The Archives

1946

The magazine found Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life to be sentimental “but so expertly written, directed and acted that you want to believe it.” It took a while for audiences to agree. Before World War II, Capra was Hollywood’s master of populist fare (such as Mr. Smith Goes to Washington), but his first film after returning, with its triumphant performance by James Stewart as despairing good Samaritan George Bailey, did not resonate— at first. Capra’s career would never recover (he died in 1991), but the movie would become an American classic, as well as Capra’s favorite of his films.