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Film details
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Featuring
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Director
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Country
USA
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Year
1947
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Genres
Comedy Fantasy Drama
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Type
Film
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Category
Fiction
Introduction
“James Stewart embodies the hysterical energy of Capra’s quintessential American hero, thereby conveying the ambiguities of the American dream along with its promises.”
Charles Affron, St James Press International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 1990
It’s Christmas, snow is falling, and James Stewart’s protagonist is contemplating suicide, driven to despair by financial misfortune. Those who know director Frank Capra’s film only by its reputation as a sentimental seasonal favourite are often taken aback by how unflinchingly it shows ever-amiable Stewart’s kindly local banker brought low by the machinations of a cruel world. True, the story involves a certain angelic intervention to show him that his travails have all been worthwhile, yet it’s only because this modern parable plumbs the depths so vividly that its vision of redemption proves so persuasive. Its enduring popularity may indeed derive from Capra’s insistence that friendship matters more than material gain, a telling message of solace in a secular capitalist society.
The setting of Joe Dante’s shocker Gremlins (1984) is a mischievous tribute to this film’s fictional Bedford Falls, while Scrooge (1951), starring Alastair Sim, shows a very different yuletide redemption.
Cast & Credits
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Cast
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George Bailey
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Mary Hatch
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Henry F. Potter
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Uncle Billy
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Clarence
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Mrs Bailey
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Ernie Bishop
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Bert
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Violet Bick
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Mr Gower
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Sam Wainwright
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Harry Bailey
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Pa Peter Bailey
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Cousin Tilly
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Ruth Dakin
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Cousin Eustace
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Mrs Hatch
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Mr Martini
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Annie
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Mrs Martini
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little George
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little Sam
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little Mary
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little Violet
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little Marty Hatch
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little Harry Bailey
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Nick
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Potter's bodyguard
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Joe, luggage shop
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real estate salesman
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Tom, Building & Loan
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Janie Bailey
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Zuzu Bailey
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Pete Bailey
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Tommy Bailey
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[Mr Barber, high school principal]
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[Marty Hatch]
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[Freddie]
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[Mickey]
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[Dr Campbell]
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[Mrs Davis]
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[Mr Carter, bank examiner]
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[Mr Welch]
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[bill poster with Bert]
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[tollhouse keeper]
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[district attorney's man]
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[bank teller]
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[house owner]
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[Mrs Wainwright]
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[man on porch]
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Credits
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Direction:
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Directed by
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Assistant Director
Production:
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©/Presented by
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Produced by
Writing:
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Screen Play by
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Screen Play by
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Screen Play by
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Additional Scenes by
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[Contributor to Screenplay]
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Based on a story by
Photography:
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Director of Photography
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Director of Photography
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[Director of Photography]
Special Effects:
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Special Photographic Effects
Editing:
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Film Editor
Design:
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Art Director
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Set Decorations
Costumes:
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Costumes by
Make-up:
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Make-up Supervision
Music:
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Musical Score Written and Directed by
Sound:
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Sound by
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Sound by
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The Greatest Films of All Time 2012
Voted for by 6 critics and 6 directors.
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