It’s a Wonderful Life has been chasing my nightmares since my youth

[ad_1]

Coughing up years ago, when I was a cherry-cheeked kid, I saw some movies that really scared me. One is the 1958 version of The Fly. The last scene where a spider scares the regular-sized fly with the little man’s head still causes me to swing the bolt upright in the middle of the night. “Help me! Help me!” We can pick up the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang as a given. I’ll describe the final scene in Edmund Goulding’s Nightmare Alley, but, since Guillermo del Toro’s luxurious new version is so close to us, that would be an unfair spoiler.

The name of another scary movie haunted me young for a few years. The related section discovers that the hero has entered into a horrible alternative reality where no friends or family have admitted to his existence. More confused than the minute head on The Fly, he seeks out his miserable wife and now impoverished mother for only being rejected with bad words. A former employer has been jailed for murder. His kind uncle was sent to a mental institution. His brother is dead, as well as all those who saved the character in a troop transporter during the war. Dostoevsky struggles to make a more disturbing nightmare.

You know where I’m going here. Five years or so later, I saw It’s a Wonderful Life again. The hot previews (in this paper, I think) didn’t prepare me for what I was about to endure. “Oh, my God! This ‘heart-warming drama’ is that terrifying thing that’s dogging my nightmares since nineteen-cough-cough, ”I didn’t say exactly. The guy was Jimmy Stewart and he looked more anxious than I remembered. No wonder this thing is so vague. It’s a masterpiece, but the alternative reality is so bitter that anyone hangs around for the happy ending that follows.

For many, many decades, any old trash can with a weird sleigh bell on it or a few grains of snow there could be a staple Christmas meal.

And yet. There’s a heart -warming Christmas story here. I’m not talking about George Bailey’s poor appreciation of his own worth. There is another story about how, once, a worthy job overcame initial resistance to gain public favor.

It’s not always like that at Christmas. For many, many decades, any old trash can with a weird sleigh bell on it or a few grains of snow there could be the main Christmas meal. Nick Hornby was thrilled when he had the star of About a Boy – which Hugh Grant unforgettable played in the 2002 film – fund his lazy lifestyle with a saccharine Christmas hit written by his father years ago. The supermarket aisles are currently buzzing with the seasonal influx of artists that other, better songs rarely get airtime (you know who we’re referring to). Really miserable movies like Deck the Halls, Jingle all the Way and Last Christmas are popping up on Christmas schedules. I even heard Christmas With the Kranks, a 2004 outrage that I rated among the five worst films of its decade, recommended as a seasonal treat. Argh!

Over the next few decades, it maintained a respectable reputation among Capra lovers

Where am I? Oh yes. It’s a Wonderful Life is among a small selection of films that, only moderately successful in release, have become cherished classics. The first reviews in 1946 may not have been quite as horrible as Capra later recalled, but we can certainly get away with calling them “mixed”. Bosley Crowther in the New York Times had some measurable praise, but felt “the weakness of this picture, from this reviewer’s point of view, is its sentimentality – the illusion of its concept of life”. The film got more than the fellow Christmas classic Miracle on 34th Street at the box office of the year, but still lost more than half a million dollars for RKO Radio Pictures. It did decently at the Academy Awards, garnering five nominations, including best photo, to the person who won The Best Years of Our Lives, but didn’t get a win.

That is, even if It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t broken, it’s also not any kind of phenomenon. Over the next few decades, it maintained a respectable reputation among Capra lovers. Most of the director’s best work lists will find room for it with Mr Smith Goes to Washington and It Happened One Night. Only a few will put it on top. It doesn’t have “iconic” status (like we didn’t say before).

A technical kerfuffle contributed to the reputation change. In 1974, due to a clerical error, the film’s copyright was not properly checked and – the legal part of it is still confused – it quickly became a staple on American TV stations. It wasn’t until the 1980s, shortly after it first intimidated this writer, that It’s a Wonderful Life properly entered the public psyche. That rising spot was recognized by Joe Dante when he featured it in his brilliant 1984 horror-comedy Gremlins.

It was never lost. Every time it plays an angel gets wings. Merry christmas to all. Some true stories have a happy ending.

It’s a Wonderful Life will be on Channel 4 at 2pm on Christmas Eve (and elsewhere)

[ad_2]