(Credits: Far Out / RKO Radio Pictures)
Thu 25 December 2025 1:00, UK
It’s impossible to imagine the festive season without It’s a Wonderful Life, with Frank Capra’s classic standing the test of time as an annual staple of the viewing calendar in households around the world. James Stewart loved it, but that didn’t mean there weren’t a couple of things that bugged him.
The most surprising thing about the film is that it took so long to catch on. It sounds equal parts unthinkable and impossible when viewed through a modern lens, but it wasn’t just a box office bomb; it was a financial failure so catastrophic that it helped kill a studio, with Liberty Films paying the price.
It’s just as remarkable that it took 20 years for It’s a Wonderful Life to claim its eternal position as one of the most beloved Christmas flicks in cinema history. For two decades, it had largely been forgotten, but when the copyright expired in the United States in 1974 due to a clerical error, TV stations could show it without having to pay through the nose in royalties.
As a result, it was screened every year on countless stations, fostering its reputation as one of the most endlessly rewatchable festive flicks ever made. As much as he was crushed by its initial reception, especially when it was his return to the silver screen after returning from World War II as a decorated veteran, Stewart forever held it in the highest regard.
“It’s my favourite film,” he told Michael Munn. “The whole thing was done, not from a book, not from a play, not from an actual happening or anything, but just an idea. And idea that nobody is born to be a failure. As simple as that. I liked that idea.” That’s not entirely true, since it was based on Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story The Greatest Gift, but that doesn’t diminish its importance.
Even before it crashed and burned in cinemas, Stewart had his issues with one aspect of the production. Or, to be more accurate, one member of the cast. Donna Reed, who played Mary Bailey, was a relative newcomer compared to an Academy Award-winning superstar, and he held her responsible for the movie’s failure.
Reed’s daughter, Mary Anne Owen, revealed that “he blamed her because she wasn’t as well-known,” with Stewart refusing to even consider working with her ever again. His second bugbear with It’s a Wonderful Life didn’t come until much later, and it had nothing to do with his experience making it. However, when he discovered that a colourised version of the film was set to be released, he was almost apoplectic.
Referring to the non-monochromatic version as “a bath of Easter egg dye,” the actor was affronted by changes he viewed as completely unnecessary and on the nose. “Gloria Graham plays a character called Violet, so someone thought it would be cute to have all her costumes in violet,” he raged. “That is the kind of obvious visual pun that Frank Capra never would have considered.”
For the most part, he held It’s a Wonderful Life closest to his heart as the most cherished credit in his back catalogue. On the other side of the coin, he blamed Reed for its poor performance and despised the idea of anyone seeing it in full colour, not that there was much he could do about either.
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