It's A Wonderful Life - 1946 - Frank Capra
PART 1: The Christmas Movie
1. What year did the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" come out?
2. What was the name of the angel in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
3. What was the name of the mean old man in the film, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
4. What was the name of the younger brother in the famous Christmas film, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
5. How much moneydid the Uncle lose in the film, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
6. How many children do the Bailey's have in the Christmas classic, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
7. What branch of the armed forces did Harry Bailey join in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
8. In the film, "It's a Wonderful Life", what dance are George and Mary doing when they fall into the pool?
9. George saves his younger brother's life in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life". What does George do?
10. What permanent ailment does George Bailey have that prevents him from joining the war effort in the movie, "It's a Wonderful Life"?
PART 2: Something Darker?
It's a pretty grim life, actually all is not so rosy in It's A Wonderful Life when Frank Capra died, it was inevitable that It's a Wonderful Life would be trotted out to demonstrate his life-affirming, joyous love of people.
The film is a classic, even if it is wildly overexposed, and even if a fluke of paperwork is mostly responsible for its star status. Had its copyright been properly renewed in 1975, It's a Wonderful Life would not have been in the public domain for so many years and thus would not have become, during the '80s, as omnipresent as Christmas carols and shopping days til Xmas.
Granted, it might have joined Miracle on 34th St. and Christmas Carol as beloved, but once a year, holiday movie traditions. But because TV stations were able for so long to repeat it at no cost, it became a Christmas classic ad nauseum.
Yet viewing It's a Wonderful Life as wholesomely heart-warming takes uncritically the notion that it celebrates the triumph of small-town sweetness over impersonal modernity.
Far from being the feel-good movie of 1947, It's a Wonderful Life is in fact one of Capra's most relentlessly depressing works. The film's framing story indeed draws on the backward-looking myth of the small town favored by Hollywood's not-notably rural filmmakers.
Pottersville is as atmospheric a film noir as any of the period's movies, and unlike the wholesome framing story, it seems no inversion of reality at all. It's a realistic, if appalling, view of how things looked to be playing out in the society off the screen.
As it happens, some things did not turn out as badly as Capra seemed to fear. Post-war prosperity (and the federal deposit insurance programs) made bank failures a relative rarity, at least for a few decades, and thrift institutions like George Bailey's building and loan in fact did help underwrite the rise of suburbia, and thus the fulfillment of some Capra-era dreams.
Yet in the same period the country's cities did come more and more to resemble Pottersville, albeit with the added woe of racism. And suburbia itself represented a turning-away from the spiritual strength and communal ties of places like Bedford Falls in favor of materialism and the security of the organization man.
And was Bedford Falls that wonderful anyway? Even in his purportedly wonderful life, George Bailey lives in a town mostly owned by Old-Man Potter. He is saddled with a loser of an uncle, and he is forced to give up his dreams of seeing the larger world and succeeding in a creative career. One of the movie's most visually stunning shots is when George, informed that his brother won't be taking over the building and loan, turns away from his chosen destiny to live up to his obligations at home. He knows Bedford Falls is a trap, and it ultimately drives him to suicide.
“Happiness here was pursued by the hounds of living hell; the American Dream was so close to the nightmare,” critic David Thomson writes. “The film that had failed in 1947 had become a token of uplifting fellowship, yet it was a film noir full of regret, self-pity and the temptation of suicide. How could so many people convince themselves that it was cheery?”
Your Question: What are the key elements of film noir? and how does "It's a Wonderful Life' fit in as a film noir (or not)? (300 words).