It’s Still A Wonderful Life
It’s a Wonderful Life – a film produced and directed by Frank Capra in 1946. The film is based on “The Greatest Gift” written by Philip Van Doren Stern.
Starring James Stewart as George Bailey and Donna Reed as his wife Mary, the story is set in the fictional town of Bedford Falls shortly after World War 2.
George Bailey unwillingly inherits his father’s Building and Loan business, having always dreamed of travel and adventure.
Due to the loss of a substantial sum of money, George decides to commit suicide in order to collect his life insurance to repay the debt.
Clarence Odbody, George’s guardian angel (played by Henry Travers), saves George from drowning, and answers his wish to make it as if he had never been born.
It’s only after George sees what an impact he’s had on peoples’ lives, and how much he misses his family, that he wants his life restored.
This is one of my all time favorite films, and I can watch it a dozen times over, and not get sick of it.
We all have an impact on those around us, either for good or evil.
While we all experience the loss of friends and loved ones at different times, it is an interesting question to ask: what would the world be like if I hadn’t been born at all?
George discovered that it was the relationships that he had formed that brought him through, even though he felt that he was a failure, worth more dead than alive (despite the fact that his life insurance policy would probably have been negated by his suicide).
I doubt that there are many people who haven’t seen this movie, and I for one will be watching it again on Christmas day!’
The movie was considered a box office flop when it was first released, but is now accepted as one of the greatest ever made.
The video boom of the 1980s breathed new life into the movie, and it has been discovered by a whole new generation of viewers.
Frank Capra Jr Dies
Movie mogul Frank Capra Jr, whose father directed the Christmas classic It’s A Wonderful Life, has died aged 73.
Capra Jr, who helped build a major television and film studio (Screen Gems), passed away in Philadelphia after a long fight with prostate cancer.