It's a Wonderful Life - What's the Difference? 

Its a Wonderful Life in my mind is kinda like the complete opposite side of A Christmas Carol. A Christmas Carol spends most of its time establishing its main guy as mean and bad and shows him the error of his ways while Its a Wonderful Life shows a great man that is unable to see that his actions have impact. Scrooge is shown his negative impact by the spirts while George is shown that he can touch peoples lives in positive ways he did not know

It still gets me teary-eyed every Christmas Eve.

"Oh Mary no, not the books!" Great line :)

Stewart's performance in that movie is amazing.

Count this on the list of movies I had no idea were books first. Luckily, they have it at my local library and it's only 64 pages, so I can squeeze it into my Christmas reading this month.

There’s actually a deleted scene with Mr Potter showing up on the Bailey’s doorstep during the ending, intending to return the $8,000 but too embarrassed and upset about his own life in comparison to George’s to knock on the door and instead turns away.

I avoided this movie for years, just because it's so "cliche" to watch it over the holidays. One year I finally sat down to watch it and now it ranks up there as one of my favorite movies of all time.

This is the only film that makes me cry with happiness

there is an SNL skit with a "deleted scene" where the town beats up potter at the end

I think this line from Princess and the Frog sums up George's life pretty well: Tiana: My daddy never did get what he wanted. But he had what he needed. He had love! He never lost sight of what was really important. And neither will I! George never got to travel and fulfill his dreams, but he had everything he needed in his hometown. That makes him a richer man than Potter, because he understood the value of helping others and enriching other people's lives with love.

Still one of the greatest movies ever.

For those that wonder, this movie takes place in 1946 and that makes the 8K he needs roughly 100K in today's money

Two favorite Christmas movies we watch every year “A Christmas Carol” with Alistair Sim and “It’s A Wonderful Life”

Welp that's me crying again... one of the most devastatingly emotional films and something everyone should watch every Christmas

A rare case of the movie improving on the book.

This movie is so moving, even watching clips got me on the verge. Im going to look for the book just bc I love em. Thanks for the vid!!!

the jimmy stewart impression at the end was criminally bad

Look daddy, every time a bell rings, an angel get his wings. That’s right. Merry Christmas

Just watching this recap has me teary-eyed. What a wonderful, wonderful movie.

This is easily my favourite Christmas film. It’s WONDERFUL.

It’s been only shown once per year for past several years. The reason NBC owns the rites and only shows once. It is a classic I have the dvd set so I can watch when I want as much as I want

one of my favortie films period, always look forward to seeing it every year

A life as an unmarried librarian with glasses?? The horror!! The horror!!

"The holiday season is upon us!" Oh no it isnt! Its still November!

It never occurred to me that this is basically the same idea as Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol: A supernatural force shows how a person's life affects those around them and they have a change of heart and see life differently. Somehow it irks me that Potter does not get any comeuppance.

Warning: moral of the story only applies to those who have friends and family

Dude seriously, can’t get enough of these, I don’t know why but you guys are just the best movie channel. It feels like you guys live for these movies

I agree 100% that it is the #1 Christmas movie of all time. It’s fabulous on every level. 🥰🥰🥰

There’s this rich old guy in my city that tries to bring every chain to the city to run out al the small businesses, and I ran into him at the airport, and I kept referring to him at Mr. Potter and now I refer to every mean person in my life as Mr. Potter. It’s one of my toxic traits

I cried at the end of THIS video just knowing how it ended.

I love It’s A Wonderful Life, and I have read the short story that inspired it too (which was originally sent in Phillip Van Doren Stern’s Christmas Cards to his friends before it was ever published for the public). The movie, even as a kid, I saw as a riff on A Christmas Carol, only with Bob Cratchitt (George Bailey) receiving the divine intervention not Scrooge (Mr. Potter). George doesn’t go to prison because they have more than $8,000 on the table (let alone the money wired by Sam Wainwright on top of that) , he is richer than Potter ever will be because he has the friendship of the entire town and Potter has no friends ( the only people with him in the bank are his employees so they have to be there).

This classic movie is guaranteed to have me in floods of tears EVERY Christmas.

Actually, so many of the classics are becoming more and more rare on broadcast television. Thank God for hundreds of ways to watch whenever I want. Great video. Always thought about reading the book.....eh....maybe someday.

Did not know this was a book!

"Merry Christmas, everyone" *November 20th*

That was Awesome!!! One of my favorite movies of all time!!!

honestly it sounds like the movie made all the right changes since the book is so short kind of how the people that made The Box did it

I almost cried just watching this video. Especially when you started your impression. JK. That was great.

YES! I was so hoping you guys would cover this story! This just made my day!

Thanks, I've never seen this movie. I'll watch it today. It looks great! 🎄

I saw a documentary about this movie and a guy cried when he talked about it. I thought "that's so over the top over a movie". Years later I finally watched it and cried my eyes out with the ending. It's such a beautiful movie.

We need more videos in this awesome channel!

It's so wonderful to see how this Christmas classic emotionally and uniquely told this story. Keep it up!

It's a Wonderful Life is in my top 3 so I honestly care about the differences cause it's amazing

Love the movie, played EVERY year!

To quote Arthur from King of Queens "I don't get it. With George Bailey, the town couldn't be duller. Without him, there's nightclubs, casinos. It's fabulous...I wish he never had been born."

Wait a minute, close to Buffalo, Nick, ringing the cash register bell, giving out wings? If George had stayed nonexistent, could this have been the origin of Buffalo Wings?!

Love this series. Thanks for covering its a wonderful life.

The impression at the end is. Very good.

Cinefix should do a top 10 movies of the 2010's for the end of the decade

Wow, amazing.... Not the video, the fact that for the first time there's subtitles for a video in this series... Thanx!!

This is my dad's favorite Christmas movie

I love this movie with all my 💓.

Wow dude. Thanks for the spoilers. I had planned on finally seeing it’s a wonderful life this year

Wow!!! Over 44 thousand hits in less than 24 hours!!!! These guys are making some serious RU-vid $$$$$$$. I'm lucky if my videos get that many hits in a whole month. Makes me around $150.00 on a good month. When the copyrights for this picture show expired in the 70's, you could see this picture every day & night on TV on the old time UHF stations. NBC was smart to buy up the rights & only show it in December each year. Forgive me, I'm feeling a warm & fuzzy coming on, I think I'm gonna cry.

I watched it for the first time and loved it

I’m totally using this for random sarcastic inquiries of movies better than their written source material!

Such a wonderful movie and such a pleasant 9 minutes. Thanks for sharing

Always been my favorite movie

YAY! I love these.

This is really the only xmas movie i will watch. I am so in love with it.

Of course all the acting and actors are top notch but I always have a soft spot for Gloria Grahame, she is so pretty in this film! The whole film just sums up America in the best way! Happy Christmas and best wishes for the New Year to all!

First time I ever teared up during a RU-vid video...

I love this movie so much 😢

I remember when VCRs first became available, this was among the first movies I bought at Wal-Mart (it still had the hyphen). There were a bunch of (7-10) cuts of this available, depending on where you saw it, but the truth is---and I suppose this will mark me as Scrooge or The Grinch---I only watched it a couple of times. I prefer happier movies, a lot of which were favorites from my youth, seeing them on TV, and "It's a Wonderful Life" didn't show up 55 times every season. I always start my Christmas season Thanksgiving day by watching the original "Miracle on 34th Street" while eating Thanksgiving dinner. I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving and wonderful Christmas, both preferably among loved ones.

Greatest movie ever. So wholesome. It is America.

It's been a long time since it was available "on every channel". It's been out of the public domain since the mid 90s, and now only airs on NBC a couple of times each year in December.

It's a wonderful Life itsgot to be the best Jimmy and Donna just make it work love that movie

I know this is unrelated but I really want to hear you guys breakdown top 10 films with Magical Realism. Happy holidays Cinefix!

NBC purchased the rights years ago and now it only really airs once or twice a year. A Christmas Story has really taken its place of being able to see it on three different channels at all times during the holiday season

have you guys done "A Christmas Story" yet?

I never miss this or the Reginald Own version of A Christmas Carol.....

Please do "Misery" by Stephen King next!

This is literally my favorite movie of all time! Thanks for this Cinefix ♥️

Never see this film, and this video was the first time I heard about it.

Just watching this made me tear up

One other thing: in the original edition, the character of George was named George Pratt. After the movie came out, all subsequent editions went with the better known movie name of Bailey.

I love this movie but can never think of it without thinking of what Phoebe ( from the TV show Friends) said about it. She said that it should have been called It's A Sucky Life. I see her point but still love the movie

Merry Christmas Movie House!

I love this movie!🎅 ❄ ⛄ 🎁

I'm gonna say it "I'm a sucker for girls that wear glasses"

I love this movie. It might be my favorite. The only minor bad thing about it is that Mr. Potter did not get punished for keeping the money that he found from Uncle Billy at the bank; but other then that it's a wonderful movie.

I've never seen the film or read the book. This video makes me almost want to.

Love this channel keep it up 👍👍👍

One thing I noticed watching this movie: George was the one who dared his brother to go down the hill on the shovel, which caused Harry to fall into the water and nearly drown. If George did not exist, he would not have been there to dare Harry to go down the hill, and thus Harry would not have drowned. That being said, Harry should have been alive in the alternate universe.

~ George was more likely in his mid 20s when he went to his brother’s high school dance, as he had just complained to his father that all of his friends had all graduated college some time ago ~

I love this movie I grew up with it

I love these videos please make them more often! 😭

Heehaw and merry Christmas

Oh, and the guys at Mystery Science Theater 3000 must have LOVED IAWL. They had a ton of IAWL-themed riffs. Shot of a starfield: "Lot of people praying for someone named George Bailey." Every time someone got chucked out of a building: "Out you two pixies go, through the door or out the window!" And the tail-end of one of the host segments of the infamous Manos: The Hands of Fate parodied the part where George orders his daughter to keep playing the piano.

Everytime you guys do a movie I didnt know was a book, it's like a happy little surprise in my feed!

Who else thinks there is a tv edit of this? My wife and I watched it the other night, on RU-vid, and I did not remember the first hour of it, at all.

I'm not crying your crying.

Ching! I just gave another angel its wings (see what I did there? Gender neutral) Good job, man - thoughtfully presented and leaving me realising just why it is the number one favourite Christmas move, cause at it's core it's about the power of love ❤️

Best Christmas movie ever. It’s actually aged pretty well too

It used to be on several channels. Now as far as I know it's just on NBC. I don't have cable so I don't know. I use a Roku player. You can stream it.

Some people say it's not a Christmas movie until the end. That is completely missing the point of the movie! The story embraces the spirit of Christmas, or what that spirit should be, if you accept that Christmas was originally a religious holiday. It's the perfect movie to watch at Christmas because it embodies the spirit of giving that should be celebrated this time of year.

I had no idea this was based on a book!

I read the story in The Saturday Evening Post :)

Every time a bell rings an angel gets their wings. So ring that bell notification 🔔.