Clarence is shown flashbacks of George's life. The prayers of his family and friends reach Heaven, where Angel 2nd class Clarence Odbody is assigned to save George in order to earn his wings. On Christmas Eve 1945, in Bedford Falls, New York, George Bailey contemplates suicide. In 1990, the film was designated as 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant' and added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress.

Capra revealed that it was his favorite among the films he directed and that he screened it for his family every Christmas season. 1 on its list of the most inspirational American films of all time.

20 on its 2007 greatest movie list, and No. 11 on the American Film Institute's 1998 greatest movie list, No. It was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, and has been recognized by the American Film Institute as one of the 100 best American films ever made. It's a Wonderful Life is considered one of the greatest films of all time. Although It's a Wonderful Life initially received mixed reviews and was unsuccessful at the box office, it became a classic Christmas film after it was put into the public domain, which allowed it to be broadcast without licensing or royalty fees. Because of the film's disappointing sales, Capra was seen by some studios as having lost his ability to produce popular, financially successful films. Theatrically, the film's break-even point was $6.3 million, about twice the production cost, a figure it did not come close to achieving on its initial release. Clarence shows George how he has touched the lives of others and how different life would be for his wife Mary and his community of Bedford Falls if he had not been born.

The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams, in order to help others in his community, and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody ( Henry Travers). It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift, which Philip Van Doren Stern self-published in 1943 and is in turn loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol.

It's a wonderful life