It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life is the granddaddy of all Christmas movies; although, it certainly didn't start out that way. The movie nearly flopped when it opened, and during its first theater run failed to earn back the money it took to make it. Still, this film has endured down through the decades to become one of the most beloved movies of all time. And it's not hard to see why. The film's got a lot of power in it. Filmed in 1946, a lot of the actors were still carrying raw memories of World War II. The strain of the war shows in their faces and in their voices. This was probably Jimmy Stewart's first really serious role, and he pulls a lot of emotion from his time in the war into his character. When he's praying in the bar scene, those tears on his face are real. When he kisses Donna Reed for the first time, that's real passion you're seeing. In fact, that scene had to be cut short, because it got a little too hot for the censors. So, yeah, this is a powerful movie. I thought so the very first time I saw it when I was about ten years old. I've thought so every time I've watched it since then. I still think so today. In my book, that's what makes a film a classic. It never gets old. It never runs out of gas. As they say, it's got legs.

Stewart plays George Bailey, a man who had big dreams when he was younger. Didn't we all? Well, he was gonna sail around the world, go to college, become an engineer, design dams and bridges and skyscrapers. He was gonna be somebody. People would remember his name. He'd leave his mark on the world. Remember when you were gonna do all of that? I do. But life got in George's way, like it does for a lot of us. When his father dies, George takes over the running of the savings and loan bank that his family owns. Why? Cuz if he doesn't, then the board of directors will sell out to the greedy Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), the richest man in town. If Potter gets a hold of the savings and loan, he'll foreclose on most of the people who have mortgages there. That's just the kind of sweet soul he is. So George takes over and he gives his college money to his younger brother Harry (Todd Karns). When Harry finishes college, he's supposed to come back and take over the savings and loan so that George can go to college too. But Harry meets and marries Ruth (Virginia Patton). Ruth's father owns a company and wants Harry to come to work for him. George is left to run the savings and loan. He marries Mary, and instead of going on a honeymoon George struggles to save the bank during the Great Depression. Time goes by. George and Mary have children. George starts designing houses and creates a new subdivision. When World War II comes, George is declared 4F and has to stay at home. Meanwhile, little brother Harry goes off and becomes a hero. Wins the medal of honor. On the day that Harry is set to come home, tragedy strikes.

Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), George's partner, loses $8,000 of the savings and loan's money, which conveniently ends up in old Mr. Potter's grasping hands. He neglects to tell George about his latest windfall. Instead, he threatens to call the police and have George arrested for embezzlement. To top things off, the bank examiner comes to town. Distraught, George leaves home and goes to a bar, where he offers his urgent prayer. Then, deciding that his life has been a complete failure, George decides to kill himself. This is where Clarence (Henry Travers) enters the picture. Clarence is an angel. He's been sent down to help George find his way back home. George tells Clarence that he wishes he'd never been born. Clarence grants him his wish. Suddenly, a thousand tiny - and not so tiny - changes take place in George's home town of Bedford Falls. George gets the opportunity to find out what the world would have been like if he had never been born. The savings and loan would have gone under when his father died, and old man Potter would have taken away the homes of a lot of people. What's worse, Potter would have gained control of the entire town and renamed it Potterville. It would have been a nasty place to live too. Mary would have been a spinster her whole life. George's children would have never been born. Hundreds of people that George helped over the years would have led much worse lives. Most importantly, Harry - whose life George saved when they were kids - would have died, and he wouldn't have been there during the war to save the lives of a lot of other soldiers. In the end, George realizes that during his insignificant life, he touched the lives of countless people, who in turn touched the lives of still others. George's goodness and generosity, his habit of putting other people's
needs ahead of his own, created a circle of goodness that spread outward over the passing years. With a little bit of heavenly intervention, George learns that he truly did have a wonderful life.

It's a Wonderful Life is definitely a feel good film, and if you don't feel good after watching it, then there's something wrong with you. It celebrates the contributions of the common man (and woman), the people who, in George's words, "do most of the working and and paying and living and dying" in this world. It tells us that each one of us, whether we realize it or not, whether we are important or rich or famous or not, touches on the lives of a lot of other people, sometimes for good, sometimes not. But we do, and when we do, we cause a ripple effect, just like the old rock and pond analogy. It's a Wonderful Life reminds us that this is so, that we really can't behave any old way we want with impunity, because our words and deeds will have an effect on those around us. And, as my mother used to say, eventually the chickens will come home to roost. We all get our payback in the end. For George, who always put others first, his payback is good. By the end of this movie, you'll be wondering what kind of a payback you're in store for. I know I wonder.

It's a Wonderful Life is rated G and is filmed in glorious black-and-white. It has a runtime of 130 minutes.

Captains Courageous (1937)

Harvey Cheyne (Freddie Bartholomew) is a monster. Ten years old. Rich. Spoiled. Used to getting exactly what he demands. Lording his wealth over the rest of the kids in his class. A real pain in the keester. No one likes this kid (Didn't we all know a creep like this?). On an ocean liner crossing the Atlantic with his father, Harvey falls overboard. Of course, no one on the liner even misses the little brat. Fortunately for Harvey, he's fished out of the sea by Manuel (Spencer Tracy). Manuel - who is fishing from a small dory - works on a Gloucester schooner that's heading out to the fishing grounds for the season. When Manuel gets Harvey back to the schooner, Harvey tries to bribe Captain Disco Troop (Lionel Barrymore) to turn around and take him back to shore. But the captain refuses. His greater obligation is to his crew who's livelihood depends on the fish they catch this season. So, like it or not, Harvey is stuck on the schooner for the next six months. And since there are no passengers on a working fishing boat, Harvey has to work. For the first time in his life. He's not a happy camper. Harvey soon discovers that all of the shenanigans that he got away with back home and at school don't work work out here in the world of hard, no-nonsense working men. It's a tough lesson. It's a tough school. One wrong move out here, and you won't be going home. But Harvey's a tough kid, and Manuel is a patient teacher. In time, Harvey learns how to work with people rather than using them all the time. He sweats with the rest of the crew, bleeds with them, grieves with them. By the time the schooner gets back to Gloucester and Harvey's waiting father, he's a different person. He's one of the crew.

Filmed in 1937, Victor Flemming's Captains Courageous is another of those literary adaptations that utterly destroys the original story, but in this case it's all right. Since only about one in 10,000 Americans has ever read the original novel, it really doesn't matter. And it's such a good movie, that it stands solidly on its own feet. The cast is incredible: Spencer Tracy with curly hair, Lionel Barrymore in the last role before arthritis knocked him off his feet, Freddie Bartholomew in the only role in which he was ever allowed to play someone of less than impeccable character, Mickey Rooney as Captain Troop's good natured son, John Carradine as the surly Long Jack, and Melvyn Douglas as Freddie's tycoon father. This was the cream of Hollywood in its day. And this is a man's film all the way through. As someone else once said, it's the story of "wooden ships and the iron men that sailed them." All of the action centers around men and the boys who are becoming men with a suddenness that would shock us today, and they're all doing "manly" work under extremely harsh conditions. There's no mollycoddling of children in this story, nobody's worried that the boys are playing with sharp knives and big hooks, no one seems to care that these boys' lives are in danger almost every minute of the day. There's work to be done, and all hands to it.

You may read this and think to yourself that it sounds barbaric, disgusting and gross. But this isn't about our time. It's a movie about an earlier time. A harder time. A time when men struggled against the elements to wrest a living out of nature, a time when women worked the house and waited for the men to come home from the sea, and a time when children stopped being children when they were still only children. Captains Courageous pays tribute to all of the Gloucester fisherman who didn't come home from the sea, while telling a wonderful story about one boy's reformation in the harsh world of hard work and harder men. It's worth watching just because it's a really great story. It's worth watching because it has a really great message.

Captains Courageous is rated G and is available in glorious black and white.