I forgot the popcorn! Dig in folks ...
Posted on 12/13/2008 5:07:54 PM PST by lowbridge
You know angcat, you really did have a wonderful life! Now, will you and your husband join me for drinks at Martini’s after we beat up old man Potter?
I would love to kick Potters ass, and yes I would love to have a Martini with you!
No one does the charleston anymore.
:-(
LOL
My ‘spousal unit’ it watching it in bed....snuggled up with a brew. I’m on here. Kids are winding down for bed. LOL!
Just got back from a Christmas rehearsal at church. A couple of friends and I were discussing the lack of ‘Christmas cheer and Spirit’ that seems to hang over our community at the moment. Really sad. We’re just not ‘into it’ this year. People are very worried. :(
If that happened, Bedford Falls would have been replaced with Potterville.
Love that line in the movie.
Sorry to hear that. I will be missing the caroling in Palmer Square (Princeton, NJ) this year. Hope they have a large turnout, as usual.
Hope so, too.
When is NBC going to let this movie go back to the public domain so that people can watch this wonderful movie any time of the year?
I remember seeing the movie as a 15 year old, and thinking that Potterville seemed like a pretty cool place. ;-)
Actually its not up to NBC. Its up to RKO:
Liberty Films was purchased by Paramount Pictures, and remained a subsidiary until 1951. Paramount owned the film until 1955, when they sold a few of their features and most of their cartoons and shorts to television distributor U.M.&M. TV. Corporation. This included key rights to It’s a Wonderful Life, including the original television syndication rights, the original nitrate film elements, the music score, and the story on which the film is based, The Greatest Gift.[25] National Telefilm Associates (NTA) took over the rights to the U.M.& M. library soon afterward.
However, a clerical error at NTA prevented the copyright from being renewed properly in 1974.[26] Despite the lapse in copyright, television stations that aired it still were required to pay royalties. Although the film’s images had entered the public domain, the film’s story was still protected by virtue of it being a derivative work of the published story “The Greatest Gift,” whose copyright was properly renewed by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1971. The film became a perennial holiday favorite in the 1980s, possibly due to its repeated showings each holiday season. It was sometimes mentioned during the deliberations on the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998.
In 1993, Republic Pictures, which was the successor to NTA, relied on the 1990 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Stewart v. Abend (which involved another Stewart film, Rear Window) to enforce its claim of copyright. While the film’s copyright had not been renewed, it was a derivative work of various works that were still copyrighted. As a result, the film is no longer shown as much on television (NBC is currently licensed to show the film on U.S. network television, and only shows it traditionally twice during the holidays, with one showing primarily on Christmas Eve from 8-11 Eastern time) and now Paramount (via parent company Viacom’s 1998 acquisition of Republic’s then-parent, Spelling Entertainment) once again has ancillary rights for the first time since 1955.
Due to all the above transactions, this is one of the few RKO films not controlled by Turner Entertainment/Warner Bros. in the USA.
There is one redeeming factor in that Turner did not get the film.
At least they did not colorize it and ruin it.
OH too good! Ours is Scrooge with Alistair Sim Black and White on Christmas eve after Mass with the kiddies, some eggnog and crackers pepperoni and cheese. YEE HAW my favorite night of the year with the kiddies and DH.
...
"Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?"
...
"George Bailey? What's he want?"
...
"A toast... to my big brother, George. The richest man in town!"
The first 15 minutes is The Night Before Christmas, and the second 15 minutes is The Navitity.
It's a 1940-1950's marionette show sponsored by Bell Telephone.
I loved it as a kid and I swear I still don't see the strings.
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I am truly ashamed to admit that I bought a colorized version on VHS many years ago. Watched about five minutes once, then turned the color off and watched the rest in glorious B&W. :)
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