2024 INTRODUCTION

Last year I concluded that “It’s A Wonderful Life” really belonged in the Thanksgiving movie canon, not Christmas, but I still waited until the pre-Christmas madness to post the 2023 version. This year, I’m finally putting the classic where it belongs. I have always identified with George Bailey, though this year it is for different reasons. Like George, I often feel like I didn’t achieve and experience what I could and should have, that my choices too often didn’t pan out, that I barely missed some breaks (but not all) that I needed when I most needed them. This year, which has been clouded since Leap Year by the sudden death of my wife, best friend, business partner and #1 fan—that’s Grace Elizabeth Bowen Marshall in all categories—I have never felt the lesson of “It’s A Wonderful Life” more powerfully: “No man is a failure who has friends.” I don’t believe that, frankly, but my friends, neighbors, clients, colleagues and blog readers have sustained me generously in this difficult period, and I will always be grateful for that.

Last year I wrote, “This is a tough time for my business and my family, and a lot of the problems are the result of my own selfish choices and mistakes as well as my hard-wired proclivity to cause trouble and not back down after the consequences start becoming clear. I’m seriously considering not celebrating Christmas this year, and we have always been a big Christmas family, because several recent disasters  require the money to go elsewhere.” In retrospect, this reminds me of a joke my father was fond of: “One day as I sat musing, sad and lonely without a friend, a voice came to me from out of the gloom saying, ‘Cheer up. Things could be worse.’ So I cheered up and sure enough—things got worse.” Everything got much worse after I wrote that last year.

I re-watched the movie last night in preparation for revising the Guide. It made me cry at the end, because Grace so loved the final scene, and would tear up at Harry Bailey’s toast, “To my big brother George, the luckiest man on earth.”

Frank Capra must have felt that the movie was bitterly ironic. It was a huge flop, and destroyed his infant project with some other prominent directors to launch a production company called “Liberty” because it would give directors the liberty to put their artistic visions on the screen without interference from the studios. “It’s A Wonderful Life” was the first and last film produced by Liberty: it not only killed the partnership, it just about ended Capra’s career.

James Stewart was, by all accounts, miserable during the shooting. He suffered from PTSD after his extensive combat experience, and the stress he was under shows in many of the scenes, though to the benefit of the film. It is interesting that the movie is scored by Dmitri Tiompkin, a Russian expatriate who is best known for scoring Westerns like “Red River” and “High Noon.” He wasn’t exactly an expert in small town America, but his trademark, using familiar tunes and folk melodies, is certainly on display. Clarence, George’s Guardian Angel (Second Class), is frequently underscored with the nursery rhyme “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” because he is represented by a star in the opening scene in Heaven. The old bawdy tune “Buffalo Girls” is another recurring theme, an odd one for a wholesome film since the buffalo girls were prostitutes.

As usual, I noticed details in the film this time that escaped me in earlier viewings, and for better or worse, I have appended the Guide accordingly. I also must say that although I wrote the Guide, I enjoyed reading it, and, amazingly, some of my own words made me feel a little better at a time when my spirits are near an all-time low. In particular, the section on regret resonated with me. Good point, Jack!

Now let’s go to Bedford Falls…but first, a stop in Heaven…

1. A Religious Movie Where There Is No Religion

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