--- description: "Fantasy or not, this movie is twice as lifelike as most Hollywood whimsies," a critic explained in 1946 title: What Makes 'It's a Wonderful Life' a Great Movie, as Explained in 1946 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81f00826335108e/6988b2bca988ca5e8e6ba6f8/wonderful.jpeg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [History](/section/history/) ## History Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # What Makes _It's a Wonderful Life_ a Great Movie, as Explained in 1946  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 21, 2016 2:00 PM CUT  by [Lily Rothman](/author/lily-rothman/)  ## Lily Rothman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Rothman is managing editor at TIME. Dec 21, 2016 2:00 PM CUT Seven decades after its release, [_It’s a Wonderful Life_ ](http://time.com/4596666/bedford-falls-true-story/ "undefined") has solid standing as a classic American film, and a holiday-season tradition for many. And, though not every critic agreed, TIME’s critic knew right away that it had the potential to become an enduring piece of cinema history: _It’s a Wonderful Life_ “is a pretty wonderful movie,” the review [observed](http://time.com/vault/issue/1946-12-23/page/56/ "undefined"), ranking it as possibly the best movie of the year. But the film—which bowed at a [charity preview](http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/20/dec-20-1946-the-debut-of-its-a-wonderful-life-at-new-yorks-globe-theatre/?%5Fr=0 "undefined") 70 years ago on Dec. 20, 1946, before its full premiere on Dec. 21—could have been a flop in less capable hands. The skilled balance of fantasy, sentimentality and quality made the movie stand out, the review explained: --- > “” --- In the post-war atmosphere of the U.S. in 1946, the military bona fides of director Frank Capra and star Jimmy Stewart were also noted by the critic. Capra’s work for the Signal Corps had produced wartime documentaries, and Stewart “worked his way up without ballyhoo from buck private to Air Forces colonel.” [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter "undefined") But, as Jonathan Munby has [written](https://books.google.com/books?id=lTIBAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA46&dq=%22I+didn%27t+even+think+of+it+as+a+Christmas+story+when+I+first+ran+across+it.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT4taz1PHQAhVISCYKHS5xBaUQ6AEIGjAA#v=onepage&q=%22I%20didn%27t%20even%20think%20of%20it%20as%20a%20Christmas%20story%20when%20I%20first%20ran%20across%20it.%22&f=false "undefined") about the film in the anthology _Christmas at the Movies_, there’s an argument to be made that the post-war atmosphere was a big part of the reason why the movie was, despite reviews like TIME’s, a box-office failure. Movie-going was down in general—Capra, in his autobiography, would partly [attribute](https://books.google.com/books?id=x%5FE09IWRomMC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22I+didn%27t+even+think+of+it+as+a+Christmas+story+when+I+first+ran+across+it.%22&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiT4taz1PHQAhVISCYKHS5xBaUQ6AEIOTAF#v=onepage&q=%22it%27s%20a%20wonderful%20life%22&f=false "undefined") the failure of the movie to the drop in the overall market as wartime spending wound down—and by the following May _Wonderful Life_ had still [failed to recoup its $2.3 million budget ](http://time.com/vault/issue/1947-05-26/page/90/ "undefined")at the box office. But Munby posits that the subject matter may have just been too dark for a holiday-season audience in 1946: the Depression-era and wartime concerns of _It’s a Wonderful Life_ were still too fresh in their minds. [Capra](http://time.com/vault/issue/1991-09-16/page/95/ "undefined") didn’t really see _Wonderful Life_ as a Christmas movie, anyway. (Munby writes that the holiday-season release date had more to do with a quirk of the Hollywood calendar than any marketing genius.) ### 'It's a Wonderful Life': Rare Photos From the Set of a Holiday Classic  Not published in LIFE. Jimmy Stewart on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Jimmy Stewart on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Jimmy Stewart in downtown Bedford Falls, a.k.a., on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Making artificial snow on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Making artificial snow on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. On the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Making artificial snow on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. On the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Jimmy Stewart on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Making artificial snow on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Director Frank Capra (right, with unidentified man) on the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. On the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images  Not published in LIFE. Bedford Falls, a.k.a., the set of It's a Wonderful Life. Martha Holmes—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images The movie that had seemed like a great harbinger for the success of independent filmmaking in the dusk of the studio era was now a bad sign instead. Liberty Films, the independent company under whose banner it had been made, was eventually sold off. Years later, in the 1970s, it lost its copyright—making it an attractive prospect for Christmas Eve television fare, after which generations of audiences, able to see 1946 from a distance, adopted it as a favorite. **_Read the full review, here in the TIME Vault:_** [_It’s a Wonderful Life_](http://time.com/vault/issue/1946-12-23/page/56/ "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4599219/review-its-a-wonderful-life-1946/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4599219/review-its-a-wonderful-life-1946/"},"headline":"What Makes It's a Wonderful Life a Great Movie, as Explained in 1946","datePublished":"2016-12-21T14:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-06-24T06:56:56.383Z","description":"The classic Christmas film premiered 70 years ago","url":"https://time.com/4599219/review-its-a-wonderful-life-1946/","keywords":["movies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81f00826335108e/6988b2bca988ca5e8e6ba6f8/wonderful.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Lily Rothman","jobTitle":"Rothman is managing editor at TIME.","url":"https://time.com/author/lily-rothman/"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blta81f00826335108e/6988b2bca988ca5e8e6ba6f8/wonderful.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"It's A Wonderful Life","caption":"It's A Wonderful Life","creditText":"Silver Screen Collection / Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4599219/review-its-a-wonderful-life-1946/","name":"What Makes It's a Wonderful Life a Great Movie, as Explained in 1946"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"This Video Is No Longer Available","description":"The classic Christmas film premiered 70 years ago","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/fKodeUO6/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2026-06-23T15:00:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/fKodeUO6.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4599219/review-its-a-wonderful-life-1946/","duration":"PT10S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4599219/review-its-a-wonderful-life-1946/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```