Images from It's a Wonderful Life
Select thumbnail for full image gallery.
It's a Wonderful Life (U)
- Consumer Advice: Contains mild violence
- Run time: 2 hours 10 mins
- Starring: James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
- Directed by: Frank Capra
- Distributor: Park Circus
Plot Synopsis
Christmas is not Christmas without it!
As a boy, George Bailey (James Stewart) dreamed of travelling the world and seeing all the mysterious, exotic places far beyond his quaint little hometown of Bedford Falls. As a young man, George plans to fulfil his dream in spite of his father’s request that he join the Bailey Savings and Loan Company, the family business and the only institution protecting the townspeople from Henry Potter (Lionel Barrymore), a greedy banker.
Before he can put his plan into practice, however, his father dies, and George is faced with a difficult choice – either take his father’s place or stand by as the ruthless Potter dissolves the firm. Unable to leave his town’s fate in Potter’s hands, George chooses to forego his dream and assume leadership of the savings and loan company.
Later, George gives up his dream for good when he falls in love with and marries his childhood sweetheart, Mary Hatch (Donna Reed). Even his honeymoon plans dissolve when George’s savings must go to pay off the company’s investors during the famous bank run of 1932.
Over the next few years, the building and loans company flourishes and George and Mary raise a family. Then, one day, George’s Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) misplaces a bank deposit on the very day a bank examiner arrives to check the company’s books.
Faced with ruin, George is driven to despair and rashly wishes that he had never been born. Clarence (Henry Travers), an Angel Second Class sent down from Heaven, grants his wish and shows George how his town would have fared if he had never existed. What George finds is an unfriendly place full of poor, unhappy people.
Now desperate to return to life and his family, George begs Clarence to let him live again. Once again, he gets his wish and rushes home, even though dire consequences await him. At the last moment, however, the townspeople band together to raise the funds needed to keep the building and loans company solvent. For the first time, George realises that a man’s wealth is measured not by his material possessions, but rather by his friends.