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It's a Wonderful Life
The original screenplay for the classic 1946 film, It's a Wonderful Life.
215 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1986
39 people want to read
About the author
Frances Goodrich
13 books5 followersFrances Goodrich was an American actress, dramatist, and screenwriter, best known for her collaborations with her partner and husband Albert Hackett. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama with her husband in 1956 for The Diary of Anne Frank which had premiered the previous year.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
August 16, 2025
It’s A Wonderful Life by Frank Capra and others
Family, Friends, Sense and Sensibility
It’s a Wonderful Life if you have family, friends, you have a meaningful existence, you have done acts of kindness… This may the conclusion of this play.
It’s A Wonderful Life is a wonderful film, which is included in the top 100 best films, in some places it is placed among the best ten and is anyway a Christmas favorite and reference point.
Based on the script, they have created a play, in which James Stewart plays the lead role, courtesy of “Lux” a brand of soap which was advertising in the old days on radio shows, Cecil B Demille was introducing some of the great plays and speaking about the involvement of advertising, without which they wouldn’t be able to gather all those great actors together, who were otherwise on contracts with different, competing studios.
Today you wouldn’t be able to get some stars near a radio, not to mention a few of them to star on some radio production. On the other hand, in the last decades the stars ‘power has increased, to the detriment of the studios, which for a long time had abused their controlling position.
The storyline is simple and yet so meaningful and poignant.
George Bailey, played by James Stewart in both the screen and Radio productions, is an ordinary guy in appearance, but we wish we would be more like him.
When young, he saves his young brother from drowning and a potential victim from poisoning. When he is on the point of going on the most important trip of his life, a financial crisis hits his office and the people of his community.
Ergo the big secret of this story, confirmed by scientific research today:
· Be close to your family, in times of hardship it pays off
· Way more important than money in the bank are a few (3) close friends
· Random acts of kindness pay off when you measure your level of happiness
The most selfish thing you could do is…a kind deed. I was even thinking that a campaign at the national level might be worthwhile. Together with: exercise every day, don’t smoke- a public message with:
- Commit acts of kindness
Might be helpful for the population as a whole. As a utopic scenario, I was thinking that the country could change its “label „and ad campaign, from “visit the Carpathian Garden” on to
Romania- A Country With a Meaning
By that, “meaning” that the public policy is encouraging people to do king things, which will make them happier, henceforth more productive, GDP will rise and a virtuous spiral would be set off.
It’s a Wonderful Life would be screened often and TV stations would prefer it to streaming Die Hard I, II…IX, and Lethal Weapon I, II and so on.
But that is called wishful thinking.
It is a pity that a story with funny angels and no wings (yet) is left aside to make room for endless repeats of violent movies. Lethal Weapon has been the most repeated movie on the network with the widest audience in my country.
It’s A Wonderful Life is a “wonderful „story of love, involvement in the community, helping those close to you and sacrificing own personal interests in favor of the higher good. It is about being unselfish, grateful and finding a way out of a very tight spot.
In case you have not seen the movie, I will stop short of revealing the plot, which I will just say that involves a funny “second class” angel in search for its wings.
One hero has a depression and is willing to give it all up, when by magic he can see the bad scenario which would result if his wish to never have been born is granted.
We can all imagine what the life of those around would be without us; the only problem is that we would not have people we saved, financial crisis we resolved. But our kids would not be there and there would be some kind things we did.
If there are not many, well, we must try harder. It pays off.
Posted 2nd July 2014 by realini
Family, Friends, Sense and Sensibility
It’s a Wonderful Life if you have family, friends, you have a meaningful existence, you have done acts of kindness… This may the conclusion of this play.
It’s A Wonderful Life is a wonderful film, which is included in the top 100 best films, in some places it is placed among the best ten and is anyway a Christmas favorite and reference point.
Based on the script, they have created a play, in which James Stewart plays the lead role, courtesy of “Lux” a brand of soap which was advertising in the old days on radio shows, Cecil B Demille was introducing some of the great plays and speaking about the involvement of advertising, without which they wouldn’t be able to gather all those great actors together, who were otherwise on contracts with different, competing studios.
Today you wouldn’t be able to get some stars near a radio, not to mention a few of them to star on some radio production. On the other hand, in the last decades the stars ‘power has increased, to the detriment of the studios, which for a long time had abused their controlling position.
The storyline is simple and yet so meaningful and poignant.
George Bailey, played by James Stewart in both the screen and Radio productions, is an ordinary guy in appearance, but we wish we would be more like him.
When young, he saves his young brother from drowning and a potential victim from poisoning. When he is on the point of going on the most important trip of his life, a financial crisis hits his office and the people of his community.
Ergo the big secret of this story, confirmed by scientific research today:
· Be close to your family, in times of hardship it pays off
· Way more important than money in the bank are a few (3) close friends
· Random acts of kindness pay off when you measure your level of happiness
The most selfish thing you could do is…a kind deed. I was even thinking that a campaign at the national level might be worthwhile. Together with: exercise every day, don’t smoke- a public message with:
- Commit acts of kindness
Might be helpful for the population as a whole. As a utopic scenario, I was thinking that the country could change its “label „and ad campaign, from “visit the Carpathian Garden” on to
Romania- A Country With a Meaning
By that, “meaning” that the public policy is encouraging people to do king things, which will make them happier, henceforth more productive, GDP will rise and a virtuous spiral would be set off.
It’s a Wonderful Life would be screened often and TV stations would prefer it to streaming Die Hard I, II…IX, and Lethal Weapon I, II and so on.
But that is called wishful thinking.
It is a pity that a story with funny angels and no wings (yet) is left aside to make room for endless repeats of violent movies. Lethal Weapon has been the most repeated movie on the network with the widest audience in my country.
It’s A Wonderful Life is a “wonderful „story of love, involvement in the community, helping those close to you and sacrificing own personal interests in favor of the higher good. It is about being unselfish, grateful and finding a way out of a very tight spot.
In case you have not seen the movie, I will stop short of revealing the plot, which I will just say that involves a funny “second class” angel in search for its wings.
One hero has a depression and is willing to give it all up, when by magic he can see the bad scenario which would result if his wish to never have been born is granted.
We can all imagine what the life of those around would be without us; the only problem is that we would not have people we saved, financial crisis we resolved. But our kids would not be there and there would be some kind things we did.
If there are not many, well, we must try harder. It pays off.
Posted 2nd July 2014 by realini
December 24, 2019
Heartwarming to someone spending the holidays alone.
(It's a small world.)
(It's a small world.)
December 26, 2022
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is my favorite Christmas movie, so when I found out you can read the screenplay, I added it to my wishlist! The hubby came through, and I read it on Christmas Eve.
I LOVED the experience of reading it. You know how we always say, “The book is better than the movie”? Well, somehow, even though it’s literally the same as the movie, I loved reading it even more! Certain parts touched me more deeply while reading.
It was also super fun to think about the original actors and how they made it come to life on the screen.
I want to make this an annual Christmas read. Highly recommended if you love the movie!
I LOVED the experience of reading it. You know how we always say, “The book is better than the movie”? Well, somehow, even though it’s literally the same as the movie, I loved reading it even more! Certain parts touched me more deeply while reading.
It was also super fun to think about the original actors and how they made it come to life on the screen.
I want to make this an annual Christmas read. Highly recommended if you love the movie!
December 24, 2025
everything from when clarence appears on the bridge is some of the best written stuff ever. there’s something magical about it, makes me cry even when i’m reading. excited to rewatch the movie, happy holidays everyone
March 6, 2024
It's a Wonderful Life is my favourite film, so it's no great surprise that this gets 5 stars from me! It was great to read it and see the film in my head at the same time. Magic!
Would I recommend this... screenplay? :) Yes, absolutely. It's a must for all the It's a Wonderful Life fans out there.
Would I recommend this... screenplay? :) Yes, absolutely. It's a must for all the It's a Wonderful Life fans out there.
December 24, 2019
Some sturdy insight into what makes this a perfect film, the sheer oddity of so many elements of it.
December 25, 2015
Not only is this one of the best screenplays ever produced, this version is a really great read because you can see what they left out.
There are a lot of extended and cut scenes that add (even more) depth to the characters and town and cast certain events in a different light, such as the Bailey kids being either on or by Potter's land during the near-drowning incident and Potter watching without concern. Other scenes have additional dialogue or other extensions, with one particularly powerful section being when George is talking to his mother on the porch and he looks up and comments on the distance of the stars and what a trip it'd be to go to one. This part is so sad and wonderful it's a shame they cut it.
Some parts better left out include some sections where the point of a scene had been made and the filmmakers wisely trimmed the fat, and turning the sort of humdrum heaven depicted in the script into the more interesting celestial bodies device.
All in all, a very good screenplay for study and comparison. I wonder if any of these additional scenes were shot and if so, if any of them survive.
There are a lot of extended and cut scenes that add (even more) depth to the characters and town and cast certain events in a different light, such as the Bailey kids being either on or by Potter's land during the near-drowning incident and Potter watching without concern. Other scenes have additional dialogue or other extensions, with one particularly powerful section being when George is talking to his mother on the porch and he looks up and comments on the distance of the stars and what a trip it'd be to go to one. This part is so sad and wonderful it's a shame they cut it.
Some parts better left out include some sections where the point of a scene had been made and the filmmakers wisely trimmed the fat, and turning the sort of humdrum heaven depicted in the script into the more interesting celestial bodies device.
All in all, a very good screenplay for study and comparison. I wonder if any of these additional scenes were shot and if so, if any of them survive.
December 13, 2021
This year (2021) is the 75th anniversary for when “It’s A Wonderful Life” was made into a film.
“IAWL” is also one of my favorite movies, a yearly tradition for me (for at least 25 years) to view at Christmastime. I have not ever read the script, and looked forward to reading it this year.
The script in my opinion, was excellent. What particularly stood out for me was the succinct verb/nouns used for the characters, in either character descriptions or how to deliver a line.(For example, 1. the description of Clarence: “A simple, silly man”, 2. Before a delivered line by Violet, is the solo word: ‘vamp’.)
I don’t run across many scripts with camera directions, but I felt the directions helped the overall story and on point visualization cues.
There were a few discrepancies in the script than from what I had remembered previously in viewing the film. (i.e. Mary serving in the USO, Mr. Martini moving into his first home). At this year‘s yearly viewing, I will pay particular attention to see if I had maybe missed those scenes.
Overall: an all-around excellent, creative script, which brought to life all the deep emotions of the film.
“IAWL” is also one of my favorite movies, a yearly tradition for me (for at least 25 years) to view at Christmastime. I have not ever read the script, and looked forward to reading it this year.
The script in my opinion, was excellent. What particularly stood out for me was the succinct verb/nouns used for the characters, in either character descriptions or how to deliver a line.(For example, 1. the description of Clarence: “A simple, silly man”, 2. Before a delivered line by Violet, is the solo word: ‘vamp’.)
I don’t run across many scripts with camera directions, but I felt the directions helped the overall story and on point visualization cues.
There were a few discrepancies in the script than from what I had remembered previously in viewing the film. (i.e. Mary serving in the USO, Mr. Martini moving into his first home). At this year‘s yearly viewing, I will pay particular attention to see if I had maybe missed those scenes.
Overall: an all-around excellent, creative script, which brought to life all the deep emotions of the film.
September 23, 2024
This is a good story about good about being grateful and redemption.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
"It's a Wonderful Life" movie is based on Philip van Doren Stern's 1943 book, The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale.
✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎⋆✴︎
"It's a Wonderful Life" movie is based on Philip van Doren Stern's 1943 book, The Greatest Gift: A Christmas Tale.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews