Frank Capra purchased the rights to The Greatest Gift, a book written by Philip Van Doren Stern, after Stern sold the rights to RKO, the company that wanted to develop it for Cary Grant. Liberty Films was a company created by Capra and fellow directors George Stevens and William Wyler in order to make movies without interference from the studio bosses. Unfortunately, It’s A Wonderful Life would be the only film they produced, as it wasn’t financially successful.
The script underwent heavy re-working by five different writers before the final version, which Capra renamed It’s A Wonderful Life. Capra modeled Bedford Falls after Seneca Falls, New York, but the entire picture was filmed in California on a set created for the production. Capra had an old-fashioned approach to directing, believing that the camera should not distract the audience from the action taking place on screen. We can see that he opted for a locked camera for most shots, and used editing as his tool for creating a kinetic motion, a tempo in his pictures.
At the time that Capra was directing It's a Wonderful Life, his style and perspective were already beginning to slip out of fashion, with many critics and viewers deeming him old-fashioned and sentimental. As a result, It's a Wonderful Life did not garner much attention or praise at the time of its release, and did not get recognized until it was shown on cable in the 1970s. Capra was surprised and delighted by the late and unexpected success of the film, which seemed to hit a nerve with contemporary audiences looking for stories of Christmas cheer and American ingenuity.
