It's a Wonderful Life: 50 Things You Don't Need to Know

hi I'm Jeff and welcome to a million movies now did you know that the holiday classic It's a Wonderful Life was actually based on a greeting card Phillip Van Doren Stern had the idea for the story it actually came to him at a dream in 1938 and by 1943 he had completed the short story he was calling the greatest gift and he was looking for a publisher unfortunately he can find a publishing house that was willing to print his short story so he went out and paid for 200 pamphlets style copies of the story to be printed and then he sent them out to his friends and family as Christmas cards making It's a Wonderful Life the first we think the only Hollywood movie to ever be made based on a Christmas card and that's just the first of 50 fun facts about its wonderful life that we're gonna cover here today on a million movies so let's get started [Music] one of those 200 original copies of the greatest gift that Stern sent out to us to his friends and family ended up in the hands of a man named David Hempstead the David Hempstead was a producer at RKO Pictures and instead look read the story and thought this would make a great Hollywood movie he reached out to Stern and bought the rights to the story for ten thousand dollars began putting together a package for the movie with Cary Grant in the lead role now the project got delayed and Hempstead wasn't able to get back to it soon enough but he got a call from Frank Capra and Frank Capra was also interested in the story and offered to buy the rights from RKO Pictures and RKO Pictures sold in the Frank Capra for the same ten thousand dollars that they paid for them originally now with Frank Capra controlling the rights he began to look at the story and he didn't think Cary Grant was the right fit for the lead actor for the story that Capra wanted to tell so Cameron sat down with the story again and began writing a new script developing it with a different actor in mind the actor was Jimmy Stewart now Capra was not the only person to be involved with writing the script for It's a Wonderful Life he brought in Matt Connolly Dorothy Parker Clifford Odets and Dalton Trumbo among others now from everything we've heard the experience of being a writer on It's a Wonderful Life was not a wonderful experience Capra was known for a demanding pace and for frequent changes and that through some of the writers off in fact when the movie was finally released two of the writers refused to even watch the film in addition to the challenges with the script they weren't even sure if Jimmy Stewart was gonna be in the movie It's a Wonderful Life would be Jimmy Stewart's first film after returning from World War two and he was likely suffering from what we know today as PTSD he wasn't sure he's up for it he wasn't sure his acting was as good as it was before the war and he just didn't know if it's a wonderful life was the right film to try and come back with it was actually lionel Barrymore who played mr. Potter in the movie who convinced Jimmy Stewart to be in the film an interview Jimmy explained what happened Jimmy said I wasn't sure if doing movies and acting were important enough coming out of the war and all maybe Barrymore sent something he really helped lift my spirits I asked him if my acting was decent Barrymore brought me into reality when he said he's a more decent to drop a bomb on people or bring a ray of sunshine to them through your acting and he was right Cara's favorite Jean Arthur was the original choice to play Mary but Jean Arthur had a commitment to be on Broadway at the time and couldn't get free to be in the movie Capra also looked at Ginger Rogers and Olivia de Havilland among other actresses they either weren't available or turned the role down ultimately he decided on Donna Reed for the part now this week Donna Reed's first starring role and she was just 25 years old Donna Reed was originally from Denison Iowa and lionel barrymore for one wasn't convinced she was the country girl she presented herself as to the rest of the cast and crew one day on the set they had a cow so lionel barrymore made a bets a bet Donna Reed $50 that you can't milk a cow Donna Reed went right over and she bought the cow later said of the incident it was the easiest 50 bucks I ever made with the main cast ready to go the only thing holding a production at this point was actually building the sets building the town of Bedford Falls they decided to build it at RKO and see no ranch and they used about four acres of the ranch to build the town they built about 75 buildings storefronts residential buildings they built a factory area they even built the slums Main Street itself was 300 yards long about three city blocks now the sets were used for many years after it's a wonderful life but unfortunately if you wanted to see the town of Bedford Falls so you can't do it anymore they were all destroyed in 1954 even though the sets were destroyed many years ago there is one exterior location you can still go and see and that is the Martini's house the Martinez house is located in the LA cañada Flintridge area of Los Angeles just north of Pasadena just north of Glendale now speaking of the martinis it's believed that the martini family was based on Frank Capra's own family kafirs family immigrated from Sicily to the United States in 1903 and Capra in Italian means goat so when the martinis arrive at their new home you'll actually see a goat in the car with the martini family now let's get into the movie itself and we'll start with the opening credits this film was produced by Liberty films which was set up by Frank Capra George Stevens and William Wyler now the film company didn't last very long It's a Wonderful Life and State of the Union we're the only two films ever made by Liberty films just for a little historic context the telegram that mr. Gower gets alerting him that his son has died of influenza is dated in 1919 now 1919 was the year that the Spanish flu pandemic spread across the battlefields of Europe it end up killing millions of people there's a pretty startling scene the beginning of its wonderful life when mr. Gower played by HB Warner slaps young George Bailey played by Robert Anderson now Robert Anderson later on explained that during that scene HB Warner was drunk and that those slaps were 100% real in fact the slaps drew blood from Robert Anderson's ear the actress playing Jimmy Stewart's mother is a lady named Beulah Bondi and she had great experience playing his mom in fact during her career she appeared as Jimmy Stewart's mom five different times including here in It's a Wonderful Life and in mr. Smith goes to Washington in the movie Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey says he wants to go to college because he wants to learn how to build things in real life Jimmy Stewart went to Princeton and his major was architecture the actor that Jimmy Stewart cuts in on when he wants to dance with Donna Reed he's an actor named Carl Switzer now if Carl Switzer is familiar to you you're probably a lot like me and you grew up watching a lot of television Carl Switzer is best known for playing alfalfa in The Little Rascals our gang films the gym with the pool under the floor is real and it's still there it's at Beverly Hills High School the floor still opens it still closes there's still a pool underneath it and it's still an amazing piece of engineering to watch despite many many rumors the characters Bert and Ernie on Sesame Street were not named for the police officer and the taxi driver in its Wonderful Life the names were just a coincidence the song that Mary and George sing together Buffalo gals was actually an old vaudeville tune they would take the name of the city Buffalo in this case and they could switch it out to whichever town they happen to be in that night now it just so happens that the Buffalo version became the most popular and so that's the version that we know to this day when George and Mary are walking past the old Granville house George explains that she can break a piece of glass she gets to make a wish now on the set that day they hired a marksman so they could shoot out the pane of glass when she threw her rock but on the first take Donna Reed threw a rock and actually hit the glass turns out that she played baseball when she was in high school and actually had a pretty good arm Frank Capra liked to create as much realism on the set as he could a good example of this is when George Bailey is on the phone with Sam Wainwright to shoot that scene he had Jimmy Stewart in one area of the soundstage on the on the phone set on the house set and he had Frank Albertson who played Sam Wainwright on another set across the sound stage they could hear each other and have the conversation in real time both being shot independently and then edited together Jimmy Stewart was very nervous about the kissing scene he had with Donna Reed towards the beginning of its wonderful life this was his first romantic scene since coming back from the war but Frank Capra really wanted to capture that nervousness he thought it would play well with the character of George Bailey so he insisted that Jimmy Stewart Donna Reed not rehearsed this scene so what you're seeing in the film is the unrehearsed first take of performance the bird in the office of the Bailey brothers building alone was Jimmy the Raven and Jimmy the Raven appeared in every Frank Capra movie after 1938 there's a great scene in it's wonderful life when uncle Billy and George Bailey are walking back to the Bailey house uncle Billy is walking on to his house and as he goes off camera a stagehand happened to knock over some gear and made a loud clang without missing a beat Thomas Mitchell who played uncle Billy said this that line was an ad-lib but Frank Capra loved it so much he not only kept it in the movie he gave the stagehand who knocked the gear over $10 for what he called improving the sound quality uncle Billy is probably Thomas Mitchell's most well-known performance but he has appeared with Jimmy Stewart in another Capra film years earlier they both appeared together in mr. Smith goes to Washington in fact Capra gave Thomas Mitchell his big break by giving him a featured role in his movie Lost Horizon prior to its wonderful life snow was often made with cornflakes that have been painted white now that looks great but it also makes a lot of noise when you walk on it they wanted something that would be a little bit quieter for It's a Wonderful Life so the production crew developed a new form of snow they used a compound called foam ight along with sugar and water and they were mixed together and blow it through wind machines and it would come down looking like snow but it would also be a more importantly silent in all they use about six thousand gallons of this fake snow during its wonderful life and the achievement was so significant that the Motion Picture Academy gave the process one of its scientific and technical awards for the year in the original scripted version the scene where the customers are coming to the bank asking to withdraw their cash the character played by Ellen Kirby was supposed to ask for seventeen dollars that's how they rehearsed it that's what Jimmy Stewart was expecting but before they actually got to the shot Frank Capra pulled Ellen Corby aside and said let's ask for 1750 instead of 17 it'll sound more authentic and it'll be funnier he didn't tell Jimmy Stewart though so when they shot the scene Jimmy Stewart was expecting 17 she says 1750 he's caught off guard impulsively he kissed her that was the scene that was the shot that Capra decided to keep in the film adjusted for inflation the salary that mr. Potter offers George Bailey $20,000 a year would be worth about two hundred and seventy thousand dollars today mr. Potter his bodyguard and his driver all dressed alike throughout the movie as Saturday Night Live brilliantly pointed out years ago mr. Potter actually kept the $8,000 that uncle Billy lost at the bank now that means that the criminal got the profit from the crime now this is unusual because in the 40s the major motion picture studios were under what's called the Hays Code and the Hays Code was a series of rules and regulations that they all agreed to abide by to maintain standards and moral decency in their films and one of the rules was that the criminal can't profit from the crime the only way a criminal can can can resolve the story is if they repent or if they're caught and mr. Potter did not repent and he was not called Sheldon Leonard who played Nick the bartender and It's a Wonderful Life once said that the only reason he took this role was so that he has some extra cash to go to baseball games now that's a good enough fact there but I wanted to include this because I'm a big fan of Sheldon Leonard and if you're a fan of the Big Bang Theory his name may be familiar to you as well Chuck Lorre who created the Big Bang Theory named the two main characters on this show after this guy this is Sheldon Leonard and this is Sheldon and Leonard even though it's said at Christmastime it's wonderful life was shot between April 15th and July 27th 1946 and during that period Los Angeles was going through a summer heat wave in fact in some scenes particularly the scene with George and Clarence on the bridge you can see sweat on George Bailey's face now it got so hot on some days that Frank Capra actually gave the crew a day off to recuperate from the heat Jimmy Stewart was so overcome with emotion in the scene at the bar where he prays that he actually began to sob now Frank Capra wanted to capture that in the film but all he had was a me I am shot he wanted to get a close-up so when he was in post-production they zoomed in on that they blew up that piece of the of the print which is why that one shot looks grain year than all the other shots in the movie Henry Travers plays Clarence the angel second class he also appeared in the bells of st. Mary's and at the end of the movie you'll see George Bailey running down Main Street Bedford Falls and he passes a movie theater showing Henry Tyrus other movie the bells of st. Mary's George Bailey's daughter has a nickname of Zuzu and I was wondering where that name came from it turns out that Zuzu was a brand of gingersnap cookies made by was now Nabisco from 1901 until the early 80s and in fact you can hear George call Zuzu his little gingersnap during the field the ending to its wonderful life went through a couple of iterations in what in the original version it has George falling to his knees and saying the Lord's Prayer now this overly religious ending didn't play well and didn't have the emotional impact that Frank Capra was looking for so he rewrote the scene to have George be surrounded by his friends and family at the end for much more emotional climax another change to the final scene was the song that would be played at the end originally it was going to be Beethoven's Ode to Joy but they decided to change it to odd Lang Syne instead the scene on the poster of George holding Mary up in the air and never happens in the movie in all the story in his wonderful life spans 26 years from 1919 to 1945 if you're keeping count we hear bells ring forty-two times during its wonderful life that means every time you watch its Wonderful Life forty-two Angels get their wings Frank Capra estimated that the production of its wonderful life would take 90 days to shoot and they actually hit it exactly on ninety days and when that prediction came true the cast crew threw everybody a huge party It's a Wonderful Life was not a box-office success in fact Frank Capra lost about half a million dollars making the movie to put that in some perspective there have been about 6,000 movies that have done better at the box office then it's a Wonderful Life did about 78 Christmas movies have done better than It's a Wonderful Life did at the box office part of the reason why it's a Wonderful Life may not have done as well at the box office was because it was released just one week after the best years of our lives was released both movies have similar themes and both had oscar-worthy performances a big reason for its Wonderful Life becoming a Christmas tradition for so many people is likely due to a clerical error turns out that the rights to the film were not renewed when they should have been so in 1974 the rights actually went to the public domain now it took a lot of legal finagling but in 1994 because the production can be still owned the rights to the original story and to the film's score they were able to reestablish the rights but in those intervening 20 years TV stations across America were able to show It's a Wonderful Life without paying a royalty and many of them showed at multiple times between Thanksgiving and Christmas now that the rights have been rescued only NBC shows them they show it twice between things because Thanksgiving at Christmas every year the film was actually edited for television in the 50s and 60s then there's a scene where George Bailey's on the phone with Zuzu's teacher saying what do you mean sending her home half-naked like that that part was edited and the line that was dubbed in said what do you mean sending her home in the rain like that it's wonderful life was the only film that Frank Capra produced financed directed and co-wrote he often said it was his favorite of all of his movies while Jimmy Stewart often said that Harvey was the favorite of all of his movies he also said that George Bailey was the favorite character he ever got to play in 1977 they remade it's wonderful life as a TV movie called it happened one Christmas the lead role was played by Marla Thomas she played a character named Mary Bailey hatch and mr. Potter was played by Orson Welles in 2004 the BBC conducted the poll asking for the best movie never to have won an Oscar it's a Wonderful Life came in second only behind the Shawshank Redemption and finally a little recognition the American Film Institute has ranked It's a Wonderful Life as their number one movie on their list of the most inspirational films of all time it's hard to argue with that one and as we close remember no man is a failure who has friends thanks for the wings and with that I want to thank you for watching another episode of a million movies if you have a favorite Christmas movie please put it down in the comments below maybe you'll see it in a future episode here on this channel and until then I look forward to seeing you again next time here on a million movies [Music]

Channel: A Million Movies

Views: 809,808

Rating: 4.8974833 out of 5

Keywords: movies, It's a Wonderful Life, Christmas, Sheldon, Leonard, Donna Reed, Frank Capra, Jimmy, James, Stewart, fact, trivia

Id: lD2Q9GrEHjU

Length: 18min 22sec (1102 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 11 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/Mr_Teaofthetime]

A film I've never seen. Maybe one day.