When the bells ring on Christmas Eve, you can bet many celebrants will imagine a chorus of angels getting their wings. Such is the impact of It’s a Wonderful Life, a once-forgotten movie that was not a success in its time but has become the most wonderful of holiday TV traditions.
Confession: I once stayed home from school after seeing a daytime listing, which turned out to be in error, that the then-obscure film was being shown. Ironically, not long after, Wonderful Life went into the public domain when its copyright accidentally lapsed and was hard to miss.
Everett Collection
Frequent showings through the 1980s on hundreds of local stations restored the film’s reputation as a classic worthy of repeated viewings. Once NBC secured exclusive TV rights in 1994, the heartwarming 1946 sleeper earned its annual spot as a Christmas Eve family must-see.
Frank Capra, the Oscar-winning director known for his inspiring fables about everymen in extraordinary situations (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe), often cited Wonderful Life as his favorite. “It epitomizes everything I’ve been trying to do and trying to say in the other films,” he said in a documentary issued in a 60th anniversary DVD release. “The importance of the individual is the theme that it tells, that no man is a failure and every man has something to do with his life.”
Related‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Is Still the Best Holiday TV Event
The hero of It’s a Wonderful Life is George Bailey (the endearing James Stewart, above, with Donna Reed and the Bailey family), who sacrifices his dream of seeing the world to stay in bucolic Bedford Falls to protect his family’s savings and loan business for the good of the community.
George weathers life’s many crises and joys until a setback leaves him in suicidal despair, prompting a genial angel (Henry Travers as Clarence) to rescue him by showing him why he’s “the richest man in town,” a mission of mercy that earns Clarence his wings. The mix of tear-jerking realism and feel-good fantasy makes It’s a Wonderful Life a perfect gift for the season.
It’s a Wonderful Life, Tuesday, December 24, 8/7c, NBC
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