According to the flyer in my DVD case, this movie was a box office failure when it was released. The critics panned it as being overly sentimental. It wasn’t until years later that it became a Christmas “classic”.
My favorite line in the movie is from Nick: “We serve hard liquor to men who want to get drunk fast, and we don’t need any characters around here to liven up the joint!”
And of course, you know Nick was played by Sheldon Leonard, who later became a top television executive. My understanding is that once it fell into the public domain, television networks started picking it up at Christmastime because they did not have to pay royalties to anyone.
(I can’t say which is my favorite line. That’s a good one. Another I like is when George tells Eustace they’re flying the hero brother home, and Eustace says, “In a plane?” and George gives him an odd look.)
I feel compelled to share Ebert’s wonderful essay on the film in his Great Movies section. It mentions that both Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart considered it their favorite film.
BTW: Donna Reed’s boring date at the high-school prom, the one who eventually opens the dance floor under the dancers. That was a grown-up Alfalfa, of Our Gang fame.
Side note: Drew Barrymore is Lionel Barrymore’s grand-niece. I have always been struck by the way she has inherited his mouth – indeed, his entire lower-jaw structure. That way her mouth has of sort of opening on one side while staying closed on the other, giving her a smirking appearance – that’s Great-Uncle Lionel’s feature, too.
Hm. Someone told me when I was young that when she was a kid she had something akin to a mini stroke or something like that and that was the cause for her face’s oddness.
Was I being messed with?
-FrL-
That I don’t know. But watch “It’s a Wonderful Life,” or indeed Lionel Barrymore in any other role in the 1930s and 1940s, and tell me you don’t see Drew Barrymore’s mouth.
It’s a Wonderful Life was neither a critical nor a popular failure when it was released. Its reputation has increased since then, but it was never considered a failure. It was in the public domain for a while, but it’s back in copyright now:
Total hijack: I saw The Mummy while I was in library school, and that’s my favorite scene. I need it on a t-shirt.
But it has Donna Reed at the very height of her goddessness. For the gift of her gams, I forgive it its sins.
But I still prefer the Bishop’s Wife.
Yeah, that flash of leg when Stewart steps on her robe is worth the price of admission.
To go off on a bit of a tangent, it isn’t only It’s A Wonderful Life that suffered this fate- although it did reasonably well at the box office when released in 1983, MGM didn’t think A Christmas Story would do that well, and it was out of theaters by the end of November. Generally disliked by critics, the film didn’t become a holiday standard until it started airing on cable, thus giving truth to a prophesy given by a reviewer in the New York Native, who wrote, “A Christmas Story may well become a television classic.” (A Christmas Story, of course, did not fall out of copyright as It’s A Wonderful Life did, but the rights were transferred, either due to a TV package deal between MGM and Warner Bros. or the purchase of MGM by Turner Entertainment- online sources vary.)
In the original story, that’s essentially what happened. And her husband was an abusive alcoholic.
Not a Christmas movie, but many Dopers might be surprised to learn that The Princess Bride was also only modestly successful in theaters. Although it seems practically everyone has seen it, that’s because it became a hit on video – my family and I saw it in the theater when it was first out after having it recommended by a friend, but when I’ve asked other people my age they say they first saw it as a rental.
I imagine The Princess Bride might have done better in theaters if it hadn’t had such a lousy trailer.
I did not know that. I was only thinking that being married to someone who went around braying “Hee Haw!” all the time would probably prompt an axe murder sooner or later.
Now that would be an interesting twist:
“Wh- where’s Mary?”
“She’s in Sing Sing, George. She’s going to the Chair tonight!”
We just finished our annual viewing. The wife cried, like always.
Someone earlier suggested Mary killed George’s father. I wouldn’t pin that on her myself, but I do wonder why she keeps trying to remind him of the night his father died, with that “George Bailey Lassoes the Moon” sign and always singing “Buffalo Gals.”
And at the end, when he needs $8000, Sam Wainwright telegrams him that his office can advance George up to $25,000, and still people are throwing money at him. Sam’s got him covered.
But those are minor quibbles. We love the movie. Small-town America in microcosm in the early 20th century. You’ve got the post-WWI flu epidemic, the Charleston, the Great Depression, WWII.
Something else I’ve also noticed. George meets the 18-year-old Mary at the graduation dance for the class of 1928. Then the narration says it skips ahead four years, so that’s 1932, and George and Mary become engaged to each other. Then George has just married Mary. We don’t know how long the engagement was, but when he enters the building and loan at the sight of the bank run, I see Hoover’s photo still on the wall, so Prohibition is presumably still in force. IF Hoover really still is president and they haven’t just not gotten around to changing the picture. But if it is still Hoover, then that’s quite nice of Bert the cop to give the newlyweds an illegal bottle of champagne. 
And of course, you all know Bert the cop and Erni the cab driver were the models for Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie.
I have heard that, but have also heard it refuted.
That’s highly disappointing. 
I, for one, totally agree with the OP. He should have just left town, without a backward glance.
That’s another thing that slightly perplexes me. When George asks about Mary, Clarence is hesitant and doesn’t want to tell him. Says it’s “against the rules.” What the … ? Why would it be against the rules to show him that but not against the rules to show him everything else?