by Lauren Walker
Frank Capra’s 1946 film, It’s a Wonderful Life, is an established Christmas favourite. However, upon release, it received mixed reviews and came $525,000 short of breaking even at the box office. It was only after entering public domain in 1974 that it became the immensely popular and acclaimed classic it is today. James Stewart, who played the protagonist George Bailey, attributed its disappointing initial reception to the strains of the Second World War. People ‘had been through too much’ and so sought escapist entertainment instead of a drama centred on ‘family and community and responsibility’.[1] Indeed, the firm but grudging commitment of George Bailey to these values leads him to suicidal ideation, yet ultimately proves to be his and his town’s salvation.
These values troubled more than just George Bailey and the box office. A report by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on ‘Communist Infiltration into the Motion Picture Industry’ claimed it contained communist propaganda. This report was written as part of the systematic FBI surveillance of the film industry between 1942 and 1958. The film’s creation and content were both deemed subversive. Writers Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich were considered ‘very close to Communists’, as was Dalton Trumbo, the original script developer and one of the blacklisted ‘Hollywood Ten’.[2] The efforts of the antagonist, Henry Potter, to eradicate the Bailey family’s building and loan association – the final bulwark against his power and wealth – are a central plot of the film. The FBI condemned this conflict as an ‘obvious attempt to discredit bankers’ and ‘magnify the problems of the so-called “common man”’ which broadcast anti-American, communist values.[3]
Acknowledging the good Bailey has done for them over the years, the film concludes with the townspeople bringing him more than enough money to restore the company money that his uncle Billy lost. Thus, Bailey is saved from Potter’s efforts to have him prosecuted for mismanagement of company funds. The film’s conclusion heralds the triumph of community spirit over Potter’s avarice. George Bailey’s survival rests on this fragile miracle brought by the angel Clarence Odbury and his community. The film’s ending, albeit dripping in sentimentality, is not a wholesale resolution of its conflicts. Bailey never fulfils his dreams of adventure. Potter’s power endures. There is no revolution in Bedford Falls (or enough revolutionary messaging for the FBI to prosecute its credited creators). Thus, the film concludes with a resounding yet bittersweet hope. As film scholar Lorraine Mortimer observed, ‘All George has is people, what he means to their lives and what they mean to him’.[4]
[1] Sophie Hillan King, ‘A Map of Our Dreams: Cinema and Cultural Identity, 1955-72,’ Writing Ulster 5 (1998), p.70.
[2] John A. Noakes, ‘Bankers and Common Men in Bedford Falls: How the FBI Determined That “It’s a Wonderful Life” Was a Subversive Movie,’ Film History 10:3 (1998), pp. 314-5.
[3] Noakes, ‘Bankers and Common Men’, p. 315.
[4] Lorraine Mortimer, ‘The Grim Enchantment of “It’s a Wonderful Life”,’ The Massachusetts Review 36 (1995), p. 661.
Featured image: George Bailey (James Stewart) pointing at Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore) in a frame from It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), dir. Frank Capra.
Doing History in Public 