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Dom Robinson reviews

It's a Wonderful Life

Distributed by

Cat.no: 053 704 2
Cert: U
Running time: 130 minutes
Year: 1947
Pressing: 1999
Region(s): 2 (UK PAL)
Chapters: 18 plus extras
Sound: Dolby Digital 2.0
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Fullscreen: 4:3
16:9-enhanced: No
Macrovision: Yes
Disc Format: DVD 5
Price: £17.99
Extras : Scene index, Featurettes: "Making of It's a Wonderful Life", "Personal Introduction and interview by Frank Capra Jr."

Director:

Frank Capra

American Madness, Broadway Bill, It Happened One Night, Lost Horizon, Mister Smith Goes To Washington, You Can't Take It With You

Producer:

Frank Capra

Screenplay:

Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett & Frank Capra

Music:

Dimitri Tiomkin

Cast:

George Bailey: James Stewart

Airport '77, The Glenn Miller Story, The Greatest Show on Earth, Harvey, The Man Who Knew Too Much, Mister Smith Goes To Washington, Rope, Vertigo, You Can't Take It With You

Mary Hatch: Donna Reed

They Were Expendable, Trouble Along the Way

Mr. Potter: Lionel Barrymore

Camille, David Copperfield, Key Largo, You Can't Take It With You

Uncle Billy: Thomas Mitchell

Angels over Broadway, The Fighting Sullivans, Gone with the Wind, High Noon, Mister Smith Goes To Washington, Stagecoach

Clarence: Henry Travers

The Bells of St. Mary's, Dark Victory, Dodge City, Mrs Miniver

It's a Wonderful Life stars the late James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who always puts others before himself. In the town of Bedford Falls, almost every shop, building or convenience is controlled by the domineering Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore). At least one shop hasn't completely fallen under his spell, the Bailey Building and Loan company which George runs with Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell), which always tries to keep the customer satisfied with their superior housing and if you owe them money, they won't chase you to the ends of the Earth to get it back.

As life deals one blow after another, George Bailey is still determined to keep the company running, even if it means the sacrifice of his honeymoon, college degree and quality family time with his children and wife Mary (Donna Reed). All of this, as well as the threat of his customers wishing to defect to his near-omnipotent rival, serves to send George to Stress Farm and he reaches the point where he feels he can't go on any more. What will it take to save him from the depths to which he's plundered?

It's a Wonderful Life has been deemed to be one of the great American classics and the ultimate 'feel-good' film, which is usually given a mention on TV whenever the Christmas season is approaching.

movie pic

I'm going slightly mad...

As you'd expect for a film made in the 40s, the ratio fills a standard TV screen, but while it does have a number of scratches on the print, it's certainly watchable and is fairly free of artifacts. The average bitrate is a good 6.48Mb/s, quite often peaking over 9Mb/s.

The sound is presented in Dolby Digital Stereo, but both left and right sound tracks are mono. Most of the time it comes across fine, but early on its sounds very scratchy and isn't quite so clear. The back cover states it is a digitally-remastered version of the film, but it doesn't always show.

Extras :

Chapters :

18 chapters - the usual amount for Universal DVDs, but for a film as long as this one it could use some more. There is no theatrical trailer.

Languages & Subtitles :

English in mono and subtitles in the same language for the deaf and hard of hearing.

Featurettes :

"The Making of It's a Wonderful Life" is a 23-minute featurette narrated by Tom Bosley (Happy Days' Mr. Cunningham) and includes chat from Frank Capra and James Stewart.

"Personal Introduction and interview by Frank Capra Jr.": this lasts 14 minutes and features more info about the film and also features chat from Messrs. Capra and Stewart.

Menu :

A static shot of the front cover with options to start the film, select a scene, toggle the subtitles on/off or watch the featurettes.

Overall :

I'd never seen It's A Wonderful Life before now and it makes for a very entertaining film but not one I'd go back to time and again as many characters on TV soaps seem to do when they appear to sit round the telly watching it.

If you do fall into their category though, then it's probably worth a purchase on DVD as you might quickly wear out a video tape. The only thing the Region 1 DVD has over this disc is to include subtitles in French and Spanish, in case you were wondering.

FILM	 		: ***½
PICTURE QUALITY 	: ***
SOUND QUALITY		: **
EXTRAS			: **
-------------------------------
OVERALL			: **½

Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 1999.

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