WHAT WENT WRONG - It's a Wonderful Life

Episode Date: December 8, 2025

The Christmas classic that was never intended to be a Christmas classic! This week, Chris & Lizzie explore the many versions of Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life that we were nearly gifted, complete with adultery, murderous doppelgängers, and political intrigue. Plus, why Jimmy Stewart worried Hollywood had passed him by, the invention of a new kind of snow, and suspicions of a communist agenda.*CORRECTIONS: Jimmy Stewart won his Oscar for The Philadelphia Story in February of 1941, the same month as he enlisted, not one year prior, as Chris incorrectly stated, and he played Macaulay "Mike" Connor, not C.K. Dexter Haven (played by Cary Grant).Tums is calcium carbonate, not calcium chloride (which is a salt used as a de-icer). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hey guys, before we dive into our coverage on It's a Wonderful Life, a brief disclaimer. As it is a key component of today's movie, we will be discussing suicide. Suicide came up during our coverage of the Iron Giant, and after we released that episode, we got some really thoughtful emails educating me on stigmas around the term to commit suicide. The correct term, the preferred term, is to die by suicide. I want to apologize for any distress that this may have caused anybody, and sincerely, I appreciate the correction. The holidays are a really tough time for many, many people. If you are struggling or are worried about a loved one who may need crisis support,

remember that you can always call or text 988 or chat 988 lifeline.org to connect with a trained crisis counselor who can help. These services are free, confidential, and they are available to anybody 24-7. I want to say thank you again to our listeners. I learn probably as much from you as I do from our research. And with that, we bring you, it's a wonderful life. Hello and welcome back to your favorite podcast, Full Stop, that just so happens to be about movies and how it's nearly impossible to make them, let alone a good one, let alone a loose retelling of the cautionary Christmas tale of all ages that would become a miraculous holiday classic all on its own. I am your host, Lizzie Bassett here, as always with Chris Winterbauer. And Chris, what do you have for us today?

Well, it's a wonderful life, Lizzie, unless you're married to George Bailey, in which case, it's probably kind of miserable a lot of the time. And it's difficult to pin down, and there's a lot of highs and a lot of lows. But we are discussing the 1946 Christmas movie. We'll get into whether or not that was the filmmaker's intent. It's a Wonderful Life, directed by Frank Capra. Lizzie, this is quite the movie to follow up Bad Santa with, I would say. Polar opposites. Both hold places in my heart for very different reasons.

But why don't we begin with your experience with It's a Wonderful Life? What's your relationship with this movie? What were your thoughts upon watching it or re-watching it for the podcast? Well, this is a bit of a weird one for me because I grew up watching a lot of Jimmy Stewart movies. I loved Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I adore the Philadelphia story. I still really love that one. I even grew up watching Destry Rides again quite a few times. My dad was a big Jimmy Stewart fan. For some reason, this is not one that we watched a ton. So, you know, I was familiar with it. I had seen

scenes from it. I'm sure I'd seen it chopped up on TV. But I had never sat down and watched it all the way through until I was an adult. I think probably my 20s was the first time I saw this. And I don't know why. Maybe it's because it's so much more depressing than I thought it would be. I didn't really love it the first few times that I saw this. And this time, I will say, I had a very different experience. Maybe it's now that we have our own family. This hits a little different. But I really loved it. There's, there are some things that, you know, obviously don't age super well or or are a bit funny. in the present day, of course. Shaking Mary at the bottom of the stairs

aggressively. Got a shaker real hard. I love you so much, Mary, I love you so much. I mean, he's a 40-year-old high school student, which is one of the funniest parts of this. 38. Yeah, it's this and Billy Crystal at the beginning of when Harry Met Sally are my two favorites.

The Billy Crystal one takes the cake, in my opinion, because of the hair, but I agree with you. But hilarious, you know, one of the parts of this that made me laugh the hardest is after I think one of the most heartfelt scenes in the whole thing where, you know, he's in the bar that used to be martini's and now it's Knicks. And you see his old boss come in and he's just, he's a drunk who's done jail time because he poisoned a kid. And it's like, to me, though, like one of the worst outcomes of, you know, George Bailey not ever having been born.

Spoiler alert. And then he's like, well, where, where's Mary? And, you know, his angel is like, oh, I can't. That's the worst one yet. you don't want to see this. And then it's like, she's just a librarian. She's an unmarried librarian. And somehow that's the biggest nightmare of them all.

Even though, honestly, she may be having a better time. She's somehow being a single librarian has aged her 50 years. Whereas having four kids and a mercurial husband, to say the least, leaves her as youthful as ever. Yeah. Although, as David pointed out, she's a pretty hot librarian when he comes in again, shakes her vigorously in the street. Donna Reed is a smoke show.

One of my big problems with this movie is George. I'm like, George, you have an amazing wife. She looks amazing. She is amazing. You got beautiful kids. What are you doing? I know. I know.

She really is, she is like probably the most selfless person in this entire movie. And she's great. I'll get to that. I think that's very intentional by Capra. And like, yes, she's so charming, Donna Reed in this role. She could come across. as a manic pixie dream girl to steal a more modern.

She doesn't at all. I think she really grounds the character in a really nice way. I agree. But yeah, it's still as is, I believe it's inspiration, a Christmas Carol. You know, it's a darker holiday Christmas movie, certainly. It's a nice reminder of the importance of small things, small gestures, and, you know, small people. You think the biggest thing I came away from this viewing with was nowadays with social media, I am constantly, you know, finding myself thinking that I should be doing more,

being more, looking different, having my life be this very polished, presentable thing. And also just with the internet, we're so connected to people outside of our immediate vicinity. And watching this movie really made me miss the idea of a small town where it's like, people know everyone. There are small town celebrities. There are connections with everybody in town and everyone is important in a different way. And that it just, that's something I feel very lacking right now. I agree. I think this movie, unlike a lot of Christmas movies, has actually a pretty strong collectivist, relatively anti-materialist, anti-greed message to it, which I very much appreciate. I think it resonates. So does bad Santa. So does bad Santa. But I think that there

are some themes to this movie that feel particularly resonant in today's society. I do want to mention right at the front that, like, one of the things that Capra has been consistently criticized for, I think rightfully so, is that Capra very much focuses on a very specific group of Americans, white, middle to upper middle class Americans. There's a couple of Italians, but Frank Capra was actually the most Italian person probably on this movie since he was born in Italy. But yeah, black Americans not represented in this movie. you know, other minority groups very much not represented in most of his movies. So I do want to acknowledge that because there is a bit of a, I think you could have a real

rose-colored goggles sort of approach with a lot of his movies. But what I do like about this movie and what I appreciated it upon re-watching it is that it doesn't necessarily seem to harken back for a time that didn't exist. It seems to harken for a form of connection that is at odds with at least the ways in which corporate capitalism, right, was becoming popular, you know, at this point in time. And the way, by the time we hit the 80s, greed is good, you know what I mean? And everything kind of goes to shit, so to speak. Yeah, I feel like it's really making the argument for enjoying the present and what you

have, that that is the present. Yeah, but even his approach with the Bailey building and loan, with building houses almost at cost. So people have a place to live as opposed to, you know, the Potter's Field, which is a great name. And the other things that this movie really made me think about this time watching it is this idea of this crisis of masculinity that I think we're in the throes of right now. And I think was in part at least kicked off by the Richard Reeves book of Boys and Men, which was published in 2022, and this kind of growing sense that the young men in America are not all right. You know,

they're going to university at a rate that far lags their female peers. You know, I think it's two to one, women outnumber men going into college right now. You know, they're not finding work. They're dying higher rates of deaths of despair, although I know those numbers are very different in adolescence. And I think that this movie really kind of harkens to this idea that George Bailey can't see a future in which he adds value to those around him. And I think that maybe is at the core of some of the conversations about what some young

men are feeling in this country. And then the other thing that I think this movie really touches on is the crisis of loneliness that I believe even the Surgeon General made an announcement about a few years ago. This idea that men and women across the United States have reported that they just don't have very many friends. And a number of them don't have any friends they feel they could reliably call on. And that really makes me think about the end of it's a wonderful life, which is one of my favorite line of the whole movie that makes me tear up every time is when Harry, George's brother, toast him, you know, and he says, I'm paraphrasing, you know, to my big brother, George, the richest man in town, referencing the fact that George

has friends and friends are the ultimate wealth or currency of life. And by the way, just a quick plug, I really liked this article that this writer Jessica Winter wrote in The New Yorker called What Did Men Do To Deserve This? That's a bit of a review and a bit of a critique and a bit of a rebuttal to Scott Galloway's book. He's a big podcaster, notes on being a man. So if you guys are interested in that topic, check out what did men do to deserve this very interesting article by Jessica Winter. I will check that out for sure. I'm reading a book right now that I'm really enjoying called The Separation of Church and Hate. And it goes through a lot of the teachings in the Bible that, and I'm not religious, but the teachings in the Bible that Jesus actually said. And I think, you know, that this movie is much more aligned with what is actually in there than I realized and the importance of community of giving back, of putting others over yourself, that that is love and that that's the greatest gift of all. Yeah. A couple other notes from my watch that I did want to share because I just wrote them down. My wife's favorite line, which made her laugh so hard and always makes her laugh so hard,

is when George goes, why do we have to have all these kids? She loves that line. Well, George, that's really up to you. Yeah, we can talk about that, George. Uncle Billy, who should not be trusted to carry his own glasses, let alone the entire cash reserve of the building and loan company in an unmarked white envelope. Uncle Billy, by the way, I love that actor. He's also Scarlett's dad in Gone with the Wind, and he's generally playing a bit of a drunken fuck-up there as well as here. Yeah, he's great. I feel like Violet walking by early in the film when we're introduced to her as an adult, very much inspired the Wichowski's with the woman in the red dress and how she walks by. That shot felt very similar to me, so I wanted to shout that out.

The start of this movie is unhinged with the stars talking to each other, but I love it. I think it's great. We'll discuss, Lizzie, you mentioned the religious elements. This movie, the story that inspired it very much aimed to be non-denominational as much as possible. And so you can feel that. Just last couple of notes. Red Letter Day, as he mentions, the Bayleys are having a red letter day.

That was my pitch to David for our high school band name back. in 2005, but I was outvoted. Wow, that didn't win. I was going to say, I know what your band was called. It was called Left Lane, which was way worse. We could have been famous. Anywho. All right.

Before we dive in, the details, it's a wonderful life is a 1946 Christmas movie directed by Frank Capra. It was written by, these are the credited names. We'll get into the process of how this was written. Sure. Frank Capra, Francis Goodrich, and Albert Hackett receive screenplay credit. Joe Swirling is given credit for additional scenes. Now, Michael Wilson is an uncredited contributor to the screenplay, and it was based on the story,

The Greatest Gift, written by Philip Van Doren Stern, which is, as you mentioned, Lizzie, loosely based on a Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. It was produced by Frank Capra under his Liberty Films banner, and it stars Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, Jimmy Stewart, the forerunner to John, uh, John Liskow? John Luskow. I feel like Jimmy Stewart and John, like John Luskow listened to Jimmy Stewart was like, I can talk about that word too. I don't know why.

All right. Jimmy Stewart is George Bailey. Yeah. Donna Reed as Mary Hatch. Lionel Barrymore as Mr. Potter. Henry Travers as Clarence Oddbody, our angel without his wings. Love him. Thomas Mitchell, who you mentioned as Uncle Billy, who is really great.

But again, you incompetent old man. And many more. Why do you have so many squirrels and crows inside of the bank? That's right. It was released in a limited release at the end of December in 1946, and then it was released wide on January 7, 1947, and as always, the IMDB logline reads. Lizzie's face, like, yeah, we'll get into the timing of the release too.

An angel is sent from heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman see the value of his own life. The sources for today's episode include but are not the main. to 2, the name above the title, an autobiography by Frank Capra, which is notoriously perhaps embellished and maybe inaccurate. And so to balance that out, we have Frank Capra, the catastrophe of success by Joseph McBride. It's a Wonderful Life by Marie Cahill, Jimmy Stewart, The Truth Behind the Legend by Michael Mann, not that Michael Man. It's a Wonderful Life, BFI Film Classics, publication by Michael Newton, and The Making of It's a Wonderful Life, which is a TV movie

documentary, along with many other articles, retrospectives, and interviews with those involved in the film. Now, Lizzie, like It's a Wonderful Life, the story of It's a Wonderful Life is one of, I would argue, deep-seated insecurity. The belief that at least in this case, two men harbored that maybe, just maybe, the world had passed them by. And maybe it would even be better off without them. But before we get to the surprisingly insecure Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart, as we will learn, understandably at a crossroads with the industry, we need to start with a story that nobody seemed to want. And it's called Not It's a Wonderful Life, but the Greatest Gift. Back in 1938, writer Philip Van Doren Stern was shaving his face when a story suddenly came to him,

just like an angel, complete from start to finish. And it was a little dark. It was about a man who was saved from suicide by a guardian angel who showed him the significance and importance of his life to those around him. Yes. And suicide will be a theme today, and I want to give just a warning to our audience. It will come up repeatedly because it was clearly something that many of the men involved in this movie were thinking about. Can I ask a really, really dumb and ignorant question that I'm going to get a lot of shit for?

When did the Great Depression end? It kind of didn't until World War II pulled us out of it. Okay. So this is written maybe not at the peak of it. We were not in the trough. You know, 29. You have the crash, obviously. The stock market has rebounded.

But for many Americans, I believe my understanding is the manufacturing boom, right, of World War II, men being mobilized and then women being mobilized into these factory positions is largely what pulls us out. And then the fact that the battles weren't fought on our shores. Right. And then we get this burst of GDP growth because we're rebuilding other countries, and then jet technology takes off an international travel, blah, blah, blah. So that's a very, very probably decently accurate summary, high-level summary. Got it.

So this is a story born very much of the Great Depression. I believe so, yes. Now, according to Stern's daughter, he was actually remembering a dream that he'd had the night before. He wrote an outline that day that he said was terrible. and then he wrote a first draft a few months later. But he kept coming back to it over the next few years. But it seems like part of the problem is that this is unlike anything that he's written before. So he was best known for writing historical nonfiction.

He wrote biographies about Lincoln and John Wilkes Booth, and now he's writing this sentimental fantasy novella, basically. And let's talk about the high-level beats. So this is the original story, Lizzie. It's Christmas Eve. And a man named George Pratt, great-grandfather of Chris Pratt, is standing on a bridge over icy water thinking about jumping in

and we say, no, we want Guardians of the Galaxy. Suddenly a stranger appears out of nowhere and tries to talk him out of it, but George can't be convinced. My life is boring. I've been stuck in my hometown, my whole life. I've never done and never will do anything interesting. My wife's super hot and I got all these kids bothering me all the time.

I'm just kidding. That's not part of this story. He tells this stranger, I wish I'd never been born. And the stranger says, your wish is my command. It's been granted. He hands him a case of brushes and says, pretend you're a traveling salesman because you've never been born,

so nobody will know who you are. And George says, this guy's crazy. And he walks back into town. He says, I'm not kidding to kill myself in front of this crazy person. He walks back into town. Everything is different. The bank where he worked has gone out of business because the man who worked the job that George had been working

ran away with $50,000. His brother, Harry, is dead because George wasn't there to save him from drowning. His wife, Mary, is unhappily married to a belligerent man. He runs back to the bridge. That's a better, scarier ending for Mary, but continue. Yeah, well, there was an even scarier ending for Mary we'll get to in a different version of the script. He runs back to the bridge and he says, stranger, stranger. Reverse the wish.

I no longer take for granted the greatest gift, which is my life. He goes back to his old life with fresh eyes. He checks up on the bank, his parents, his brother. He kisses his wife and he wakes up his kids and he says, I don't regret you. And that won't mess them up at all. Exactly. In 1943, in the middle of the United States' involvement in World War II, he finally sends the story to his literary agent. She goes, I think this is going to be a hard sell.

And he says, just try anyway. So she does. And nobody wants it. So Stern takes matters into his own hands, and he basically self-publishes. He gives the story a title, The Greatest Gift, a Christmas tale. he prints it out as a pamphlet, makes 200 copies, and sends them out as a holiday card to friends and family, to which I say, sir, TLDR, I don't even read the little holiday updates on the back of people's postcards. I am not reading your novella. Can you imagine receiving a novella that opens with someone contemplating killing themselves? And it's like, Merry Christmas from the Winter Powers. Just in case you didn't know, things have been going really well.

here. Here's the story about this guy who's thinking about killing himself. Yeah, no, it'd be, that'd be a tough read. I'd read it. But I would too. He was relentless. He hired his third grade daughter to deliver these to teachers and her friends. And she later emphasized that even though it was a Christmas story, it wasn't religious. Her family had a very mixed religious background, and so the story was meant to be as vague as possible. Now, Stern also sent two copies to the U.S. Copyright Office in the Library of Congress with a copyright registration form. He's a sent one to his Hollywood agent, and she says, why don't we offer this to the movies? And Stern thinks she's crazy. I can't even get this story published. But little does he know, the greatest

gift in Hollywood, Lizzie, IP. That's right. It doesn't matter if it's not published, as we have learned time and time and time again. As long as it existed prior to being a movie, they want it, no matter what form it was in. And it's as short as a pamphlet. I don't have to read a whole book. Fantastic. Now, unbeknownst to Stern, Paramount Pictures was considering adapting the greatest gift. People were passing the book around, and as the story goes, somebody above the title wrote in brackets, It's a Wonderful Life. It's also been said that Capra changed the name later. Both of these could be true.

In February of 1944, somebody at Paramount writes out a synopsis, and they make a little note. It says the movie would work best as an episodic picture like The Tales of Mesares. Manhattan, but whether it should be made the basis of a full-link screenplay is a moot question. Now, Tales of Manhattan, if you haven't seen it, anthology film from 1942, six stories, Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, but it's a black formal tailcoat, more or less. Okay. I think the issue at hand is that the story is a series of vignettes, right? There's no driving narrative here.

This is a boy's life when he becomes a man, and then, you know, he gets married. Again, it's like all these life stages that we have. experience as George vaguely attempts to leave town, but then something happens to him. There's a lot of happening to George and not George causing things to happen in this movie. Yes. So it's a little untraditional in that sense. Yeah. Mary is more actionable than George is for sure. Yeah. So in March of 1944, Stern's daughter answers the phone. The operator asks for her father and she's worried it's bad news related to the war. Stern takes the phone and after a few seconds, he goes, hold me up. I can't believe it. It's good news.

The operator has read him a telegram from Stern's agent, and it says, The Movie Rights to the Greatest Gift have been sold for $10,000 to RKO Radio Pictures, and the studio has big plans for it. $10,000 in 1944,000 would be $184,000 today. So a sizable sum. Yeah. RKO is making it a star vehicle for any guesses as to the actor Lizzie.

Is it a co-star in the Philadelphia story? Yes, it is. Is it Carrie Grant? It is Carrie Grant. Very good. Carrie Grant. Carrie Grant, right? Very, very good.

That would be such a weird. That's the only, honestly, only because they're both in that movie together, and I know that they're contemporaries, is why he popped up. But that's a bit of a weird choice given the material. Carrie Grant, I love Carrie Grant, but he's so polished. He's so, you know. He's very slick. He should be the friend that discovers plastics. You know what I mean? Right. He's impenetrable. He's not, you know, he's not accessible. He's not the every man.

I agree. It's interesting, too, because, and we'll get into how old Jimmy Stewart looks, but I believe... He's younger than Kerry Grant, for sure. He's younger than Carrie Grant by four years, I think. And so it would have been, again, as you mentioned, it's a little tough at the beginning of the story when you're like, how old is this guy? Yeah. As he's basically 22 is what I piece together. So, again, Grant would have been a little unusual for a few reasons. Not only that, but he, like, if you watch the Philadelphia story, he looks so much older than Jimmy Stewart. I agree. Jimmy Stewart had a youthful quality to him, get a boyish quality to him throughout his career.

Yeah. But this would have been a huge package. So producer David Hempstead was going to make it. There are also reports that the Guardian Angel might be played by Gary Cooper, which would have been really interesting. Grant's a huge star. Now, he'd been nominated for an Oscar, Roger Adams and Penny Serenade, a year after Philadelphia Story.

And over at RKO, they say, let's just throw a bunch of writers on the job. And it is a murderer's row. A murderers row of writers. They apparently, according to some stories, has hired three teams of writers at the same time, which included Mark Connolly,

Dalton Trumbo, and Clifford Odette. Now, oh, wow. Connolly had been nominated for an Oscar for co-writing, Captain Courageous, 1937. Trumbo, Lizzie, of course, was one of the highest-paid screenwriters in Hollywood. He'd been nominated for Kitty Foyle in 1940, and Odette's had written The General Died at Dawn starring Gary Cooper, so he'd had experience working with him as well. Yeah, also really interesting playwright, Clifford Odess.

Oh, yes, big playwright, yeah, especially before becoming a screenwriter. Now, I just want to mention now, Trumbo and Odettes were both briefly, Trumbo Longer, members of the Communist Party at or around this time. Yes. This will come back. Now, Trumbo was reportedly hired first, but the project was at one point put on hold when one of the producers, quote, went on an alcoholic binge. If you piece it together, this was probably David Hempstead who had an alcohol problem. How bad must that have been? Because you know they were all eight martinis deep most of the time. Honestly, I can't even imagine. I was reading an article recently, and I'm going to butcher the amounts, but it was about how much whiskey the average American drank at the end of the 19th century. And it was basically, it was, I believe, for me, men, it was between like five and seven whiskeys a day, every day.

What? It was crazy. Now, I think the alcohol may have been a little more watered down back then, but it was shocking. Yeah. There was definitely a difference in alcohol consumption. As I get a hangover when I eat a Kit Kat too late. All right. Let's talk about these in slightly out of order.

Let's talk about Connolly's version first. So this is a very high-level summary. Connolly takes the Christmas setting out. He introduces the concept of Clarence not yet. having his wings. But Clarence is not the name of the angel. He calls him Angel B-1. Again, there are a lot of military references in some of these books. And I think that even the getting his wings feels like a potential reference to the Royal Air Force, among other armed forces. You get one's wings, meaning your signal to fly, a badge with a pair of wings. But Angel B1, Lizzie,

importantly, doesn't just show George what life would be like if he were never born. He shows him an alternate version of himself, and we get the George Bailey multiverse. Well, this is closer to a Christmas Carol. Yeah, this is George Plus. The son that George himself always wished his parents had had. The fellow who did all the things that George would have liked to have done and has all the qualities George always regretted not having. And then Lizzie things get dark, because unlike a Christmas Carol, George can interact with this alternate version of the world. And George has an affair with his alter ego's wife. What?

What? Oh, yeah. Wow. And we get a multiplicity action here, and his alter ego, turns out, is having an affair himself, and the movie culminates with George and George getting into a fight on the bridge.

Other George, the altar George, falls into the river and drowns, and the angel says, that's great. Winner, winter chicken dinner. This is your life now. George accepts his true self. He's a murderer. What?

What? He just subsumes the other George and becomes bizarreo, George? Yeah, like a twin in some weird angel-created utero. He just eats his other half and then continues on. It's a weird strangers on a train take on this. Chris Cross. Yeah, Trumbo said, let's keep that, but change everything else. Yes.

Trumbo claims he took the job as a favor to Lou Wasserman. So according to Trumbo, David Hempstead didn't know what to do with the story. And so Trumbo takes it on the side. He's working at night on this script while he's working during the day at MGM. Now, his version involves politics, because it's Dalton Trumbo. And basically, it's interesting

because this is well before Frank Capra comes in, it's like a dark version of Mr. Smith goes to Washington. So he's a politician who rises from an idealistic state assemblyman to a cynical congressman contemptuous for the people he represents. He goes to the bridge to attempt suicide after losing a race for governor.

So I think that what Trumbo's doing is trying to arc Bailey, well, Pratt in this version, from where Jimmy Stewart will eventually start the movie to Mr. Potter. Okay. Oh, okay. Interesting. It's like he's not that he is just dissatisfied with his life. He actually becomes the thing he despises

at the beginning of the movie. Got it. And what's interesting is like, it's kind of, Mr. Smith goes to Washington with a, like, meets Sunset Boulevard or something. Yeah, or Scrooge, right? It's like a tragic arc to that character. So his achievements in light of losing the governor's race, making a park, building a junior

college, they pale in comparison to what he isn't. He's not a good brother. He's not a good son. He's not a good husband or father. His attempted suicide comes a lot earlier in the story. Basically, he's turned down by this version of Mary. She's not called Mary in this version, but they're not married yet. He gets turned down once by her, and he's like, well, might as well,

I'll end it now. The interloper is described as a fat and dumpy little angel. And then George becomes, and again, more like a Christmas story, an observer of a world without him. The fact that the angel needs his wings remains. Trumbo adds the flaming rum punch, which did stay and some other elements. Yeah, that's fun. And it, of course, ends with the sound of a bell and the story that that signifies an angel getting its wings. And it was supposed to end with the angel, now called Codwilder in this version, with his wings. Quick question about the angel Bell wing situation.

Was that like a known thing or did they make that up for this? Yeah. So in our research, it seems like this exact iteration of that type of folklore was created for the movie. That specific,

angels get their wings when Bell's Ring was created for the film. Got it. Like Connolly's version, Mary marries, an evil version of George, who has basically become

Mr. Potter, then starts an affair with the good George and the George's fight and the bad one drowns. So we get a similar end. I kind of like it. It's kind of fun. Okay. Odette's changes the name from George Platt to George Bailey, an important change, and his script would be more the basis for Capra's film than Trumbo or Connoisse.

He introduces Uncle Billy. He introduces the pharmacy sequence with Mr. Gower. Which is very dark, which I did not understand when I was young, yes? Yep. George and Mary's date getting cut short by George's father. having a stroke, George yelling at his daughter's teacher and getting punched by her husband, which I do like is a fun callback at the end. But again, we still have two versions of George that we saw in Trumbo and Connolly's versions, and the beginning of the movie and the whole

conceit of the movie is very different. It starts with George's four-year-old daughter, Zuzu, entering heaven, which looks like a small town, and asking Angel 1163 for help, and that angel is actually her grandfather. She's in a coma in an oxygen tent, and George is in trouble and considering suicide. They watch a movie of George's life in a projection room. When George is erased, he's again replaced by a different George. After the true George disappears, the town falls apart. There are affairs.

There's another fight on the bridge. The bad George dies in the river again. Just a quick little studio note. Maybe don't start with child coma and suicide. You can kick it off somewhere else, you know? We have missing money. In this version, Uncle Billy also considers suicide, but is stopped by George. the money's then miraculously found, and George cries out,

what a lucky man I am at the end of the movie. And then we cut to the icy shot of the corpse of his alter ego, like Jack at the end of the shining. And, okay, so the script is getting worked and reworked. They're even doing some production design drawings. William Cameron Menzies of Gone with the Wind fame has drawn up sketches for what the movie or the town, I believe, in heaven could look like. Now, as this is happening, the original short story novella is getting attention in the publishing world.

It finally gets published as a book in 1944. An alternate abridged versions appear in magazines over the next year or so. It's around this time that a brand new production company called Liberty Films signs a nine-picture deal with RKO, and Liberty Films, Lizzie, is a production company founded primarily by Frank Capra. So Frank Capra and two of his Liberty Films partners, one of which we've seen, spoken of at length, William Weiler and George Stevens had all served in World War II together, and they had all worked on government-sponsored documentaries during the war. So Frank Capra famously is associated with the Why We Fight government propaganda series. So returning from the war, Capra was

really anxious by his own admission about figuring out where he was going to fit in in Hollywood. And I think this may have been because he'd come a long way, literally, to get there in the first place. I'm not sure how much you know about Frank Capra, Lizzie. I knew very little. Yeah, same. He's a much more complicated person than his movies, which tend toward arguably simplistic feel-good themes, might suggest.

So he was born Francesco Capra in Sicily, Italy in 1897. He says he celebrated his sixth birthday in a howling Atlantic storm as he immigrated to the United States with his parents and three of his six siblings, and he hated being an immigrant, According to his autobiography, he hated being poor, he hated living in the Sicilian ghetto of Los Angeles, and he wanted out. And it sounds like it was a tough life. His dad, I'll mention now, who was illiterate and became a motivating factor for Capra wanting to pursue education, had all sorts of jobs. And at one point landed a job as a ranch hand, and he died in a freak accident. He was in a well pump house, his coat got stuck between two gears, and he basically was torn. and two.

No, that's terrible. It is. It's hard to imagine how difficult work was for so many people at this point in time in the early 20th century. Frank Capra didn't want that life. He felt like a black sheep for wanting to go to school. Everybody else in his family was working by necessity. He almost wasn't allowed to go to high school.

His father was still alive, though, and backed him up. I think his father realized it'll be better. if my son has an education. He makes it through high school, goes to college to study chemical engineering at Throop College of Technology, which becomes Caltech later on. So Frank initially thought school would be his way out.

He, again, according to his biography, also dabbled in bootlegging, prize-fighting, baseball, con games, but none of them seemed to provide the future that he wanted. And then in his undergrad studies, which required two years of English, he fell in love with writing. I want to point out one of the first stories that he wrote.

It's called The Butler's Failure, which was retitled The Butler's Adventure. It's about an immigrant English butler who is living in poverty and winds up robbing and killing his American boss who's a millionaire, a police detective, and then kills himself. And I'd like to read this quote. Frank Capra grew up with what he recognized as a mother complex. Quote, I had a very strong mother, a very nice mother. I had a great respect for her ability to make do under the worst kind of circumstance and not panic. Women have always been pillars of strength to me. Always.

I'm not a feminist, but I'm a real lover of women. The quote then goes on. When asked about the strength of women in his movies, he says, it's probably a carryover from my mother. All of the women in my stories are strong. They are stronger than the men. Men start crying more quickly. Jean Arthur was not about to play a harmonica.

Women are more pragmatic. They think in terms of everyone's welfare. They think in terms of tomorrow and in terms of continuation. Men die by suicide. Yikes. Very interesting quote from Mr. Capra. I mean, you talked about sort of young men today. There's also a lot of discussion about the invisible work that women do.

And I think that's in many ways exactly what he's describing there is the sort of planning ahead, the thinking of tomorrow, the ability to think almost in a multiverse in terms of, like, all of the things that have to be taken care of, can go wrong, could go wrong. Yeah, that's, it's interesting. And I, you know, he's putting it in very stark terms, but there are disparities in suicide rates between men and women. Men do tend to die deaths of despair at higher rates than women, too. So it is interesting that he's cluing in on something, as you mentioned, Lizzie,

that seems to be supported by data that we see even today. You know, even as we've made progress, as I believe you would agree, we've made a lot of progress in terms of equality between men and women, but we're not all the way there. And again, I think there are a lot of young men and men out there right now who like George Bailey wonder, you know, would the world be better off if I were not a part of it, if I had not been a part of it, and maybe struggle to envision a future that is brighter

through their continued participation in the lives of those around them. Now, the next thing that has a really big impact on him is the movies, and that's because he saw birth of a nation which changed his perception of movies forever. And this movie, which effectively glorifies the KKK. It's basically a commercial for the KKK, yes. Yeah. It was a remarkable technological achievement at the time. Absolutely. Has been cited as one of the first, you know, full-length narrative feature films.

He called it the most important movie ever made at one point. And so around the time of his graduation, he writes one of his old high school teachers who happens to be writer and director Robert Wagner. And he says, you know, I want to be in the movies. And Wagner says, you'd be a damn fool to give up your scientific work for the movies. And Lizzie, I'd like you to tell me if this advice sounds familiar. Even if there was a good chance in the movies, which there isn't, it is about the last place for an artist. Moving pictures are social products and art is individual.

If an artist could own a company and all the others had to obey, Bayez orders, there would be some fun in it. As it is, there are 20 men budding in every picture, and the artist, being the most sensitive, gets it in the neck all along the line. The most unhappy artists in the world are in the pictures struggling against conditions that are absolutely heartbreaking. Yeah, it's every episode of what went wrong. I was going to say, you could send that to anybody right now. So after college, Capra enlists in World War I, he doesn't see any action. And then he tries but fails to get a job as an engineer. And I would just like to mention he works a lot of jobs across his life. Copper mine,

plays music in a band at wealthy people's parties. He tutored a wealthy kid, actually the grandson of Lucky Baldwin, who discovered the Comstock load, which was a huge gold and silver deposit in Nevada. And I wonder if Mr. Potter was somewhat influenced by the kind of unexplained wealth of Mr. Potter. He picked fruit. He pruned trees. He unloaded freight.

He dug ditches. He worked as a traveling salesman. And in film, he worked almost as many jobs. He was an extra. He was an assistant. He was a treasurer. He was a prop man. And he started to break in in the early 19th.

He directed a short called The Ballad of Fisher's Boardinghouse in 1920, based on a poem. He lands a job as a gag man for Henry Langdon at Mark's Senate Studios, and Langdon brings Capra with him to First National. And in 1927, he gets his big break. Harry Cohn at Columbia, hires him, and he makes over a dozen movies at Columbia over the next 10 years. And it starts with that certain thing in 1928. Silent film, $20,000 budget culminates with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart. Jamie Stewart with a budget of nearly $2 million. And when was that?

1939. Oh, 1931. And Lizzie, I did not know this. Across that period, he was one of the most influential and decorated directors in Hollywood. He won three Oscars and was nominated six times in an 11-year stretch. It happened one night, 1934, I believe, first film to win all five major Oscars, Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Adapted Screenplay. Mr. Deeds goes to town, which there was one critic who mentioned that this seems to be about the time that he started making movies about themes and less movies about people. And then you can't take it with you.

Yes, which also based on a play. I mean, a lot of things work. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now, he believed in an autour approach to filmmaking. Maybe he was inspired by Wagner's letter, but he was also synonymous with Columbia. And he had a lot of frequent collaborators like Oscar-winning writer Robert Riskin. But Capra knew he wasn't actually. free. Important quote. So long as I make pictures which have great success and bring large profits to our bosses, I enjoy relative freedom in selection of themes, stories, and actors. They let me spend

more money on my pictures than they do other directors, but I've only to make one unsuccessful or even mediocre picture and my independence will be lost. Director's jail is always one movie away. Now, just before the war, Robert Riskin and Frank Capra form an independent studio, Frank Capra Productions. Riskin's name, notably absent from the title. And they make one movie, Meet John Dole. It's this, quote, anti-fascist, pro-freedom, very much meant to rebuke against Hitler and the little furs, as he called them, popping up across America at the time.

This is right before the United States is going to enter World War II. And at a time when there was a lot of debate as to whether or not we should. Yeah, I think more than people realize, yes. There's a summary. When a newspaper comes under new ownership, an advice columnist tries to save her job by writing a fake letter from an unemployed every man who refers to himself as John Doe. In the letter, he says he is so fed up with the injustice and inequality of the U.S.

that he plans to end his own life by jumping from the roof of City Hall at midnight on Christmas Eve. And Santa catches him. Oh, boy. So, again, you know, inequality, Christmas, suicide, consistent themes that that capital. Capra's very interested in. So it was not the first time he dealt with suicide either. It comes up a number of times, and then in the way of the strong and the bitter tea of General Yen, the heroes of those movies, respectively, die by suicide.

Now, Capra famously could not figure out how to end this movie. He tested five versions with various audiences, and some versions John Doe kills himself, in some versions he doesn't. The movie comes out, and Capra feels he got what he wanted, which was critical acclaim, but the movie didn't resonate with audiences. It's nominated for an Oscar, Best Writing. It makes a profit of $900,000 before taxes. They dissolve the company and Frank Capra enlists.

He goes to war. He makes documentaries. And in the fall of 1944, he asked a former Columbia executive, Sam Briskin, to put out some feelers at the major studios on his behalf for when he returns from the war. And according to Capra, take it with a grain of salt. The response was, Frank, who?

Again, this had been, it'd been like four years since he was winning Oscars. Yeah, I was going to say. But that's Capra's perception. He has a real chip on his shoulder I've noticed through a lot of this. Seems like the problem, according to biographer and film historian Joseph McBride, was less that Hollywood had forgotten Capra and more that Hollywood was just changing. So, Lizzie, we've discussed this ad nauseum on this podcast, but the studio system was crumbling with the disillusion of vertical integration.

And so no longer were the long-term contracts being offered to stars and directors that would pay them quite handsomely in some instances and lock them up for film after film after film. And Frank Capra wanted the security of a long-term studio contract. And just to be clear, the case that you're referring to that started this dissolution was the U.S. Right, U.S. United States versus Paramount Pictures, which I think was in 1948. That is when the Supreme Court handed down their ruling, but this case had been going on. effectively since 1938. It had been originally settled with a consent decree in 1940,

and then I think the government took their case back up again in 1943, and the studio system had been weakened by the rise of television and changes in audience, preferences, etc. And then the rise of independent producers, directors, et cetera. Got it. So basically, as McBride puts it,

Capra was afraid to take the risks of going independent again and did so only out of necessity in a state of anxiety and self-doubt. So Capra's first stab at going independent right before World War II hadn't worked. And now he's forced to do the same thing. And I think he's terrified.

So he forms Liberty Films. But he's not going to make a risky movie. He says, I want to focus on safely non-controversial, escapist subject matter. Throughout 1945, he's trying to figure out what movie should mark his return to Hollywood. And let's talk about a couple of what-ifs. Number one,

remaking Broadway bill, which he'd done in 1934. That was the movie I couldn't remember the name of earlier. There were some rights issues. He would remake it later as riding high in 1950. He thought about making a Western wrote a treatment called Pioneer Woman about a cowboy who guides a wagon train full of 200 mail-order brides to California, but it got bigger and bigger and bigger and it was going to be in technical and very expensive. He sold that to MGM and it was made into Westward the Women in 1951, directed by William Wellman. Oh. He even thought about buying the rights to Harvey, the Broadway hit about a man with an invisible

friend who is a six-foot-tall rabbit, busy. Uh-huh. Yes, another film that would, of course, end up starring Jimmy Shore. That's right. That movie is weird. I love that movie. Very weird. But, like, maybe inspire Donnie Darko in some ways?

Who knows? Definitely, yeah. Yeah, another movie that's maybe arguably about suicide a little bit. There are a lot of similar themes, I think, Donnie Darko, and it's a wonderful life, I would argue. There was a comedy and happened on Fifth Avenue, a post-apocalyptic war film, no other man, but all the stories had one thing in common, according to Capra. I knew in my heart I'd never make any of them. In fact, he was starting to wonder, why did I make this Liberty Films to start with? Is there even a place in Hollywood for Frank Capra anymore as he stroked his

Oscars? Yeah, seriously. But he was right in that Hollywood had continued to churn out movies, while a lot of its, you know, known entities were off fighting the war. And I think he felt a bit out of step as he returned. And that's what RKO's studio chief, Charles Kerner, poked his head into his office and says, why don't you check out this literally small book called The Greatest Gift? Which had turned into a terrible gift for RKO. The studio was not happy with the script,

which they had so many writers on. David Hempstead, the producer, it was rumored, was off the movie due to his alcoholism, and Kerry Grant was basically like, I'm going to make a different Christmas movie, the bishop's wife, the greatest gift is falling apart. And Frank Capra fell in love.

He said, this is the story I've been looking for all my life. Small town, a man, a good man, ambitious, but so busy helping others, life seems to pass him by. Maybe like Frank Capra going to fight in the war and document it as life passing by, despondent he wishes he'd never been born he gets his wish through the eyes of a guardian angel he sees the world as it would have been and had he not been born wow what an idea the kind of idea that when i got old and sick and scared and ready to die they'd still say he made the greatest gift but they won't say that frank because you're going to change the damn title all right in early september of nineteen forty five just as world war two finally came to an end rkio sold their scripts and the rights to the greatest gift to liberty film

And Frank Capra knew exactly who he wanted to play the lead, a fellow World War II veteran who was terrified that he'd lost his mojo, human giant Jimmy Stewart. Yes. Now, Lizzie, Jimmy Stewart had enlisted in 1941 in the Army. I didn't know that. Yeah, a year removed from winning Best Actor for his performance as C.K. Dexter Haven opposite Catherine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story.

Which he's wonderful in. There were a lot of actors who very bravely left to defend this country during World War II. Jimmy Stewart was assigned to the Air Corps. He logged more than 1,800 flight hours across 20 bomber missions. Wow. Rose to the rank of colonel. He received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Air Medal, and the Quad de Guerre, which is a French military decoration because the action took place over France.

Despite this, he was very nervous about his return. to Hollywood. The day the war ended, he told a reporter that he wanted to make movies, but, very importantly, no more war pictures. Yeah, I bet. I think we've had enough of those. I'd like to do some comedies, I think, although I'm probably

a little rusty as an actor. So Jimmy Stewart had been under contract at MGM before he went off to war. So he comes back and he meets with Louis B. Mayor, the head of MGM. Mayor says Jimmy, you're

star, you just went to war, we need to exploit that war record for your comeback. I've already got your first picture, you're going to play an ace pilot, and Jimmy Stewart says no. Yeah, hell no. Turns him down, turns Louis B. Mayor down, turns the contract down. And Mayor, who Stewart had apparently viewed as a bit of a father figure, tells him, you're never going to work as an actor again. And Stuart thought, Fuck you, sir. Stewart thought he might be right. He says, well, you know, maybe I'm done with acting. Years later, and I do want to read this full quote,

Jimmy Stewart said, I'm proud of my war record, and I have respect for every man who lived and died fighting for freedom, and every woman who died. If I had made a picture about the war and it turned out to be a bad picture, I feel it would have been disrespectful to those men and women. No one sets out to make a bad movie, but sometimes they turn out bad just the same. So I wouldn't take the chance.

And I decided, without a second thought, I would never exploit my own role in the war for sake of a movie. That would just be distasteful. Wow. A man of integrity on that front, I must say, Jimmy Stewart. I have to imagine also a decent amount of PTSD that it would not be beneficial for him to revisit that. We'll talk about that a little bit when we get into production. So in early October of 1945, the LA Times runs a photo of Jimmy Stewart stepping up a train in California, and the headline reads,

Jimmy Stewart longs for role. Now, in some interviews, he'd even speak self-consciously about how old he looked. He was only in his late 30s, but he moved in with his friend, actor Henry Fonda, and Fonda said that Stewart was really preoccupied with the fact that unlike a lot of his friends, including Fonda, he wasn't married and he didn't have children. He was a single man returning to Hollywood, but the war has aged him. This is what Fonda said. some of the fellows who'd been big stars before the war

came back looking like hell. That happened to Clark Gable. He looked 10 years older. Yeah. Jim had also aged quite a bit. And now there were the young fellas like Gregory Peck and Van Johnson. End quote. Which I do think is interesting because I think of Peck is so old

when I think of the movies that I know him from, right? But he was this young whippersnapper. So when I read the quote, it just made me smile. Now, Stuart almost got a really interesting role. Doc Holiday and John Ford's My Darling Clementine, which is a tombstone telling effectively, but Ford went with Victor Mature instead. And so he lost that rollout. And his agent says, don't sign a contract with a big studio. The whole system's crumbling to the ground. Everything's going independent. And so suddenly he's this observer watching a world in which he doesn't seem to exist.

I think very much echoes the movie. And that's when Frank Capra calls. He says, I got a movie for you. come on over and I'll pitch it to you. Now, there's two differing recollections of how this pitch went down, so I'll give you the summary of both. Stuart says he meets with Capra, and Capra dives in, and by the time he gets to the suicide

and the angel named Clarence, Capra realizes the movie sounds insane. Yes. And he says, it doesn't sound too good, does it? And according to Stewart, Stewart says, Frank, if you want to do a movie about an angel named Clarence,

who hasn't won his wings, I'm your man. Now, Frank Kapper remembers the story a little bit differently, but these could both be true. He says that when he called Stewart's agent, Stewart's agent says he'll do it without even hearing the story. But Kaffra said, I want to pitch it to him first. So he pitches it to him, and Stewart is in. Now, there's a big problem. Frank Kapper didn't really like any of the scripts that had been written so far.

He didn't really like, you know, the Odette's version got the closest to what he would like. But none of them were quite right. So he hires husband and wife screenwriters, Albert Hackett, and Francis Goodrich, to rewrite it. And he wants it closer to the original story. Then he brings it another writer who he'd worked with before Joe Swirling to rework their version, and things start to get really tense. I think a definite thing I noticed is that Capra has difficult or prickly interactions or working relationships with his screenwriters. I think he very much views them as tools. And if they can't achieve what he needs, he's ready to move on to the next one.

I mean, that's not a good way to interact, but to be fair, that... Talking to a writer right now. I know, I know, I know. But if we're looking at the studio system as it existed, it was not, I don't think, all that uncommon to bring on teams of screenwriters like this. In the same way that the directors weren't even necessarily as important as sort of the producer and the overarching studio system itself was. I also personally feel that there's a big difference between, I think you have to give a writer more time, or leash if the story originated with them. Whereas if the writer is a hired gun on a project,

like if I was hired to adapt something and the producer felt I just wasn't cutting it, I get it. You got to replace me. You know what I mean? At a certain point. Whereas if it was my idea that I brought forward, I would be much more upset, even though ultimately I still think I would understand that decision.

Hire me. Now, the timing... Goodrich felt that Capra was very condescending. So in later interviews, she and Hackett described him as a, quote, horrid man, a very arrogant son of a bitch, and said that working on the film was the only unpleasant writing experience they ever had, which is a lot. The timing is unclear, but Capra did bring in even more screenwriters, Michael Wilson, Dorothy Parker. And according to some sources, the shooting script indicates that roughly a quarter of the movie was actually rewritten by Joe Swirling and Frank Capra while they were shooting the movie. This is like 15 screenwriters at this point. Yes, yeah.

And there were maybe even more at RKO that we don't know about, right, that underneath Trumbo or Connolly or Odette's as well. So they got this patchwork script, right? And Capra then decides he's going to pull in heavily from actors that either he or John Ford had worked with previously. He called this the Ford Capra Stock Company. One of those actors, Gene Arthur, for the role of Mary Hatch, not Donna Reed.

She had been nominated for an Oscar for her part in George Stevens' The More the Marrier, 1943, and of course, she had worked with Capra and Stuart twice. You mentioned one of the movies that they worked with together on, which was Mr. Smith goes to Washington. She plays secretary, Clarissa Saunders. That's right, yes. Also, you can't take it with you. She's actually eight years older than Jimmy Stewart.

Wow. Yeah. So I don't know if it would have worked in quite the same way. Maybe it would have worked just as well. I don't know exactly what she looked like at that moment. She doesn't look like it. to be fair, but yeah. It's just an, it would have been an interesting shift, right?

Because it's so notable how much older Stewart is than Donna Reed at the beginning of this movie, and you would have, they would have looked closer in age, at least. Definitely neither of them looked like high schoolers at the beginning of this movie. He then considered Olivia de Havilland. Oh, yeah, De Havilland, by the way. De Havilland. Olivia to have, why do I want to always fancy it up? Olivia de Havilland, twice nominated for Holdback to Don, Gone with the Win.

Ultimately, he chooses Donna Reed, established. contract player at MGM. She'd recently been in John Ford's. They were expendable. And she is a very late hire. One month before principal photography, after six weeks of negotiation with MGM, because she's got to get out of her contract, and without a screen test. Wow. She was only 25, so she was 13 years younger than Jimmy Stewart, and two feet shorter, roughly. Yeah, she's very small. She's very small. It's very noticeable when you see them together. There's like no Apple boxes. They're going to be able to Figuously shakes her as she's standing on a step and still a foot shorter than him. Now, actor Henry Travers was an exception to the Ford Capper rule, but he knew he wanted to work with him.

He'd been Oscar nominated for his role in William Wiler's Miss Miniver. Capper can't figure out where to put him. Is he going to be Uncle Billy? Is he going to be Old Man Gower? Is he going to be George's father? And he finally says, he's going to be Clarence. And he's perfect as Clarence. He's so good.

He also could have been Uncle Billy, I think. Definitely could have been Uncle Billy. But he's great as Clarence. Yeah, this feels like the right part for him. He's like a, there's just a very self-assured sweetness to him that works perfectly. I agree. Now, he knew exactly who he wanted for the evil Mr. Potter, Lionel Barrymore of the Barrymore's. Lizzie, I didn't know this.

He had voiced Ebenezer Scrooge or did at this time for nearly two decades in an annual Christmas Carol broadcast. So he was like primed for this part. Oh, sure. Ready to step right in. His character is interesting because there is, he's just, a piece of shit through and through, and there is zero redemption. We'll get to that, but also zero punishment. Yes, I kept thinking, and even though I've seen it before, I was like, he's going to realize

that he has the $8,000 and he's going to come around, he's going to give it. No, he just keeps it. He just keeps it. He's just a piece of trash the whole way through. He could watch a 10-year-old child drop their parents' diabetes medicine, on the floor that he doesn't even need because it's $10. And he'd pick it up. The money for the menace.

And he would pick it up and he'd say, you should have kept that $10 more firm in your bucket, little boy. And then he would have wheeled away as stressed as he could. He really is. I think he really is the embodiment of what greed can do, how it can warp you in that way. If the sole pursuit of your life is the accumulation of more wealth, you lose any semblance of humanity.

And I like this fact that he's also driven by the fact it doesn't, it's not enough that he has more money than George. He's also driven by the fact that George is a threat within the social hierarchy. And so I think it's interesting that he knows everyone hates him. And he will only be satisfied when people also hate George. It's that like, you know, his hatred begets more hatred in a really interesting way. And there's also the scene you mentioned earlier where he's talking about George's housing complex. And it really struck me this upon this viewing.

I think one of the reasons he's so mad about that is that George is actually seeing some financial success from helping people. He's not out to just completely fleece them and that's not ruining him. And of course, that's all Potter's ever done is just totally fleece and ruin other people. He's a slum lord. He's a slum lord, right. And the idea that someone could be both successful and good, I think, is maybe what drives his rage. at the end of it. Well, it's interesting, too, because it's that idea, right, that maybe unfettered,

rampant cancer-like capitalism is not the answer, you know, as Mr. Potter embodies it here. And that'll come in again later in our story as we get into the Red Scare. Yeah, it's, it is interesting that movies like this came out when they did because I think we think of, America as having very different values than it maybe actually did at that time? At this moment in time, the United States, the amount that you would pay as a rich person in taxes was unrecognizably high at this point in time. FDR. An inequality, yeah, as a result, was much lower.

The top income tax rate reached above 90% from 1944 through 1963. Whoa. Yeah. And people think that they're 40% now, high, you know, in the top tax bracket. And of course, the richest people aren't paying that. They pay capital gains. All right. It's just, sorry, the last thing I'll say, I feel like there's, you know, I was just going to, well, just, you know, this whole idea of, like, hearken back to the, to the old times. It's interesting to look at the content that was actually

being produced at the time that I think people tend to celebrate as, like, you know, particularly we're talking about coming out of World War II. We're talking about the last war we ever fought where we were, like, clearly, you know, the heroes. in the right. Like it, and it was, you know, it was the great, what is it the greatest generation. Like this, that's what is celebrated. That's what is harkened back to. And yet when you look at what they were actually making, I do think that the set of values is, does not quite match up to some of the ideas that are being associated with it.

Well, we're going to have to cut all that. But yes. I know. All right. Back to casking. So old man Gower, as you mentioned, Lizzie, one of the dark, a tragic character. One of the, I mean, it's, you learn his. His son died of influenza.

By the way, Frank Capra famously survived influenza. He also survived a burst appendix. His appendix had burst and he didn't know it and his body had somehow figured out how to keep living and then they discovered it later. Crazy. Now, he was played, Old Man Gower, played by H.B. Warner, who was delighted because he was being cast against type because he was famous for playing Jesus in the King of Kings. And in this version, he is at best a child beater. and at worst, at worst he kills a kid. So he actually really liked that.

I do want to shout out Gloria Graham as Violet. I love her. She's such a good actress. And this was kind of a breakout for her. So according to Capra, his words, I also needed a village flirt, preferably a young blonde sex pot. I asked Billy Grady, MGM's casting director,

if he knew of any. All right, here we go. I'm going to keep reading it. Do I know any, he cackled? For Christ's sake, I'm up to here, and blonde pussies that have never been to the post. Let me show you some tests. End quote.

He said the second test was of Gloria Graham. She was a sultry, surly young blonde that seemed undecided whether to kiss you or knock you down. I actually think that's a pretty good description. Yeah. Capra says, Hey, Bill, who's that dame? And Bill said, who is she?

For Christ's sake, she's a star! But you think I can get any of our jerk directors to listen? Two years she's been around here snapping her garters. You can have her for a cup of coffee. I think they paid her more than that. Graham. Graham was, I know, what Graham had to, what these actresses had to deal with is the, she was probably sitting at the table as they were having this conversation.

I had to imagine the camera pulls back and she's been there the whole time, yes. She was later nominated for an Oscar for a supporting role in Crossfire. She won for the Bad and the Beautiful in 1952. She's really good in this role. I think she gives some humanity to a character who might seem like a punchline. Totally. Totally. Capra added the pet raven to the script. That's the same bird that had played Jimmy the crow and you can't take it with you. And it's his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, grandchild that is the crow in, God damn it. The Shawshank Redemption. What? I'm kidding. It's not a terrible joke. All right, let's move through it. It wasn't your best. It was confusing enough that I thought it was real. And that crow gave birth to a million crows. All right, eight weeks before principal photography begins, the crew builds a Bedford Falls set on the RKO Ranch in Encino, California.

And I just want to call this out, it is so impressive. It totals four acres. It's in three sections. There's a main street section that is 300 yards long. That is 75 stores and buildings, right? So when you see him walking down the street as a young man, and then you see the alternate version later where everything's been replaced, I do think that's. It's interesting. You know, you've got, it's kind of like a terrible urban vibe all of a sudden, you know, with the neon and the advertisements. It is. It's Vegas. Not going to lie. Some parts of Bedford Falls looked a little more fun when it was Pottersville.

Yeah, I will say. I don't, don't. Maybe there's a halfway in between version that we could go to. Now, a total of 20 full-grown oak trees were transplanted onto the set. And as you see in the movie, Lizzie, everything's covered in snow. But this movie was shot during the summer. I was going to say, the amount of snow in this is really impressive. Oh, yeah, it's not a light dusting. Noted human giant Jimmy Stewart is knee-deep in snow as he's trudging around town. So let's talk about the fake snow really briefly. How did you think it looked?

I thought it looked great. I do too. I was curious what it was, I'm guessing, pure asbestos. That was one of the main ingredients in how they made snow at the time. Great. They tended to use things like ground up calcium chloride, which is tums, asbestos, which is cancer, both are toxic to breathe in. Or Lizzie, we talked about this in Armageddon, corn flakes, painted white.

That seems like the safest option. But they make really loud crunches when you walk on them, and as you mention in Armageddon, if you leave them out or they get wet, they get stanky-moldy, not so good. Frank Capra wanted something quieter, so the special effects crew pioneered a new snow formula. One part shaved ice, 3,000 tons of it, gypsum, 300 tons, plaster 300 tons, and a combination of fomite soap and water, 6,000 gallons.

Wow. This combination yielded a new form of snow, and the man behind this effort was special effects artist Russell Schierman. He and his team would actually later win an Oscar for the development of a new method of simulating falling snow on motion picture sets. Wow. I will say it looks amazing. And also, I think because there is the shaved ice in it, It looks melty. It looks a little wet the way that real snow does. Well, you're right, Lizzie. And that was a problem,

because apparently it made the color on some of the costumes run. And so they actually went back to cornflakes for some of the shoot, according to cinematographer Joseph Walker. So it's a combination of cornflakes and this new pioneer technology. Now, by today's standards,

I think It's a Wonderful It's a Wonderful It is very dark, but the production code association Lizzie had some serious concerns. Let's talk about him. This is latent prep and into filming. Capra and R.K.O. are negotiating for some seemingly small things that were a big deal. Number one, old man Gower's drunkenness. Not that he beats the kid silly, but that he's drunk.

Number two, Violet seems to be a sex worker. She does seem to be, in the flashback, I think that's kind of what seems to maybe be implied. A stripper, perhaps. just based on her fancy hat? I don't know. No, I was in the flashback, not in the, not in the, like, in the alternate version, I think that may be what they're referring to.

The kiss between George and Mary, the shaking's fine, and some colorful language like, nuts to you, impotent, dang, lousy and jerk, all of which were removed. The censors also wanted to make sure that Mr. Potter was punished for his crimes.

He was not. And Lizzie, Frank Kapper, reportedly said that after the movie was released, he got more mail about that one specific fact than any other aspect of the movie. It's one of my favorite parts of the movie, because it is upsetting and frustrating. And, you know, in real life, if you have money, the legal system tends to work in your favor. Yeah. Now, the shooting schedule apparently did include an alternate scene where Clarence reportedly told Mr. Potter off. So not like a true comeuppance, but a minor one, but that did not make it into the final film. Principal photography kicks off on April 8, 1946, the same day that Frank Kapper's old pal, William Weiler, started shooting the best years of our lives.

The movie takes place during Christmas. As I mentioned, it's shot in the summer, and it's during a heat wave. Apparently, Frank Kapper just gave everybody the day off one day because it was too hot. If you look at their costumes, they are wearing long coats, gloves, wool hats. But Donna Reid later said it was the best of times. expiraneous, fun, hard work, and especially memorable for me. I remember working harder for Capra than any other director before or after for a deceptively simple, uncomplicated small-town girl and woman, meaning the role, I think. I think she's deceptively complex, personally.

But the rumors that have been most persistent around this movie or the actors involved is that Jimmy Stewart was having a tough time returning to film after the war, and that maybe he really was rusty. Now, according to some sources, Stuart kept asking Capra to delay the telephone kiss scene with Donna Reed so he could warm up first. Unclear if that's true. But Capra did reportedly rework the scene so that they could do it in the two shot where they're sharing the frame and they're sharing the phone. Supposedly, they skipped a page of dialogue, but he thought the performances were so good that he just said, screw it, and he went with that version anyway. I agree, because that scene didn't need to go on any longer.

I really like that scene. It's really fun. Yeah. Now, Stewart says, this wasn't exactly true. Quote, I was a little shaky, I guess, but nothing like the bewildered actor that has been talked about over the years. Someone said that Lionel Barrymore

took me aside and gave me a lecture. He never did any such thing. What he did do was notice a couple times that I would just be getting my soundstage legs back and he'd say something that would be encouraging. Now, Lizzie, you mentioned this, and I think what's really happening, you mentioned I'm not going to go as far as saying PTSD.

I do not know the contents of Mr. Stewart's head or heart. Right, sure. I do think adapting to life. after the war is more what was going on. People did say he tended to keep to himself and that he didn't like talking about the war, which is completely understandable. Leave this man alone.

Frank Kappa did later say, I can't begin to describe my sense of loneliness and making that first feature film. It's a wonderful life, a loneliness that was laced by the fear of failure. I had no one to talk to or argue with my former close associates, the Fiddlers three, had scattered.

So he feels like he's doing this movie alone. I wonder if Jimmy Stewart felt the same, and that, like, this is my comeback, and if it doesn't work, I don't have anything else to fall back on. And Kapper really believed it seems like the future of his company, Liberty Films, depended on the success of It's a Wonderful Life. Which that, from what you've told me, may be a more legitimate concern than, you know, Jimmy Stewart's fear of failure coming back from the war. Liberty Films very much, I think, depends on the success of this movie, as we'll learn.

So this may have been why Frank Kapper was a bit tricky to work with. He cycled through three different cinematographers on this movie. So Victor Milner from Paramount was the first cinematographer on the film. He leaves through to creative differences. Some sources claim that Capra called him slow and nitpicky. He was paid for 20 weeks, but left us for five.

And that's after he shot the drugstore scenes and the dance at the swim gym. It was just a great name, the swim gym. It's like Slim Jim with a broken tooth. Then came Joseph Walker, sometimes described as Frank Capra's favorite cinematical. They had made 20 movies together. He shot the most of the rest of the movie,

but he had to leave before filming was done to hop onto another project he was contractually agreed to do. So they promoted the cameraman, Joseph Borick, who had been working under both Milner and Walker to finish the movie. Now, a couple more notes from production, which was relatively smooth. Robert Anderson, who played Little George,

said that H.B. Warner did actually bloody his ear during the pharmacy scene. So he was actually hit hard enough. And then quickly... Quickly hugged him and apologized after, but that was like a stunt gone wrong, apparently. The scene where the dance floor opens up into a pool, that's not special effects. That is a real contraption called the swim gym at Beverly Hills High School at the time. They wrote the scene because that existed.

And Kapper would get letters saying, how'd you do that effect? And he said, it's just Beverly Hills High School. They have a swim gym. It's just the swim gym. That really is Donna Reed throwing the rock at the old house. Very good, very good accurate throw. Frank Kapper apparently hired the stunt double to do it for. And she said, I don't need that.

And she did it so well. He said, great. Hell, yeah, Donna. Remember one Uncle Billy at the Homecoming Party for George's brother? He, like, walks off screen and you hear him, like, bump into a bunch of trash cans. Yes. So apparently, Thomas Mitchell walks out a frame, and a crew member accidentally knocked off a bunch of, like, a bag of props. And Mitchell just yells out, I'm all right.

I'm all right. And so that's an ad lib that stays in the movie. Yeah, I love that moment. Kapper reportedly paid that crew member $10 for knocking over the props for. for improving the scene. Oh. When there's a run on the bank, George gives out his honeymoon money.

That's a very famous scene. And the last woman asks him for $17.50. That was an improvised number. Kappra just told the actress to come up with a number to surprise Jimmy Stewart. And then the kiss was improvised as well. Aw. Now, principal photography wraps in July.

Pickups were shot in August. We couldn't figure out exactly what the pickups were. Kapper brings in his wartime documentary collaborator, William Hornbeck, to edit the film. and the music's composed by Dmitri Tjomkin. Now, they had worked together on a lot of films. Lost Horizon, you can't take it with you. Mr. Smith goes to Washington

and the last movie he did before World War II, meet John Doe. But they didn't see eye to eye on this project. Now, some sources claim that Capra felt that Tiamkin was too focused on another project he was working on, Duel in the Sun, and in the end, Tiamkin leaves early, and some sources claim that Capra cut some of his cues,

shifted a bunch around, and even brought in music from other movies. Not super uncommon at that point in time. Not at all. And it seems like maybe what's more likely is that Capra was being rushed because the studio wanted to pull the release date in for It's a Wonderful Life to make it a Christmas movie. So Capra didn't intend for this to be a Christmas movie, and the original release date was supposed to be January 30th, 1947, which is so weird to me.

It's really weird because it involves Christmas. Like to be that close to it, strange. You would think if you're going to say it's not a Christmas movie, you push it even farther out. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, like do it in the summer or something. It's a little unusual. Film historian and Michael Bay's former professor, Janine Bessinger, claims it wasn't intended to be a Christmas movie. It was shoved into the Christmas release of 1946 because RKO's Big Escape movie, their technicolor production of Sinbad the Sailor, wasn't ready for release. So it's a wonderful life gets pulled in. And then to add insult to injury,

they decide to use Kapper and Stewart's anxiety about returning to Hollywood to market the movie. Cool. Thanks, guys. The press packet includes a sample story with the headline, First Post-Wore Kiss Scene ordeal for James Stewart. This is not an ordeal. It's fine, sir. Don't worry about it. Everything, though, I think, was probably looking up from Frank Kappa's perspective.

He'd finished the film. I'm sure he was happy with the film. And then everything kind of went a little side-were. So in December of 1946, Liberty Films holds a screening and dinner dance with Capra, William Weiler, George Stevens, and all the stars and near stars we'd ever used in our films. And then they previewed it for the press. And the reviews are mixed. People say it's sentimental, it's sappy, it's polyanish.

But Frank Capra thinks, well, surely audiences will embrace it. It's the safe, non-controversial, warm and fuzzy movie that everybody's been waiting for. It's A Wonderful Life premieres on December 20th, 1946, at the Globe Theater in New York. As I mentioned, it doesn't open wide until January 7, 1947. So It's a Wonderful Life. Wasn't exactly a big time flopper. It wasn't a huge time flopper. But it was the biggest movie of Frank Kapper's career up until this point, and it did lose money.

So after RKO's distribution fee, the movie grows to round four, $3.4 million. The budget was around $3.18 million, and Stewart earned another $173,000. The best figure that we could find, by July 2, 1947, the movie had a net loss of about $392,000, roughly 12% of its budget. Again, not an enormous flop, but not a success and not enough to keep Liberty Films afloat. Right. Okay. So it's nominated for five Oscars. Best Picture, Best Director, Actor in a Leading Role, Jimmy Stewart, sound recording, and film editing.

But it didn't win anything. Because Capra got beat out by his buddy, William Weiler. The Best Years of Our Lives swept the awards at won seven, including Picture, Actor, in a Leading Role, and Director. And Lizzie, if that weren't, enough, in 1947, the FBI launched an investigation into

the communist infiltration of the motion picture industry. McCarthyism has come to Hollywood. And It's a Wonderful Life was put on a list of motion pictures disclosing

communist propaganda therein. The themes that you mentioned. The FBI agent who watched it, reportedly said it was very entertaining, but also identified what they considered a malignant undercurrent to the film. What is the malignant undercurrent? What is it?

Hold on. Those responsible for making It's a Wonderful Life had employed two common tricks used by communists to inject propaganda into the film. These tricks, as applied by the Los Angeles branch of the bureau, were smearing values or institutions judged to be particularly American. In this case, the capitalist banker, Mr. Potter, is portrayed as a scrogy misanthrope, and they glorified values or institutions judged

to be particularly anti-American or pro-communist. In this case, George's depression and existential crisis are pro-communist, Lizzie. The subtle attempt... George is also a banker. He's also making... Shut up. Shut up.

This is the FBI. We listened to the FBI. This is a subtle attempt to magnify the problems of the so-called common man in society. This case was a big deal, Lizzie. It was not brought to the House Un-American Activities Committee. I think they probably realized this is not ultimately a communist phone. This is not the one. This is not the Trumbo movie that we're going to go after.

But it didn't matter. Liberty Films was dead on arrival. FBI or not. They made just one more film of their nine-film deal, the State of the Union, directed by Frank Capra. And so the question remains, Lizzie, how did it's a wonderful life become a timeless classic beloved by millions? It happened when, like George Bailey and the communists,

they accidentally gave it away for free. Yeah. In the mid-1970s, the copyright for the film lapsed, and the movie was considered to have entered the public domain. And suddenly, It's a Wonderful Life was showing up on television. There were countless copies that people could rent or buy, and there was no Mr. Potter clawing at his return, just a movie that people could enjoy. By 1990, the Library of Congress added It's a Wonderful Life to the National Film Registry, and in 1993, the copyright was. restored. Wow.

Before we end, I want to mention Frank Capra, very interesting person. We're going to need to cover more of his movies, obviously. We're going to need to talk more about Frank Capra. I was talking to my sister and we were trying to kind of pin him down. And I think the thing I really thought was most interesting about him in relation to this movie.

He famously published his autobiography, I believe it was in 1971, which was a bit of a retort. telling of his legacy, a hagiography, as we've discussed. As most autobiographies are, yes. Yes. Capra really, really, I think, struggled with being pushed out of Hollywood by the new wave of Atoors in the 1960s. And he felt that he was being shunted aside, despite having been such a heavyweight, especially before World War II. And I think it's obvious he really struggled with that. And then in retelling his story and trying to reassert his position in the building,

of Hollywood, it seems like the big sin that he commits, at least according to Joseph McBride and a few other people, Joseph McBride's one of his biographers, is that he erases his collaborators from his own bootstrapping history. And in an ironic twist, forgets the lesson of It's a Wonderful Life, which is a man is rich through his friends. Yeah. And instead tries to tell the story of how Frank Tapra did it alone. Did it all by himself, yeah.

And I just think it's really interesting. And an important reminder that, man, movies are a collaborative medium that nobody makes on their own. And even if you believe in Auteur Cinema, it's still never just yours. And I think we could all stand to remember that the richest men or women and the greatest directors recognize it's a collaboration. Oh. So that concludes our coverage of, It's a Wonderful Life, Lizzie. So I have to ask you,

what went right? What's going to keep you from killing your doppelganger at the end? It's so Kafka-esque, the original version of it. I still want that version. I have to give it to good old Jimmy Stewart in this one. As you pointed out, it's not a particularly active character, which I think could get.

get very frustrating to watch as played by almost anyone else. Like you mentioned Carrie Grant early on. I think this would be a tough watch with Carrie Grant as George Bailey. And I love Carrie Grant. And then learning what you said about Jimmy Stewart and, you know, voluntarily enlisting and making the decision to then not capitalize on that when he, you know, got out of the war and choosing to do this project. It just makes me like him even more. And I already He liked him a whole lot. So got to give it to Jimmy Stewart. And we should cover more Jimmy Stewart movies because I would like to know more about him.

Yeah, it's interesting. He had such a second life in the 50s. And that's kind of the Jimmy Stewart that I know. Harvey, Rear Window. Rear Window, Vertigo. Yes. I knew I watched more of that era of Jimmy Stewart than his 1930s work or even, you know, his 40s work. And I really loved that Jimmy Stewart.

There are so many good iterations of him, but I agree. We definitely need to cover more of his films. For some reason, my dad doesn't like Jimmy Stewart, and so I grew up with this bias against Jimmy Stewart. Really, because your dad kind of is Jimmy Stewart. I know. I know. I know.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's like George fighting George on the bridge. Yeah, it's the doffel ganger. Yeah, it's the doffle ganger. Anyway, I will, I'm not going to give it to Frank Kapper, even though he probably should one of us give it to Frank Kapper because I want to give mine to Donna Reed. Yeah. She is so captivating.

And, man, I think this role could be tough, saccharine, annoying in the wrong hands. And she's not given a lot to do, I don't think. And yet it works. And, you know, I mentioned the other week about how I don't carry over things from when they use a different actor when a character is a child to when they're an adult. And for some reason, the little girl version of her looks enough like her in this version that I kind of do. And it's very cute. And I kind of love that part when she leans over and says George Bailey. I'll love you till the day I die into his deaf ear.

It's so good. So I'll give it to Donna Reed, who I just found so charming in this movie. She's charming and she makes sense of a part that at many moments, I think it would be probably pretty hard to make sense of, you know, when she gives away all of their money in order to save the rut on the beach. bank and she really, it's not, like, you can see the thought process that she's going through before making those decisions. And I, she takes her time in this and it really ends up being a beautiful performance. I agree. And I think one of the things that I do, I like about this movie that he eventually gets there, but I don't even know if he gets all the way there is that I think what Donna Reed really understands is that we're, this is no longer my life. This is our life.

Right. This is, this is me. It's my life. It's my children's lives. It's my husband's and we're a team, and we're making decisions for all of us. And it takes George Bailey so long to understand that, George, this is no longer just your life, but only his personal life. He really understands that with regards to the community. And he sacrifices for the community constantly, and I think that's his saving grace as a character. But it's interesting that it takes him, he does take his family for granted in so many ways. He's the star of the show in his head, and I think doesn't understand that those supporting

characters are not supporting characters. He is supporting that. He's the supporting character. Right. Yeah, exactly. And I think that's really important. That's something that I've, you know, learned through fatherhood especially and marriage. But, you know, you're not, like, you've taken your bow now. You know what I mean? Like it's your children's time. Not that your life doesn't matter anymore or anything like that or you can't find new things. But anyway, all right, guys. Thank you for listening to our coverage of It's a Wonderful Life. And if you think this is a wonderful podcast, there are a few easy ways to support us. Number one, leave us a rating and review on whatever podcatcher you are using.

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this life is hard and we all fail it's why we love to make this show this life is hard we all fall it's why we love to make this show this life is hard we all fall down know that you are not alone. Well, thank you for that, Chris. Of course. Lizzie, what do we have coming next week? It's the start of something very special. We have a Christmas classic. We do. We have a Christmas classic for all the ages.

We are covering our third James Cameron film, Aliens. I'm very excited, and it's kicking off our first ever, very Cameron Christmas, where we will be spending the rest of the year with James Cameron. That's right. And then we're going to be headed to Pandora to talk all things. Evita, as one of my friends calls it. And then we're going to be off on December 29th, and we'll be back at you in the new year, the first Monday of January. So keep an ear out, you guys. We're so excited. All right. We'll see you next week. Go to patreon.com slash what went wrong podcast to support what went wrong.

and check out our website at what went wrong pod.com. What Went Wrong is a sad boom podcast presented by Lizzie Bassett and Chris Winterbauer, post-production and music by David Bowman. This episode was researched by Jesse Winterbauer.