Episode 11: It’s a Wonderful Life by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, and Jo Swerling with Nancy Guzman
5/15/2024 | 41m
It’s a Wonderful Life on the Finding Good Bones podcast this week with our guest Nancy Guzman - fiber artist, witch, tarot reader, horror film fanatic, sci-fi enthusiast, and a Gemini with too many hobbies - as we take a look at this holiday classic from Frank Capra. We discuss the underplayed darkness in the film, the blinders depression can put on a person, and the joy we can all create without even knowing it. Did you hear that? A capitalist angel just got its wings!
This Episode's Guest
Nancy Guzman is a fiber artist, witch, tarot reader, horror film fanatic, sci-fi enthusiast, and a Gemini with too many hobbies. Her current aspiration is to be known about town as "that weird lady who talks to trees." She lives in north Jersey with her partner Jeff and their two cats Frannie and Flyboy.
Amy's Show Notes
What Amy is reading - The October Daye series by Seanan McGuire: https://seananmcguire.com/toby.php
What Kate is reading - Field Guide to Getting Lost by Rebecca Solnit: http://rebeccasolnit.net/book/a-field-guide-to-getting-lost/
Read Rebecca Solnit’s 2008 essay Men explain things to me: https://www.guernicamag.com/rebecca-solnit-men-explain-things-to-me/
Kate was wrong - it was not a book about maps, but rather River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West, a book Solnit sums up as being about "the annihilation of time and space and the industrialization of everyday life." Also, apparently he hadn't read the book himself, but had read a summary of it.
Though the term “mansplaining” is often attributed to this essay, it’s never actually used here. This was the inspiration of the term, but it was first seen on Live Journal and then picked up steam from there. It was one of the New York Times’ 2010 “Words of the Year” and was entered into the online Oxford Dictionaries in 2014.
Meet Nancy Guzman, a fiber artist, witch, tarot reader, horror film fanatic, sci-fi enthusiast, and a Gemini with too many hobbies. Her current aspiration is to be known about town as "that weird lady who talks to trees." She lives in north Jersey with her partner Jeff and their two cats Frannie and Flyboy.
Check out Nancy’s sweet kitties here: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_f356c73f048247238c0ed560c96f1736~mv2.jpg
The original Dawn of the Dead is the 1978 zombie follow up to Night of the Living Dead (though it shares no characters), written, directed, and edited by George A. Romero. It was inspired by an actual mall and portrayed a satirical view of consumerism.
According to Wikipedia, body horror, or biological horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction that intentionally showcases grotesque or psychologically disturbing violations of the human body or to any other creature.
This is one scene from a movie Kate watched over and over again in childhood that made her run to the other room, cover her ears tightly, and stick her face in a pillow: The Princess Bride: TheROUSes (Rodents of Unusual Size)
Read the full screenplay: https://www.dailyscript.com/scripts/wonderfullife.html
James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997), popularly known as "Jimmy", was an American actor known for his trademark drawl (with just a hint if a stutter) and "Everyman" sensibility on screen. He was in 80 films over six decades, winning the Academy Award for Best Actor for playing The Philadelphia Story (1940). This was his first film to star in after enlisting in the US Army in 1942 where he served in WWII as a pilot. According to Mr. Stewart, this was his favorite of the 8o films he made, and you can read why in this piece: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/weird-story-fbi-and-its-wonderful-life-180967587/
The actor who played Clarence Odbody was an English actor - Travers John Heagerty (5 March 1874[2] – 18 October 1965) - known professionally as Henry Travers. He lived to be 91 years old and was in 52 films in his lifetime. This was probably his best known role, though he was nominated for Best Supporting actor in Mrs. Miniver (1942). Apparently he was known for "portraying slightly bumbling but amiable and likeable older men" even at the start of his career, often being cast in roles much older than his actual age.
Still of Tom Sawyer and note from Clarence: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_9f5d0430fb2d4e96b83409814efa1ed1~mv2.jpeg
A MacGuffin is an object, event, or character in a film or story that serves to set and keep the plot in motion despite usually lacking intrinsic importance.
I think the MacGuffin here is the missing money?
Okay so apparently the word “man” actually started out meaning “person” or “human” and not “adult male” at all. It was genderless until until about the year 1000.
There's a lot of research out there around the effects of gratitude on the brain. In the book Upward Spiral, Dr. Alex Korb talkes about how practicing gratitude helps to reduce stress and anxiety, and improve mood, sleep, and even relationships by boosting serotonin and activating key emotional circuits. It should be noted that practicing gratitude is not the same as just "trying to feel grateful". If you're into instilling practices and habits for good mental health but also need them justified by science so you don't feel silly, this is an amazing resource: https://www.alexkorbphd.com/workbook/
The bad guy gets away with it explanation
If you’re in (or visiting) Austin, TX, check out the Paramount Summer Classic Films, celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer! https://www.austintheatre.org/events/film/
It’s a Wonderful Life isn’t playing, but the OG Dawn of Dead is, with Goblin playing their original score! https://tickets.austintheatre.org/11293/11294?_ga=2.211325333.123159393.1715899277-1170521489.1715899277
Frank Russell Capra (Francesco Rosario Capra; May 18, 1897 – September 3, 1991) was born in Italy before emigrating to America with his family when he was five years old in the steerage compartment of a steamship. He lived a very interesting life and had a roundabout way of breaking into the burgeoning film scene in LA in the 20s. He became one of the most influential directors of the 1930s, but returning to film after serving in WWII his career faded a bit. It's a Wonderful Life was also his first film back from the war, and while it has become a beloved holiday staple over the years, it was not a hit at the time. He was known for his sentimental outlook and any of his films are considered "love letters to America". I'll leave this with two quotes that I found from / on him from Wikipedia. Contemplating Capra's contribution to film, director and actor John Cassavetes quipped: "Maybe there really wasn't an America, it was only Frank Capra." The other is, after that ocean crossing that he described as one of the worst experiences of his life, he recalled entering NY Harbor, seeing "a statue of a great lady, taller than a church steeple, holding a torch above the land we were about to enter" and his father telling him "Cicco, look! Look at that! That's the greatest light since the star of Bethlehem! That's the light of freedom! Remember that. Freedom." I can't help but think they are somehow related.
Often billed as the original screwball comedy, It Happened One Night is seen as one of the greatest films ever made. It was the first of three films that have swept all five major Academy Awards. It's precode, so naughtier than a lot of its genre followers (definitely one that can make you think like, "wait they could say that then?" Well they could until they couldn't!).
The Studio Age, or the Golden Age, of Hollywood is the time period from the late 1920s and the introduction of sound to the beginning of the demise of the studio system in the late 1940s / early 1950s. Over 7,500 films were made.
List of all the screenplay writers
Michael Wilson was a screenwriter who worked, often uncredited, on 22 screenplays. He was blacklisted for being a Communist (no word on whether he actually was?) so he peaced out to France for a while and worked on screenplays there. He won several Academy Awards and Some of his later works include Lawrence of Arabia, The Sandpiper, Planet of the Apes, and Che!
Founding member of the Algonquin Round Table Dorothy Parker deserves much more than I can give her here. But as far as screenwriting goes, she is credited for working on eight scripts (not including this one, or a few others she “polished” or added dialigue to) before being - you guessed it! Blacklisted for being a Communist!
It’s a Wonderful Life is loosely based on the 1943 short story “The Greatest Gift” by Philip Van Doren Stern, which is itself loosely based on the Charles Dickens 1843 novella A Christmas Carol. One hundred years apart!
Check out Nancy’s fiber arts!:
Check out Kate’s toddler blanket, craftsired by Nancy!: https://static.wixstatic.com/media/33805f_ad63d056e9984c1daf1177579ff5de00~mv2.jpg
Here is an actual Angel podcast from this podcast’s best friend Lani Diane Rich: https://stilldead.transistor.fm/
Request a recommendation on a selection of writing picked by Kate and Amy just for you: https://www.findinggoodbones.com/contact
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