James Stewart's favorite movie is the 1940s classic

James Stewart began his professional acting career on stage in the early 1930s, and it wasn't exactly a high-profile start. He played a series of walk-on parts and stage manager roles on Broadway, and was booked from many of them for missing his cues. Still in her mid-20s, Stewart even considered giving up acting and going back to school. Fortunately, he played the lead role in the play “Yellow Jack” in 1934, and the critics loved him. Encouraged to stay in showbiz, Stewart moved to Hollywood, where he made his film debut in Tim Whelan's “The Murder Man” in 1935.

From there, it was a meteoric rise for Stewart, who appeared in six films in 1936 alone, working for such prestigious and successful directors as William Wellman and WS Van Dyck. Stewart's acting career took a serious leap in 1938 when he starred in his debut You Can't Take It With You. Three collaborations with Italian-American master Frank Capra (the other two being 1939's “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and 1946's “It's a Wonderful Life”). Appearing in three films directed by John Ford, four directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and eight directed by Anthony Mann, Stewart often returned to directors he admired.

Stewart would amass more than 80 credits in his career. He would go on to be nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one (for “The Philadelphia Story”). While exhibiting a great deal of range, Stewart emerged from Hollywood with an innocent, “aw shucks” persona. He is a gentle man with a good heart. Stewart rarely played heavies or thugs. His remarkable personality made his dark roles stand out so sharply. When he becomes a psychosexual terrorist in “Vertigo,” it feels especially wrong. When he contemplated suicide in “It's a Wonderful Life,” it felt truly bleak.

In 1987, Stewart wrote “It's a Wonderful Life” and it is easily defended by the Guidepost website. He said it was his favorite film.

Of course, “It's a Wonderful Life” is so ingrained in the pop consciousness that it is often screened in theaters and televised every Christmas. Many classic film buffs are aware of its struggle to find success. “Amazing” infamously bombed at the box office, and was investigated by the FBI for its “communist” leanings; Notably, the film focuses on the capitalist banker Mr. It portrayed Potter (Lionel Barrymore) as a villainous and greedy “Scrooge type” who was designed to be hated. The FBI thought this was enough to suspect Frank Capra of selling anti-American, anti-capitalist views to the public.

Years later, “It's a Wonderful Life” began running on television every Christmas and audiences quickly took notice. Ultimately, it became an anticipated holiday tradition and has been re-rated as one of the greatest films ever made. It's a story of despair and hope, money and soul, and a mythical “Twilight Zone” in the middle. To recap briefly: Stewart plays George Bailey, whose life goes south after a bank error. As he contemplates taking his own life, George is visited by an angel, Clarence (Henry Travers). By the end of the film, Clarence even shows him an alternate universe he wasn't born into, and George finds his beloved town destroyed by greed and his friends and loved ones disintegrated. He returns to reality with a new lease on life. Faith is restored.

In his 1987 retrospective, Stewart began:

“A friend recently told me that watching a film I made 40 years ago is a holiday tradition in his family. that pictureIt's a wonderful life,' and it's my favorite of the 80 films I've made.”

That's saying something considering the number of classics Stewart has appeared in.

Stewart then tells a funny story about how he got the role. World War II ended and he ached for work. Stewart remembers flying around public parks with his friend Henry Fonda, shooting the air. “Nothing much happened,” he wrote.

Then Stewart got a call from Frank Capra, who was producing the epic war documentary Why We Fight. Capra had the story “It's a Wonderful Life”. And he wanted to give it to Stewart in the hope that he would act. Capra seems to have done a really lousy job of summarizing the story, not really conveying the central theme very clearly to Stewart. Capra tells how the story began in heaven, how angels have to earn their wings, how George Bailey is going to jump off a bridge, and then Angel falls into the water, and George has to save him, and then. This is a long sentence. Stewart recalled Capra saying, “It didn't sound good, did it?”

Stewart, of course, was glad to be heard, so before Capra finished, he simply blurted out:

“Frank, if you want to make a movie about a guy who jumps off a bridge and an angel named Clarence, who hasn't won his wings yet, swoops down to save him, well, I'm your man!”

Stewart finally concluded:

“It's about an ordinary man who discovers that living each ordinary day with respect, faith in God and selfless concern for others can create a truly amazing life.”

As mentioned, “The Incredibles” has become a Christmas tradition and frequently tops lists of the greatest movies of all time. Stewart, it seems, has good taste.