The Hearth Warmed Bakery of Bedford Falls appears in the background of the film. You don't see the front of this building. You can only see the sign that hangs off the front of the building, which simply reads "Bakery." In fact, all of the buildings released by Target appear in the film, except maybe the post office.
The side of the box of the Hearth Warmed Bakery says "In the early hours of the morning while the towns folk of Bedford Falls are still fast asleep, the bakers scurry around to finish their daily work. They know that when daylight breaks the smell of fresh baked goods will waft through the neighborhood luring the Bailey Family, along with many other residents, to their warm and cozy bakery.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon. Mr. Deeds, starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder (2002)
This Adam Sandler comedy, starring the same familiar faces as you see in almost all of his other movies, is a remake of the Frank Capra classic Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.
Here is a scene from each so you can compare them:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town:
Mr. Deeds:
The feel of the film is the same as the original. Babe Bennett still exists, and she is still up to her same lies. Many lines and scenes carry over. However, Mr. Deeds is full of the usual Adam Sandler jokes and off-color humor.
An interesting thing happens at the end of this film. There is a bridge in the background of one scene, that reminds the viewer of It's a Wonderful Life. A short time later, there is an ice rescue, similar to George Bailey saving his brother Harry. Deeds is even riding a bicycle like a child when this scene takes place.
It's worth watching for the purpose of comparison, but it's still not the original.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, Starring Jimmy Stewart, Maureen O'Hara, Fabian, Laurie Peters. 1962.
If It's a Wonderful Life has a sequel, then that sequel is Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation.
During his career, Stewart played the main characters in three “Mr.” films. The first was Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and the second was Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962), which is about the changing family dynamic as children grow up. In the third, Mr. Krueger’s Christmas (1988), Stewart plays a lonely janitor who finds the true meaning of Christmas.
Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation is full of references to It’s a Wonderful Life. There are so many of these references, that the film is almost an homage to the classic, or a sequel that looks at the question, “what happened next to the Bailey family?” While the film concerns the Hobbs family, and not the Baileys, the connections are still there.
Mr. Hobbs and George Bailey both have daughters named Janie. Another daughter is named Suzie. While not an exact match, the similarity to the name Zuzu is close enough to make one pause to consider the connection.
Source: http://goo.gl/vL0mHJ
The Hobbs family vacations together at a beach house during a trip that Mrs. Hobbs (Maureen O’Hara) calls the “chance of a lifetime,” echoing Sam Wainwright’s claim about the job he offers George in It’s a Wonderful Life. However, they find that the beach house is not as nice as they expected it to be. In fact, the Hobbs family finds a house that is dirty, run-down, and appears to be haunted, reminiscent of the Granville House after the graduation dance at the high school.
The house even has a mansard roof and a troublesome newel post, which served in It’s a Wonderful Life as both a tool to break the tension of several scenes, and as a symbol of George Bailey’s growing frustration. In Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, the newel post is a light-hearted tribute to the older film. The joke is extended when Mr. Hobbs attempts to climb the stairs and one of the steps breaks.
In It’s a Wonderful Life, just before Sam Wainwright offers George the job, Sam tells him of an idea for a factory that he wants to build in Rochester, New York. In Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation, Mr. Hobbs tells his down-on-his-luck, unemployed son-in-law to look for a job in Rochester.
During a social event at a yacht club, Mr. and Mrs. Hobbs become concerned about their youngest daughter Katey (Lauri Peters). Mr. Hobbs becomes so concerned that his wife becomes worried about him. He tells her, “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna’ jump.” This is a reference George Bailey’s perceived solution to his funding shortage problem in It’s a Wonderful Life.
Mr. Hobbs remedies his daughter’s problems by hiring a dance partner for her. It is a move that causes his wife to berate him for “giving $5 to some guy you don’t know from Adam.” The statement echoes Nick, the bartender at Martini’s bar during the Pottersville sequence, who says he doesn’t know George “from Adam’s off ox.”
Mr. Hobbs goes bird watching with a visitor to the summer home. Every time he sees a bird, he asks what kind it is, only to learn that it is always the same species. Every time he sees the bird, thinking it is a new species, he comments, “well, what do you know about that,” which is one of George Bailey’s favorite phrases.
Mr. Hobbs is more cynical than George Bailey, but the children are older. He looks through travel brochures for the Caribbean, France, Britain, and Hawaii. This reminds one of the travel brochures George Bailey carries with him.
In a connection that hits closer to real life, Mr. Hobbs refers to being buried in Woodlawn Memorial Cemetery. In real life, Stewart is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park, in Los Angeles, CA. There is a real Woodlawn Cemetery in Santa Monica, CA.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
The Greatest Show on Earth, starring Betty Hutton, Cornel Wilde, Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, and Gloria Graham. 1952.
This film is about masks. Masks and hiding. Masks and hiding and trust. Masks and hiding and trust and coming to your own conclusions. Not necessarily in that order.
In the film, Jimmy Stewart plays a man on the run. He always stays in character and he always stays in face paint. The movie really is not about Stewart's character. Instead, it is about the cooperation and family relationships that are built in the circus. Stewart is the illustration of this cooperation and dedication.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Jefferson Smith is the head of the Boy Rangers, a thinly-veiled revision of Cub Scouts.
This is a classic "little guy" film.
Stewart's performance is tops. It's a very emotional experience to watch him fall apart during the culmination of the film.
And of course, Beulah Bondi plays his mother. Again. And they sing "Auld Lang Syne". Again. And the same actors appear. Again, including Thomas Mitchell. And H.B. Warner. And Bondi. And those are only actors from It's a Wonderful Life. That doesn't take into consideration actors from other Capra and Capra/Stewart films.
Watch the trailer here:
This film is amazing, and my second-favorite Stewart film. And my second-favorite Capra film, too.
Frank Capra and James Stewart worked together on three film projects: You Can’t Take it With You (1938); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); and It’s a Wonderful Life (1947).
In You Can’t Take it With You, which was Capra’s and Stewart’s first film in the “trilogy,” Capra began examining the idea of the happiness money brings — or fails to bring — to an individual, and by extension, to his family. The main struggle in the film is between the happy-go-lucky Vanderhof family and the Kirby clan. The Kirbys want to purchase and raze the Vanderhof home, along with other surrounding homes, in order to build build a munitions factory.
Early in the film, one of the main characters, Grandpa Vanderhof, portrayed by Lionel Barrymore, talks about “Ism-mania.” Here, we begin to see Capra’s feelings toward America, its government, and its people through Grandpa Vanderhof: “Communism, Fascism, voodooism. Everybody’s got an ‘ism’ these days. When things go a little bad nowadays, you go out and get yourself an ism and you’re in business.”
His daughter, Penny, wonders aloud if the character in the book she is writing should have an “ism.” Grandpa Vanderhof responds to her idea: “Give her Americanism. Let her know something about Americans: John Paul Jones, Patrick Henry, Samuel Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Monroe, Lincoln, Grant, Lee, Edison, Mark Twain. When things got tough for those boys, they didn’t run around looking for ‘isms.’ Lincoln said, ‘with malice toward none and charity to all.’ Nowadays, they say ‘think the way I do or we’ll bomb the daylights out of you.’”
Listen to the exchange here:
Already in You Can’t Take it With You, we see not only Capra’s strong American sentiment, but also a strong aversion to aggression by the strong against the weak. Capra also establishes his overarching “umbrella” theme for all three films (You Can't Take it With You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and It's a Wonderful Life) by quoting Lincoln. Boiled down, this theme is Biblical in nature: “love thy neighbor.”
Another repeating Capra/Stewart theme we see for the first time in You Can’t Take it With You is the value of friendship. The Vanderhof family has many friends throughout the community. They are disarming and charming, and we are able to see that through Mr. DiPinna (Halliwell Hobbes) and Mr. Poppins (Donald Meek), who are brought into the family first as visitors intrigued with the Vanderhof family’s philosophy for life. These characters never leave, but instead become part of the extended Vanderhof/Sycamore family.
This idea of following dreams is combined with the idea of capitalism within You Can’t Take it With You. Grandpa Vanderhof at one time had a good-paying job, but quit because he was not having fun doing it. Instead, he decided to spend his time collecting stamps and attending graduation ceremonies. He made his living as a stamp appraiser and taught his family to follow their dreams — to do what they enjoy doing — regardless of whether or not it is profitable. This echoes what George told Mary during the phone scene in It’s a Wonderful Life, when he said, “I want to do what I want to do.”
Money is not important to the Vanderhof/Sycamore family. Instead, they focus on family, community and the freedom of self-expression. Grandpa Vanderhof does not even care about birthdays and does not believe in paying taxes. Instead, he lives in the moment, filling his time with whatever activity happens to interest him at that exact moment.
We also are able to see the importance of friends on several occasions throughout the course of the film. During his trips to town, Grandpa Vanderhof is stopped on the street many times by a person or a group of people who want to talk to him. Often, they are looking for advice, or hoping he will provide a calming word when they are worried. Like many of the residents of Bedford Falls in It’s a Wonderful Life, Grandpa Vanderhof’s neighbors are renters who are subjected to the whims and decisions of their landlords. Grandpa Vanderhof and George Bailey serve the same role in their respective films: The residents in their town turn to them for guidance and help when their lifestyle is threatened. The irony is that Barrymore played both the calming Grandpa Vanderhof and the Scrooge-like Mr. Potter, who was harming the renters of Bedford Falls.
The importance of friends is further illustrate after the granddaughter, Alice Sycamore, leaves home, humiliated after a failed courtship with carefree mogul/heir-apparent Tony Kirby (James Stewart). The family decides to move closer to her, and enlists the aid of their friends, who help them pack their lives, memories and belongings.
In another scene, the Vanderhof family has to go to court, where they face several charges, including manufacturing fireworks. Their friends fill the courthouse in order to show their support. “I didn’t know anybody had that many friends anymore,” a judge says to a crowded courtroom. Later in this scene, those friends pool their money to pay the Vanderhof family’s fine. It is a variation of the final scene in It’s a Wonderful Life.
Friendship and self-expression are key themes in You Can’t Take it With You. They are two of the tools Grandpa Vanderhof uses to rally against the monopolistic capitalism of Anthony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold). While in jail facing the fireworks charge, the Vanderhof men and the rest of the inmates show that they can make the best of bad circumstances as they sing and dance in the jail cell. Mr. Kirby, on the other hand, sits alone and sulks.
At one point during their jail stay, Grandpa Vanderhof tries to convince the senior Kirby to enjoy life instead of concentrating on making money: “You can’t take it with you, Mr. Kirby. So what good is it? As near as I can see, the only thing you can take with you is the love of your friends.”
When the elder Kirby begins berating the criminals in the cell, Grandpa Vanderhof makes a surprisingly vehement speech that is out of character for him, considering his outlook toward life. The speech, in fact, is almost a re-write of what the ghost of Marley tells Scrooge in A Christmas Carol. However, speech still reflects Grandpa Vanderhof's moral values, illustrating that anger and morality can co-exist:
What makes you think you are such a superior human being?
Your money? If you do, you’re a dull-witted fool, Mr. Kirby,
and a poor one at that. Poorer than any of these people that
you call scum because I’ll guarantee at least they’ve got some
friends, but you with your jungle and your long claws as you
call them, you’ll wind up your miserable existence without
anything you can call a friend. You may be a high mogul to
yourself, Mr. Kirby, but to me you’re a failure. Failure as a
man. Failure as a human being. Even a failure as a father.
When your time comes, I doubt if a single tear will be shed
over you. The world will probably cry, ‘good riddance.’
That’s a nice prospect, Mr. Kirby. I hope you’ll enjoy it. I
hope you’ll get some comfort out of all this coin you’ve
been sweating over then!”
Mr. Kirby (left) and Grandpa Vanderhof (right, with crutches)
Source: http://goo.gl/toCf5o
This scene contains irony: Stewart’s character, Tony Kirby is in jail as well, listening to this speech, given by an actor to whom Stewart’s character will make a similar speech in It’s a Wonderful Life. Instead of a jungle cat, Stewart’s George Bailey will call Barrymore’s Potter character a “scurvy little spider.”
Yet another theme set in celluloid that we will find repeating in Capra’s and Stewart’s films is the importance of family. When Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur) moves away from home in shame, her previously happy family becomes gloomy. This is best illustrated by the dejected Grandpa Vanderhof, who used to cheerfully return home from his trips to town. After Alice leaves, his returns home are quiet and low-key. Capra emphasizes the family’s gloom with rainy weather. Even some leftover fireworks no longer provide their formerly cheerful explosions. As we will see in It’s a Wonderful Life, the theme that every person’s life touches so many other lives began its Capra/Stewart connection here.
After Alice leaves, she begins writing letters home. In the one letter that is read on screen, she writes, “Mrs. Kirby was right. I should have stayed in my own back yard.” While used in a different context – that she should have stayed in her middle-class setting instead of falling in love with a man from a higher class – her statement is the exact opposite of George Bailey’s dream to see the world. Although she left her hometown because she was ashamed, she failed to realize that running from her problems will not solve them. Capra must have realized this error, and attempted to fix it in It’s a Wonderful Life. Instead of running from his problems, George Bailey faces them head-on. As a result he is “trapped” in Bedford Falls. However, the trap is of his own making, and he eventually comes to realize that no matter where you are in life, you will always have problems. He also realizes that it is easier to face those problems when you are surrounded by family, and that life is as good as you choose to make it.
Although Alice comes to the wrong conclusion, her dedication to her family still shows in the letters, she writes daily. Previously in You Can’t Take it With You, Capra had explored the idea of angels, when Grandpa Vanderhof tells Alice that he will not sell the family home because he thinks it will be like moving out on Grandma Vanderhof. Angels are revisited in It’s a Wonderful Life.
Because of her letter, Grandpa Vanderhof decides to sell the house and leave the memory of his wife. He has always lived for the moment, and is continuing to do so. What has changed is that part of him had continued to live in the past, for the sake of the memory of his wife. Grandpa Vanderhof comes to understand the message of the speech he gave Anthony Kirby while they were in jail. His memory of his wife is one of the things he can take with him.
He realizes that what is more important is to experience life with his family who is living. It is part of living in the moment. Alice continues to have an effect on him, shown by his unhappiness, and they all continue to have an effect on her, as she tells in her letter. Grandpa Vanderhof decides that if they are going to have that effect on each other, they might as well do it in person. Family is so important that he even accepts a low offer of $25,000 for his house, even though he had previously declined an offer of $100,000.
In the final scene of You Can’t Take it With You, we see the importance of both family and friends. In this scene, Tony Kirby is reunited with his father. Alice has returned home, upset that Grandpa Vanderhof has decided to sell the family home. In true “Capracorn” style, Tony Kirby and Alice make up, and Anthony Kirby accepts her into the Kirby family, as friends dance around them while singing “Polly Wolly Doodle.”
The scene is reminiscent of the gathering of George Bailey’s family and friends at the end of It’s a Wonderful Life, and “Polly Wolly Doodle” has the same effect as “Auld Lang Syne” has in the final scene of It’s a Wonderful Life, bringing all of the characters together as one large, extended family.
Throughout You Can’t Take it With You, a sign that reads “home sweet home” becomes a symbol. At the beginning of the film, the sign is constantly knocked off its hook by a variety of exploding fireworks. One family member or another dutifully hangs the sign back up every time it falls. When the family is packing to move, the sign gets knocked off its hook and Alice’s mother, Penny, begins to sob. The sign comes to symbolize the destruction and displacement of the family and the homestead. However, that family unit is reestablished and the sign is re-hung in its traditional location, never to move again…unless it is knocked down by more fireworks.
As we saw in You Can’t Take it With You, Grandpa Vanderhof's friends show up in court to support him and pay his family's bail. It is a scene we also see in It’s a Wonderful Life when the residents of Bedford Falls band together to raise money to save the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan, and to keep George out of prison.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Watch one of the funniest scenes in Mr. Deeds Goes to town right here:
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), stars Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. Arthur is a Capra staple, having appeared in several of his film. She was even considered for the role of Mary in It's a Wonderful Life.
In Mr. Deeds, Arthur plays a newspaper reporter. The newspaper was a theme, topic, and tool that occurred repeatedly in Capra’s films, including The Power of the Press (1928), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town was Capra’s first “Mr.” movie. It was followed in 1939 by Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, starring Jimmy Stewart. Stewart later went on to star other non-Capra "Mr." films, including Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962) and Mr. Krueger’s Christmas (1988).
In Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, the main character, Longfellow Deeds, portrayed by Gary Cooper, lives in Mandrake Falls, invoking the word “Falls” in a town name, which will be repeated in Bedford Falls. The name Longfellow Deeds is similar to “Long” John Willoughby in Meet John Doe, which also starred Cooper in the title role. Deeds is a little eccentric, like the Sycamore family in You Can’t Take it With You. He plays the tuba for entertainment, and to help him think. While not rich, he also has a housekeeper, a character who also appears in You Can’t Take it With You and It’s a Wonderful Life.
As the recipient of a $20 million inheritance, Deeds in unfazed when he receives the news, replying, “I wonder why he left me all that money. I don’t need it.” Deeds is a simple man, though the employees of the law firm of Cedar, Cedar, Cedar and Buddington, along with the people who he meets in the big city, are not. Before he leaves for a new, fancy lifestyle, the residents of Mandrake Falls hold a parade for Deeds. During that parade, the band plays “Auld Lang Syne,” which Capra will reprise for use in the final scene of It’s a Wonderful Life. Despite the fact that the parade is intended to honor him, Deeds grabs his tuba and joins in the performance, showing that he is a common man, no different than the other residents of Mandrake Falls. When the train pulls away, taking Deeds to his new life, he looks out at the throng of people celebrating his good fortune and comments, “Gosh, I’ve got a lot of friends.”
Longfellow Deeds’ foil is Louise “Babe” Bennett (Jean Arthur), a reporter for a newspaper focused more on the bottom line than the truth of the stories it prints. In order to get the story on Deeds, Bennett takes on the persona on Mary Dawson (Capra has many characters named Mary), who befriends Deeds.
Bennett/Dawson takes Deeds on a tour of New York City. Just as Mr. Smith traveled around Washington, D.C. and reflected on the meaning of the sights he saw, Mr. Deeds does the same in New York City after visiting General Grant’s tomb. Deeds reflects on the Civil War, and how it was “the beginning of a new nation like Abraham Lincoln said. And I can see that Ohio boy (Grant) being inaugurated as president. Things like that can only happen in a country like America.”
As Deeds and Bennett get to know each other, they begin to fall in love, even though Bennett continues to use her false identity and writes sensational news stories about Deeds. Eventually, he tries to propose to “Mary,” in a scene that is different from, but carries the same sentiment as the phone scene in It’s a Wonderful Life. Deeds runs away and trips over garbage cans in a scene that will be re-used in It’s a Wonderful Life when Uncle Billy takes a similar trip off-camera.
Another borrowed element that will show up during the bank run in It’s a Wonderful Life occurs when Deeds meets with an opera group. During the meeting, a fire truck passes the building where they are meeting, and Deeds runs to a window to watch it pass. The customers of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan will do this in It’s a Wonderful Life in a scene filmed eleven years later. Something similar also happened in another Capra film, American Madness.
There are many quotes, phrases and themes that are carried over between Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Capra’s other films. In Mr. Deeds, the title character asks, “What puzzles me is why people seem to get so much pleasure out of…hurting each other. Why don’t they try liking each other once in awhile?” He later says, “People here are funny. They work so hard at living, they forgot how to live.”
At one point in the film, Mr. Deeds is berated by a poor farmer for feeding donuts to a horse and holding a party while other people are starving. The farmer reminds Mr. Deeds that he can’t take it with him, which is a theme that showed up as a Capra movie title in 1938, and also on a plaque in George Bailey's office in It's a Wonderful Life.
Deeds is taken to court by his attorneys in an attempt to prove his incompetence and take over control of his money. However, the people in the courtroom stand up for Mr. Deeds, which is another element we later see in You Can’t Take it With You, It’s a Wonderful Life, and Meet John Doe, in which groups of people come together to support a downtrodden main character who is at his breaking point.
Capra's creativity seems not to come from his ability to create something new. His creativity is his ability to take multiple themes, phrases, concepts, feelings, and make an entire list of films that look at those ideas from different angles.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Meet John Doe, starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, and Walter Brennan. 1941.
During the course of It's a Wonderful Life, a desperate George Bailey is saved by one crisis by an angel, and later saved from a second crisis by family and friends.
Director Frank Capra originally examined the idea of a desperate man saved by his friends and family in his 1941, in his film Meet John Doe.
The film is about Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck), who, in protest over being fired from the newspaper where she works, writes a letter from “John Doe,” who threatens to commit suicide on Christmas Eve due to perceived social ills. Mitchell gets her job back and hires “Long” John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) to portray the fictional John Doe, so the newspaper can profit from the support Mitchell’s fake letter received when it was printed.
The newspaper is a theme, topic and tool that occurs repeatedly in Capra’s films, including The Power of the Press (1928), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), It Happened One Night (1934), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), Meet John Doe (1941), and Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
While a newspaper played a role in telling the story of George's brother Harry, It’s a Wonderful Life draws a great deal of direction and other inspiration from Meet John Doe.
As the film progresses, people across the country create chapters of the John Doe Club, which supports the ideals purportedly created by “Long” John Willoughby. While he does believe in those ideals, there is a problem: He did not create the initial push for the support of them. Instead, being down on his luck, Willoughby was paid to become the character of John Doe and to claim the thoughts and ideals as his own. Payment for that acting job came in the form of money and a posh place to stay.
His friend, The Colonel (Walter Brennan), warned Willoughby that he was becoming a “Helot” – someone who is more concerned with money and comfort than the truth – but Willoughby ignores the warnings. Eventually, he realizes that The Colonel was correct, and becomes despondent over the lie he is living, and that people are falling for it and coming in droves (in mobs?) to see him, as if he were a movie star. It is an interesting exercise to watch this happen and compare it to the modern American craze to idolize people who are not stars, but famous "personalities" and stalk them through "reality" TV shows.
Distraught over the lie, Willoughby decides that he really will commit suicide on Christmas Eve, and threatens to jump off of the high rise that houses the newspaper office. He writes his own letter addressed to “All John Does.”
While standing on the ledge, he pulls the letter out of his trench coat pocket. It is a combination of scenes that we will see a few years later in It’s a Wonderful Life. Capra will have George Bailey pull his life insurance policy out of his overcoat, and later in the film, George will stand on the bridge, on Christmas Eve, with snow falling around him, on the brink of suicide.
While Ann cannot convince Willoughby not to jump, Capra invokes the It’s a Wonderful Life image of the “whole town” coming to support him. It is similar to when seemingly all of the residents of Bedford Falls (except Potter) cram into the Bailey home and give George money to save the building and loan.
There are many other connections between Meet John Doe and It’s a Wonderful Life. The antagonist in Meet John Doe is D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold), whose name is somewhat similar in form to Henry F. Potter due to the constant presence of the initials. The same is true of Arnold’s other Capra film character, Anthony P. Kirby, in You Can’t Take it With You. Speaking of Potter, Willoughby is told that if he jumps, he will be stripped of identification and buried in a Potter’s Field. A reference to Potter’s Field, along with the character of Potter, also appear in It’s a Wonderful Life.
Near the end of Meet John Doe, one character apologizes for the actions of the club members, saying, “We just lost our heads and acted like a mob.” This mob mentality has been seen before in American Madness and will be seen again in It’s a Wonderful Life. In both of those cases, the mob action takes place during bank runs.
To cap off the comparison of these two films, both of them end with the image of bells ringing.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Ziegfeld Girl. Starring James Stewart and Judy Garland. 1941.
Crap. It's a musical.
I'm sure it's great if you're into musicals. But I'm more into movies that progress forward. Musicals, for me, seem to introduce an idea and then spin its wheels and dwell on it for about 4 minutes at a stretch while someone drones on and on and on about it.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
It Happened One Night. Starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. 1934.
An out-of-work journalist (Gable) and a runaway heiress (Colbert) agree to disagree. He learns her secret and promises not to tell in exchange for her exclusive story. It's your classic story of blackmail.
There is chivalry and hate and contempt and friendship and love and every extreme you can imagine. It is extremely risque, especially at the motor lodge, considering its age.
The Wall of Jericho stands tall until it falters. It's not my favorite Capra film, but it holds its own. Watching the cast belt out "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" like they are teenagers singing a modern Top 40 hit at the Homecoming dance is entertaining, as well. :)
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
It's a Very Merry Muppet Christmas Movie. 2002. Starring David Arquette, Joan Cusack and Whoppi Goldberg.
This installment of the Muppet franchise is a riff on It's a Wonderful Life. Kermit is in trouble and requires intervention by an angel. Nothing is sacred here as they lampoon A Christmas Story, Star Wars, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and the Crocodile Hunter. This originally aired on television and was later made into DVD.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Lost Horizon. Starring Ronald Coleman, Jane Wyatt, Thomas Mitchell and H.B. Warner. Directed by Frank Capra. (1937).
An airplane full of escaping Americans crash-land and are saved by people who live in what seems like a utopia. However, things are not as they appear.
It is supposed to be a very good movie, but I found it confusing. However, I admit I was distracted.
There are several comparisons to It's a Wonderful Life, including the following:
It's a Wonderful Life begins with pages showing film credits being turned. Lost Horizon starts with opening credits, followed by turning pages.
Both films star Thomas Mitchell and H.B. Warner.
Mitchell's character in Lost Horizon tells another "don't take any wooden nickels." In It's a Wonderful Life, his character tells another "don't take any punk nickels."
Both films have bells ringing in them.
I watched a restored version of the film. At the beginning, they explained that over the years, the film has been shortened and many parts have gone missing or have deteriorated. During the restoration process, the entire soundtrack was located, along with some of the lost footage. That footage was re-inserted into the restored film in order to make it as complete as possible. In order to fill the blank areas where there was no film to match the soundtrack, still photos were used to fill the gaps. The method was distracting but understandable and appreciated. It was done in an effort to restore the film to as close to Capra's original vision as possible.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon. An Ameican Tail: Feivel Goes West. 1991. Starring Phillip Glasser and Jimmy Stewart.
Ehh...it's okay, but...ehh. It starred Jimmy Stewart as Wylie Burp, so that's a good thing!!!
I give it 2 stars out of 5. The kids might fight me for more.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Click. 2006. Starring Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken.
This is a movie about not missing out on life by being so busy and trying to speed through it. Unfortunately, you get smacked with the message within the first five minutes and it just keeps smacking you over and over again. The cool thing about this movie is that it's a lot like It's a Wonderful Life, especially toward the end.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Harvey, Starring Harry Anderson, Leslie Nielsen, and Swoozie Kurtz (1996).
"My mother used to say to me...in this world, Elwood, you must be either oh so smart or oh so pleasant. For years I was smart. I recommend pleasant."
-Elwood P. Dowd
A painting by any other name is still Dowd...Elwood P. Let me give you my card.
And yet this 1996 version is 15 minutes longer than the original starring Jimmy Stewart.
It's not fair to compare the Stewart version to the 1996 version. One isn't a remake of the other. Instead, both of them are simply interpretations of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play written by Mary Chase.
This one is equally good. However Stewart and Anderson bring different aspects to the character of Elwood P. Dowd. Stewart is more innocent, if not naive. Anderson is more playful.
Check it out and decide for yourself which one is your favorite.
This is a special week for this blog. This week, is completely dedicated to the film Harvey. Be sure to check it out on Wednesday and Friday. I will even take a break from my pictures of bells in order to post a Harvey-related photo. I hope you enjoy.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
Harvey. Starring Jimmy Stewart and Josephine Hull. 1950.
This is a great film, though a bit mysterious.
Based on a play written by Mary Chase, there is absolutely no doubt that Stewart's character, Elwood P. Dowd, an easy-going drinker, is absolutely nuts.
And then you get to the end of the film and question everything you have seen.
Who is crazy? Who is sane? How are those terms defined? Who defines them? What makes them so qualified? What quality of life do you want; that of the "sane" or that of the "insane"?
They are amazing questions to ponder.
This is a must-see for fans of Stewart and for fans of Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway plays.
4.5 out of 5 stars
This Harvey poster used to hang in my IAWL/Stewart Tribute hallway,
and is part of my personal collection.
Here is the trailer:
Stewart reprised his role in the made-for-TV version of Harvey in 1972 for the
Hallmark Hall of Fame. I have never seen this version all of the way through .... nor can I find it anywhere to buy or rent .... but I post links to it here for you:
When everyone started talking about the possibility that someone may "finally" be creating a sequel to It's a Wonderful Life in 2014, my first thought was "another one?"
That's because it has already been done before. On second thought, perhaps it hasn't been done before. Perhaps, instead, there has been a spin-off movie.
I am talking about the movie Clarence, Starring Robert Carradine. It was released in January 1998 by Republic Pictures, which also put out It's a Wonderful Life. The movie explores what happened to Clarence about 50 years later after he saved George Bailey.
Clarence feels like he made a mess in Bedford Falls, despite his successful intervention. Because of that, he refuses to serve as a guardian angel any longer.
Not even five minutes into the movie, one angel refuses to return to earth. His reason? He doesn't have wings. In It's a Wonderful Life, we learn that this is the perfect reason to go to earth. Helping others is the way to earn your wings. It's a huge hole in the movie plot that cannot be ignored.
Apparently, in addition to earning their wings, guardian angels also get younger as time progresses.
After some conniving, Clarence accepts a mission to help a friend's wife who is contemplating suicide. He is given strict rules to follow, but of course, things don't go quite right for Clarence. He is forced to break every rule he is given. His intentions are good, but the consequences are always unintended and always bad.
This movie is dated by the technology that appears in it. The family that Clarence helps is a family of computer programmers who are trying to repair a glitchy video game and get it to market. Only adults will recognize the 5.25" floppy disks that the game is programmed on.
The works of Mark Twain again make an important appearance in this movie.
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
American Madness. 1932. Starring Walter Huston and Pat O'Brien.
Watch it here:
It was released on DVD for the first time on Dec. 5, 2006. It is only 76 minutes long, but very, very good.
American Madness (1932) is a Depression
Era story about Matt Brown (Pat O’Brien), an ex-convict who is given a new
chance in life as the chief teller of the Union National Bank, which is managed
by Thomas Dickson (Walter Huston). The bank is robbed, and Brown becomes the main
suspect.
Brown has a solid alibi, but will not reveal it because of his
dedication to Mr. Dickson. Brown faces a problem: Should he be selfish and save
his own reputation, and possibly prevent serving time in prison, or should he
tell the truth and destroy Mr. Dickson’s life?
This
film is distinctly American in its message. It is about loyalty to people and
to a job, about second chances, power and the little man, and the struggle to
survive. In short, it is about the American Dream. The time period in which
this film is set was a time of insecurity, change and suspicion of business and
of others.
Looking
at this film, we see many items that Capra later reused later in It’s a Wonderful Life, including themes and dialogue that was
either taken word-for-word, or re-worked to find its way into It’s a Wonderful Life and other Capra
films, such as You Can’t Take it With You.
Just
as Potter wants to liquidate the Bailey Building and Loan in It’s Wonderful Life, the Board of
Directors of Union National Bank wants to merge with the New York Trust. Dixon
fights against this merger, as George Bailey fights against the liquidation of
the building and Loan. Their meeting about the merger and the bank’s practices
sounds very similar to the meeting of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan
board in It’s a Wonderful Life.
Just
as Peter and George Bailey give loans to friends and people whom they trust,
Thomas Dickson gives loans based on hunches and first impressions. Both films
have mob scenes and crowds, which the main character must wade through in order
to unlock the front door of the banking establishment. Each film also has
sirens that draw the attention of the mob away from the main character. In both
films, the main character attempts to calm the mob with a speech, and they both
must keep their respective establishments open until 4 p.m. in order to remain
in business.
At the same time, both establishments experience a money shortage
and must find a way to survive, which appears in the form of donations from
within the organization. If the Union National Bank (an intentional name
focusing both on the union of the nation and the need for union of its
customers and employees) cannot stay open until 4 p.m., the bank examiner will
arrive. This theme will re-appear in It’s a Wonderful Life, in which the
bank examiner seems to always be around…typically at the most inopportune
times.
When
things seem to be at their worst, the employees of Union National Bank begin
calling Dickson's friends to ask them for help. This is later revisited when Mary and
Uncle Billy rally the residents of Bedford Falls to come to George’s aid in It’s a Wonderful Life. Meanwhile, in
both films, the main characters are contemplating suicide, albeit by very
different methods.
When
scenes and episodes are not being used, phrases and dialogue are being tested –
intentionally or unintentionally – on movie-goers. One woman uses the phrase
“holy mackerel,” which will be one of George Bailey’s catch phrases. Another
phrase that makes its way into both films is the reference to both of the main
characters having a “red letter day.” Both characters are facing similar
issues, and the connection can be nothing less than intentional.
When Dickson addresses the board of directors about the proposed merger with the New
York Trust, he tells them, “I’m not interested in profit. I’m interested in the
bank and the depositors. They’re my friends. They’re looking to me for
protection and I’m not walking out on them.”
Ironically,
this speech in support of his friends and customers is exactly opposite of a
similar statement Mr. Potter makes during a meeting with the board of directors
of the Bailey Brothers Building and Loan. During that meeting, George makes a
speech about the importance of the establishment, and Potter interrupts him,
saying, “I’m not interested in your book. I’m talking about the Building and
Loan.”
Another
line in American Madness appears to be an early version of a statement
Potter will go on to make. In the earlier film, one of the board members tells Dickson, “The depositors you were protecting were the first ones to pounce on
you. You thought they were your friends. Why don’t you go out there now and…get
some help from them.” At
the time this statement is made, the crowd is in an uproar and obtaining help
from them is highly unlikely.
Potter
will later say in It’s a Wonderful Life, “Why don’t you go to the
riff-raff you love so much and ask them to let you have eight thousand dollars?
You know why? Because they’d run you out of town on a rail.”
Another connection to It's a Wonderful Life that I stumbled across on May 11, 2015, is that both films starred Sarah Edwards. She portrayed Mrs. Hatch in It's a Wonderful Life, and a phone gossip in American Madness (uncredited). According to Internet Movie Database, Edwards is also known for her roles in The Shop Around the Corner (starring Jimmy Stewart), and The Bishop's Wife (starting Karolyn Grimes and Bobby Anderson).
In my movie reviews, I give my brief thoughts on what I watched. Sometimes I will expound on those thoughts, but more often than not, I will just give a brief opinion. You can read plot descriptions on Internet Movie Database or on Amazon.
A Hole in the Head. Starring Frank Sinatra. Directed by Frank Capra (1959).
Notice the repeated use of the word "Wonderful" in the trailer above.
This film features great use of music, which makes sense, because it is a vehicle for Sinatra.
But beyond the great music, I just couldn't do it. I tried. But I couldn't stay awake. I tried watching it three different times, and I fell asleep each time. Sometimes multiple times.
I'm pretty sure it has everything to do with the fact that:
1) I hate musicals. Synonyms include loathe and despise.
2) After It's a Wonderful Life, Capra's films lost their allure...at least for me they did. And that makes me sad.
I'm a day late on this blog entry. One reason is because of the holiday weekend. I'm off on everything. The second reason is because I wanted to use this entry to review the film War Room, which we watched on Labor Day.
First, I need to put this in perspective. My goal for this blog is to connect all of my entries back to the film It's a Wonderful Life. So please allow me to do that with War Room.
When it was released in 1946, It's a Wonderful Life reportedly received bad reviews. This myth is not true. According to Jeanine Basinger, author of The It's a Wonderful Life Book, “sample reviews from around the country indicate that almost everyone liked It’s a Wonderful Life and many people loved it. The reviews were not entirely favorable, but the overall response was enthusiastic” (54).
In Britain, however, critics hated it. A review in the April 7, 1947 Daily Mail said, “This isn’t a film. It’s a full gale of sentiment” (Basinger 66).
British journalist Jonathan Coe claims that “It’s a Wonderful Life opened to a reasonable but not outstanding business … and received mixed notices: many reviewers liked it but the British and East Coast critics were occasionally savage, calling it ‘a figment of simple Pollyanna platitudes,’ ‘an orgy of sweetness’ and ‘an embarrassment to both flesh and spirit’” (81-82).
This film received poor reviews in Britain because it was made for Americans. It was created to support and empower an American ideology, not a British ideology. The British audience may have understood the general, stated message that “no man is a failure who has friends,” but the deeper meanings — including the messages relating to capitalism and the American Dream — were lost to the British audience.
This idea is illustrated in a review in the April 3, 1947 issue of the British Evening News: “I believe this to be a very good film—for Americans” (Basinger 66). It also can be seen in Coe’s evaluation of the film:
For most people it seems that the film’s conviction and
emotional momentum…carry all before them. And yet there are
several evasions and contradictions at its heart. Most notably,
the depiction of “Pottersville” — the nightmarish vision of how
quaint little Bedford Falls would have turned out if George Bailey
hadn’t been there to save it — looks feeble today … Besides, if
Bailey alone has prevented this from coming to pass, isn’t this a
damning comment on the lack of enterprise and resilience among
all the other “little men” who live in Bedford Falls? And if small-town
life is so great, why can it only be saved, in the end, by a large cash
donation from the one friend of Bailey’s who has managed to leave his
home town and make a name for himself in the business? (82).
This is an interesting statement, and at face value, it raises some very interesting and valid questions. However, Coe, who lives in London, misses the components of time, relationships, and dedication, and faith in his argument.
Coe seems to argue that it is okay to get rich and walk away from your home town and the people who helped “raise” you. In fact, it is okay to travel and have a life away from where you were born. After all, the American Dream is based around the dreams of individuals, and was the luring force that brought many European immigrants to America. However, It’s a Wonderful Life argues that travel experiences and dreams are more meaningful when you stay in your hometown. You benefit from those experiences when you apply them to your life in order to give back to those who helped raise you, and with whom you have developed a strong relationship over a long period of time. The longer the relationship is allowed to grow, the stronger the bond and the commitment to the needs of others will become.
In his biography of Stewart, which focuses on finding common themes among many of Stewart’s films, Coe analyzed Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. In that analysis, Coe wrote, “When viewing the film today, then, we should perhaps make an effort to see it in its historical context, remembering that back in 1939 its ringing exaltation of America as the land of the free must have carried great symbolic weight…” (56-57).
This also should be true when the British, or anyone else, watch It’s a Wonderful Life. Coe does not mention the need for a consideration of Americanism in his analysis of It’s a Wonderful Life.
The same argument can be made regarding the 2015 film War Room, which is about a woman who learns about the power of prayer and uses it to save her marriage. This film is the creation of Stephen and Alex Kendrick, who also created memorable films such as Facing the Giants, Fireproof, and (my favorite of the batch) Courageous. All of these films are unapologetically Christian in their message and either teach or remind their audience how to trust God when you feel you can't keep going and want to give up.
War Room is no different. During its first week, it was the second top-grossing film. During Labor Day weekend, it topped the box office.
Yet, with that kind of success, one has to question the kinds of ratings it has received. Its Rotten Tomato score, reported on Flixter.com this morning was a mere 36% of critics liking the film. However, its Flixter user score is 91 percent. Why?
There could be many reasons. First, personal taste definitely accounts for something. Secondly, professional reviewers watch film after film after film and at some point, I believe they lock into the things they like and the things they don't like. As a former journalist, I can say that I became jaded. I believe movie reviewers face the same problem.
But I also believe that the reviewers don't understand the intended audience the Kendrick Brothers were aiming for. Almost all of the critics who gave War Room a horrid review use all of the same tried-and-true arguments of atheists: Why not give credit where credit is due? What about the hypocrisy? Why are you trying to force your God down my throat? Why so heavy-handed?
They forget that they paid for a ticket and they are doing their job. They fail in their reviews where the British fail in their reviews of War Room: They can't relate.
If you are British, you won't understand the full complexity of It's a Wonderful Life. If you aren't a Christian, you won't fully understand the message of War Room. You haven't studied the Word. You don't understand the Word. You take witty pot-shots from your high throne in New York and believe you have all of the answers.
As a Christian, I don't claim to have all of the answers - ask my wife; she will agree - but I'm learning. And that's what War Room does - it teaches. I agree with many of the critics that the acting is pretty stiff, but that's where the nay-sayers and I part company. I would urge you to watch War Room in an attempt to learn, not to judge. Judging is easy. Judging is lazy. It's harder and more noble to take the lessons of War Room and apply them to your own life.
Basinger, Jeanine (in Collaboration with the trustees of the Frank Capra Archives), Interviews by Leonard Maltin. The It’s a Wonderful Life Book. New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1996.
Coe, Jonathan. Jimmy Stewart: A Wonderful Life. New York: Arcade Publishing, 1994.
