The following is a guest post by Jenny Paxson of the Packard Campus.
Thursday, December 21 (7:30 p.m.)
It’s a Wonderful Life (RKO, 1946)
Director Frank Capra created a holiday favorite with this story of a once ambitious young man George Bailey (James Stewart) who sacrifices personal adventure to stand up against the despot Potter who tyrannizes his small hometown (Lionel Barrymore). When it looks like Potter has finally beaten him, George wishes he’d never been born and an apprentice angel (Henry Travers) grants his wish by showing him the bleak parallel universe that might have been. Suggested by a short story written as a Christmas card by author and historian Philip Van Doren Stern, Capra and writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett crafted the screenplay for this film which has become synonymous with Christmas. The film – named to the National Film Registry in 1990 – also stars Donna Reed, Thomas Mitchell and Beulah Bondi.
For more information on our programs, please visit the website at: www.loc.gov/avconservation/theater/.