen because they're so well shot.
• 2:03:01
  And what struck me as well is just all the really great use of
• 2:03:04
  close up, particularly on James Stewart.
• 2:03:06
  I mean, we've mentioned them already.
• 2:03:07
  But, you know, when he's argued with Potter in the boardroom and
• 2:03:10
  he goes to leave but they say, no, we'll vote against Potter if
• 2:03:13
  you stay. And it's that huge close up on
• 2:03:15
  Stewart's anguished face. He realizes what that means.
• 2:03:18
  The scene at the bar when he prays that one, when he comes
• 2:03:21
  out of Mark Bailey's house and he gets right up to that camera
• 2:03:24
  and he practically stares down it in horror, is everything
• 2:03:28
  that's hitting him. It's incredible stuff.
• 2:03:31
  See, I mean, there's multiple. DPS on the film.
• 2:03:33
  But I don't think you can tell to watch it.
• 2:03:34
  Not in a bad way, anyway. It all feels and looks as one
• 2:03:37
  piece. And I think it's just superbly
• 2:03:39
  shot. Yeah, well, with notice about
• 2:03:41
  the cinematography is how intimate it feels.
• 2:03:44
  We're right there at the Bailey table during family dinners.
• 2:03:47
  We're pressed up close as hell during that kiss scene.
• 2:03:50
  I feel nearly as left out. With Sam Wainwright, you're
• 2:03:54
  more. Involved than Sam Wainwright and
• 2:03:57
  those shots are George on the bridge where he's going to end.
• 2:03:59
  It all we're right there with him then as well, but they can
• 2:04:01
  then pull back and give us these stunning establishing shots.
• 2:04:04
  Bedford Falls is pretty much a character in the film and the
• 2:04:07
  wide shots we get at the Main Street are fantastic.
• 2:04:11
  I think Capra was showing off a. Set Yard.
• 2:04:12
  Build as well, which we'll talk about.
• 2:04:15
  But one of the most impressive things I think is the contrast
• 2:04:17
  between Bedford Falls and Pottersville is brilliantly
• 2:04:20
  handled. Visually, Bedford Falls is all
• 2:04:22
  soft and warm. It feels and looks like a very
• 2:04:25
  safe place. Pottersville is much more harsh,
• 2:04:27
  shadows and neon lights, clearly no influence to gain.
• 2:04:31
  It's the same set, but it doesn't look like it or feel
• 2:04:33
  like it. And my favorite shot in the film
• 2:04:35
  does come in the Pottersville sequence.
• 2:04:37
  After George leaves Mar Bailey's boarding house and he runs
• 2:04:39
  towards the camera. We get that super close, close
• 2:04:41
  up of his face, and he looks around the place.
• 2:04:43
  You look right into the camera. Yeah, that shot is incredible.
• 2:04:47
  I mean, that's just one moment of many.
• 2:04:49
  I think it's a great visual storytelling all the way
• 2:04:51
  through. It would have been amazing if
• 2:04:53
  Pottersville was in. Color like Wizard of Oz?
• 2:04:55
  Yeah, Yeah, with all the neons. And then it went back to black.
• 2:04:58
  And White when he's back again. That would have been cool.
• 2:05:00
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:05:00
  Like Death Proof? What I find incredible here is
• 2:05:06
  that one. Of the DPS Joseph Barack, he
• 2:05:09
  shot airplane Yeah in 19. 80. From Bedford Falls to Don't Call
• 2:05:15
  Me Shirley. Unbelievable.
• 2:05:17
  Yeah, but I. Echo a lot.
• 2:05:19
  Of the things that. You fellas were saying the
• 2:05:21
  cinematography is outstanding. 2 distinct worlds that are created
• 2:05:26
  here. The warmth of Bedford.
• 2:05:28
  Falls the. Noir of Pottersville.
• 2:05:31
  When George enters that alternate reality, you feel it
• 2:05:33
  before anybody says a word because the lightning tells you
• 2:05:36
  that something's really wrong, like you were saying, Westie.
• 2:05:39
  And what I really like is how they shoot the domestic scenes.
• 2:05:42
  There's an intimacy to that Bailey household.
• 2:05:44
  It feels lived in. It feels dirty, for want of a
• 2:05:47
  better word. It's real, it's cluttered, the
• 2:05:50
  camera doesn't keep its distance and it's right there with the
• 2:05:52
  family. And then you've got those big
• 2:05:55
  set pieces, the dance floor open in the swimming pool, the snowy
• 2:05:58
  streets of Bedford Falls. They handle scale and in the sea
• 2:06:01
  equally well, which really isn't easy.
• 2:06:03
  I think it's classical Hollywood craftsmanship, nothing showy,
• 2:06:07
  everything in service of the story itself.
• 2:06:09
  You've just said there, that was really interesting.
• 2:06:11
  When? You said the warmth of Bedford
• 2:06:13
  Falls. It's nearly impossible to shoot
• 2:06:15
  warmth in black and white. That's crazy.
• 2:06:17
  Yeah. So I said before that there are
• 2:06:20
  two. Credited directors of
• 2:06:21
  photography and It's a Wonderful Life.
• 2:06:23
  I also said we'd tell the story of why that is, and we're about
• 2:06:26
  to now on your mat. I am indeed.
• 2:06:30
  So. There's actually three DPS that
• 2:06:33
  worked on the film. First of all, Capra Hyde, a
• 2:06:35
  cinematographer called Victor Milner.
• 2:06:37
  And he'd won an Oscar in 1934 for Cleopatra.
• 2:06:41
  But Capra just wasn't happy with how the film was looking.
• 2:06:44
  This is outrageous. When Milner got ill after a few
• 2:06:47
  weeks, Kappa took the chance to fire him and almost everything
• 2:06:51
  that Milner filmed was reshot. Wow.
• 2:06:54
  Get well soon. I mean if you did clear.
• 2:06:55
  Patra, it's going to. Be huge.
• 2:06:57
  Isn't it in scale? Like yeah, reshot everything.
• 2:07:00
  Ridley Scott Capra's like. Every.
• 2:07:04
  Demanding Director. Ever rolled into one like
• 2:07:06
  nightmare package in this one production?
• 2:07:09
  Yeah. In Victor Mill now, he'd worked.
• 2:07:10
  With Cecil B De Mille several times and apparently he was very
• 2:07:13
  meticulous, as you might expect. Capra just took it as being slow
• 2:07:16
  and pretentious. So get out, get out.
• 2:07:20
  So. Capra then turned to his
• 2:07:22
  trusted. Collaborator Joseph Walker, They
• 2:07:24
  had worked together 20 times, like we said, including Mr.
• 2:07:27
  Deeds goes to town, You can't take it with you, and Mr. Smith
• 2:07:29
  goes to Washington. They managed to get Walker on a
• 2:07:32
  loan from Columbia Pictures, but midway through the shoot,
• 2:07:35
  Columbia demanded Walker returned to finish a film for
• 2:07:37
  them. Yeah, some reports say that.
• 2:07:39
  Capran Walker had a disagreement on how to shoot 1 scene so Capra
• 2:07:43
  fired him. Surely even Capra wouldn't do
• 2:07:46
  that after working together for so long and maybe don't know.
• 2:07:50
  But yeah, I mean, I don't think so.
• 2:07:52
  But before Walker. Left the production.
• 2:07:54
  He trained one of his chief camera operators, Joseph Barack,
• 2:07:57
  so he could take over from him. Now, it's not documented who
• 2:08:01
  exactly shot what, but Walker shot most of the film, set the
• 2:08:04
  film styles, and then Barack took over.
• 2:08:07
  And it's likely that Barack shot most of the Pottersville
• 2:08:09
  sequence because that was scheduled for later in the
• 2:08:12
  shoot. Great, right?
• 2:08:14
  So Joseph Barack was a. Filmmaker World.
• 2:08:16
  War 2 veteran like Capra. Apparently he was the first
• 2:08:19
  American cameraman to film the liberation of Paris in August
• 2:08:22
  1944. Wow.
• 2:08:24
  So when you see that footage, it's pretty famous footage.
• 2:08:27
  It's probably the guy who shot It's a Wonderful Life behind the
• 2:08:29
  camera, which is a bit mad. And airplane and airplane.
• 2:08:34
  And Blazing Saddles. I.
• 2:08:35
  Blazing Saddles, Yeah. No word recognition.
• 2:08:39
  For the cinematography. And it's a wonderful life.
• 2:08:41
  Interestingly, after this film, Joseph Walker and Frank Capra
• 2:08:44
  never worked together again. So was there some truth in them
• 2:08:47
  falling out after all? Maybe.
• 2:08:49
  Who knows. But.
• 2:08:50
  On a happier. Note it did launch the career of
• 2:08:52
  Joseph Barack Blazing Saddles. He was Co DP on the Towering
• 2:08:55
  Inferno and yeah, airplane. There it is.
• 2:08:59
  Pick the wrong week to stop. Sniffing glue coming right at
• 2:09:03
  us. But whichever Joseph shot what?
• 2:09:07
  Scene. Some outstanding cinematography
• 2:09:09
  here. Yeah, no, yeah, that was Shadow
• 2:09:11
  of a doubt. So a.
• 2:09:11
  Lot to get through there, famous.
• 2:09:13
  Screenplay work from Francis Goodrich and Albert Haggert,
• 2:09:15
  although the fellow with Capra. Impressive stuff from composer
• 2:09:18
  Dmitri Tiomkin. He also a fellow with Capra and
• 2:09:22
  the fantastic DPS where nobody seems to know.
• 2:09:24
  Fellow with who? But in the end, it all turned
• 2:09:27
  out pretty wonderful somehow. Yeah, it did.
• 2:09:31
  That's why. It didn't get many Oscars.
• 2:09:32
  No one knew who to give, what do.
• 2:09:42
  Into the end of It's a Wonderful Life.
• 2:09:44
  And so far, we've had a lot of very engaging set up, building
• 2:09:47
  up to a big final act. And that's what we're going to
• 2:09:49
  talk about now. Yeah, yeah.
• 2:09:51
  The famous finale. Where Bedford Falls.
• 2:09:53
  Comes together to help. The Baileys is coming up, but
• 2:09:56
  before we get there, we've got Bedford Falls without George
• 2:09:59
  Pottersville and an Angel who wants his wings.
• 2:10:02
  Great. Iconic.
• 2:10:04
  So Christmas Eve, Bedford Falls and.
• 2:10:06
  All is well, but not for long. Thank you Uncle Billy on his way
• 2:10:11
  to deposit. The building and loans.
• 2:10:12
  Funds into the bank, Billy accidentally gives the $8000 to
• 2:10:16
  Potter, leading to George becoming a Christmas crackpot.
• 2:10:19
  Yeah. How is it going for USD?
• 2:10:22
  Oh Billy. Absolute clutch.
• 2:10:25
  God, it's. Just the playfulness here.
• 2:10:29
  Now, we've said that Thomas Mitchell is fantastic in this
• 2:10:32
  film and this is where he's absolutely fantastic because he
• 2:10:36
  plays it with such childlike Glee.
• 2:10:38
  When he's going in there, he's top of the world.
• 2:10:39
  Harry's coming back, he's got 8 grand to stick in the bank.
• 2:10:42
  Nothing can go wrong at all. Everything's just top notch and
• 2:10:48
  he's just has a Digger Potter now.
• 2:10:50
  That's completely out of character for him to do that
• 2:10:52
  because he feels like he's on top and that's the universe
• 2:10:55
  coming back around and saying, no, your place, there's no point
• 2:10:58
  because if you stalk the fire, you're going to get burnt.
• 2:11:00
  So stay out the way. Stay apart from it that you
• 2:11:03
  don't want any part of this. He tries to be and challenge
• 2:11:06
  Potter at his own game and fails immediately.
• 2:11:09
  And when he gives him that paper every single time, I'm like, no,
• 2:11:13
  don't give him that news for you, man.
• 2:11:15
  It's got the egg. Run in it.
• 2:11:16
  Jesus. And then the guy behind the
• 2:11:17
  counter search your Dick. He's like, try that finger.
• 2:11:24
  All had this this. Anxiety, this, panic this where
• 2:11:28
  you just check your pockets 8 times.
• 2:11:30
  The same pockets are the same, pants are the same coat.
• 2:11:33
  You go back to that same coat and you're like yeah you just
• 2:11:36
  say it's got to be there, it's got to be somewhere.
• 2:11:38
  Many players. That's so well that panic and
• 2:11:41
  that anxiety that comes across on the screen is just wonderful.
• 2:11:44
  I love how this is cross cut as well with George helping out
• 2:11:47
  Violet, but he doesn't have to. I know you'll get a job, I know
• 2:11:50
  you're going to be all right. But then when Uncle Billy goes
• 2:11:53
  into his office and George comes in and he's like, what's matter
• 2:11:55
  with you? Everything's fine.
• 2:11:59
  What's? The matter with you and it
• 2:12:01
  really needs to hit because if you don't feel this anxiety,
• 2:12:05
  it's the audience, you're not going to buy the end.
• 2:12:06
  You're not going to buy the fact that he falls apart.
• 2:12:09
  It absolutely smacks you all over and I'm so pleased it does
• 2:12:13
  because it really makes the end and sing it really does.
• 2:12:16
  He's too full of. Himself, Uncle Billy.
• 2:12:18
  Showing part of the paper with Harry Bailey, war hero, on it,
• 2:12:21
  rubbing it in. He feels like he's won at that
• 2:12:23
  point. It's Harper does.
• 2:12:25
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Agonizing to watch.
• 2:12:27
  I mean to be fair. Billy's a total scanner brain,
• 2:12:29
  so it feels like it was a matter of time before something like
• 2:12:31
  this happened. String on his fingers.
• 2:12:33
  Don't give this guy $8000 on Christmas Eve.
• 2:12:36
  He's just going to go across the road though.
• 2:12:37
  I can get fucked. But Thomas Mitchell is really
• 2:12:42
  good. He's been a.
• 2:12:42
  Comedic foil to this point. But then you totally feel this
• 2:12:45
  complete panic. Yeah.
• 2:12:47
  What's happening? Oh, that's awful.
• 2:12:48
  Yeah. And the scene that follows.
• 2:12:49
  Where George loses it with. Billy at Billy's place.
• 2:12:52
  Yeah, how great that that's got one of the most devastating
• 2:12:55
  lines in the film where George is like one of us has gone to
• 2:12:57
  jail. Well, it's not going to be me
• 2:12:59
  massive. Stewart's delivery of that is
• 2:13:02
  ridiculous. Yeah.
• 2:13:03
  There's no humor at the end of. This when he leaves, he doesn't
• 2:13:06
  like go to the squirrel and say that goes for you too.
• 2:13:10
  It just leaves you. Empty.
• 2:13:11
  It does, but it's such a simple set up like a.
• 2:13:13
  Mistake. But it's the moment the entire
• 2:13:15
  theory that works from yeah. I think something Capra seemed
• 2:13:17
  to always understand in his films is that the best drama
• 2:13:20
  often comes from human errors rather than like, yeah, big
• 2:13:23
  conspiracies and stuff. And this is the perfect example.
• 2:13:26
  Understandable errors as well. Everyone's.
• 2:13:28
  Done this. Yes, of course.
• 2:13:29
  Yeah, yeah, it's. Excruciating to watch.
• 2:13:31
  Even Billy's squirrel can't bear it.
• 2:13:35
  Then George comes home and. This is what I mean when I said
• 2:13:38
  Steel just mapped out the performance in the set because
• 2:13:41
  he's only given these hints at this anger inside him.
• 2:13:44
  But this scene is, it's that glacier.
• 2:13:46
  It's the pan of water finally boiling over.
• 2:13:49
  And this whole sequence is so difficult to watch because,
• 2:13:52
  like, when he sits down with his youngest and he just starts
• 2:13:54
  quietly crying to himself as the kids, putting tinsel in the
• 2:13:58
  sand, trying to play with them. Yeah.
• 2:14:00
  When I watched this for the first time, I've vividly
• 2:14:02
  remembered to sitting there going, I don't like where this
• 2:14:05
  is going. This is supposed to be a happy
• 2:14:06
  film. What's going on now?
• 2:14:07
  Don't like this? Don't like this?
• 2:14:09
  This isn't. Cool.
• 2:14:11
  But. It just gets worse and it.
• 2:14:12
  Escalates when he's kicking the chair around the kitchen, but he
• 2:14:15
  he's pulling back on it slightly, like he's trying to
• 2:14:18
  restrain himself. I don't even think he knows what
• 2:14:21
  he's saying at this stage. So, you know, why do we have to
• 2:14:23
  have all these kids? They're right there in front of
• 2:14:25
  them. But he can't keep it in anymore
• 2:14:27
  and he's fractured. But when he finally loses it and
• 2:14:30
  he smashes that room up and you realise what he's laying into
• 2:14:33
  with his kicks and his punches, they are all his plans and
• 2:14:36
  models. He's still building stuff, he
• 2:14:38
  still has dreams, but they've literally been pushed into the
• 2:14:41
  tiniest corner in the room because the family's taken over
• 2:14:44
  everything else in the house and that's all that's left.
• 2:14:47
  His dream. It's brilliant visual
• 2:14:48
  storytelling. And then when he turns around to
• 2:14:51
  face his family and he realizes what he's done, that expression
• 2:14:55
  on his face is just utter horror.
• 2:14:58
  He's unrecognizable in the moment.
• 2:15:00
  He doesn't look like Jimmy Stewart.
• 2:15:01
  No, it's like a Jekyll and high thing.
• 2:15:03
  And you can hear a pin drop in that moment.
• 2:15:06
  It's it's terrifying. Genuinely.
• 2:15:08
  It is very dark. Yeah.
• 2:15:10
  I mean. There's a monster here, isn't
• 2:15:11
  he? Smashing things up.
• 2:15:12
  Yeah. Why do we have to have all these
• 2:15:14
  kids? It's one of the most horrendous
• 2:15:15
  lines in cinema. Yeah, yeah, It's unbelievable.
• 2:15:19
  My parents always laughed at that though.
• 2:15:25
  That explains a lot. Like.
• 2:15:28
  Yeah, you little bastard, but you don't need any dialogue in
• 2:15:32
  this. Scene It's all in Stuart's
• 2:15:33
  physical performance. When he grabs a hold of Tommy so
• 2:15:36
  tight with tears in his eyes. We know the way he's carrying
• 2:15:40
  the potential implications of Uncle Billy's actions.
• 2:15:42
  Billy bullshit. And one look at George and Mary
• 2:15:46
  can see that too. It's devastating stuff.
• 2:15:48
  Yeah, it is. I think it's the hardest.
• 2:15:50
  Scene in the film. To watch it really is, yeah, I
• 2:15:52
  think it's incredible. Because obviously when?
• 2:15:54
  George snaps and starts trashing the living room.
• 2:15:56
  It's horrible, but the build up of that where he's walking
• 2:15:58
  around the house just being a right miserable sword, There's
• 2:16:01
  loads of humor in that. Yeah.
• 2:16:03
  Tommy, his little son, following him around going excuse me, I
• 2:16:06
  burped. Always makes me laugh.
• 2:16:08
  Brilliant. George on the phone.
• 2:16:10
  There's usually was teacher going absolutely crazy on
• 2:16:13
  Christmas Eve. Yeah, I'll.
• 2:16:15
  String her up, threatening to punch Mr. Walsh's lights out.
• 2:16:20
  I mean, that didn't work out, did it?
• 2:16:23
  Not really. But the tone balancing is
• 2:16:25
  incredible. Yeah.
• 2:16:26
  George, Dear Samaria White Raft have all these kids.
• 2:16:28
  A horrific line. It's kind of funny as well at
• 2:16:31
  the same time. Yeah, I think it's Stuart.
• 2:16:33
  He's so good. He can skate all these lines.
• 2:16:36
  Yeah. And he's superb all the way.
• 2:16:37
  Through this sequence. If I'm picking 1 scene of his, I
• 2:16:40
  might go for this one. Then again I might not.
• 2:16:43
  He's like good. Yeah.
• 2:16:45
  So after his spectacular. Dressing down from Potter,
• 2:16:48
  George. Transit sorrows in Martinis.
• 2:16:51
  There's a lovely bit of juxtaposition here.
• 2:16:53
  The establishing shot at the bar looks so inviting from outside,
• 2:16:56
  wonderful music playing. But then we go inside and George
• 2:16:58
  is beyond despair, completely agitated, looking for anything
• 2:17:03
  to take his pain away. And you can feel that pain.
• 2:17:06
  The moment when he's praying is really telling.
• 2:17:08
  I'm sure that when things have gotten so desperate for people
• 2:17:11
  watching, maybe that they may have turned to a higher power to
• 2:17:14
  save them when they might not necessarily have done in the
• 2:17:17
  past. And that's what George does
• 2:17:19
  here. He's not a praying man.
• 2:17:21
  But he's got absolutely nowhere else to turn.
• 2:17:24
  It's incredibly powerful stuff. But then to make matters worse,
• 2:17:28
  Mr. Welsh, who I don't know what he's doing here on Christmas
• 2:17:31
  Eve, why isn't he with his wife? That's weird.
• 2:17:33
  He's been crying for an hour. Yeah, he was with his wife and
• 2:17:36
  he just left. How wonderful you deal with
• 2:17:38
  that. I'm going to the pub.
• 2:17:40
  Sick about crying and he catches Georgia Butte right in the mush.
• 2:17:47
  Yeah, when, George. Starts to pray, How good.
• 2:17:48
  Steve, are they? This is the guy who was.
• 2:17:51
  Loving. Down the street like.
• 2:17:52
  Goofy an hour ago, now completely by him as being on
• 2:17:56
  the brink, but the scene just before this is when George goes
• 2:17:59
  to Potters to beg him to bail him out and Potter just refuses.
• 2:18:02
  Awful. I'm not sure there's another
• 2:18:04
  scene anyway where I despise the villain as much as I do Potter
• 2:18:07
  in that moment. He's horrible.
• 2:18:08
  It's a total dishonesty. He's got the.
• 2:18:11
  Money and he's going to let this Goodman go to jail to make
• 2:18:14
  himself even richer and if he knows as well the way that
• 2:18:17
  scenes framed because George is still sitting on the floor
• 2:18:20
  basically but Potters looming over him and over Potter
• 2:18:23
  shoulder there's a bust of Napoleon.
• 2:18:25
  It also seems to be looking down on George.
• 2:18:27
  Great. Like 2 dictators like bearing
• 2:18:29
  down on him. Yeah, it's great.
• 2:18:31
  And martinis, as well as some great.
• 2:18:33
  Foreshadowing for the end. I think Martini himself is
• 2:18:36
  absolutely fantastic when he's like, why you drink so much, my
• 2:18:38
  friend? Yeah, he's, oh, go home, Mr.
• 2:18:40
  Benny. He's just looking after him.
• 2:18:41
  Nick's looking after him. But after he gets hit by Wall,
• 2:18:44
  she goes, you've just hit my best friend.
• 2:18:45
  Best friend. That's the impact he has.
• 2:18:47
  Yeah, I'm sure Martini's got 8 grand in.
• 2:18:49
  The safe he's. Pulling that money in, surely.
• 2:18:54
  You might have. In the moment, in the bar where
• 2:18:56
  George is praying. The camera slowly pushes in on
• 2:18:59
  George as he talks. If you look closely, you'll see
• 2:19:01
  the close up with Stewart is a bit grainy and unfocused.
• 2:19:04
  That's because Capra didn't plan to shoot a close up.
• 2:19:06
  But Stewart was so good and portrayed so much desperation
• 2:19:09
  that Capra had the editor, William Hornbeck, blow up the
• 2:19:12
  shot and reframe it to zoom in. That's why the quality isn't as
• 2:19:15
  good. Yes, you all said that he was
• 2:19:17
  thinking. About all the loneliness and
• 2:19:19
  hopelessness of some people in the world, especially on the
• 2:19:21
  back of his experiences in the war.
• 2:19:23
  And he started crying for real filming it.
• 2:19:25
  Wow. And copyright filmed.
• 2:19:27
  There's a wide shot because he wasn't expecting it.
• 2:19:29
  So it's an incredible moment, isn't it?
• 2:19:31
  Yeah, it is. And then it's time for Clarence
• 2:19:33
  Odd Body to make his appearance. Angel Second class, played by
• 2:19:37
  Henry Travers. He's got the IQ of a rabbit,
• 2:19:40
  according to Joseph, which is harsh coming from a St.
• 2:19:44
  How was he in the film? Though.
• 2:19:45
  First class, that's what he is. I think.
• 2:19:49
  He's already got a presence. And a personality before we even
• 2:19:52
  see his face on account of this conversation with the big man.
• 2:19:54
  He's got a great voice. Yeah.
• 2:19:57
  And Travis? Brings such lovable charm.
• 2:19:59
  To Clarence, such warmth. He is the embodiment of a
• 2:20:02
  guardian Angel. He plays it so gentle, but he's
• 2:20:04
  not afraid to get dirty either when he's required to bite a
• 2:20:07
  policeman's wrist. And Henry Travers is from.
• 2:20:13
  Near our neck of the woods. He's from Preta, which is what,
• 2:20:16
  like 30 miles from us? Yeah, yeah.
• 2:20:18
  Northeast from the northeast, Yeah, yeah.
• 2:20:20
  Incredible. He's brilliant.
• 2:20:21
  When Joyce had clown from the water.
• 2:20:23
  George's dive in is like perfect.
• 2:20:25
  That's unbelievable, Tom Daley. But I love the scene in the.
• 2:20:29
  Cabin. Where?
• 2:20:30
  Clarence grants George's wish to arise him from existence.
• 2:20:33
  Kind of get Clarence's back story there as well.
• 2:20:35
  I like it when the night watchman fella says where do you
• 2:20:38
  come from? Heaven matter of fact.
• 2:20:42
  Yeah, just slowly walks out. It's.
• 2:20:44
  Great and Henry Travis had started as a.
• 2:20:47
  Stage actor and he became known in Hollywood for playing warm,
• 2:20:50
  bumbling older man. He'd been in some big films like
• 2:20:53
  The Invisible Man, the Claude Rains Classic and Shadow of a
• 2:20:56
  Doubt, the Hitchcock film, and Copper had actually passed
• 2:20:59
  Travis over for a while and you can't take it with you, but
• 2:21:02
  thought of him straight away for Clarence instead.
• 2:21:05
  Well, I'm glad he did, yes. But seeing the Watchmen?
• 2:21:08
  'S cabin you've got. Clarence, who has loads of
• 2:21:09
  comedy lines, talking to George, who was like, contemplating
• 2:21:12
  suicide. And I believe both of them.
• 2:21:14
  Yeah. And it's in the same scene.
• 2:21:16
  It's all, like, handled so well. It is.
• 2:21:19
  So Clarence is here. But as far as?
• 2:21:21
  Bedford Falls is concerned George is gone.
• 2:21:24
  Should we take a trip into Pottersville?
• 2:21:26
  Let's do it if we have to go on. Let's go.
• 2:21:31
  So George Bailey is no longer with us.
• 2:21:34
  Clarence has deleted them from history, so we now see what the
• 2:21:36
  world would have looked like without George.
• 2:21:38
  In one of the most famous sequences from the film, George
• 2:21:41
  returns to Bedford Falls, now called Pottersville, to find
• 2:21:44
  nobody knows who he is. I was all playing out for all
• 2:21:48
  devastating stuff. Yeah, but obviously he's never
• 2:21:51
  been. Born so he could do with a
• 2:21:52
  couple of stiff drinks. So it's back to Martini Slash
• 2:21:55
  Nix with his new best friend. I mean, Clarence could look more
• 2:21:59
  out of place at that bar. Yeah, asking for mulled wine.
• 2:22:06
  But he put his hands on Nick's like.
• 2:22:07
  Thank you my lovely man. Nick's unbelievable here that.
• 2:22:13
  Accent We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get
• 2:22:16
  drunk fast. Is that clear?
• 2:22:17
  Do I have to slip in my left for a convincer to Clarence?
• 2:22:21
  Like a nice old man, but he has like.
• 2:22:24
  Given them your. Orders to get on the drinks menu
• 2:22:27
  as soon as possible. Come on now, things are
• 2:22:30
  beginning. To get a little odd and it's.
• 2:22:31
  Dawning on us, just like it is on George that this is actually
• 2:22:35
  real. Nick doesn't know who he is
• 2:22:37
  without judges existence. Mr. Gower poisons a kid and has
• 2:22:40
  spent time in the joint. The start of the tragedy and
• 2:22:42
  George's road back to redemption really hits with a bang.
• 2:22:46
  It does, I think what's great. About Pottersville.
• 2:22:48
  Is it's not just things are bad now it's really specific, like
• 2:22:52
  really personal CD, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, Mr. Gower wasn't
• 2:22:55
  saved by George. If he went to prison, he became
• 2:22:57
  an alcoholic. He lost everything.
• 2:22:58
  Yeah. And then he gets water sprayed
• 2:23:00
  in his face. I mean, even though Gower wasn't
• 2:23:01
  exactly nice to George earlier, it's still pretty sad seeing
• 2:23:04
  him, like, totally humiliated like that.
• 2:23:06
  Yeah. Mr. Cower.
• 2:23:09
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:23:11
  Yeah, so after this. George, he's doing the rounds.
• 2:23:13
  He's trying to find someone that recognizes him or something that
• 2:23:16
  he recognizes. So he's off to Bailey Park, but
• 2:23:19
  that's no longer there and it's Harry's grave instead.
• 2:23:22
  And I don't know if this is my favorite scene in the film, but
• 2:23:25
  Stephanie got my favorite line from the film.
• 2:23:27
  And I mentioned this in the Cinema Trophy, but this is
• 2:23:29
  basically a scene from a horror film.
• 2:23:31
  It is that whaling on the. Soundtrack the howl.
• 2:23:34
  And wind the black and white starkness of it all.
• 2:23:37
  And then obviously Harry's Graf, which just feels like a really
• 2:23:39
  big tip of the hat to A Christmas Carol when Scrooge
• 2:23:42
  sees his own grave. But it's the conversation
• 2:23:45
  between George and Clarence here when George refuses to believe
• 2:23:48
  Harry drowned as a kid. He went to war.
• 2:23:50
  He saved the lives of every man on that transport.
• 2:23:52
  And it's Clarence's reply. Every man on that transport
• 2:23:55
  died. Harry wasn't there to save them
• 2:23:57
  because you weren't there to save Harry.
• 2:23:59
  Like, I get goosebumps just thinking about that line, just
• 2:24:03
  thinking about the ramifications of George's actions.
• 2:24:06
  Like all those mothers without sons, children without fathers,
• 2:24:09
  because George wasn't around to do something when he was just 12
• 2:24:13
  years old. Yeah.
• 2:24:14
  And that's the point of the film.
• 2:24:16
  You can't know the ripple effect of you being in the world.
• 2:24:19
  You've just got to trust in it. Yeah.
• 2:24:20
  The delivery there as well. It's just it's like a child
• 2:24:24
  delivery man you can save. Them because you were there,
• 2:24:26
  save Harry. Come on, it's obvious, isn't it?
• 2:24:29
  Yeah, it's it's it's so well done.
• 2:24:30
  Yeah, yeah. The symmetry is the darkest
• 2:24:32
  moment. In the film, it is like a
• 2:24:34
  universal horror. You're right, man.
• 2:24:35
  It's all the mist. Yeah.
• 2:24:36
  Like half expecting lunch and you have someone to show up.
• 2:24:39
  Yeah. But in the kind of unspoken
• 2:24:42
  thing as. Well, is that, yeah, Bailey Park
• 2:24:43
  that George built, that no longer exists now as well?
• 2:24:47
  Yeah, one of. Many scenes.
• 2:24:49
  That highlights the impact that people have in other people's
• 2:24:52
  lives. Like you've been saying, it just
• 2:24:53
  makes you stop and think about your impact on others.
• 2:24:57
  Yeah. It does things that we just take
• 2:24:58
  for granted. Yeah.
• 2:24:59
  But I mean, this is taken directly from A Christmas Carol.
• 2:25:03
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:25:05
  Like we've been seeing the whole story is pretty much a carbon
• 2:25:09
  copy for It's a Wonderful Life. Yeah.
• 2:25:11
  And then Back to the Future too. Took.
• 2:25:13
  This pretty much exactly, Yeah, exactly.
• 2:25:15
  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's really.
• 2:25:17
  Interesting. It's Bailey Park.
• 2:25:18
  Is now a. Cemetery in that George wasn't
• 2:25:20
  there to build it up, instead it goes down.
• 2:25:22
  So it's the opposite of everything that he tried to do.
• 2:25:25
  Yeah. And he.
• 2:25:26
  Really now? Needs the one person who knows
• 2:25:29
  him better than he knows himself.
• 2:25:31
  And he needs to find Mary, because surely that is still.
• 2:25:34
  The same surely? Love prevails throughout all of
• 2:25:37
  this madness. She'll recognize him and he's
• 2:25:40
  just a wide eyed maniac at this point.
• 2:25:43
  She's just about. To close the library.
• 2:25:49
  He needs some kind. Of sense.
• 2:25:52
  He just needs to find himself again.
• 2:25:53
  He's completely lost and this is the last straw.
• 2:25:56
  The way this is played as well by Donna Reed is fantastic.
• 2:25:59
  She looks lonely, she looks miserable, she looks like she's
• 2:26:03
  lost her purpose, so that she never really had a purpose in
• 2:26:05
  life and that George was her purpose.
• 2:26:07
  She's Adrian from Rocky, isn't she?
• 2:26:09
  More or less. Yeah, yeah, yeah, she.
• 2:26:11
  Means she works in the library, so she's not really allowed to
• 2:26:13
  talk, but you get the feeling that she doesn't really know
• 2:26:15
  anyone or doesn't converse with anybody.
• 2:26:16
  Yeah, it has that sense of loneliness to this character, to
• 2:26:19
  be honest. He doesn't approach it very
• 2:26:21
  well. He's fucking terrifying.
• 2:26:22
  No grabbing a hold of it. She's like, it's absolutely
• 2:26:26
  insane there. She just runs away from him.
• 2:26:29
  But the thing that I get from this is not just Mary's
• 2:26:31
  reaction, it's everyone that he knows.
• 2:26:33
  When he goes into that bar and she runs into the back and hides
• 2:26:36
  herself, she's like, that's my wife.
• 2:26:38
  And she's like, this is just too much for everybody.
• 2:26:40
  But then he names everyone and it's a similar shot to what he's
• 2:26:43
  in the building alone and he's trying to convince them but
• 2:26:46
  everyone's looking at with such disdain and such hatred.
• 2:26:50
  And then birds outside starts shooting at him.
• 2:26:53
  What shots? Doesn't even aim, just.
• 2:26:58
  Bird straight on the gun like Al from.
• 2:27:00
  Diehard, you had a Is that going to be his excuse?
• 2:27:04
  But I mean, this to me is what hits home with George and hits
• 2:27:07
  home with me that he wanted to build things and he's built
• 2:27:11
  something that even he didn't see.
• 2:27:12
  He built something that's even more important than a bridge,
• 2:27:15
  more important than a building. He built a family and he built a
• 2:27:17
  relationship, and that has gone and he wants it back.
• 2:27:21
  Yeah. Mary is a lonely.
• 2:27:22
  Spinster should have had men queuing around the block for a
• 2:27:24
  Surely some would have been back on the scene, yeah?
• 2:27:28
  Don't I? Reed sells it.
• 2:27:28
  Though she's, like, unrecognizable.
• 2:27:30
  Is this Mary? She is.
• 2:27:31
  And there's a nice bit of foreshadowing before this as
• 2:27:33
  well. The scene in bed when Mary tells
• 2:27:35
  George she's pregnant. He says, why do you marry a guy
• 2:27:38
  like me? And she says to keep from being
• 2:27:39
  an old maid. Yeah.
• 2:27:41
  Which is kind of what she becomes.
• 2:27:42
  And to keep from marrying Sam Wainwright, obviously.
• 2:27:45
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:27:46
  Last, who's a stork? Yeah, he's had him on the nest.
• 2:27:50
  Mary's. Far too good for.
• 2:27:51
  All that he. Horse shit.
• 2:27:52
  Yeah, yeah, yeah. We see more of Bedford Falls.
• 2:27:56
  Slash pottersville in the final act here, and the set for the
• 2:27:59
  town was rather impressive. It was designed by Emil Curry,
• 2:28:04
  the set decorator, and overseen by Jack Okey, the art director.
• 2:28:07
  It was built over two months at Encino Ranch and at the time was
• 2:28:11
  one of the biggest sets that had ever been made with massive.
• 2:28:14
  It covered 4 acres including 75 stores and buildings, 20
• 2:28:17
  transplanted oak trees, a work and bank, amaze, a factory
• 2:28:21
  district, a residential and slum area which is insane.
• 2:28:27
  The Main Street was 300 yards long, the length of three city
• 2:28:30
  blocks and cats and dogs were allowed to roam the set to give
• 2:28:33
  it a lived in feel. Amazing.
• 2:28:36
  Did they ever use it for anything?
• 2:28:37
  Else to live in afterwards. I am just.
• 2:28:40
  Live in? Yeah, that's fine.
• 2:28:41
  Work and bank. That's unnecessary.
• 2:28:43
  What I said, one of the best. Well, it was adapted.
• 2:28:45
  From the set that IKEA would build for Cimarron like a
• 2:28:48
  western epic in 1931, right OK yeah yeah, but the only bad
• 2:28:51
  thing is that the. Raised the set in. 1954 that
• 2:28:53
  could have been a real money spinner.
• 2:28:55
  Christmas tours from the Bedford Falls set.
• 2:28:57
  Oh, good credit in the tour, yeah.
• 2:28:59
  I would just live there to be honest.
• 2:29:02
  And. As we know, the final act of
• 2:29:04
  the. Film all takes place on
• 2:29:05
  Christmas Eve and Bedford, Folsom, Pottersville are both
• 2:29:07
  covered in snow because of this. So to create the snow cap
• 2:29:11
  returned to the head of Archaeos effects team, Russell Sheeman,
• 2:29:14
  and they developed a new chemical snort made from
• 2:29:17
  formite, gypsum, ground ice water, soap flakes and sugar.
• 2:29:22
  Yeah. So at the time, snow in.
• 2:29:23
  Hollywood films are usually being created by painting
• 2:29:25
  cornflakes, whitening and dropping them onto the set,
• 2:29:28
  right? Well, that always needed loads
• 2:29:29
  of post production dubbing because of the sound of the
• 2:29:31
  cornflakes, like crunching under people's feet and cap.
• 2:29:34
  I wanted to record the dialogue live, so that's why the need of
• 2:29:37
  the different solution for this. Yeah, you can tell that
• 2:29:40
  dialogues recorded. Live as well, yeah, yeah,
• 2:29:42
  definitely. You can tell that's a.
• 2:29:44
  Solution as well. When he pulls Clarence out of
• 2:29:46
  the water, when he's swimming with him, when he's face, it's
• 2:29:49
  like coagulated on the face, isn't?
• 2:29:50
  It Yeah, yeah, yeah. Looks like when he slams his
• 2:29:52
  face. In the cake and misses
• 2:29:53
  Doubtfire. Dropping in the coffee, Yeah.
• 2:30:01
  It's a little Cupertino. And to create all the snow for
• 2:30:04
  the. Film They used 300 tons of
• 2:30:06
  shaved ice, 300 tons of gypsum, 300 tons of plaster and 6000
• 2:30:11
  gallons of formite soap and water, with huge wind machines
• 2:30:14
  blowing the mixture over the set to make it look like snowfall.
• 2:30:18
  And as we said, this replaced cornflakes as the Hollywood
• 2:30:20
  standard. And Shaman won a technical
• 2:30:22
  achievement Oscar forward, which is the only Oscar of the film.
• 2:30:25
  One. Yeah, I think the snowfall.
• 2:30:28
  Especially as it's falling around the streets.
• 2:30:30
  That looks really, really good. Yeah, it does.
• 2:30:32
  It looks realistic. Oh, looks amazing.
• 2:30:34
  It looks better than the. Snow in Home Alone, OH.
• 2:30:36
  Absolutely. Yeah.
• 2:30:37
  Yeah. But when he's.
• 2:30:38
  Running up the street, he's skidding in it.
• 2:30:39
  That feels like it's just laying down on the ground.
• 2:30:41
  Yeah, Frosty's not being better. Before we finish on
• 2:30:48
  Pottersville. We have our second DHRM patron
• 2:30:50
  question and it comes from Diane Jones.
• 2:30:53
  Hi, Dean. Hello, Dean.
• 2:30:55
  Hi, Dean. So Dean's asking.
• 2:30:57
  Where would you rather? Live Bedford Falls or
• 2:30:59
  Pottersville and why? I think Pottersville looks way
• 2:31:02
  more fun, says Deanne. Right.
• 2:31:05
  It definitely does. All those neon signs, one of
• 2:31:07
  them just says girls, girls, girls.
• 2:31:10
  Yeah, like. A Mötley Crüe song?
• 2:31:13
  Yeah. It's a Mötley Crüe album.
• 2:31:17
  So let's see what you're going for.
• 2:31:19
  I mean, I don't know, I'm really torn.
• 2:31:21
  To be honest, I love Bedford Falls.
• 2:31:23
  I think the older I get I'm going to be in Bedford Falls.
• 2:31:26
  To be honest, when I was a young man, maybe Pottersville, but I
• 2:31:29
  would like to kind of cheat a little bit and say Bedford Falls
• 2:31:33
  up until about half 7 and then go through Pottersville.
• 2:31:36
  That's. What I would enjoy but if.
• 2:31:40
  I have to choose 100% Bedford Falls.
• 2:31:44
  It doesn't look more. Fun though everyone is.
• 2:31:45
  Miserable in Pottersville. And like, the point is, it's not
• 2:31:49
  about whether it looks fun or not.
• 2:31:50
  The point is the film is about George, and this isn't George's
• 2:31:52
  hometown anymore. Like everything he's worked for,
• 2:31:55
  everything he's done to protect it from Potter is gone, and
• 2:31:58
  Potter's one. And that's why everyone's
• 2:32:00
  miserable in a place where someone like Potter reels the
• 2:32:02
  roost. That's not that's not where I
• 2:32:04
  want to go. I'm just saying it's a gaudy,
• 2:32:06
  loud neo nightmare. And I already live and see him.
• 2:32:09
  So it's Bedford Faults for me. Deep cut.
• 2:32:14
  Deep cut, yeah. Neon Gordie Nightmare.
• 2:32:17
  Get it? In there, midnight dancing,
• 2:32:21
  cocktails, bars, fights every Wednesday night, Yeah.
• 2:32:27
  The glitz and the glam was. Not to love.
• 2:32:29
  I mean, it does look like a lot of fun, but I think you could
• 2:32:32
  get in a farm. Far too much trouble in
• 2:32:34
  Pottersville. One wrong word in to the wrong
• 2:32:37
  person. You're picking up your teeth
• 2:32:38
  with a broken arm for certain. Getting pot shots that you're
• 2:32:41
  from bed. Yeah.
• 2:32:42
  Yeah, definitely, yeah. I think it's like.
• 2:32:44
  Vegas. Great for a week.
• 2:32:45
  Of debauchery but it's absolutely unsustainable to live
• 2:32:48
  there so I'm going with Bedford Falls yeah another influence on
• 2:32:52
  back of the. Future as well Pottersville and
• 2:32:54
  when Biff takes over definitely but.
• 2:32:56
  Biffsville basically is Niffsville.
• 2:32:58
  Yeah. Yeah.
• 2:32:58
  Well, I think Bedford Falls is like Hill Valley, isn't it?
• 2:33:01
  It is, Yeah. Oh, yeah.
• 2:33:02
  Yeah. Nice.
• 2:33:04
  So that is Pottersville. We've been through the.
• 2:33:05
  Nightmare Before Christmas. So I think we deserve the joyous
• 2:33:08
  aftermath, don't we? Oh, let's do it.
• 2:33:11
  Thank goodness. The closing minutes if it's a
• 2:33:15
  wonderful. Life or a festive feast.
• 2:33:18
  Clarence reverses George's wish, putting him back into existence
• 2:33:21
  and unbridled joy breaks loose. We see George running through
• 2:33:25
  Bedford Falls wishing everyone and everything Merry Christmas,
• 2:33:28
  Clarence getting his much deserved wings and the people of
• 2:33:31
  the town coming together to help the Bailey's.
• 2:33:33
  Yes, try and keep it together. Matt, what do you think of this?
• 2:33:37
  I can do it. I can do it.
• 2:33:38
  I can do it. Come on man.
• 2:33:41
  Get mad to go first. Great idea.
• 2:33:44
  Here we go. Come on, do it.
• 2:33:47
  If you look it up, the. Actual dictionary definition of
• 2:33:49
  joy is the last 10 minutes of It's a Wonderful Life.
• 2:33:56
  When he's back on that bridge, the.
• 2:33:57
  Timing is so perfect. It's when he literally asks God
• 2:34:01
  to let him live again, with all the consequences that he knows
• 2:34:04
  he's going to face or he thinks he's going to face.
• 2:34:06
  That's when the snow starts to fall, and that's when you know
• 2:34:09
  it's not back. And Bert arrives.
• 2:34:12
  Bert knows him. Zeus, whose pedals are in his
• 2:34:14
  pocket. And then the tricky thing about
• 2:34:16
  talking about the ending for me is like everything from this
• 2:34:18
  moment on, it's just blurry because it's just tears.
• 2:34:21
  From now on, I've not actually seen properly the ending.
• 2:34:25
  George sprinting. Down that street is.
• 2:34:26
  So iconic. It's really funny when he bangs
• 2:34:29
  on Potter's window and he says like.
• 2:34:32
  Because Potter must be thinking so.
• 2:34:34
  He's not before. Like.
• 2:34:35
  What's going on? Yeah, yeah, he's going to jail.
• 2:34:38
  That he's going to kill. Himself last time.
• 2:34:39
  Also. But then it's the reunion and
• 2:34:42
  group hug to end all group hugs when George gets home and
• 2:34:46
  everyone is pouring into the house.
• 2:34:47
  But it comes down to two moments for me.
• 2:34:49
  The 1st is when Ernie reads out the telegram from Sam who says
• 2:34:52
  he's sending $25,000 to help George out.
• 2:34:56
  Because all throughout the film George has treated Sam quite
• 2:35:00
  shitty. He's never had a good thing to
• 2:35:02
  say about him, but there's a lovely touch from Suit when he
• 2:35:05
  he is this and he just bows his head ever so slightly, as if
• 2:35:08
  he's thinking I should have been a much better friend of Sam
• 2:35:11
  because I did not deserve this. And it's a really humbling
• 2:35:14
  moment for him. But then he would.
• 2:35:16
  It's the moment Harry's home, and it's that toast to my Big
• 2:35:20
  Brother George, the richest man in town.
• 2:35:22
  Boom, there it is. Niagara Falls.
• 2:35:28
  It's just unbelievable. It's.
• 2:35:31
  So so. Good because you feel exactly
• 2:35:35
  the way he feels. You are elated.
• 2:35:38
  Every single thing is just fine. There's not a problem.
• 2:35:42
  Everything's just wonderful and you know it's just Mary yet
• 2:35:45
  again saving the day that you would don't really realize.
• 2:35:49
  I mean basically she sets up the best Kickstarter I've ever seen
• 2:35:52
  in me like. Rallying around, she doesn't say
• 2:35:56
  we need money. She said he needs help and then
• 2:35:59
  just say, well, what does he need?
• 2:36:00
  It doesn't matter. It could have been anything, you
• 2:36:02
  know, but that it just happens to be money that he needs and
• 2:36:05
  that's fine. From Billy emptying that money
• 2:36:07
  out, I'm absolutely gone. Yeah, me too.
• 2:36:10
  From that moment on, it's. Just this.
• 2:36:12
  Absolute avalanche of joy. It's just this waterfall of
• 2:36:16
  overpowering human nature, and it's like purest form.
• 2:36:20
  And it's just, it's nicest form. It's just the way the world
• 2:36:23
  should be and it's not allowed to be.
• 2:36:25
  And it's just really gets to me that everybody loves this,
• 2:36:28
  everybody wants to feel like this, but you just can't quite
• 2:36:31
  get there. And it takes films like this to
• 2:36:33
  show that it's possible to feel like that.
• 2:36:35
  That toast from Harry, ah, the richest man in town.
• 2:36:38
  He's done it. He's beat pottery, he's won.
• 2:36:40
  He's absolutely won by not caring about himself or his
• 2:36:43
  whole life. He can go anywhere he wants now,
• 2:36:45
  do anything he wants. He's a success.
• 2:36:47
  The building alone is going to be fine.
• 2:36:49
  Everything's going to be OK. It's just a wonderful thing.
• 2:36:53
  And the my absolute favorite from this whole end. 7 minutes
• 2:36:57
  or so, Harry gets a telegram, Bird goes to pick him up from
• 2:37:00
  the airport. I got him here as quick as I
• 2:37:02
  could. He still has a chance to go home
• 2:37:04
  and get his fucking accordion. I love that.
• 2:37:08
  You've got to get Harry there, man 2.
• 2:37:10
  Seconds. This is going to kick off.
• 2:37:14
  I need this shit. It's not in the back of his.
• 2:37:17
  Cruiser do. You know what I mean?
• 2:37:18
  He's picked that up either on the way to the airport or on the
• 2:37:21
  way back to get Harry. Harry, 2 minutes, man, I know
• 2:37:23
  you're going to see your brother, but we're like, break
• 2:37:25
  this out of the party. His favorite film about the end
• 2:37:28
  gets me every time. Love it.
• 2:37:31
  Yeah. George Bailey running through
• 2:37:32
  the. Streets of Bedford Falls
• 2:37:33
  shouting Merry Christmas to everyone.
• 2:37:35
  Basically is Christmas to me. Yeah.
• 2:37:37
  One of the most beautiful things in any film.
• 2:37:39
  It's because of earned it. Two hours of back story, which
• 2:37:41
  is there to basically set up the final 10 minutes.
• 2:37:44
  Yeah. But that two hours is still so
• 2:37:45
  engaging in its own right. Yeah.
• 2:37:47
  So when this Combs, the feelings just go through the roof.
• 2:37:49
  Yeah. I look forward to all being shot
• 2:37:51
  as well as the differences in lighting that we talked about in
• 2:37:54
  Pottersville. George was filmed in all tight
• 2:37:56
  framing, loads of close-ups to make it all very restrictive.
• 2:37:59
  Claustrophobic, wasn't it? Yeah.
• 2:38:00
  Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
• 2:38:01
  And then back in Bedford. Falls.
• 2:38:02
  The cinematography completely changes.
• 2:38:04
  It's all wide shots, lots of open framing.
• 2:38:06
  The camera seems to move more fluidly, and that contrast works
• 2:38:09
  great. Yeah, and the Merry Christmases,
• 2:38:12
  Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter is great Pot almost think George is
• 2:38:16
  completely flipped at that point.
• 2:38:17
  Yeah, just mortal. He's been a martinis.
• 2:38:20
  Yeah. But my.
• 2:38:22
  Favorite Merry Christmas, you wonderful.
• 2:38:23
  Old building in loan. Yeah, yeah, get out.
• 2:38:27
  It's them tracking shots. As well when you get the shot of
• 2:38:29
  the building. That's going the same pace as he
• 2:38:31
  is. Brilliant.
• 2:38:32
  So the crosscuts per valley, Yeah, it's really great.
• 2:38:34
  Then that final scene, one of the most.
• 2:38:36
  Iconic final scenes in any movie.
• 2:38:38
  First of all, how nice is Mary? She comes in and she saves
• 2:38:41
  strangers in a house and she just goes, oh, hello, you're so
• 2:38:45
  welcoming starting. The rest warrant I'll just.
• 2:38:48
  Stick a chicken over the fire. Give us 5.
• 2:38:53
  And the narratives are all pulled together and wrapped.
• 2:38:54
  Up perfectly. We managed to get references to
• 2:38:56
  all the previous characters without it feeling crammed in.
• 2:38:59
  Sam Wainwright, you said, mentioned Tom shows back up.
• 2:39:02
  Great to see Annie back in there.
• 2:39:04
  Yeah, and obviously Harry. Coming back in.
• 2:39:06
  But the bit for me that gives me goosebumps and gets tears in me
• 2:39:09
  eyes is when he gets the book and the message from Clarence.
• 2:39:12
  That's a message from a very dear friend of mine.
• 2:39:15
  What you're doing. Yeah.
• 2:39:17
  Yeah. But George is all completes.
• 2:39:19
  Clarence gets his wings. The theme resolves itself when
• 2:39:21
  it turns out George was right to help people all the time.
• 2:39:24
  I mean, what more can you say? The greatest final scene of a
• 2:39:27
  Christmas film they'll ever be? Surely it's unbeatable.
• 2:39:30
  It's got to be. It's just that message as well.
• 2:39:32
  You've said it there from. Clarence, it's just unbelief.
• 2:39:35
  Just thanks for the wings. Yeah, I love that.
• 2:39:37
  Attaboy, Clarence. Attaboy, Clarence.
• 2:39:39
  And then the bell. Rings and then thanks for the
• 2:39:42
  wings. Imagine if it just cut a
• 2:39:44
  Clarence in KFC. Buffalo Wings, KFC.
• 2:39:52
  Mr. Trick there. That should be the.
• 2:39:53
  Advert every Christmas? Sure.
• 2:39:55
  Definitely. Clarence getting his wings?
• 2:39:58
  Yeah, definitely. I mean.
• 2:40:01
  What more is that I say that everybody hasn't said because we
• 2:40:04
  all this, this end sequence is just so effective.
• 2:40:08
  We all think the same thing, but this is what it's been gearing
• 2:40:11
  up to. This is what we're seeing about
• 2:40:13
  this ending is earned 100% because it's been misery on top
• 2:40:19
  of misery on top of despair on top of suicide.
• 2:40:22
  And then the snow comes back and such a weird is lifted.
• 2:40:27
  I mean, Elia doesn't even come interest George running like a
• 2:40:31
  madman through Bedford Falls screaming his head off crazy
• 2:40:37
  when he gets back home. It's probably my favorite final
• 2:40:40
  scene of any film. It never fails to slug me right
• 2:40:44
  in the good like we've been seeing.
• 2:40:46
  The image of George surrounded by Mary and the kids is
• 2:40:49
  wonderful enough, but when everybody in town begins to pour
• 2:40:53
  in, dump and money on the table, I mean, just getting goosebumps
• 2:40:57
  talking about it. I generally go to see this film
• 2:40:59
  at the cinema every year. You know, it's always playing
• 2:41:02
  around here. And I always dread this moment
• 2:41:05
  because it's guaranteed Niagara Falls, meaning credits roll and
• 2:41:09
  I have to walk out of the cinema with like a BLOB and mess.
• 2:41:13
  So I'm usually like, digging my nails into my hand or biting my
• 2:41:16
  hand. So to take away like the
• 2:41:18
  possibility of tease, like Clarence biting.
• 2:41:21
  Your own wrist, yeah. Joseph.
• 2:41:26
  It is a perfect end, that bit when.
• 2:41:28
  He takes the end of the banners known as.
• 2:41:29
  Kisses it, puts it back. Oh, it's great.
• 2:41:31
  Love for everything. Like that?
• 2:41:32
  Yeah, kids. But the one.
• 2:41:35
  Thread in the film that isn't. Tied up is that we never find
• 2:41:38
  out what happens to Potter for keeping the $8000 if anything
• 2:41:42
  actually does happen to him at all.
• 2:41:43
  And Hollywood films at the time was still operating under the
• 2:41:46
  hears court and that stated antagonists and movies must
• 2:41:49
  either be punished or repent for their actions, which Potter
• 2:41:52
  never does. Yeah, as far as we know what he
• 2:41:54
  makes off. With the $8000, yeah, I guess
• 2:41:57
  Capra didn't want to interrupt. The ending.
• 2:41:58
  By cutting away to another sequence with Potter or
• 2:42:01
  something like that? Yeah, wouldn't that wouldn't
• 2:42:03
  have worked. There's no.
• 2:42:03
  Way to put it, no. But the haze.
• 2:42:06
  Code. They did demand some changes to
• 2:42:08
  the script. Good.
• 2:42:09
  Richard Hackett had to remove some words.
• 2:42:11
  They had to take out. Jerk.
• 2:42:13
  Dang, impotent, lousy. I swear to God and nuts to you,
• 2:42:19
  they all have to go. I thought the last one was going
• 2:42:21
  to be motherfucker just from nowhere.
• 2:42:28
  Merry Christmas. Motherfucker, actually, at that
• 2:42:33
  moment, possibly. You could have done that way.
• 2:42:36
  He's Merry Christmas, Mr. Potter.
• 2:42:37
  And then the the money's there on the desk and he's he's
• 2:42:39
  assistant who pushes him around. Could have shaken his head, not
• 2:42:42
  said anything, just left the room.
• 2:42:43
  Yeah, Potter shouting after him and just left completely by
• 2:42:46
  himself. So I think you wouldn't know
• 2:42:47
  it's first time around as well wouldn't.
• 2:42:48
  It, which would be nice, yeah, just leaving the room, yeah.
• 2:42:51
  In an early script there is a scene.
• 2:42:53
  Where we see Potter approaching the Bailey house while the
• 2:42:55
  celebrations are ongoing, planning to return the $8000.
• 2:43:00
  And there was another plan scene where Clarence confronted Potter
• 2:43:02
  about stealing the 8 grand but in this end and Potter would get
• 2:43:05
  told he was going to hell and die after having a heart attack.
• 2:43:09
  But Capra decided this ending was a little too grim.
• 2:43:12
  Yeah, it is a bit. A little bit.
• 2:43:15
  Imagine the role that the house was safe or.
• 2:43:16
  Strapped to his wheelchair. I'm not interested in Europe.
• 2:43:23
  So. We're at the end.
• 2:43:24
  The narrative threads, aside from the pot I want, are all
• 2:43:27
  pulled together pretty expertly. To say their land is a bit of an
• 2:43:30
  understatement. And when you're talking famous
• 2:43:33
  movie moments, the whole final act and final scene of It's a
• 2:43:36
  Wonderful Life is about as big as it gets.
• 2:43:39
  The biggest Huge. Gargantuan.
• 2:43:45
  Reception and awards. It's a Wonderful life with a
• 2:43:50
  Stone Cold. Christmas classic nowadays, of
• 2:43:52
  course, but it wasn't always that way, was it?
• 2:43:55
  No, no, no. ATR.
• 2:43:57
  Amazonian. Jill.
• 2:43:58
  First Class is yet to fill us in on the reception of the film
• 2:44:00
  after it's released on December the 20th, 1946.
• 2:44:03
  So take it away please, Matt. Yep, just got me wings and
• 2:44:06
  everything. So budget was. $3.7 million.
• 2:44:11
  Which was very expensive for the time, but it made just 3.3
• 2:44:15
  million at the box office and left Capra half $1,000,000 in
• 2:44:18
  debt. It did well at the Oscars, all
• 2:44:20
  nominated for five best picture, best director, best actor for
• 2:44:23
  James Stewart, best from editing for William Hornbeck and best
• 2:44:27
  sound editing for John Ahlberg. And as we've said, Russell
• 2:44:30
  Sheeman and Archaeo's effects department won a special
• 2:44:33
  technical achievement award. Amazing.
• 2:44:36
  A bomb at the box. Office then.
• 2:44:38
  So Liberty had taken out a one and a half million dollar bank
• 2:44:40
  loan to pay for the film. So when it didn't make its money
• 2:44:42
  back, it put them in massive trouble and cap right as
• 2:44:45
  partners. The sole Liberty to Paramount
• 2:44:47
  Pictures in 1947, which is a real shame.
• 2:44:50
  Yeah, yeah. The film Bowman came.
• 2:44:53
  As a bit of a shock, Archaeo had moved the release date forward
• 2:44:56
  from January 47th to December 46th as they were so confident
• 2:45:00
  with the film. Just before the premier, Liberty
• 2:45:02
  Films held a private preview at the Ambassador Hotel in LA,
• 2:45:06
  attended by over 350 people, including Clark Gable, Gary
• 2:45:09
  Cooper and Claudette Colbert. Right.
• 2:45:11
  The audience reaction was so enthusiastic that fans mobbed
• 2:45:14
  the actors and the celebrities. Yeah, the police had to be
• 2:45:17
  called, apparently. To control the crowd.
• 2:45:19
  Incredible riding over George Bailey.
• 2:45:22
  But I mean, you might think it would be.
• 2:45:23
  The perfect time to. Release it like post war people
• 2:45:25
  looking for something comforting of course.
• 2:45:27
  Or maybe that's just what they were looking for at the time.
• 2:45:29
  I don't know. Maybe.
• 2:45:30
  Yeah, looks like it could have been the plans to release it in
• 2:45:32
  January. Is crazy.
• 2:45:34
  Yeah, that's insane. Ridiculous.
• 2:45:36
  I mean the. Critics were on board over with
• 2:45:37
  it. At the time, either Bosley
• 2:45:39
  Crowther, writing for the New York Times, said the weakness of
• 2:45:42
  this picture is the sentimentality of it.
• 2:45:45
  It's illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are
• 2:45:48
  charming and his small town's a beguiling place, but somehow
• 2:45:51
  they don't resemble reality, right.
• 2:45:54
  OK, but Clarence doesn't? I'll give him that.
• 2:45:56
  Yeah, Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I think, George.
• 2:45:59
  Is fairly complex. And grounded, though.
• 2:46:01
  Really grounded. Completely realistic, yeah.
• 2:46:04
  Yeah, 100%, yeah. And also at the time, Manny
• 2:46:06
  Farber wrote. In the New Republic, to make his
• 2:46:09
  points, Capra always takes an easy, simple minded path that
• 2:46:12
  doesn't give much credit to the intelligence of the audience.
• 2:46:15
  Wow. I'd say it does cut.
• 2:46:17
  Some corners and the. Storytelling, maybe, like George
• 2:46:20
  and Mary getting married in the same sequences that run on the
• 2:46:22
  bank. But it works for me.
• 2:46:24
  It doesn't feel convoluted. It's nothing easy in the film.
• 2:46:27
  I think it's just because it's. Simple it.
• 2:46:29
  Seems easy and the finisherman. Rog Roger Ebert, He reviewed
• 2:46:33
  It's a Wonderful Life in 1999. So over 50 years after it came
• 2:46:37
  out, what did he rated out of four?
• 2:46:39
  Do we think anything other than 4?
• 2:46:43
  Yeah, of course it was 4 stars. Out of four, to the surprise of
• 2:46:45
  nobody. And he said what's remarkable is
• 2:46:48
  how well it holds up over the years.
• 2:46:50
  It's one of those ageless movies, like Casablanca, that
• 2:46:53
  improves with age. So movies should only be seen
• 2:46:56
  once. Others can be viewed an
• 2:46:57
  indefinite number of times. They improve with familiarity.
• 2:47:01
  It's a Wonderful Life falls in the second category.
• 2:47:03
  Sure does. Too true, Rogers.
• 2:47:05
  Nailed it, yeah. Yeah, as always, nothing new
• 2:47:07
  there in 1947 the year. After the film came out, the FBI
• 2:47:12
  placed the film on their list of suspected communist propaganda.
• 2:47:16
  They issued a memo called And It's a Wonderful Life, a
• 2:47:18
  potential communist infiltration of the motion picture industry,
• 2:47:23
  that said that Potter was written as an attempt to
• 2:47:24
  discredit bankers, which according to them, was a common
• 2:47:28
  trick used by communists. Common trick?
• 2:47:31
  Always. Casting Lionel Barrymore,
• 2:47:32
  Scrooge type figures other these communists, bloody commies all
• 2:47:37
  that. Bankers are not a nice guy.
• 2:47:39
  Well, yeah, yeah. It's a Wonderful Life was a real
• 2:47:43
  Christmas. Turkey at the time, then, but
• 2:47:45
  that didn't last, did it? Nah, no, because after.
• 2:47:49
  Liberty Films was sold a Paramount It's a Wonderful Life
• 2:47:51
  sat gathering dust for years and then in 1974, due to an error,
• 2:47:56
  the copyright wasn't renewed properly and that led to the
• 2:47:59
  film passing into public domain and that means it was free for
• 2:48:02
  TV stations to broadcast. So it started being shown on
• 2:48:05
  television every Christmas. The status of the film grew and
• 2:48:08
  grew and then by the mid 80s it was a firm Christmas classic.
• 2:48:12
  And since then, after all the copyright issues were sorted
• 2:48:14
  out, NBC broadcast the film every Christmas Eve in the
• 2:48:18
  United States, and Channel 4 do the same in the UK.
• 2:48:21
  Wow. Yeah, and you watch it every.
• 2:48:22
  Year, right, Matt? Absolutely do.
• 2:48:25
  Yeah, yeah. So quite a story for.
• 2:48:27
  It's a wonderful life. Then off the screen as well as
• 2:48:29
  on a flop on release and pretty much forgotten for 30 years
• 2:48:32
  before mounting A comeback Rocky will be proud of.
• 2:48:35
  Absolutely became a must see movie and maybe the biggest
• 2:48:38
  Christmas classic of them all. It's definitely up there.
• 2:48:41
  That's. What it is I?
• 2:48:42
  Would agree. Sequels and influence There were
• 2:48:50
  never any sequels made to it's a.
• 2:48:51
  Wonderful Life, but there maybe could have been one.
• 2:48:55
  In 2013, two producers called Alan J Schwalb and Bob
• 2:48:58
  Farnsworth announced they would be continuing the tale in the
• 2:49:01
  sequel called It's a Wonderful Life.
• 2:49:04
  The rest of the story I didn't realize there was a rest.
• 2:49:07
  Of the story to be. Honest.
• 2:49:08
  No. That's got Hallmark written all
• 2:49:10
  over. It it really has.
• 2:49:13
  Yes, so the. Synopsis for the sequel is on.
• 2:49:15
  IMDb Do you want to hear it or not?
• 2:49:17
  Definitely OK. George Bailey's troubled
• 2:49:19
  grandson also named George Bailey, so not not cutting
• 2:49:23
  corners there is forever changed when his Aunt Zuzu, played again
• 2:49:27
  by Carolyn Grimes, comes back as an Angel and reveals how much
• 2:49:31
  better the world would have been if he had never been born right,
• 2:49:35
  Right. Sounds a bit depressing just.
• 2:49:37
  Go and kill yourself, George. Yeah, miserable.
• 2:49:40
  That's it. And never got.
• 2:49:41
  Far though. Paramount.
• 2:49:42
  Put the kibosh on it and they said no project relating to It's
• 2:49:44
  a Wonderful Life can proceed without a license from
• 2:49:47
  Paramount. Yeah.
• 2:49:48
  I mean, obviously a couple of absolute chances these guys.
• 2:49:53
  Yeah, that's ridiculous. Yeah.
• 2:49:55
  There been no sequels but both Jimmy.
• 2:49:56
  Stewart and Donna Reed reprise their roles of George and Mary
• 2:49:59
  more than once when they appeared in a few radio versions
• 2:50:02
  in the 40s and 50's, The Luxe Radio Theatre and Screen Guild
• 2:50:06
  Theatre both broadcast versions. You can find those broadcasts
• 2:50:09
  online, so search. For them, if you'd like to hear
• 2:50:11
  them, they're always good for getting into the Christmas
• 2:50:13
  spirit. Yeah, great.
• 2:50:14
  In terms of the legacy. Of It's a Wonderful Life.
• 2:50:16
  Then obviously a huge Christmas classic nowadays and a stable of
• 2:50:19
  the festive television schedule. How can we see its influence
• 2:50:22
  since 1946 though? I think any Christmas film.
• 2:50:27
  That has made since, yeah, has elements of it.
• 2:50:29
  And I mean, we've touched on so many references that we've just
• 2:50:32
  popped into our head as we've been talking about it, to be
• 2:50:34
  honest, over the last few hours. But anything that deals with the
• 2:50:38
  main characters redemption within a redemption arc with
• 2:50:40
  that kind of, you know, the search for truth, I guess, is
• 2:50:44
  always there. But I mean, the Bishop's Wife,
• 2:50:45
  which came out a year after this, I think that's got
• 2:50:49
  elements to it. Wings of Desires got elements to
• 2:50:51
  it. And then further up the road,
• 2:50:53
  you've got Groundhog Day, which I think has massive elements to
• 2:50:56
  it. Oh yeah.
• 2:50:57
  Yeah. And then I think.
• 2:50:58
  They tried to. Remake it.
• 2:50:59
  Well, in my opinion, they tried to remake it with Nicolas Cage
• 2:51:02
  and the family man. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I remember
• 2:51:04
  that. It's just absolute testimony.
• 2:51:06
  To this original idea, the original script, the ACT and the
• 2:51:09
  technical prowess, everything, it just can't be duplicated.
• 2:51:13
  There's a lot of elements from this that have been taken or
• 2:51:15
  we've mentioned about the future.
• 2:51:16
  I've mentioned lots of other films, Grease, there's a lot
• 2:51:18
  that we've touched on, but nothing direct because it can't
• 2:51:22
  be copied. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:51:24
  I mean, one of the. Most influential?
• 2:51:25
  Films ever made. It's very difficult to summarize
• 2:51:28
  unless we've got a whole podcast.
• 2:51:30
  It's certainly proved you could go to genuinely dark places with
• 2:51:33
  a main, with a mainstream heartwarming film and audiences
• 2:51:37
  would follow you there as well, which is surprising considering
• 2:51:40
  the time. But I'm just going to zoom into
• 2:51:42
  two different films which are clearly indebted to It's a
• 2:51:45
  Wonderful Life. We've talked about 1 already.
• 2:51:47
  You can draw a Direct Line from Pottersville to the Alternative
• 2:51:50
  1985 and Back to the Future two, complete with that scene at the
• 2:51:54
  cemetery. And Hill Valley is Bedford Falls
• 2:51:57
  as well. Bedford Falls, that town is
• 2:52:00
  pretty much a carbon copy of the town in Gremlins as well.
• 2:52:03
  Yeah. Along with Mrs. Deagle as
• 2:52:05
  partner. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:52:07
  Which is also Hill Valley. It's the same set, isn't it?
• 2:52:10
  Yeah, yeah, it. Is the same set and the. 2nd is
• 2:52:12
  a little left field. It's Blue Velvet, particularly
• 2:52:15
  the character of Mary. She's got such an evangelic
• 2:52:17
  quality, just like Laura Dern. Sandy in that film.
• 2:52:21
  Yeah. And David Lynch.
• 2:52:22
  Was often referred to as Jimmy. Stewart from Mars for good
• 2:52:24
  reason. Yes, we are.
• 2:52:27
  Yeah, I. Think the legacy is huge,
• 2:52:28
  probably more. Strongly felt today than it was
• 2:52:30
  in 1946, it seems like. I mean, nowadays it's part of
• 2:52:33
  Christmas. We said that it's on every
• 2:52:35
  Christmas Eve. It's become a ritual for
• 2:52:37
  millions of families. I think that's great.
• 2:52:39
  A film about community and togetherness becoming a kind of
• 2:52:42
  communal experience itself. Yeah.
• 2:52:45
  I mean, the influence on other films is huge.
• 2:52:47
  You guys have mentioned all the main ones, I think.
• 2:52:49
  But what I still notice about is legacy is that the message still
• 2:52:52
  resonates in the time of like social media where everyone's
• 2:52:56
  making highlights, reels and comparing themselves to others
• 2:52:59
  far too much. This kind of says your life,
• 2:53:02
  your ordinary life. It has value, which feels more
• 2:53:05
  relevant than ever. And it's proved that you can
• 2:53:08
  make a Christmas film that wasn't all fairies and lights.
• 2:53:10
  This cause actually genuinely dark deals with despair and
• 2:53:14
  suicide and corruption. So it changed what a Christmas
• 2:53:17
  movie could be. I mean, that's just scratching
• 2:53:19
  the surface, probably. It's an enormous film with a
• 2:53:21
  legacy to match. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 2:53:24
  I mean, you can talk. About the influence and.
• 2:53:25
  Legacy, this one, and you'd find it hard to stop.
• 2:53:28
  You can see it's legacy in other Christmas films.
• 2:53:30
  Billy's mother's watching it and Gremlins, Rusty is watching it
• 2:53:33
  in Christmas Vacation and it really has become a generation
• 2:53:37
  of film. It's one that's passed down
• 2:53:38
  again and again. And I think another part of its
• 2:53:41
  legacy is the legends making this in terms of their personal
• 2:53:44
  legacy. It's Capra's best film.
• 2:53:46
  It's Jimmy Stewart's best film to the point where, and I'm sure
• 2:53:49
  we'll cover this at some point, but part of the horror of
• 2:53:52
  Vertigo is watching James Stewart and that going but but
• 2:53:55
  he's George Bailey. He he can't be this disgusting
• 2:53:58
  and seedy and horrible. Yeah, Yeah.
• 2:54:01
  Outside of film. Making the film has also had.
• 2:54:03
  A big impact on a town in New York State.
• 2:54:06
  Bedford Falls is a fictitious place made-up for the film, of
• 2:54:08
  course, but there's a town in New York called Seneca Falls
• 2:54:11
  that claims to be the real life inspiration for Bedford Falls.
• 2:54:15
  Although there's no documented proof that Capra was inspired by
• 2:54:18
  Seneca Falls, there are similarities between the two
• 2:54:20
  towns. Both have famous bridges,
• 2:54:22
  Victorian E remain streets and a warm small town community.
• 2:54:26
  And Frank Capra is said to have visited Seneca Falls in 1945
• 2:54:30
  when he was developing. It's a Wonderful Life.
• 2:54:32
  Also, Rochester is where Sam is going to build his factory.
• 2:54:36
  Yeah. And Buffalo is where Harry is
• 2:54:38
  going to work for his new father-in-law.
• 2:54:39
  Both of those towns are only around 100 miles away from
• 2:54:42
  Seneca Falls in upstate New York.
• 2:54:44
  Well, a Barber from Seneca Falls.
• 2:54:45
  Said that he cut Capra's hair in 1945.
• 2:54:48
  So that's like some of the main proof, apparently.
• 2:54:50
  All right. OK, that's convinced.
• 2:54:55
  That's it, yeah. Well, if you're.
• 2:54:58
  Interested though, you can have a look.
• 2:54:59
  At their website therealbedfordfalls.com right
• 2:55:02
  and actually put some pretty cool stuff on every year you can
• 2:55:04
  take a ride on the Bedford Falls Express or you can go to Mrs.
• 2:55:07
  Martini's pasta dinner or visit the Bells of Bedford Falls or
• 2:55:11
  take part in the it's a wonderful life participation
• 2:55:14
  movie. Nice.
• 2:55:15
  Wow, so sounds. Like the place you're meant to
• 2:55:17
  be? Matt, get yourself over.
• 2:55:18
  Go on there next Christmas tell you that now.
• 2:55:20
  That's all. Go a big.
• 2:55:22
  Legacy left by it's. A Wonderful Life, then It's
• 2:55:24
  Become part of Christmas. Had a huge impact on pretty much
• 2:55:27
  every Christmas movie since. And if you're ever in New York
• 2:55:30
  during the holidays, maybe pop over to Seneca Falls for some of
• 2:55:33
  Mrs. Martini's pasta. Oh yeah, bring us some back.
• 2:55:36
  Go for it be. A carbonara, probably.
• 2:55:42
  All the right movies ranking. So that's that and it's a
• 2:55:47
  wonderful. Life.
• 2:55:48
  We've been through the full making of story, the film in
• 2:55:50
  detail and it's legacy and now is the time when we decide where
• 2:55:54
  the film will sit in the all the right movies Canon.
• 2:55:57
  So, Matt, do you want to start? Us off your.
• 2:55:59
  Summary and score for it's a wonderful life please yeah you
• 2:56:03
  fellas know this we. Talk about all the time, but
• 2:56:05
  I'll go and see this on the big screen every Christmas.
• 2:56:08
  The Tyneside Cinema Neos, they make that film the centre of
• 2:56:12
  their festive season. Like the screen it every day,
• 2:56:14
  usually a couple of times a day. And I usually go on the 23rd or
• 2:56:17
  Christmas Eve. And it's also sold out
• 2:56:19
  screening, which is about 200 people.
• 2:56:21
  And at the end there's always this huge round of applause as
• 2:56:25
  the credit troll led by you, obviously led by me.
• 2:56:28
  I'll stand up as well. I mean stand up, stand up for
• 2:56:31
  this kicking. Off, Yeah, kicking off at the.
• 2:56:33
  Dawn And I think that's remarkable how much it sent you
• 2:56:37
  it. And I think that tells you
• 2:56:38
  everything you need to know about how beloved this film is
• 2:56:41
  by people, how important it is to people.
• 2:56:44
  And as I said in the legacy section, it's a generational
• 2:56:46
  film. It gets passed down from
• 2:56:48
  generation to generation like a gift because that is absolutely
• 2:56:52
  what it is. The amount of people who would
• 2:56:55
  be very different if it wasn't for this film, the way it makes
• 2:56:57
  them feel about things and look at things is tribute to the
• 2:57:00
  power of it. And I'm certainly one of them.
• 2:57:02
  A 10 is not enough to do this film justice, but that is what I
• 2:57:06
  have to give it anyway. Lovely. 11 for this one, then
• 2:57:09
  no. Surprise and rusty.
• 2:57:11
  I mean, we've sang its praises all.
• 2:57:13
  The way through, it's incredible piece of work.
• 2:57:16
  It's astonishing that everyone kind of knows it now and it's
• 2:57:20
  just astonishing that that happens because for 30 years it
• 2:57:22
  didn't exist, it was just gone. Everybody loves it.
• 2:57:26
  There's not one person who I've ever met who says I'm not that
• 2:57:28
  keen in It's Wonderful Life. It doesn't happen because it's
• 2:57:32
  just such a human story. There's just so many human
• 2:57:34
  emotions. It's so relevant, it's so
• 2:57:37
  powerful, it's so well made, it's so well acted.
• 2:57:39
  Jimmy Stewarts legacy, just well, he will live forever
• 2:57:42
  because of this film. Don't I Read will live forever
• 2:57:44
  because of this film, and I have found new ways of looking at
• 2:57:48
  things. And every year I look forward to
• 2:57:50
  it because I love how this film makes me feel.
• 2:57:53
  And us for talking about it. We're all quite different people
• 2:57:57
  with different interests and different, you know, ways of
• 2:57:59
  life, but we all feel exactly the same.
• 2:58:02
  For a film to do that is one of the primary reasons I love this
• 2:58:06
  medium. And for me, this is one of the
• 2:58:08
  very, very best of them all. It's an easy 10.
• 2:58:11
  Lovely easy 10. Yeah, I mean, it's a wonderful
• 2:58:14
  life, much loved by millions of people.
• 2:58:16
  No question, the definitive film of one of Hollywood's great
• 2:58:19
  directors and Frank Capra and one of its great stars.
• 2:58:22
  And Jimmy Stewart. No question.
• 2:58:24
  The rest of the cast are brilliant as well.
• 2:58:26
  Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Henry Travels are all excellent.
• 2:58:30
  The writing was a few people had their hands in it, but it
• 2:58:33
  doesn't show in fleshing out the much shorter version from Philip
• 2:58:36
  Van Doren Stern into a full feature screenplay.
• 2:58:39
  They did a brilliant job. It's great filmmaking all round.
• 2:58:43
  So I think talking about It's a Wonderful Life in those terms
• 2:58:46
  doesn't really tell the whole story.
• 2:58:48
  It's not just a great film, and it is a great film, it's the
• 2:58:52
  Christmas classic. I mean, not my favorite
• 2:58:54
  Christmas film personally, but I think objectively, undoubtedly
• 2:58:58
  the best Christmas film to me. The message in the themes we
• 2:59:01
  talked about kindness, community, helping others, you
• 2:59:05
  stand that Christmas fair. But capitalist exploration of
• 2:59:07
  that message is way deeper and much more thought provoking than
• 2:59:11
  what you get anywhere else in any other Christmas movie.
• 2:59:13
  Yeah, I think it's the most artistic Christmas film, the
• 2:59:16
  best Christmas film. Still, many decades later.
• 2:59:19
  That's some achievement and I'll watch it almost every Christmas
• 2:59:22
  and never grow tired of it, always love it.
• 2:59:24
  So I also have to go top Marks and give a 10 out of 10.
• 2:59:27
  Of course, this higher powers. At work here that.
• 2:59:30
  This film, it's Clarence. It's Clarence.
• 2:59:33
  It is. Yeah, and look your summary and
• 2:59:35
  score for it's a. Wonderful life place.
• 2:59:37
  Yeah. I'm like you, John I.
• 2:59:39
  Don't think it's my favorite Christmas film, but personal
• 2:59:42
  preferences aside, it's almost certainly the best.
• 2:59:45
  I mean, without doubt. There's a reason why it's such
• 2:59:48
  an Evergreen classic that it's on repeat every year and always
• 2:59:51
  will be. There are channels that are
• 2:59:52
  dedicated back-to-back to back marathons of it for days on end.
• 2:59:57
  I can't imagine anyone would say that they don't like this film.
• 3:00:00
  I just like you saying Westie. That's an impossibility.
• 3:00:03
  It is the directions. Deaf, the right and.
• 3:00:05
  Superb, as are all the performances and that's hugely
• 3:00:09
  under playing everything at work here.
• 3:00:11
  I will watch it every year and every year it'll make me look at
• 3:00:14
  my life and reinforce the things that should be treasured.
• 3:00:18
  The simple things, things you maybe take for granted, love,
• 3:00:21
  family relationship, friendships, huge universal
• 3:00:25
  things that are relatable across the globe and they resonate,
• 3:00:28
  like you said, right to the top mat.
• 3:00:30
  They resonate more and more with each passenger.
• 3:00:33
  I couldn't contemplate giving it anything other than 10 out of
• 3:00:35
  10. It is a perfect film.
• 3:00:37
  Amazing. So another.
• 3:00:39
  Benefit of being an ATR. M patron is that your vote will
• 3:00:42
  count towards the overall scores for movies we cover.
• 3:00:44
  So some of the comments on It's a wonderful life from our own
• 3:00:47
  wonderful community. First up, Bill Heiss, who said a
• 3:00:52
  Christmas movie that goes dark. The pain on Mr. Gawa's face as
• 3:00:56
  he's beating the shit out of George.
• 3:00:57
  George yelling at his kids and making them cry.
• 3:01:00
  Mr. Potter getting away with it because the fat assholes at the
• 3:01:03
  bank always get away with it. An uplifting ending where
• 3:01:06
  humanity and empathy might not save the world, but they might
• 3:01:09
  make a little corner where we can live. 10 out of 10.
• 3:01:12
  I'm crying just thinking about it.
• 3:01:13
  Oh, wonderful words, beautiful sentiments.
• 3:01:16
  A man whose words. Have more poetry?
• 3:01:18
  Than mine. I think it's an interesting
• 3:01:21
  point Bill makes there. I'm not sure it was capital's
• 3:01:23
  intention, but pot are getting away with it as a rich guy kind
• 3:01:26
  of takes on a meaning of its own as well.
• 3:01:28
  Yeah, it does. Yeah.
• 3:01:29
  Corey steps. Up said.
• 3:01:31
  I give it a nine. These were my thoughts about it
• 3:01:33
  when I first watched the movie in 2011 and they still hold true
• 3:01:36
  today. Even though I can be a cynical,
• 3:01:39
  bitter and anti social bastard, I really enjoy this movie and it
• 3:01:42
  did put a smile on my face. I also got teary eyed during
• 3:01:46
  certain scenes cheering up all the.
• 3:01:49
  Misery go to this one isn't. It isn't it just.
• 3:01:53
  That'll be a 10. Next year and.
• 3:01:55
  Andrew Shaw said. I've watched it every year for
• 3:01:58
  as long as I can remember and I'm always surprised by how it
• 3:02:00
  never loses its power to move and delight.
• 3:02:03
  Easiest 10 I've ever given. Beautiful.
• 3:02:07
  There you go. So it's one of the best things
• 3:02:08
  about. Christmas for our.
• 3:02:09
  Patrons this and pigs in blankets for me were fair enough
• 3:02:15
  every. Year I eat about. 5000 of them,
• 3:02:17
  yeah, yeah, as many as possible. And all together, our patrons.
• 3:02:20
  Rank the film as what do you think?
• 3:02:23
  Got to be straight 10 kicking. Off if it's another 10.
• 3:02:28
  It's got to be a 50. A real Christmas.
• 3:02:29
  Gift this one, of course. It was 10 out of 10.
• 3:02:32
  Beautiful 70. Percent of votes.
• 3:02:34
  Were a ten wow there you go wow so.
• 3:02:37
  That gives us a wonderful life. 50 out of 50 in total.
• 3:02:40
  Biggest score we've ever given, Yeah, I think.
• 3:02:42
  It's the biggest score, it is. Yeah, but it must have
• 3:02:45
  surprises. It no not.
• 3:02:46
  At all. Not at all.
• 3:02:47
  So that's everything we have, and it's a.
• 3:02:49
  Wonderful life, we hope everybody's enjoyed it.
• 3:02:52
  And you don't wish that you'd never been born.
• 3:02:54
  That would be drastic. Well, next time out Luke Martin.
• 3:02:57
  Westie, you're going deep undercover.
• 3:02:59
  She thinks he's a boring computer salesman.
• 3:03:01
  Yeah, he's actually a government spy.
• 3:03:03
  And he's Arnold I and Jim and Jimmy Lee Curtis as well as you
• 3:03:08
  talk True lies. Yeah, that's a.
• 3:03:11
  Big 1, isn't it? Lords again, 2 on that one, the
• 3:03:13
  most expensive. Film ever at the time, I
• 3:03:15
  believe. Yeah, yeah, it was huge.
• 3:03:18
  And the final? Reminder.
• 3:03:19
  If you've enjoyed this episode and want to support what we do,
• 3:03:21
  you can become an ATR M Patron over on Patreon.
• 3:03:24
  You get early access to our archived episodes, bonus
• 3:03:27
  episodes. You can submit questions for us
• 3:03:29
  to answer on the show like the ones who've answered today.
• 3:03:31
  Vote on future episodes. Join the community.
• 3:03:34
  It's full of great movie fans. You'll get film recommendations
• 3:03:37
  in there, great chat, lots more, and you get to be part of it
• 3:03:40
  all. It's like our very own Bedford.
• 3:03:42
  Falls it. Is what are you waiting for a
• 3:03:45
  wonderful community? So head over to Patreon.
• 3:03:47
  Dot com forward. Slash all the right movies to
• 3:03:49
  sign up. Yes indeed.
• 3:03:50
  Also you can find us on X. At AT right.
• 3:03:52
  Movies on YouTube, on Instagram threads, Blue Sky, TikTok, we've
• 3:03:56
  got a Facebook group and our website is all the right
• 3:03:59
  movies.com we're. All off now to see if any of.
• 3:04:03
  Us have got our wings. I've not heard any bells ringing
• 3:04:06
  mind, so not looking good. No looks.
• 3:04:08
  A call for us. Yeah, but simply have a.
• 3:04:11
  Wonderful Christmas time. Everybody and we'll be back with
• 3:04:14
  you with TRUE LIES very soon. Merry Christmas everyone.
• 3:04:18
  Merry. Christmas, everyone merry.
• 3:04:19
  Christmas.