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Your Guide to "It's a Wonderful Life" Those who are tired of standard Christmas movies, be they "It's a Wonderful Life," "Miracle on 34th Street," or even "Die Hard," might want to consider such less-considered Christmas-themed films like "Desk Set," starring Katherine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, or "Stalag 17," starring William Holden, Peter Graves, Otto Preminger, and a brilliant supporting cast. The viewer will note how very much the TV show "Hogan's Heroes" was a riff on "Stalag 17." To those who still like "It's a Wonderful Life," but find themselves a little listless when it pops up again at this time of year, here's hoping that some of the following will renew your enjoyment of the film and help you view it with fresh eyes. I. Frank Capra as the American Charles Dickens. I strongly urge those who have not done so to read George Orwell's essay "Charles Dickens." The essay is admittedly long, but very interesting; Orwell discusses Dickens' works in some depth, trying to reconcile Dickens' frequent outcries against injustice with his lack of any sort of Left, or proto-Left, proposed solutions to the injustices he sees; rather, Dickens largely proposes what Orwell sees as a feudal, or neo-feudal, personal improvement based on repentance---the idea that people should be more decent to each other. This theme appears in "Wonderful Life," but is also present in some of Capra's other most famous films; "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Meet John Doe," and the sadly-neglected film "American Madness," which is an early-Depression film centered on a bank run which I highly recommend to all who've not seen it, not only for itself, but for the way it presages some of the themes in "It's a Wonderful Life." The comparison of Capra with Dickens in this instance is all the more apt because "It's a Wonderful Life" is basically a reworking of Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" from the point of view of Bob Cratchit, with George Bailey as Cratchit and Potter as an unrepentant Scrooge. II. Notes on the Film Title. The title is both a riff on the 1930s catchphrase, "It's a great life, if you don't weaken" (there is, in fact, a song by this name), and an intentionally-ironic comment on the life of George Bailey, which, while told with humor, are a sort of modern "trials of Job," in that he is frustrated and forestalled in his ambitions at every turn. Thoreau wrote that "most men lead lives of quiet desperation," and that certainly applies to George Bailey. III. Name Symbolism. Name symbolism was extremely popular in English literature from morality plays like "Everyman" through John Bunyan's "The Pilgrim's Progress" (whence cometh the term "Vanity Fair"), through Dickens, and even up through the pulp-fiction writings of Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. Here are some notes on name symbolism in "Wonderful Life": Peter Bailey: Peter Bailey, George's father, is the founder and cornerstone of the building and loan. Jesus says to Peter (i.e., "Petros," or "stone") "Upon this rock shall I found my church." In other words, "Peter Bailey" is the cornerstone. George Bailey: This is the most important symbolic name. There was a common phrase in the '20s/'30s, "Let George do it," meaning "let someone else do it." "George" was a generic name used to refer to Pullman porters and other (often black) servants. "Bailey" is an intentional cognate of the legal term "bailee," i.e., someone who has charge of property not his own. "George Bailey," accordingly, is the guy in charge of everyone else's lives and property, the "someone else" on whom everyone, wittingly or not, depends. Clarence: "Clarence," the angel, is the one who clarifies for George what the meaning of his life has been. Mr. Gower: "Gow" was a slang term in the '30s/40s for narcotics; "yen shee gow" was a euphemism for opium. Gower, as the town druggist, has a name which recalls opium and other drugs. Mr. Potter: A potter, of course, is a molder of clay, and Potter molds---shapes, controls---the lives of much of the "common clay," the ordinary people, in Bedford Falls. His "slums" are referred to as "Potter's Field," i.e., the term for where the nameless, homeless, and indigent are buried, and much of the cemetery which George sees during the "not-born" sequence is in "Potter's Field." Violet Bates: She's the town "bad girl." "Violet" (i.e., purple) is the color of passion---see, e.g., the violet-tinted sequence in the orgiastic 1930s film clip Kosh posted here a couple of weeks ago. "Bates" is a cognate for "baits," i.e., tempts, and also for "bates" as in "prevents," which is an allusion to the "rumor" that Potter spreads about George Bailey being somehow "involved" with Violet Bates when he loans her the money to leave town.
IV. Precursors. George wants to "build cities, skyscrapers, etc." He does not, of course, get the chance to realize his grand dreams as a builder---but he comes to realize that he was, in point of fact, the "builder" of Bedford Falls---and that he has built "skyscrapers," in the sense of "buildings reaching to the heavens," by what he has done for the people of his town by constructing their more-modest homes. "The old Bailey boardinghouse." George uses this term "the last night in the old Bailey boardinghouse," just before he goes to the high-school dance where he meets and falls in love with Mary. During the sequence where he has never been born, he confronts his mother---who runs a boardinghouse. "I'd be an old maid." Mary says this to George when they're married; that she would be an old maid if she hadn't married him, because he is the man she loves. And, when George "has never been born," she is indeed an old maid. "Potter's Field." Again, "Potter's Field" is where the poor and anonymous are buried. "Bailey Park" encroaches on "Potter's Field," a symbolic battle between death and resurrection. V. Baptism, Death and Resurrection. There are three total-immersion baptisms in "Wonderful Life." The first is when George saves the life of his brother Harry, and loses his hearing in one ear; the second is when he and Mary fall into the swimming pool at the high-school dance where they fall in love; the third is when he jumps into the river to save Clarence, "dies" by becoming never-born, and is then resurrected to his old life. Note, by the way, that when George asks to be "taken back," because he wants to live again, his pleas are not answered when addressed to Clarence, but only after he says, "Please, God, I want to live again," after which the snow starts falling and he is returned to his old life. As a final note, consider that this film was made in 1946, while America was still de-mobilizing, and one important part of it was giving George, the 4-F who "fought the battle of Bedford Falls," credit for his Medal-of-Honor-winning brother, because had he not saved his brother as a child the brother would not have been present to perform his act of heroism. Like the play/film "Mr. Roberts," which also gives credit to the noncombatants of the war, this reassures those who did not go that they too had a part in the victory.
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Kosh's Shadow
12/15/2019 3:37:05 PM
buzzsawmonkey
12/21/2019 5:55:25 PM
