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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mel O&#039;Drama" data-source="post: 349389" data-attributes="member: 23">For Christmas Eve I had a double-bill of Christmas-classics-I've-inexplicably-never-watched.The matinee was...It's A Wonderful Life (1946) <img src="https://www.vintagemovieposters.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/IMG_8408-scaled.jpeg" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " style="width: 702px" /> Rather like Psycho, this is a film that's so entrenched in pop culture, I almost felt like I knew it inside out before watching. Clips of it seem to have been shown everywhere and the story (itself a twist on the already-familiar A Christmas Carol) is one of those that's been told and retold again and again. Of course, I knew the premise. And the Bedford Falls town name. And the ending with Jimmy Stewart running through town calling out his greetings to the various buildings is firmly embedded in my mind (I couldn't swear, but I think I know it best from Gremlins). Also like Psycho, it was surprising to realise there's so much more to the film than the best-known bits. Indeed, I think it took over 90 minutes for George to meet his guardian angel and express a wish that he'd never been born. The film grabbed me from its opening scene with the heavenly communication (I've since realised it's familiarity is from similar conversation in A Matter Of Life And Death, released several months before this) and the wonderfully rich cinematography of Bedford Falls in the snow. It filled me with hope about the film just beginning. Sadly, my feelings about the film overall are more mixed than I'd hoped. Much as I enjoyed the opening scenes of young George saving the pharmacist from making a fatal error, it went a bit downhill after that. I found it very slow and sluggish, which in itself would have been fine were it not for the cloyingly saccharine tweeness prevalent in American films of the era. I know George's optimistic spirit needed to be there to be broken but he was so damned chipper that I found him very irritating. Then there was all that business with his brother and the stupid honking noise and accompanying gesture they'd do upon parting (these are actual adults). And every time Donna Reed sang at him I heaved (I really wasn't sure what to make of her character. She came across as manipulative and shrewish much of the time which didn't garner much empathy). Once things went down the pan it was compelling again, thanks almost entirely to a combination of Jimmy Stewart's performance and Frank Capra's direction. Depressed, angry, lashing out George was terrific. It was wonderful to see him going full-on Arthur Fowler on Christmas Eve and in the last third of the film I had an epiphany which took me from feeling that it was interesting to see a young Stewart still learning his craft to feeling that actually this is the finest performance I've seen him give. Perhaps the film needed the tweeness to really contrast with the darkness that came later (and it was pleasingly grim at times). Perhaps it's even a statement about twee Hollywood fluff. Whatever the case, watching George's joyous evening run through Bedford Falls in context, suddenly realising just how significant his seemingly throwaway lines are, gave me chills. This isn't a film I'd care to watch annually. I don't think I'd feel I was missing out if I never watched it again. But I'm very glad I've finally seen it.</blockquote>

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