Last night (Day 19) my sister and I braved the falling snow torrential rain and got ourselves to the BFI on London's Southbank. By now I think you'll know I'm quite a fan of the Southbank, especially at Christmas with its festive stalls, happy people buying gifts here and there and the smell of mulled wine wafting down the street with the river. In this kind of weather, though, your best option is the BFI. This time we had tickets for the Christmas classic, It's a Wonderful Life.
All I can say is, it is not a flipping wonderful life - downright tearjerking, depressing, nightmare and downright not cheerful enough for Christmas! Sat with teary eyes, I started conjuring up a letter in my head that I would send to the culprit of giving me a false illusion as to what this film would entail. The BFI? The late Frank Capra, the film's director? The late James Stewart? Anyway, I start Googling to see just who was responsible and it turns out that originally It's A Wonderful Life was a short story called 'The Greatest Gift' by Philip Van Doren Stern.
This story, which to an extent can be described as a modern day A Christmas Carol, was first written in 1943. Unable to find a published, Philip Van Doren Stern printed a 21-page booklet and gave out copies to his friends and family as a gift for Christmas. Finally it was privately published in 1945 and caught the eye of RKO producer, David Hempstead and film star Cary Grant who was originally interested in the lead role of George Bailey. Eventually it was sold to Frank Capra's production company and writers Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett with Jo Swerling, Michael Wilson and Dorothy Parker worked to "polish" the script that would become the screenplay we all know: It's a Wonderful Life.
Despite being quite upset that the film was so sad in places, I really enjoyed it. I'd never seen it before and I can completely see now why it has received so much hype. Plus I've never seen such good 'film' snow. Top marks to the snow maker. Good work.
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