IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) still James Stewart, Donna Reed, close-up Vint+Orig

Description: (This looks MUCH better than this pictures above.) IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) still James Stewart, Donna Reed, close-up portrait 9.5” x 7” vintage original silver gelatin photograph! w/SNIPE! A REAL COLLECTOR’S ITEM! This would look great framed on display in your home theater or to add to your portfolio or scrapbook! A worthy investment for gift giving too! PLEASE BE PATIENT WHIL ALL PICTURES LOAD After checking out this item please look at my other unique silent motion picture memorabilia and Hollywood film collectibles! SHIPPING COST CAN BE CUT WHEN SHIPPING MULTIPLE ITEMS TOGETHER AND SAVE $ See a gallery of pictures of my other auctions HERE! This photograph is a real photo chemical created picture (vintage, from the Hollywood studio release) and not a copy or reproduction. DESCRIPTION: Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, the classic 1946 Frank Capra (nominated for the Best Director Academy Award for this film) banking family fantasy romantic melodrama ("Wonderful! Wonderful! Wonderful! How could it be anything else!"; "They're going steady... straight to your heart!"; "It's a Wonderful Love!"; "Frank Capra's wonderfilm..."; nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award; about a man at the brink of suicide, and an angel appears who shows him all the good that he did, by showing him how his world would have been if he had never been born, and that renews his faith) starring James Stewart (Jimmy Stewart; nominated for the Best Actor Academy Award for this film; "America's Favorite Feller..."; as George Bailey), Donna Reed ("Jimmy's Favorite Girl..."; as Mary Bailey), Lionel Barrymore (as Mr. Potter), Thomas Mitchell (as Uncle Billy), Henry Travers (best remembered for playing Clarence the angel in this movie!), Beulah Bondi (as James Stewart's mom), Ward Bond (as Bert), Frank Faylen (as Ernie), Gloria Grahame (in a memorable role as Violet, the "bad" girl), H.B. Warner (as Mr. Gower), Carl 'Alfalfa' Switzer (as Freddie), Stanley Andrews, Sheldon Leonard (as Nick), William Edmunds, Jimmy Hawkins, Samuel S. Hinds, Frank Hagney, Karolyn Grimes, Virginia Patton, and Todd Karns. CONDITION: SEE STUDIO SNIPE ON BACKSIDE! This original vintage 9.5” x 7” still photograph is in Near MINT condition, with only minor surface scuffing and edge bumps. RICH SHARP DETAIL WITH SINGLE HAIR DETAILS! (SEE PIX FOR MORE DETAILS.) Finally, this is a vintage original. (This is NOT a cheap digital dupe, a re-release or copy, it is a real vintage photograph made the year of the release of the film.) SHIPPING: Domestic shipping would be USPS Ground Advantage (includes $100 insurance) and well packed in plastic, with several layers of cardboard support/protection and delivery tracking. The USPS has removed FIRST CLASS from eBay’s postage label system. (Darn it!) International shipping depends on the location, and the package would weigh close to a half a pound with even more extra ridge packing. PAYMENTS: Please pay via eBay once you have selected all the items you wish shipped together. I love combining shipping!! All of my items are unconditionally guaranteed. E-mail me with any questions you may have. This is Larry41, wishing you great movie memories and good luck… BACKGROUND: “The best and worst things that ever happened to "It's a Wonderful Life" are that it fell out of copyright protection and into the shadowy no-man's-land of the public domain. Because the movie is no longer under copyright, any television station that can get its hands on a print of the movie can show it, at no cost, as often as it wants to. And that has led in the last decade to the rediscovery of Frank Capra's once-forgotten film, and its elevation into a Christmas tradition. PBS stations were the first to jump on the bandwagon in the early 1970s, using the saga of the small-town hero George Bailey as counterprogramming against expensive network holiday specials. To the general amazement of TV program directors, the audience for the film grew and grew over the years, until now many families make the movie an annual ritual. That was the best thing that happened to "It's a Wonderful Life," bringing cheer into the lives of director Frank Capra and star James Stewart, who both consider it their favorite film. The worst thing--which has inspired Stewart to testify before a congressional committee and Capra to issue a sickbed plea--is that the movie has been colorized. Movies in the public domain are so defenseless that you could cut one up to make ukulele picks, and who could legally prevent you? And so a garish colorized version--destroying the purity of the classic original black-and-white images--has been seen on cable, is available for local syndication and is sold on cassette. It is a great irony that the colorized version has been copyrighted, and so many stations are paying a great deal for the rights to an inferior version of a movie that they could show for free in black and white. If I were a local television program director with taste and a love of movies, I would find out when my competitor was going to air his colorized version, and counter-program with the original black-and-white movie, patting myself on the back for a public service. Maybe it could be promoted with a clip of Jimmy Stewart telling Congress, in his inimitable way, "I tried to look at the colorized version, but I had to switch it off--it made me feel sick." What is remarkable about "It's a Wonderful Life" is how well it holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies, like "Casablanca" or "The Third Man," that improves with age. Some movies, even good ones, should only be seen once. When we know how they turn out, they've surrendered their mystery and appeal. Other movies can be viewed an indefinite number of times. Like great music, they improve with familiarity. "It's a Wonderful Life" falls in the second category. I looked at the movie once again recently, on the splendid video laserdisk edition from the Criterion Collection. The movie works like a strong and fundamental fable, sort of a "Christmas Carol" in reverse: Instead of a mean old man being shown scenes of happiness, we have a hero who plunges into despair. The hero, of course, is George Bailey (Stewart), a man who never quite makes it out of his quiet birthplace of Bedford Falls. As a young man he dreams of shaking the dust from his shoes and traveling to far-off lands, but one thing and then another keeps him at home -- especially his responsibility to the family savings and loan association, which is the only thing standing between Bedford Falls and the greed of Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), the avaricious local banker. George marries his high school sweetheart (Donna Reed, in her first starring role), settles down to raise a family, and helps half the poor folks in town buy homes where they can raise their own. Then, when George's absentminded uncle (Thomas Mitchell) misplaces some bank funds during the Christmas season, it looks as if the evil Potter will have his way after all. George loses hope and turns mean (even his face seems to darken, although it's still nice and pink in the colorized version). He despairs, and is standing on a bridge contemplating suicide when an Angel 2nd Class named Clarence (Henry Travers) saves him and shows him what life in Bedford Falls would have been like without him. Frank Capra never intended "It's a Wonderful Life" to be pigeonholed as a "Christmas picture." This was the first movie he made after returning from service in World War II, and he wanted it to be special--a celebration of the lives and dreams of America's ordinary citizens, who tried the best they could to do the right thing by themselves and their neighbors. After becoming Hollywood's poet of the common man in the 1930s with an extraordinary series of populist parables ("It Happened One Night," "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town," "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," "You Can't Take It With You"), Capra found the idea for "It's a Wonderful Life" in a story by Philip Van Doren Stern that had been gathering dust on studio shelves. For Stewart, also recently back in civilian clothes, the movie was a chance to work again with Capra, for whom he had played Mr. Smith. The original trailer for the movie (included on the Criterion disk) played up the love angle between Stewart and Donna Reed and played down the message--but the movie was not a box office hit, and was all but forgotten before the public domain prints began to make their rounds. "It's a Wonderful Life" is not just a heart-warming "message picture." The conclusion of the film makes such an impact that some of the earlier scenes may be overlooked--such as the slapstick comedy of the high school hop, where the dance floor opens over a swimming pool, and Stewart and Reed accidentally jitterbug right into the water. (This covered pool was not a set but actually existed at Hollywood High School). There's also the drama of George rescuing his younger brother from a fall through the ice, and the scene where Donna Reed loses her bathrobe and Stewart ends up talking to the shrubbery. The telephone scene--where an angry Stewart and Reed find themselves helplessly drawn toward each other--is wonderfully romantically charged. And the darker later passages have an elemental power, as the drunken George Bailey staggers through a town he wants to hate, and then revisits it through the help of a gentle angel. Even the corniest scenes in the movie--those galaxies that wink while the heavens consult on George's fate--work because they are so disarmingly simple. A more sophisticated approach might have seemed labored. "It's a Wonderful Life" did little for Frank Capra's postwar career, and indeed he never regained the box office magic that he had during the 1930s. Such later films as "State of the Union" (1948) and "Pocketful of Miracles" (1961) have the Capra touch but not the magic, and the director did not make another feature after 1961. But he remained hale and hearty until a stroke slowed him in the late 1980s; and he died in 1991. At a seminar with some film students in the 1970s he was asked if there were still a way to make movies about the kinds of values and ideals found in the Capra films. "Well, if there isn't," he said, "we might as well give up."”

Price: 49.99 USD

Location: Miamisburg, Ohio

End Time: 2024-11-27T22:28:12.000Z

Shipping Cost: 2.59 USD