“It’s A Wonderful Life” is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he did not exist.

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Cactus Classic Cinema: “It’s A Wonderful Life”(1946) starring James Stewart

Cactus Theater

Beset with problems, George Bailey – played by James Stewart – finds his previously happy life falling apart around him on Christmas Eve. His impish guardian angel shows him what his hometown would be like without him, and shocked by what he sees, George begs to return to the problems of the present. Beautifully crafted, its humour and gentleness imbued at times with an almost Dickensian darkness, the film is now a cult classic and one of the most enduring of all Christmas traditions.

Frank Capra

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It's a Wonderful Life · Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

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Dec 20, 2023

Cactus Classic Cinema: “It’s A Wonderful Life”(1946) starring James Stewart · Cactus Theater

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