The Christmas season becomes an interesting time of the year for entertainment viewing pleasure. The reason for this is that there are a number of perennial television and film favorites that are so well made that they attract new audiences year after year. Granted, some really great animated Christmas specials have seemingly been lost to history and are not often repeated (The Flintstone’s Christmas Special was a classic that has yet to be given a DVD release and its appearances on TV are non-existent)
However, there are a number of classics such as The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, Nester, The Long Eared Donkey and A Christmas Carol (The 1951 Alastair Sim version…the other versions are fine, but Sim’s version is a masterpiece) are among the top productions that seem to get better with age. If there was one Christmas film that was the best of them all, it would have to be Frank Capra’s masterpiece, It’s a Wonderful Life.
A Failed Start and a Huge Rebirth
This may come as a shock to many of the film’s biggest fans, but the film was originally released in JULY! You see, the film was NOT originally conceived as a Christmas film. The ending just happened to have a yuletide theme, but the remainder of the film centers on an undefined time of the year. (Actually, it spans several months of the year) When the film first came out, it was dumped into theaters and without much fanfare. Critics trashed the film basically calling it a depressing venture that ended in a hugely sappy manner. Because of this, the film was a box office failure and a seeming low point in Frank Capra’s directorial career. Then, a funny thing happened many decades later.
Noting that the end of the film took place during the Christmas holiday, television syndication services repackaged the film as a yuletide special. With this new holiday themed advertising campaign, the film finally started to reach an audience. In fact, the audience for the film became so huge that it has taken its place as the number one most popular Yuletide film in cinema history.
Reasons for Success
Part of the reason for the film’s success is the fact that the notion that no small good deed is not without a larger effect resonated with audiences. This is a brilliant morality lesson that is timeless and this timelessness has allowed It’s A Wonderful Life to find new fans every year. In fact, it will probably continue to do so for many more years to come. This is a success and adulation the film truly deserves as it is an all time classic.