It's a Wonderful Life (1946) on Netflix
PG19462h 10mDramaFamilyFantasy
George Bailey wants to leave Bedford Falls: a world tour, college, the cities he means to build. His family's building and loan, and the wealthy Henry Potter, stand in the way.
- Netflix4.2/5
- IMDb8.6/10559,435 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
George Bailey grows up in Bedford Falls, New York, a town he means to leave. He plans a tour of Europe, then college, then the airfields, skyscrapers and bridges he wants to build. As a boy he pulls his younger brother Harry out of a frozen pond and loses the hearing in his left ear. Working part time at Mr. Gower's drug store, he catches a mistake that would have poisoned a customer. His father and Uncle Billy run the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, which lends to families buying homes in town. Henry Potter, the wealthy man who owns most of Bedford Falls, wants the company closed. When his father dies, George gives his college money to Harry and stays to run the office. Mary Hatch and Violet Bick both compete for his notice.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- According to Bobbie Anderson, H. B. Warner was drunk at the time of the drug store scene, and in the confrontation between Mr. Gower and young George he slapped him for real and made his ear bleed, reducing him to tears. Warner hugged him after the scene was shot.
- Its US copyright expired in 1974 after a lack of renewal and the film entered the public domain, which allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees, and it was at that point that it became a Christmas classic.
- RKO's head of special effects, Russell Shearman, developed a new compound of water, soap flakes, foamite and sugar to make "chemical snow" for the film. Before then movie snow was usually untoasted cornflakes, so loud when stepped on that dialogue had to be redubbed afterwards.
- Jean Arthur was offered the role of Mary first but had recently dropped out of the Broadway show Born Yesterday from exhaustion. Capra then considered Olivia de Havilland, Martha Scott, Ann Dvorak and Ginger Rogers, who turned it down as "too bland", before borrowing Donna Reed from MGM.
- On May 26, 1947, the FBI issued a memo saying the film made obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a "scrooge-type" so that he would be the most hated man in the picture, which its sources called a common trick used by Communists.
- The angelic figures depicted at the beginning of the film are in fact an image of Stephan's Quintet, a group of five interacting galaxies.
- Only two locations from the film survive: the swimming pool unveiled during the high-school dance sequence, in the gymnasium at Beverly Hills High School and still in use as of December 2023, and the "Martini home" in La Cañada Flintridge. RKO's movie ranch in Encino was razed in 1954.
