Facts About the Movie "It's a Wonderful Life"

Tweet

Frank Capra's popular 1946 movie "It's a Wonderful Life" has been a favorite for many Americans for generations. It's the story of a small-town banker who loses his way for a while and is visited by a bumbling guardian angel named Clarence. Here are some facts about the movie that I thought you find interesting: * The movies origin was a short story "The Greatest Gift". It was the author's Christmas card in 1943. It fell into the hands of an agent at RKO Pictures, and he paid $10,000 for the motion picture rights. * The male lead in the movie, James Stewart, enlisted in the Army Air Corps during World War II and flew about 2 dozen combat bombing missions over Europe. He remained active in the military until retiring in 1968 as a brigadier general making him the highest-ranking actor in America. * The wintry scenes were actually filmed during a heat wave but only one day of filming was canceled due to the extreme heat. * Most film sets during that time used painted cornflakes for their snow scenes. In this one the flakes were too noisy when people walked on them. The special effects team came up with the idea of using soap flakes and fire extinguisher foam. * It cost $3.7 million to produce the film and even left Capra in the hole $525,000. The movie did not do well at the box office originally. It was pretty much forgotten about until 1974 when the copyright on it lapsed. With television stations no longer having to pay royalties they began playing it non-stop around the holidays and it became the holiday classic it is today.