It’s a Wonderful Life: Colorized Version (1946)

It’s a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra and based on the short story “The Greatest Gift” written by Philip Van Doren Stern.

The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of hisguardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and the contributions he has made to his community.

Despite initially being considered a box office flop due to high production costs and stiff competition at the time of its release, the film has come to be regarded as a classic and a staple of Christmas television around the world. Theatrically, the film’s break-even point was actually $6.3 million, approximately twice the production cost, a figure it never came close to achieving in its initial release. An appraisal in 2006 reported: “Although it was not the complete box-office failure that today everyone believes … it was initially a major disappointment and confirmed, at least to the studios, that Capra was no longer capable of turning out the populist features that made his films the must-see, money-making events they once were.”

It’s a Wonderful Life was nominated for five Oscars without winning any, although the film has since been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made, and placed number one on their list of the most inspirational American films of all time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It%27s_a_Wonderful_Life

IMDB Ratings: 8.7/10, An angel helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman by showing what life would have been like if he never existed. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0038650/

It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night is a 1934 American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father’s thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). The plot was based on the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. It Happened One Night was one of the last romantic comedies created before the MPAA began enforcing the 1930 production code in 1934. In spite of its title the movie takes place over several nights.

The film was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), a feat that would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In 1993, It Happened One Nightwas selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Happened_One_Night

IMDB Ratings: 8.3/10, A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who’s actually a reporter looking for a story. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025316/