Book Excerpt: How Frank Capra Helped James Stewart Return to Hollywood

Stewart’s Return to Hollywood

In Frank Capra: A Life, Hollywood historian Sam Wasson recounts how Capra guided Stewart’s return to public view through a role suited to the actor’s strengths. The biography was published by Harper. Stewart’s contract with Liberty barred the company from using his World War II service in publicity. At Chasen’s, he told friends, “The truth is I’m scared as hell.”

Capra Faces a Difficult Production

Capra was also anxious, Wasson writes. Without longtime collaborator Robert Riskin, the screenplay remained unsettled, and other writers and friends who might have helped were unavailable. The first day of filming It’s a Wonderful Life coincided with William Wyler’s start on The Best Years of Our Lives. Wyler sent Capra a cable: “Last one in is a rotten egg.”

A Dance Opens Filming

Capra began production with the high-school dance in Bedford Falls, where George and Mary fall into a swimming pool beneath the gymnasium floor. Hundreds of extras joined the scene, filmed at Beverly Hills High School.

Capra preferred to shoot in sequence and used his independence to do so for the film. He chose Donna Reed as Mary Hatch instead of Jean Arthur, after seeing Reed in John Ford’s 1945 film They Were Expendable.

Stewart Delivers in One Take

Before their first scene, Capra told Stewart it began on page 31 rather than page 33. Stewart responded with a stammered “N– n– no,” then performed the scene without needing to act it out, Wasson writes.