It's a Wonderful (and Dark) Life

George Bailey (James Stewart) finds himself in the
film noir world of Pottersville in "It's a Wonderful Life."

It’s a Wonderful Life (1947, Liberty Films)

Starring James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore,

Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, Gloria Grahame;

Screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra;

Directed by Frank Capra

This is one of the few films that you safely can assume most Americans have seen. When the copyright for this Christmas staple mistakenly wasn’t renewed in the 1970s, any TV station could broadcast “It’s a Wonderful Life,” and it seemed like all of them did.

That said, here’s a rundown of the basics: George Bailey (James Stewart) has a great wife, Mary (Donna Reed), several cute kids and the respect of nearly every citizen of Bedford Falls. But an $8,000 blunder by his Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) gives greedy bad guy Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore) the opportunity to shut down Bailey Bros. Building and Loan and to have George arrested. This unhinges George, who gets drunk before plowing his car into a tree. He then heads for a bridge, where he plans to end it all because he thinks everyone would be better off without him.

Violet (Gloria Grahame) tries
to get George Bailey's attention.

But the townsfolk’s prayers are answered and Angel Second Class Clarence Oddbody (Henry Travers) is dispatched to convince George he is valued by showing him how charming Bedford Falls would have become nasty Pottersville if he’d never been born. Having done that, George runs home to find friends and family chipping in to raise the money needed to keep him out of jail, which provides the tear-producing happy ending.

The story’s demonstration of how one person matters in the greater scheme of things is what keeps viewers coming back each Christmas. However, all isn’t sweetness and light. During the majority of the film’s final 30 minutes, George is thrown into the film noir world that Pottersville represents.

This section of the movie has many features that mark the film noir genre and style. It spotlights a tortured protagonist plunged into a universe where nightmares come true and where fate always finds him. It shows scenes of a neon-lit city at night, and its pool halls and drinking joints crowded with a sketchy clientele.

Adding to the film noir feel is a cast populated by actors who made their marks in the genre. At the top of the list is Stewart, who later shoved his good-guy persona aside when he went over to the dark side in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope,” “Rear Window” and “Vertigo.” Barrymore (“Key Largo”) and Ward Bond (Bert the cop, “The Maltese Falcon”) appeared with Humphrey Bogart in a pair of film noir classics.

Another element of film noir evident here is the concept of the good woman contrasted with the not-so-good woman. In this case, Mary is held up as a paragon of virtue while flirty Violet (Gloria Grahame) is portrayed as easy in Bedford Falls and worse in Pottersville. Grahame strengthens the film’s noir credentials because she later became one of the quintessential femmes fatale in such classics as “Human Desire” and “The Big Heat.”

The trip to Pottersville was the flip side of the feel-good story that dominates the film and was the reality of the world forming outside the little town. Unlike in film noir, however, this protagonist escapes and discovers how wonderful life is, which also is a great Christmas present for us all. 

Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell, far left) and citizens of Bedford Falls
 join Mary (Donna Reed) and George for the heartwarming ending of "It's a Wonderful Life."