It’s hard to believe that Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life had a poor box-office on release, or that it took 25 years for it to tickle the public conscience. In fact, it’s difficult to imagine how the story of a bumbling angel earning his wings was ever anything but The Greatest Feelgood Movie of All Time.

You really can’t begrudge it that status, though. Schmaltz it may be, but beautifully crafted schmaltz that all but glows with its own conviction - and unlike lesser feelgood movies, it doesn’t shy away from the dark side. Smalltown banker George Bailey, on the brink of suicide, is visited by a junior angel who shows him a vision of what might have been had he never lived in the first place - and the vision is deepest noir – George’s folksy little home town is degraded to a mercenary hellhole.

In casting Jimmy Stewart as George, Capra latched on to the dark, self-doubting streak behind Stewart’s aw-shucks screen persona – one that both Anthony Mann and Hitchcock would pounce on in the ‘50s. The whole cast’s a joy, to be honest, not least Lionel Barrymore as the most malevolent skinflint since Scrooge.

DVD Extras:

Extras on this 60th Anniversary Edition aren’t so impressive, smacking of a simple seasonal re-release. All you get are an intro from Frank Capra Jr and an over-cosy Making Of hosted by Happy Days’ Tom Bosley.