In a previous post I listed my favorite Christmas movies. My #1 movie is "It's A Wonderful Life"
The family and I sat down last night and watched the movie. I could watch it everyday. Phil brought to my attention an unknown fact about the movie, or at least it was unknown to me. Today I decided to do a bit of research and thought I would share my new found knowledge of the movie with everyone.
1. The original title of the movie "The Greatest Gift"
2. It was a short story written by, Philip Van Doren Stern in 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943.
3. It was considered a box office flop.
4. Was nominated for 5 Oscars, but non were won.
Nominations:
Best Actor for James Stewart
Best Editing for William Hornbeck
Best Director for Frank Capra
Best Sound Recording for John Aalberg
Best Picture for Frank Capra
5. The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent and, in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000 hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant.
6. Henry Fonda was also considered for the role of George Baily, but Capra wanted Stewart.
7. At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read "The Greatest Gift" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, sold the rights in 1945 to Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000,and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett (with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson and Dorothy Parker brought in to "polish" the script)turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename "It's a Wonderful Life."
8. The set of Bedford Falls spanned 4 acres and main street stretching 300 yards (three city blocks), with 75 stores and buildings, a tree-lined center parkway and 20 full grown oak trees. For months prior to principal photography, the mammoth set was populated by pigeons, cats and dogs in order to give the "town" a lived-in feel.
9. The swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene where George courts Mary, is located in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School and is still in operation today.
10. During filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's engagement party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" Equipment on the set had actually been accidentally knocked over; Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's impromptu ad lib.
11. The full extent of Mr. Potter's deviousness is never revealed to the other characters in the film, and he is never brought to account for sequestering the $8,000, although Capra filmed an alternate ending that was subsequently cut wherein Potter receives a comeuppance. Later, a Saturday Night Live skit reprised the scene, this time with Potter comically brought to account.
12. While George sees what life would be like without him, Harry's would-be grave displays the dates 1911–1919, contradicting Clarence's statement that Harry died at the age of nine.
13. The film, which went into general release on 7 January 1947, placed 26th in box office revenues for the year (out of more than 400 features released), one place ahead of another Christmas movie, Miracle on 34th Street.
14. In 1990, It's a Wonderful Life was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
15. NBC is currently licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and only shows it traditionally twice during the holidays, with one showing primarily on Christmas Eve.
16. It's a Wonderful Life was the first commercial feature-length film on CD-ROM media. Predating commercial DVDs by several years, this was one of the first true multi-media presentations of a classic film and introduced many advanced features. One of the most interesting of these new features was the ability to follow along with the complete shooting script as the film was playing. It's a Wonderful Life for Windows represented another first, as the longest running video on a computer.
17. Capra told the Wall Street Journal in 1984 "I didn't even think of it as a Christmas story when I first ran across it. I just liked the idea." In a 1946 interview, Capra described the film's theme as "the individual's belief in himself," and that he made it to "combat a modern trend toward atheism."
18. Director Frank Capra met with Wilson Markle about having colorizing It's a Wonderful Life. The company's art director prepared ten minutes of colorized footage for Capra to view, which resulted in Capra signing a contract and an agreement to pay half the $260,000 cost of colorizing the movie. However, the film was believed to be in the public domain at the time, and as a result Markle and Holmes responded by returning Capra's initial investment, eliminating his financial participation, and refusing outright to allow the director to exercise artistic control over the colorization of his films, leading Capra to join in the campaign against the process.
19. Three colorized versions have so far been produced. The first, released in 1986, was poorly received. The second in 1989, with better results. The initial colorized versions of the film have since been withdrawn, and the only version shown on TV is the original black and white version. In 2007, Paramount released a two disc special edition DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black and white version, newly restored, and a brand new third colorized version.
20. "The Greatest Gift," whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season.
There you have it. Things you may or may not have known about an American Classic.
To read more facts and interesting notes about "It's A Wonderful Life" click
here.
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