It's a Wonderful Life

1946

Frank Capra's Christmas standard is a good deal darker than its reputation suggests. James Stewart plays George Bailey, a man who spent his whole life setting his own plans aside for the sake of Bedford Falls and who arrives at a Christmas Eve convinced everyone would have been better off without him. Henry Travers plays the guardian angel who shows him otherwise, with Donna Reed as his wife Mary, Thomas Mitchell as Uncle Billy, and Lionel Barrymore as Potter, the banker with no such conscience. It underperformed in 1946 and found its real audience decades later on television.