It's a Wonderful Lifef风云人物

It's a Wonderful Life (美好人生) is a 1946 American drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and loosely based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" written by Philip Van Doren Stern. This is director Frank Capra's classic bittersweet drama about George Bailey, the eternally-in-debt guiding force of a bank in the typical American small town of Bedford Falls. It's a Wonderful Life lost money in its original run, when it was percieved as a fairly downbeat view of small-town life. Only after it lapsed into the public domain in 1973 and became a Christmastime TV perennial did it don the mantle of a holiday classic.

Directed by: Frank Capra

Produced by: Frank Capra

Written by: Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling, Frank Capra

Music by: Dimitri Tiomkin

Cinematography: Joseph Walker

Editing by: William Hornbeck

Studio: Liberty Films

Distributed by: RKO Radio Pictures

Release date: December 20, 1946

Running time: 130 minutes

Country: United States

Language: English

Genre: Drama Family Fantasy Romance

Color: Black and White

监制： 弗兰克.卡普拉 Frank Capra


风云人物
导演： 弗兰克.卡普拉 Frank Capra
主演： 詹姆斯.斯图尔特(I) James Stewart (I) 唐娜.里德 Donna Reed 莱昴内尔.巴里莫尔 Lionel Barrymore 托马斯.米切尔 Thomas Mitchell (I) Henry Travers (I) Beulah Bondi 弗兰克.费伦 Frank Faylen 沃德.邦德 Ward Bond Gloria Grahame H..B..华纳 H.B. Warner
片长：118分钟
地区：美国
语言：英语色彩：黑白
年份：1946

James Stewart as George Bailey
Lionel Barrymore as Henry F. Potter
Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy
Henry Travers as Clarence Odbody
Beulah Bondi as Mrs. Bailey
Frank Faylen as Ernie Bishop
Ward Bond as Bert
Gloria Grahame as Violet Bick
H. B. Warner asMr. Gower
Todd Karns asHarry Bailey
Samuel S. Hinds asPeter Bailey
Lillian Randolph asAnnie
Mary Treen as Cousin Tilly
Frank Albertson as Sam Wainwright

Donna Reed as Mary Hatch Bailey
Virginia Patton as Ruth Dakin Bailey
Charles Williams as Cousin Eustace
William Edmunds as Mr. Martini
Bobby Anderson as Little George Bailey
Ronnie Ralph as Little Sam Wainwright
Jean Gale as Little Mary Bailey
Jeanine Ann Roose as Little Violet Bick
George Nokes as Little Harry Bailey
Danny Mummert as Little Marty Hatch
Sheldon Leonard asNick, the bartender
Charles Lane as The rent collector
Jimmy Hawkins as Tommy Bailey
Karolyn Grimes as Zuzu Bailey
Larry Simms as Pete Bailey
Carol Coomes as Janie Bailey

Christmas Eve finds George Bailey (James Stewart) deeply troubled. Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), Angel Second Class, is assigned to save him and earn his wings. Joseph, the head angel, reviews George's life with Clarence. At the age of 12, George (Bobby Anderson) saved the life of his younger brother Harry (Todd Karns) who had fallen through the ice on a pond, though George lost the hearing in one ear. Later, as an errand boy in a pharmacy, George saved his grief-stricken boss, druggist Mr. Gower (H.B. Warner), from mistakenly filling a child's prescription with poison.

George's dream has been to see the world. He repeatedly sacrifices his dreams for the well-being of others until Harry graduates from high school and can replace him at the Bailey Building and Loan Association, vital to the people of Bedford Falls. On Harry's graduation night in 1928, George discusses his future with Mary Hatch (Donna Reed), who has had a crush on him since she was a little girl. Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) and Harry break the news to George his father has had a stroke, which proves fatal. Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a heartless slumlord and majority shareholder in the Building and Loan, tries to persuade the board of directors to stop providing home loans for the working poor. George persuades them to reject Potter's proposal, but they agree only on the condition that George himself run the Building and Loan. He gives his college money to his brother.

When Harry graduates from college, he unexpectedly brings home a wife, whose father has offered Harry an excellent job in his company. George cannot deny his brother such a fine opportunity. Once more, George has to set aside his ambitions.

After their wedding, as George and Mary leave town for their honeymoon, they witness a run on the bank that leaves the Building and Loan in danger of collapse. Potter offers George's clients "50 cents on the dollar," but George and Mary quell the panic by using the $2,000 earmarked for their honeymoon to satisfy the depositors' needs until confidence in the Building and Loan is restored.

George and Mary raise a growing family. George starts up Bailey Park, an affordable housing project. They and the other residents no longer have to pay Potter's high rents. When World War II erupts, George is unable to enlist, due to his bad ear. Harry becomes a fighter pilot and is awarded the Medal of Honor for shooting down 15 enemy aircraft, including one that would have slammed into a U.S. transport ship full of troops.

On Christmas Eve, 1946, Uncle Billy is on his way to deposit $8,000 for the Building and Loan when he runs into Mr. Potter. He proudly shows Potter the front-page article about Harry receiving the Medal of Honor. Potter grabs the newspaper angrily and later discovers the money inside, and he keeps it. When Uncle Billy goes to deposit the money, he finally realizes it is missing. Frantic searching fails to turn it up. In desperation, George appeals to Potter for a loan to save the company, but Potter turns him down and swears out a warrant for his arrest for bank fraud.

Henry Travers as Clarence Odbody after "saving" GeorgeGeorge, facing "scandal and bankruptcy and prison", gets drunk to escape his woes. Driving wildly in a snowstorm, he crashes his car into a tree near a river. Completely devastated, George staggers to a bridge that spans the river, intending to commit suicide, and feeling he is "worth more dead than alive" because of a $15,000 life insurance policy. Before George can leap in, however, Clarence jumps in first and pretends to be drowning. After George rescues him, he reveals himself to be George's guardian angel.

George responds skeptically to this revelation and bitterly wishes he had never been born, so Clarence shows him what the town would have been like if he had never existed. In this alternate reality, Bedford Falls is called Pottersville and is home to nightclubs and pawn shops and Bailey Park was never built. Mr. Gower was convicted of poisoning the child and spent many years in prison. Martini (William Edmunds) no longer owns the bar. Violet (Gloria Grahame) is a dancer who gets arrested as a pickpocket. Uncle Billy has been in an insane asylum for years. Harry is dead, since George was not around to save him, and the soldiers Harry would have saved also died. Mrs. Bailey is a hardened widow running a boarding house, and Mary is an unmarried librarian.

When George becomes agitated by the whole situation, Bert the policeman has to intervene. They tussle. George flees to the bridge and begs God to let him live again. His wish granted, a jubilant George runs home to happily greet the men waiting to arrest him. A flood of people enter with donations to save George and the Building and Loan. George's friend Sam Wainwright sends him a line of credit for $25,000 via telegram. In the middle of the impromptu celebration, the newly-arrived Harry proposes a toast to his big brother, "the richest man in town." Seeing how many lives he has touched, George Bailey finally realizes that he truly has a wonderful life. As the group sings "Auld Lang Syne", George finds a note from Clarence thanking George for helping him get his wings.

The contention that James Stewart is often referred to as Capra's only choice to play George Bailey is disputed by film historian Stephen Cox.

Although it was stated that Jean Arthur, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers were all considered for the role of Mary before Donna Reed won the part, this list is also disputed by Cox as he indicates that Jean Arthur was first offered the part but had to turn it down for a prior commitment on Broadway, Martha Scott and Ann Dvorak. Ginger Rogers was offered the female lead, but turned it down because she considered it "too bland".

A long list of actors were considered for the role of Potter (originally named Herbert Potter): Edward Arnold, Charles Bickford, Edgar Buchanan, Louis Calhern, Victor Jory, Raymond Massey, Vincent Price and even Thomas Mitchell. However, Lionel Barrymore, who eventually won the role, was a famous Ebenezer Scrooge in radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol at the time.

The original story "The Greatest Gift" was written by Philip Van Doren Stern in November 1939. After being unsuccessful in getting the story published, he decided to make it into a Christmas card, and mailed 200 copies to family and friends in December 1943.

The story came to the attention of RKO producer David Hempstead, who showed it to Cary Grant's Hollywood agent and, in April 1944, RKO Pictures bought the rights to the story for $10,000 hoping to turn the story into a vehicle for Grant. RKO created three unsatisfactory scripts before shelving the planned movie with Grant going on to make another Christmas picture, The Bishop's Wife.

At the suggestion of RKO studio chief Charles Koerner, Frank Capra read "The Greatest Gift" and immediately saw its potential. RKO, anxious to unload the project, sold the rights in 1945 to Capra's production company, Liberty Films, which had a nine-film distribution agreement with RKO, for $10,000, and threw in the three scripts for free. Capra, along with writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett—with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson, and Dorothy Parker brought in to "polish" the script—turned the story and what was worth using from the three scripts into a screenplay that Capra would rename It's a Wonderful Life. The script underwent many revisions throughout pre-production and during filming.

Filming started on April 15, 1946 and ended on July 27, 1946, exactly on deadline for the 90-day principal photography schedule. It's a Wonderful Life was shot at the RKO studio in Culver City, California, and the RKO Ranch in Encino, where "Bedford Falls" was a set covering 4 acres, assembled from three separate parts with a main street stretching 300 yards (about 274 meters), with 75 stores and buildings, a tree-lined center parkway and 20 full grown oak trees. For months prior to principal photography, the mammoth set was populated by pigeons, cats and dogs in order to give the "town" a lived-in feel. Due to the requirement to film in an "alternate universe" setting as well as during different seasons, the set was extremely adaptable. RKO created "chemical snow" for the film in order to avoid the need for dubbed dialogue when actors walked across the earlier type of movie snow, made up of crushed cornflakes.

The RKO ranch in Encino, the filming location of Bedford Falls, was razed in the mid-1950s. There are only two surviving locations from the film. The first is the swimming pool that was unveiled during the famous dance scene where George courts Mary. It is located in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School and is still in operation as of 2008. The second is the "Martini home", at 4587 Viro Road in La Canada Flintridge, California.

During filming, in the scene where Uncle Billy gets drunk at Harry and Ruth's welcome home/newlyweds' party, George points him in the right direction home. As the camera focuses on George, smiling at his uncle staggering away, a crash is heard in the distance and Uncle Billy yells, "I'm all right! I'm all right!" Equipment on the set had actually been accidentally knocked over — Capra left in Thomas Mitchell's impromptu ad lib.

Capra filmed an alternate ending that was subsequently cut wherein Uncle Billy remembers misplacing the money in the newspaper when he unties a string, and Potter receives a "comeuppance".

A number of alternative endings were considered with Capra's first script having Bailey falling to his knees reciting The Lord's Prayer (the script also called for an opening scene with the townspeople in prayer). Recognizing that an overly religious tone did not have the emotional impact of the family and friends rushing to rescue George Bailey, the closing scenes were rewritten.

George Bailey: Clarence! Clarence! Help me, Clarence! Get me back! Get me back, I don't care what happens to me! Get me back to my wife and kids! Help me Clarence, please! Please! I wanna live again. I wanna live again. Please, God, let me live again.
Bert: Hey, George! George! You all right? Hey, what's the matter?
George Bailey: Now get outta here, Bert, or I'll hit you again! Get outta here!
Bert: What the sam hill you yellin' for, George?
George Bailey: You...
George Bailey: George... Bert? Do you know me?
Bert: Know you? Huh. You kiddin'? I've been looking all over town trying to find you. I saw your car plowed into that tree down there and I thought maybe you - hey, your mouth's bleeding. Are you sure you're all right?
George Bailey: What the...
George Bailey: Ha, ha, ha, ha! My mouth's bleeding, Bert! My mouth's bleeding! Zuzu's petals... Zuzu...
George Bailey: There they are! Bert, what do you know about that! Merry Christmas!

When Mary and George are walking down the street after the dance, she asks him, "Well, why don't you say it?" The next shot George is heard saying, "I don't know. Maybe I will say it," but his mouth is not moving at all.

When George invites Carter to come in and follows him, he is holding the pipe with his left hand. But in the shot after someone asks him about hang up the phone, he appears with the pipe in his right hand.

When George visits his father in his office and finds him arguing with Potter, his father is standing behind his desk talking to Potter. There is a cut away form this but upon return George's father is now on the same side of the desk as Potter.

Liberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. In 1955, M. & A. Alexander purchased the movie. This included key rights to the original television syndication, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the film rights to the story on which the film is based, "The Greatest Gift". National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the film soon thereafter.

However, a clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974. Despite the lapsed copyright, television stations that aired it still were required to pay royalties. Although the film's images had entered the public domain, the film's story was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of the published story "The Greatest Gift", whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971.

In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, to enforce its claim to the copyright. While the film's copyright had not been renewed, the plaintiffs were able to argue its status as a derivative work of a work still under copyright. It's a Wonderful Life is no longer shown as often on television as it was before enforcement of that derivative copyright.

Due to all the above actions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros. in the USA. It is also one of two Capra films which Paramount currently owns despite not having originally released it - the other is Broadway Bill.

In 1993, due in part to the confusion of the ownership and copyright issues, Kinesoft Development, with the support of Republic Pictures, released It's a Wonderful Life as the one of the first commercial feature-length films on CD-ROM for the Windows PC (Windows 3.1). Predating commercial DVDs by several years, it included such features as the ability to follow along with the complete shooting script as the film was playing.

Given the state of video playback on the PC at the time of its release, It's a Wonderful Life for Windows represented another first, as the longest running video on a computer. Prior to its release, Windows could only play back approx. 32,000 frames of video, or about 35 minutes at 15 frames per second.

Among the companies that released the film on home video before Republic Pictures stepped in were Meda Video, Kartes Video Communications (under its Video Film Classics label), GoodTimes Home Video, and Video Treasures (now Anchor Bay Entertainment). After Republic, Artisan Entertainment took over home video rights in the mid-1990s. Artisan was later sold to Lions Gate Entertainment, which continued to hold US home video rights until late 2005 when they reverted to Paramount, who also owns video rights throughout Region 4 (Latin America and Australia), and in France. Video rights in the rest of the world are held by different companies; for example, the UK rights are with Universal Studios.

The movie has seen multiple DVD releases since the availability of the DVD format. In the fall of 2001, Republic issued the movie twice, once in August, and again with different packaging in September of that same year. On October 31, 2006, Paramount released a "60th Anniversary Edition". On November 13, 2007, Paramount released a two-disc "special edition" DVD of the film that contained both the original theatrical black-and-white version, newly restored, and a new, third colorized version, produced by Legend Films using the latest colorization technology. On November 3, 2009, Paramount released a DVD version with a "Collector's Edition Ornament", and a Blu-ray edition.

Time magazine "It's a Wonderful Life is a pretty wonderful movie. It has only one formidable rival (Goldwyn's The Best Years of Our Lives) as Hollywood's best picture of the year. Director Capra's inventiveness, humor and affection for human beings keep it glowing with life and excitement."

Bosley Crowther of The New York Times "the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer's point of view, is the sentimentality of it—its illusory concept of life. Mr. Capra's nice people are charming, his small town is a quite beguiling place and his pattern for solving problems is most optimistic and facile. But somehow they all resemble theatrical attitudes rather than average realities."

I cry every time--and this is after viewing upon viewing--when Harry Bailey toasts his big brother George as "...the richest man in town." The emotions in that scene are so true and pure that I can't help but be affected by them.

Capra's talent as a screenwriter are all over this script. He knows just how hard to tug the heartstrings without becoming overblown or phony. And his technical wizardry is evident too. I've never seen--before or since--more natural-looking onscreen snow.

Oscar (Academy Awards, USA)
Best Actor in a Leading Role, James Stewart
Best Director, Frank Capra
Best Film Editing, William Hornbeck
Best Picture
Best Sound, Recording, John Aalberg (RKO Radio SSD)

Cinema Writers Circle Awards, Spain
Best Foreign Film

Golden Globes
Best Motion Picture Director, Frank Capra

No.11 on 1998 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies
No.8 on 2002 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Passions
No9. George Bailey, hero ; No.6 Henry F. Potter, villain on 2003 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Heroes and Villains
No.1 on 2006 AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers
20 2007 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) -
2008 on AFI's 10 Top 10 #3 in the genre of Fantasy

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