It's a wonderful life

News

Within 8 days it would have been Mary Treen`s (Cousin Tilly) 103th birthday.
* March 27, 1907
† July 20, 1989

Within 16 days it would have been Samuel S. Hinds`s (Pa Bailey) 135th birthday.
* April 4, 1875
† October 13, 1948

Within 21 days it would have been Ward Bond`s (Bert) 107th birthday.
* April 9, 1903
† November 5, 1960

Trivia

1,500 film-makers, actors, critics and other movie professionals in Hollywood have chosen It’s a wonderful life the most inspirational films of all time. AFI distributed a ballot in November 2005 with 300 nominated inspiring movies to a jury of over 1,500 leaders from the creative community. Source / More (Web)

Release date: December 20, 1946

The movie was shot at:
The Beverly Hills High School (The dancing contest).
The town of Bedford Falls was totally recreated with a huge set.

Oscar nominations:
Best Actor ->James Stewart
Best Director ->Frank Capra
Best Film Editing
Best Picture ->Frank Capra
Best Sound, Recording

It’s a wonderful life was colorized in the eighties. Director Capra called the colorization process an insult for him and his dead colleagues. Source / More (Book)

In the early 1940s, writer Philip Van Doren Stern penned a short story called The Greatest Gift which he printed on 200 holiday cards and sent out to friends and family. RKO Pictures bought the story a few years later for $10,000, and sold it to Capra. He translated the script into It’s a wonderful life.

James Stewart spent World War II in the Army Air Corps as a bomber pilot and squadron commander. It’s a wonderful life marked his return to acting and his first post-war film.

In 1947, the FBI branded It’s A Wonderful Life as subversive.

The film has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

At $3.7 million, this was a very expensive independent production. The film was panned by some critics and was not a box-office hit. In its initial box office run, it only earned $3.3 million.

James Stewart said that George Bailey was his favorite character.

Bibliography

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