It’s almost Christmas, which means that somewhere a critic is sharpening his pen for that staple of Yuletide contrarianism, Your Beloved Festive Film Is Actually Bad. One classic that often comes in for this treatment is a favourite of mine, Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, and I’d like to offer the case for the defence.
The film introduces us to George Bailey of Bedford Falls. He dreams of becoming an architect. But when his father dies, he reluctantly takes over the family business, a rackety building society called Building & Loan, realising that if he does not do so it will be taken over by slumlord Henry F Potter. Later he sacrifices his honeymoon savings to keep the B&L solvent during a run on the banks, and turns down a Faustian offer of a well-paid job with Potter.
