The Big Picture
- It’s a Wonderful Life went through multiple writers before finding the perfect script.
- Several different endings were filmed, but director Frank Capra wanted the right one.
- The film’s ending was carefully chosen to create a joyous Christmas classic that resonates with audiences.
It’s the holiday classic to end all holiday classics. It’s a Wonderful Life is perhaps the most beloved Christmas film of all time, consistently referenced, traditionally taking up the entirety of NBC’s Christmas Eve airtime for decades, and ranked as one of the greatest accomplishments of legendary director Frank Capra. It tells the story of George Bailey, brought to life by the iconic Jimmy Stewart. After a lifetime of self-sacrifice rewarded by defeat and the near loss of the business his father started, George plans to tragically end his life on Christmas Eve. His demise is stopped by a quirky, but lovable guardian angel named Clarence (Henry Travers). In hopes that the task will finally earn him his wings, Clarence shows George what the world would have been like if he’d never been born. The film culminates in a beautiful ending in which George realizes all the trials he’s faced in his life were meaningful and that, without him, the lives of those he loves and the town he calls home would all be much bleaker. George reunites with his family, and the whole town comes in with donations to help George and his business. As the room bursts into song, George learns that Clarence got his wings.
Despite attempts to reboot or revise It’s a Wonderful Life over the years, the film has continued to avoid modern Hollywood treatment, with many feeling that it is perfect the way it is. However, It’s a Wonderful Life didn’t always play out the way audiences know it. From its source material to a slew of writers and different takes on the script, George Bailey’s Christmas Eve Happily Ever After was almost as different as the movie’s world without its hero.
It’s a Wonderful Life
An angel is sent from Heaven to help a desperately frustrated businessman by showing him what life would have been like if he had never existed.
- Release Date
- January 7, 1947
- Director
- Frank Capra
- Cast
- James Stewart , Donna Reed , Lionel Barrymore , Thomas Mitchell
- Runtime
- 131
- Genres
- Christmas , Supernatural , Drama
‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ Went Through a Number of Writers
It’s a Wonderful Life was based on a short story called The Greatest Gift by author Philip Van Doren Stern. Loosely based on A Christmas Carol, it too follows a man named George who contemplates suicide only to be stopped by an angel who shows the man what a world without him would be like. While the story provided the basis for the film’s principal idea, it did not provide enough material for a full-length feature film. That did not stop studio RKO from seeing potential, though they knew it would take a great deal of creative development. The company purchased the rights to the story and began the process. According to the book, Film History, the first writers tasked with adapting The Greatest Gift were Dalton Trumbo (with a version that made George a politician who tries to end his life due to a lost election), Clifford Odets, and Marc Connelly. RKO was unsatisfied with each attempt and ultimately decided to put the project on the shelf. The studio knew it had a lot of work ahead of it before the adaptation could go forward. Luckily, they had the perfect man for the job.
Director Frank Capra and his production company, Liberty Films, had a nine-film distribution contract with RKO. When the distributor approached Capra about adapting The Greatest Gift, he was immediately drawn to the project. He looked at the attempts that had been written and was also unhappy with each script. Capra purchased the rights from RKO for Liberty and hired a slew of screenwriters to fine tune elements of the earlier versions, while also building out the story Capra wanted. It was a lengthy process that involved five different screenwriters. While great scripts from multiple writers is nothing new when it comes to beloved films, the writing process for It’s a Wonderful Life was anything but wonderful. Capra was a famous perfectionist and his demands for a perfect script exhausted his writers. However, after the process finally came to an end, there was still one crucial part that had many changes ahead of it: the ending.
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Several Endings Were Shot for ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’
Once Capra had a script with which he was satisfied, production on the film was finally underway. However, there would be more rewrites, changes and edits to come regarding the film’s ending. According to Marie Cahill‘s book, It’s a Wonderful Life: A Hollywood Classic, the first filmed conclusion saw George Bailey falling to his knees and reciting the Lord’s Prayer. While not necessarily out of tone with the rest of the film, Capra discarded it. He didn’t like religion to be too literal in his films, and despite the movie’s use of Heaven and angels, found the moment over the top. It is referenced in the finished cut, as George prays aloud, stating “Please God, let me live again!” While still a prayer, Capra felt it was more subtle than using a pre-existing one.
The next unused ending that was shot is one that many fans have had questions about over the years. Audiences love a good villain, but they also love a victorious hero. While George Bailey and his family did indeed get their happy ending, the film’s big bad, Henry F. Potter, brought to life by character actor Lionel Barrymore, is never punished, despite spending the film’s entire runtime trying to destroy the Bailey family and their hard work. It’s peculiar, considering that the Hay’s Code (a strict set of requirements put in place during Hollywood’s Golden Age to censor films) typically required immoral characters to be punished by a film’s end. Potter receives no such fate; his last on-screen appearance features him wishing an ill ending upon George Bailey. Originally, Potter was to be last seen counting money stolen from George. In the midst of his apparent victory, Potter drops dead due to heart failure. After reviewing the footage, however, Capra thought killing Potter was far too mean an ending. As far as the Hay’s Code was concerned, Potter was seen as punished when the town came to the aid of the Bailey family, ensuring that their Building and Loan business would continue on and chip away at Potter’s success.
It’s a Wonderful Life could have been a very different film had the director gone with any of the alternate endings. Despite its dark themes of depression, defeat and suicide, most audiences remember it being a joyous Christmas classic, in no small part, thanks to the ending that its creators eventually landed upon. The movie has evaded reboots, criticism, and reimagining for nearly 80 years, and perhaps that’s because Frank Capra made a perfect film, refusing to settle for the wrong script and, more importantly, the wrong ending. And just like an angel receiving its wings, it seems the film will go on forever.
It’s a Wonderful Life is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.
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