My cousin Mike Raley loved the movie It’s a Wonderful Life and made it a point to re-watch it every Christmas season. After he did so, he would call me and want to discuss various scenes and how great the movie was.
While I was good with all this and enjoyed discussing it with Mike, I always thought that the movie itself was a little on the sappy side of things even for a Christmas movie. Accordingly, I never shared Mike’s great enthusiasm for it.
Well, I recently re-watched It’s a Wonderful Life and now realize that I owe Mike a belated apology. It really is/was a great movie even if in my rock and roll days I never really appreciated it as such. (Funny how getting old mellows you out some right?)
For 19 facts and reasons why the movie is so good, check out this video (click here.) Go to the 7:10 mark to read how the FBI issued a warning that the movie might contain “communist propaganda” because of its negative portrayal of bankers as greedy and heartless individuals.
As for Fact #18 in the video (15:00 mark) it talks about how and why the movie became such a classic due to a lapse in copyright matters. More on that is told here in this “Rest of the story” video via Paul Harvey:
Music-wise, movie director FrankCapra changed the movie’s original score to include contemporary tunes such as Buffalo Gals (Won’t You Come Out Tonight.) As many times that I have watched the movie, I never picked up on the role that the tune Buffalo Gals played throughout it (click here for an explanation on how the symbolism involved in the song played out in various scenes in the movie featuring Mary and George. Buffalo Gals was “their song.” For example here is the classic phone call scene where George and Mary “get it on” so to speak. Just before this moment however, note how Mary, after arguing with George, smashes the record playing Buffalo Gals (1:10 mark.)
Then there was the “Lasso the Moon scene” where they sing Buffalo Gals:
Finally, the movie’s end credits play an instrumental version of Buffalo Gals:
Something else that never stuck with me in previous viewings was this inscription in the book that Clarence gave George:
And speaking of Clarence, there was also a couple of other County name connections in the movie: George was a Bailey, the banker was named Potter and in the orignal short story “It’s a Wonderful LIfe,” George’s last name was Pratt and not Bailey.
And that my friends really is – the rest of the story!