12 Reviews of Christmas - It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

          Hey guys, Chuck here, and we're finally taking a look at a holiday classic for this year's 12 Reviews of Christmas . Today, we're taking a look at Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart and Donna Reed. 

       The movie tells the story of George Bailey, who as a child lost his hearing in one ear after falling I'll after saving the life of his younger brother, Harry. George also managed to prevent a shipment of poisoned capsules from being delivered, thus saving the career of his boss, Mr. Gower. As the years go on, George is shown to have much empathy for the people of his hometown of Bedford Falls, even to the point of giving up his own aspirations and dreams to keep his father's Building and Loan business from going under, thus sparing many from having to turn to a greedy, nasty sumbitch by the name of Mr. Potter, also referred to as Old Man Potter. 

        Although George planned on attending college, he chose to take over running the Building and Loan instead, leaving his college money to Harry, who went on to attend college, become a football star, and eventually become a war hero during World War II. George does get married to his childhood sweetheart, Mary Hatch, and the two have four children by the Christmas season of 1945. It's here where we learn things are pretty bad for George and the Building and Loan. His uncle, Billy, misplaces a massive deposit meant to go to the bank, and the money ends up in the grubby hands of Old Man Potter. 

        George, thoroughly frustrated with the events of the day, unintentionally takes his frustrations out on his family, even chewing out his daughter's schoolteacher, blaming her for his youngest daughter's illness. Desperate, George turns to Old Man Potter, who instead of helping decides to call in an arrest warrant for George, who heads to Martini's bar, where he gets punched out by the husband of his daughter's teacher. George then heads to a bridge, contemplating jumping into the icy cold water below. 

        It's here where I need to mention that the story of George, as we've seen it, was being recounted by two heavenly figures, hearing the prayers of people who care for George and want him to be okay. To this end, the heavenly figures sent for Clarence, an angel without wings, and agree to give him his wings if he is able to successfully help George. 

         Anyway, Clarence ends up in the river, and George jumps in to save him. George and Clarence talk while warming themselves up, and George makes it clear that his wish is that he'd "never been born at all." To this end, and to prove how much George means to the people of Bedford Falls, Clarence shows him an alternate reality where he'd never been born. And what's different? Well, aside from no one in town knowing him, Martini's Bar is now Nick's Bar, Mary is a lonely librarian, the run-down old house is as dilapidated as the day George and Mary first moved into it, the Building and Loan went out of business years ago, Harry died because no one saved him as a child, Gower spent twenty years in jail for poisoning capsules that were consumed by a child, and worst of all: the town of Bedford Falls is called Pottersville, meaning Old Man Potter completely took control of the town. 

         George, realizing how much he means to so many, begs for his life back, and he is sent back to his life. George, gleeful, runs across Bedford Falls and wishes everyone and everything a Merry Christmas. Returning home, George meets with the police who are there to arrest him. However, Mary and Billy had evidently gotten the entire town together to raise funds to keep George from going to jail. Everyone from Martini to Gower, even his old buddy Sam wired some money to George to help. Harry shows up, trudging through snow and blizzards to get to his brother, and declares him "the richest man in town." George reads a message left from Clarence that reads "no man is a failure who has friends." A bell on the Bailey Christmas tree rings, signifying that Clarence finally got his wings, ending the movie. 

        There's really nothing that needs to be said about It's a Wonderful Life that hasn't already been said. It's one of the greatest cautionary tales about appreciating your life, because it may mean so much to so many people out there. It's been a staple of the Christmas holiday for years, and it not hard to see why that is. Both James Stewart and Donna Reed were excellent, and the other actors, of whom there are too many to mention, are also fantastic. In all, this is a genuine holiday classic that everyone needs to see at least once. Now, I have a Blu-ray version that happens to feature both the original black-and-white version and a colorized version. I highly recommend picking this up, because the colorized version is really good. I'm giving It's a Wonderful Life a rating of 5/5. 

         This is Chuck signing off, and I'll be back tomorrow with my review of another holiday classic, A Christmas Story, as we continue 12 Reviews of Christmas.