It's a Wonderful Life It's a Wonderful Life It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy comedy-drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet "The Greatest Gift", which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and published privately in 1945. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched, and how different life in his
It's a Wonderful Life Blu-ray edition. The film was twice adapted for radio in 1947, first on "Lux Radio Theater" (March 10) and then on "The Screen Guild Theater" (December 29), then again on the "Screen Guild Theater" broadcast of March 15, 1951. James Stewart and Donna Reed reprised their roles for all three radio productions. Stewart also starred in the May 8, 1949 radio adaptation presented on the "Screen Director's Playhouse". A musical stage adaptation of the film, titled "A Wonderful Life", was written by Sheldon Harnick and Joe Raposo. This version was first performed at the University of Michigan in 1986, but