This isn't It's a Wonderful Life, it's the other dark, Frank Capra, Christmas movie from the 1940's. It's a great movie that was influential for several filmmakers including the Coen Brothers and The Hudsucker Proxy, in particular, took a lot of inspiration from this movie.
Still reeling from the Great Depression, this movie is about a ballsy newspaper columnist who, in a desperate attempt to save her job after the paper did mass layoffs, accidentally created a grassroots political movement. In order to keep the scheme going, she had to hire a face of this movement, so she hired a homeless man to front for her. Her whole goal was to sell papers and it worked. What could possibly go wrong?
Directed by Frank Capra
Screenplay by Robert Riskin
Story by Robert Presnell Sr.
Based on A Reputation by Richard Connell
Produced by Frank Capra
Cinematography George Barnes
Edited by Daniel Mandell
Music by Dimitri Tiomkin
Cast
Gary Cooper as John Doe
Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell
Edward Arnold as D.B. Norton
Walter Brennan as The Colonel
Spring Byington as Mrs. Mitchell
James Gleason as Henry Connell
Gene Lockhart as Mayor Lovett
Rod La Rocque as Ted Sheldon
Irving Bacon as "Beanie"
Regis Toomey as Bert Hansen
J. Farrell MacDonald as "Sourpuss"
Harry Holman as Mayor Hawkins
Warren Hymer as "Angelface"
Andrew Tombes as Spencer
Pierre Watkin as Hammett
Stanley Andrews as Western
Mitchell Lewis as Bennett
Charles Wilson as Charlie Dawson
Vaughan Glaser as Governor
Sterling Holloway as Dan
Harry Davenport as Former Bulletin Owner
Garry Owen as Sign Painter
#fullmoviefree #4kmovies #christmasmovies
