When it comes to iconic Christmas movies, there are little that challenge Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life.
Starring Jimmy Stewart as everyman George Bailey, who finds himself contemplating ending his life on Christmas Eve, only to be intercepted by the well-meaning Clarence (Henry Travers) and shown the error of his ways, and the impact his life has had on those around him. It was nominated for five Academy Awards upon its release, and, while it didn’t earn its iconic reputation for several decades after it originally came out in 1946, it’s widely regarded as one of the best Christmas movies of all time – hell, the best movies of all time.
But that legendary status didn’t come easy. Between behind-the-scenes screenwriting hell and a post-release investigation for communist propaganda, It’s a Wonderful Life has a troubled and fascinating history, which I’m going to be getting into in a few articles over the next couple of weeks, starting here, with a look into the bridges burned by Capra in the screenwriting of the film.
It’s a Wonderful Life started life as The Greatest Gift, a short twenty-four page story self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1939. When Stern didn’t see the sales he’d been hoping for, he began sending it out enclosed in Christmas cards to family and friends in the festive season of 1943. One of these cards ended up pushed through the mailbox of RKO Pictures producer David Hempstead, who instantly thought of legendary leading man Cary Grant for the main role; Grant, with his first Academy Award nomination not long behind him, seemed like the perfect choice for a feel-good Christmas vehicle. RKO acquired the rights to the story for around $10,000, and set about adapting it for the screen.
But, despite passing the story through the hands of several highly-qualified screenwriters, the project failed to find its feet. Respected playwright Clifford Odets and the Pulitzer-winning dramatist Marc Connelly were among those who tried their hand with the story – perhaps the most well-developed version came from Dalton Trumbo, the screenwriter behind hits like Roman Holiday, though his version was very different from the original story. In his version, George Bailey is a politician who’s lost his spark for the world of politics, and the Clarence character serves to show him what life would have been like if he’d chosen business as a vocation instead. However, none of these versions got off the ground, and the project was shelved until Frank Capra signed a nine-film deal with RKO Pictures.
Capra, by then a successful director with movies such as It Happened One Night and Mr Smith Goes to Washington under his belt, had spent the preceding few years making propaganda films for the American army during the Second World War. Now looking to make his return to Hollywood, he was nervous that he might have “gone rusty or lost touch”. RKO chief Charles Koener passed him The Greatest Gift (which had now be renamed It’s a Wonderful Life), and Capra was struck by the potential in the story, purchasing the rights for himself and setting to work in adapting the rest of the story.
The previous iterations of the script were mostly cast aside, with Capra skimming a few scenes from Odets’ version, and Capra opted to hand over the script to Frances Goodrich and her husband Albert Hackett, a by-then Oscar-nominated screenwriting partnership behind movies like The Third Man.
Goodrich and Hackett were fans of Capra’s work, and Capra described them as “perceptive, human writers” – the respect, initially, seemed to be mutual. However, problems soon arose as they began working together, with Capra allegedly aiming some condescension in Goodrich’s direction. But, as Goodrich and Hackett started work on the script, the real blow came when found out that Capra had privately called in the help of long-time collaborator Jo Swerling to retool several parts of the script.
Goodrich and Hackett were, not unfairly, frustrated by this revelation – with a slew of well-received scripts behind them, they felt they’d been assured by Capra that they could be trusted with this story, and, when they’d shared their idea for how to fill out the story, they said that he’d told them it was fine. Capra, ready to get back to his Hollywood filmmaking, pressed for a final version of the script – knocking out the final scene in record time, they gave it to him, and vowed never to see the movie or work with Capra again. While they did end up seeing It’s a Wonderful Life when it screened on TV in the years to come, they stuck by their vow about Capra, and never collaborated with the director afterwards; Hackett described him as an “arrogant son-of-a-bitch” years later, as noted by Capra biographer Joseph McBride.
But, now he had a version of the script he could work with and his long-time collaborator Jo Swerling on board, it seemed like It’s a Wonderful Life was finally running smoothly. Swerling and Capra had worked on a number of movies together, their first shared credit more than a decade before on Capra’s 1930 release Ladies of Leisure. However, Swerling soon realized as the movie went into production that the script was only credited to Capra, Goodrich, and Hackett – Swerling’s not-inconsiderable work on it had been entirely discounted. Though he appealed to the Writer’s Guild of America for arbitration, the committee decided that the screenwriting credits were correct as they stood, and that Swerling should not receive recognition for his contribution. Furious at Capra for this snub after nearly fifteen years working together, Swerling cut off all contact with the director, with Capra claiming that he never spoke with Swerling again after the incident.
With the script written, the film finally entered production – but controversy surrounding It’s a Wonderful Life wouldn’t end there. No, in the years after its release, it came under investigation by the FBI as a piece of communist propaganda – but we’ll be getting into that story in the next article. Check in again soon for the second part of this deep-dive into It’s a Wonderful Life!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via IMDB)
No But Listen 