Posted on 12/25/2016 7:29:03 AM PST by CHRISTIAN DIARIST
Interesting back story of a great film, thanks for passing it along.
Another good, but not as well-known, “Christmas” movie is “Remember The Night” (1940), with Fred MacMurray and Barbara Stanwyck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F391_23ysbU
It is my favorite Christmas movie
The movie which won the Oscar that year is also an incredible film.
The Best Years of Our Lives.
L
I met Jimmy Stewart at a Christmas party in 1975. He always seemed shy at this sort of function and I wasn’t exactly comfortable considering the crowd there. So we strated talking and you talk about a down-to-earth plain spoken person. I had been in the Nam and we talked about his step-son(?) who’d been killed there and his explots during WWII.
Then I asked him a question he was probably tired of. What was his favorite role.
He said it was a picture hardly many people remebered anymore, ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ and how he enjoyed making it more than any other and he thought it had a timeless message.
The wife and I got back to our room and by luck they were showing it on a let movie channel. She was pissed I kept her awake but hell!
Beautifully written story about a beautiful film. Thanks for posting. Merry Christmas.
“It’s a Wonderful Life”
I watched it last night. Very good movie. I didn’t know Stewart was genuinely crying in that scene. It is the least sappy old movie ever. The way he was speaking to his family when he was upset was unnerving and well played.
I’ve read that Stewart, who did not return from
WWII emotionally unscathed, purposely tapped into his own inner trauma, or PTSD, or whatever, in his performance as George Bailey.
Yes, great back story to one of the movie industry’s most classic works.
Remember The Night is playing at the moment on my TV.
I still have the VCR version after many years and it still plays perfectly.
When Jimmy Stewart grabs Donna Reed and yells and she cries and he kisses her while they were on the phone gives me chills it is so well acted by both. Movie is so well done. Humor, tragedy, warmth, depth. It holds up well because it is so well written & acted.
It is often said that “the villain makes the story”, in that heroism is contrasted with villainy, so the worse the villain, the better the hero.
In this case, the villain in It’s A Wonderful Life” was played by the great actor Lionel Barrymore. He jumped at the part, because he had almost been typecast as the gentle, kind, loving, grandfatherly-type, and he wanted to do other roles.
So he allegedly asked Capra, “Can my villain be extra villainous?” He was a shoe in for this because he had been a noteworthy Ebenezer Scrooge on radio some years before.
So Barrymore is obviously enjoying himself playing the mean Mr. Potter.
If you don’t have the 2 hours or so, this sums it up in under 3 min.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOhxEyPSEoY
My favorite Christmas movie...The Muppets Christmas Carol
My husbands favorite Christmas movie...Three Days of the Condor :)
In fact, we watched it last night. When we tell him it’s not a Christmas
movie...he says it does take place around Christmas, so it’s a Christmas
movie. It is a great movie to watch, especially for “first timers”...but
even year after year, we can watch it and enjoy it.
Both “It’s A Wonderful Life” and “Scrooge”, the one played by actor George C. Scott, the one did the part of Patton, the famous WW 2 American general.
Thank you for posting this. His description of the way that prayer affected him is so moving.
A truly great film, always timely..
“Remember The Night is playing at the moment on my TV.
I still have the VCR version after many years and it still plays perfectly”
==
I’m more impressed you have a working VCR more than the tape (if you’re using one that dates to the tape)!
Great film.
I have a Sony vcr/dvd combo that I bought about five years ago at Best Buy. I hope it’ll last a little longer as I have probably around 500 vcr tapes.
Actually the tapes seem to last longer than dvd’s. I can’t even count the dvd’s I’ve bought over the last few years that stick or freeze up during playback.
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