As the calendar creeps quickly towards Christmas Day on the 25th of December, were counting down the days with a special advent calendar of festive films, revealing a set of rare images for each chosen film to surprise and delight film fans. It's A Wonderful Life is arguably the definitive Christmas film, even though the Christmas elements don't come in to play until the final act. Chosen as the most inspiring American film of all time by the American Film Institute, It's A Wonderful Life chronicles the life of George Bailey (James Stewart), a small town man whose dreams of something bigger keep getting compromised. In the depths of despair, his guardian angel Clarence (Henry Travers) shows him how much of an impact he's had on the people in his life and his life has truly mattered and is....wonderful. The film has the timeless message of how no one man is a failure who has friends. In celebration of this classic Christmas film, here are ten underseen, or unseen images, to check out...
10. James Stewart and Frank Capra Hanging Out On Set
Actor James Stewart and director Frank Capra worked on a total of three films together. The first was 1938's You Can't Take It With You, which won the Academy Award for Best Picture as well as Best Director for Frank Capra. Then in 1939 they teamed up again for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, for which Stewart received his first Best Actor nomination at the Academy Awards. Their third collaboration was, of course, It's a Wonderful Life, which became their most famous and beloved film. In this image, a behind the scenes publicity photo, one can tell Capra and Stewart became close friends and worked well together, which makes sense, given that Capra's films, particularly It's a Wonderful Life, were sympathetic to the American everyman and underdog, and no movie star or actor of the 20th Century better epitomized the American everyman than Stewart.