17 - "It's A Wonderful Life" (1946)

     Growing up in the 80's, I remember when from Thanksgiving to Christmas, you couldn't turn a television on without finding It's A Wonderful Life on somewhere. It was on some channel every night, usually multiple times. I never watched the movie during this time. It was that black-and-white movie that was clogging up my tv when more interesting stuff should have been on. Then around the mid-90's sometime I was sitting at home, there was nothing on the tube and this was just about to start. I decided to give it a try. Well, that ended up being a good choice and is now an annual must-watch at Christmas time. The movie stars the great Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, a small town banker who is contemplating suicide as the movie opens. An angel, Clarence (Henry Travers), is sent down to rescue George and save his life. He does, but George still doesn't think he is worthy of living and believes everyone would be better off had he not been born. So Clarence does that. He takes George back in time and we saw how the town, and the people in it, would have turned out had George never been born. This is a movie that teaches us just how important each of us is, no matter how insignificant we think we may be. It's A Wonderful Life is directed by Frank Capra and is simply a joy of a film to watch. If you are like me and passed on this movie up to this point, do yourself a favor and give it a look sometime this holiday season.