In 1977, Marlo Thomas played Mary Bailey in a star-filled alternate-universe version of ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ that’s essentially been erased from memory.
I actually watched this a few weeks ago due to my interest in Conrad Hall and my reverence for It’s A Wonderful Life. I agree with your notes on reverence for the source, which makes the places where it does diverge fascinating to me. For example, the (very correct) choice not to have Mary get punched out by the spouse of her kid’s teacher makes the whole sequence of her going to Martinis’ bar very odd, since now the only purpose to her going there is to set up the contrast with Nick’s. It’s a small thing, but there are a few of these choices that daisy chain out in interesting ways.
Agreed, but the phrase "It's A Wonderful Muppet Life" pops into my head and I swoon at the idea of Kermit as George, Fozzie as Clarence and, I dunno, Denzel Washington as Potter.
The Christopher Guest connection is interesting in light of the fact that he slipped a parody of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE into his 1989 film THE BIG PICTURE during a scene where Kevin Bacon’s would-be director is drowning his sorrows at the local bar (and bending the ear of the bartender played by John Cleese). The capper comes when the film returns to reality, with Bacon watching the movie on the bar’s TV, only for Cleese to hit the set to make the picture switch from black and white to color. “That’s better,” he says.
My wife apparently remembers seeing (and loving this) as a kid. We may need to check it out. I was a late comer to Its a Wonderful Life, never seeing it until I was an adult. I really didn’t like it for some reason the first couple of times I saw it (projected!) but have grown to love it over the intervening years. Thanks for the heads up
Wow, that's so fascinating that the whole reason for the "It's a Wonderful Life" phenomenon is because of a copyright that lapsed! I always wondered how it became a yearly staple on TV (and now in repertory movie theaters too) when it didn't do very well at the box office when it was released. It goes to show how random it can be which movies have a lasting cultural memory and which ones fade into obscurity.
I'm also blown away that Orson Welles of all people was in a remake of It's a Wonderful Life!
Goodness, what a find -- I had no idea such a film existed. My favorite part of the movie is where George loses it and yells at one of his kids' teachers on the phone. I can feel Jimmy Stewart's anger and it's so good! Now I must check this movie to see if a similarly unhinged moment exists for Marlo Thomas.
Every time I think of It's a Wonderful Life, I can't help but think of (and smile at) Escape from It's a Wonderful Life:
I first found these years ago, as RealAudio files -- I still have them somewhere, but thankfully someone put them up on YouTube. If you've never seen these, you are in for a treat. The video quality isn't great, but the audio is fine and that's what's important, as the Upright Citizens Brigade dubbed their own lines. It was made around Pulp Fiction's time, which George gladly reminds us. :)
Ah, 1977, one of the weirdest years for network TV Christmas programming. It was the year that Bing Crosby met David Bowie for Christmas, even though Crosby had died earlier that year! Harvey Korman guested on The Carpenters At Christmas, and it was somehow more humiliating than his work a year later in The Star Wars Holiday Special! Rankin/Bass contributed their annual bit of holiday madness: Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, which is basically what Dumbo would have been like if his mother had died and it was immediately praised as God's will! And best of all, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, a weird Victorian-era quasi sitcom (there's a laugh track), with Paul Lynde playing it straight in every sense of the word as the melancholy husband of Anne Meara!
I was a kid in the 70s, a pre-VCR, pre-video game era. So naturally, I watched all this stuff (and It Happened One Christmas, which found the whole family gathered around the old 19 inch Quasar screen), because what else was there to do? And it was deeply strange even then, like transmissions from another world. Were people supposed to enjoy this sort of thing? Would any of this make sense when I got older? Or would it just become even more difficult to understand?
I similarly saw the TV movie remake of MIRACLE ON 34th ST before the original. The one with Sebastian Cabot and David Hartman (?!?). And my first encounter with A CHRISTMAS CAROL was via SCROOGE.
I think we had similar (wonderful) lives (Christmas movie division). I know that was my first MIRACLE and that SCROOGE’s Christmas Future was genuinely scarring.
Hard to believe Capra was a fascist at one point. I'd kill to have solid, mainstream entertainments that smuggle this much anti-capitalist sentiment these days. There are great anti-capitalist movies now but none of them make it feel as wholesome as "It's a Wonderful Life".
The recent horror movie IT'S A WONDERFUL KNIFE, however, is essential.
I actually watched this a few weeks ago due to my interest in Conrad Hall and my reverence for It’s A Wonderful Life. I agree with your notes on reverence for the source, which makes the places where it does diverge fascinating to me. For example, the (very correct) choice not to have Mary get punched out by the spouse of her kid’s teacher makes the whole sequence of her going to Martinis’ bar very odd, since now the only purpose to her going there is to set up the contrast with Nick’s. It’s a small thing, but there are a few of these choices that daisy chain out in interesting ways.
"It might be best left alone."
Agreed, but the phrase "It's A Wonderful Muppet Life" pops into my head and I swoon at the idea of Kermit as George, Fozzie as Clarence and, I dunno, Denzel Washington as Potter.
Just saying...
They kind of already did this with 2002’s IT’S A VERY MERRY MUPPET CHRISTMAS MOVIE, which was demoralizing.
The Christopher Guest connection is interesting in light of the fact that he slipped a parody of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE into his 1989 film THE BIG PICTURE during a scene where Kevin Bacon’s would-be director is drowning his sorrows at the local bar (and bending the ear of the bartender played by John Cleese). The capper comes when the film returns to reality, with Bacon watching the movie on the bar’s TV, only for Cleese to hit the set to make the picture switch from black and white to color. “That’s better,” he says.
My wife apparently remembers seeing (and loving this) as a kid. We may need to check it out. I was a late comer to Its a Wonderful Life, never seeing it until I was an adult. I really didn’t like it for some reason the first couple of times I saw it (projected!) but have grown to love it over the intervening years. Thanks for the heads up
Wow, that's so fascinating that the whole reason for the "It's a Wonderful Life" phenomenon is because of a copyright that lapsed! I always wondered how it became a yearly staple on TV (and now in repertory movie theaters too) when it didn't do very well at the box office when it was released. It goes to show how random it can be which movies have a lasting cultural memory and which ones fade into obscurity.
I'm also blown away that Orson Welles of all people was in a remake of It's a Wonderful Life!
Goodness, what a find -- I had no idea such a film existed. My favorite part of the movie is where George loses it and yells at one of his kids' teachers on the phone. I can feel Jimmy Stewart's anger and it's so good! Now I must check this movie to see if a similarly unhinged moment exists for Marlo Thomas.
Every time I think of It's a Wonderful Life, I can't help but think of (and smile at) Escape from It's a Wonderful Life:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9rXdyBAuqQ&list=PL_iNWpcTKHqC-LSXv7P9EgwrP2EHPE5w0
I first found these years ago, as RealAudio files -- I still have them somewhere, but thankfully someone put them up on YouTube. If you've never seen these, you are in for a treat. The video quality isn't great, but the audio is fine and that's what's important, as the Upright Citizens Brigade dubbed their own lines. It was made around Pulp Fiction's time, which George gladly reminds us. :)
Ah, 1977, one of the weirdest years for network TV Christmas programming. It was the year that Bing Crosby met David Bowie for Christmas, even though Crosby had died earlier that year! Harvey Korman guested on The Carpenters At Christmas, and it was somehow more humiliating than his work a year later in The Star Wars Holiday Special! Rankin/Bass contributed their annual bit of holiday madness: Nestor, The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey, which is basically what Dumbo would have been like if his mother had died and it was immediately praised as God's will! And best of all, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, a weird Victorian-era quasi sitcom (there's a laugh track), with Paul Lynde playing it straight in every sense of the word as the melancholy husband of Anne Meara!
I was a kid in the 70s, a pre-VCR, pre-video game era. So naturally, I watched all this stuff (and It Happened One Christmas, which found the whole family gathered around the old 19 inch Quasar screen), because what else was there to do? And it was deeply strange even then, like transmissions from another world. Were people supposed to enjoy this sort of thing? Would any of this make sense when I got older? Or would it just become even more difficult to understand?
I weirdly remember this and may have seen it before I saw the original.
These articles make life living.
This line made my day: Combined, the story sent up more red flags than a meeting between the ambassadors of Canada and the People’s Republic of China.
It's been many years since I was reminded of the scourge that was Kay Gardella.
I similarly saw the TV movie remake of MIRACLE ON 34th ST before the original. The one with Sebastian Cabot and David Hartman (?!?). And my first encounter with A CHRISTMAS CAROL was via SCROOGE.
I think we had similar (wonderful) lives (Christmas movie division). I know that was my first MIRACLE and that SCROOGE’s Christmas Future was genuinely scarring.
Hard to believe Capra was a fascist at one point. I'd kill to have solid, mainstream entertainments that smuggle this much anti-capitalist sentiment these days. There are great anti-capitalist movies now but none of them make it feel as wholesome as "It's a Wonderful Life".