"It's a wonderful laugh! It's a wonderful love!"

1946

2h 10m

8.3(4625 votes)

Drama

Family

Fantasy

Overview

A holiday favourite for generations... George Bailey has spent his entire life giving to the people of Bedford Falls. All that prevents rich skinflint Mr. Potter from taking over the entire town is George's modest building and loan company. But on Christmas Eve the business's $8,000 is lost and George's troubles begin.

Where to Watch

Rent

Links & Resources

IMDbView

Social & External

IMDb

Production Companies

Videos & Trailers

10 videos

Cast & Crew

117 members

Acting

James Stewart

George Bailey

Acting

Donna Reed

Mary Hatch

Acting

Lionel Barrymore

Mr. Potter

Acting

Thomas Mitchell

Uncle Billy

Acting

Henry Travers

Clarence

Acting

Beulah Bondi

Mrs. Bailey

Acting

Frank Faylen

Ernie

Acting

Ward Bond

Bert

Acting

Gloria Grahame

Violet

Acting

H.B. Warner

Mr. Gower

Acting

Frank Albertson

Sam Wainwright

Acting

Todd Karns

Harry Bailey

Acting

Samuel S. Hinds

Pa Bailey

Acting

Mary Treen

Cousin Tilly

Acting

Virginia Patton

Ruth Dakin

Acting

Charles Williams

Cousin Eustace

Acting

Sarah Edwards

Mrs. Hatch

Acting

William Edmunds

Mr. Martini

Acting

Lillian Randolph

Annie

Acting

Argentina Brunetti

Mrs. Martini

Acting

Robert J. Anderson

Little George

Acting

Ronnie Ralph

Little Sam

No Image

Acting

Jeanne Gail

Little Mary

No Image

Acting

Jeanine Ann Roose

Little Violet

No Image

Acting

Danny Mummert

Little Marty Hatch

No Image

Acting

Georgie Nokes

Little Harry Bailey

No Image

Acting

Sheldon Leonard

Nick

Acting

Frank Hagney

Potter's Bodyguard

Acting

Ray Walker

Joe (Luggage Shop)

Acting

Charles Lane

Real Estate Salesman

Acting

Edward Keane

Tom (Bldg. & Loan)

Acting

Carol Coombs

The Bailey Child - Janie

No Image

Acting

Karolyn Grimes

The Bailey Child - Zuzu

Acting

Larry Simms

The Bailey Child - Pete

Acting

Jimmy Hawkins

The Bailey Child - Tommy

No Image

Acting

Jean Acker

Townswoman (uncredited)

Acting

Ernie Adams

Ed (uncredited)

Acting

Monya Andre

Elderly Woman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Stanley Andrews

Mr. Welch (uncredited)

Acting

Sam Ash

Nervous Banker (uncredited)

Acting

Jack Bailey

One of Vi's Suitors (uncredited)

Acting

Louise Bates

Building & Loan Depositor (uncredited)

Acting

Mary Bayless

Townswoman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Beth Belden

Young Girl (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Brooks Benedict

Military Officer in Montage (uncredited)

Acting

Joseph E. Bernard

Townsman (uncredited)

Acting

Al Bridge

Sheriff (uncredited)

Acting

Buz Buckley

Young Boy (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Marian Carr

Jane Wainwright (uncredited)

Acting

Adriana Caselotti

Singer at Martini's (uncredited)

Acting

Lane Chandler

Policeman (uncredited)

Acting

Michael Chapin

Young George's Friend (uncredited)

Acting

Tom Chatterton

Townsman (uncredited)

Acting

Jack Cheatham

Cop Arresting Violet (uncredited)

Acting

Harry Cheshire

Dr. Campbell (uncredited)

Acting

Edward Clark

Building & Loan Board Member (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Tom Coleman

Building & Loan Customer (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Ellen Corby

Ms. Davis (uncredited)

Acting

Bryn Davis

Elderly Woman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Lew Davis

High School Teacher at Poolside (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Harry Denny

(uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Helen Dickson

Woman at Graduation Dance (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Dick Elliott

Man on Porch (uncredited)

Acting

Tom Fadden

Tollhouse Keeper (uncredited)

Acting

Frank Fenton

Violet's Boyfriend (uncredited)

Acting

Eddie Fetherston

Horace (uncredited)

Acting

Sam Flint

Relieved Banker in Potter's Office (uncredited)

Acting

Lee Frederick

(uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Dick Gordon

Photographer with Sheriff (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Jack Gordon

Bar Patron (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Herschel Graham

Townsman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Joseph Granby

Elderly Man (voice) (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Charles Halton

Carter (uncredited)

Acting

Carl Eric Hansen

(uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Herbert Heywood

Building & Loan Depositor (uncredited)

Acting

Harry Holman

Mr. Partridge (uncredited)

Acting

Art Howard

Building & Loan Board Member (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Bert Howard

Building & Loan Board Member (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Arthur Stuart Hull

Mr. Randall (uncredited)

Acting

John Indrisano

Man in Fantasy (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Eddie Kane

Building & Loan Depositor (uncredited)

Acting

Carl Kent

Townsman (uncredited)

Acting

Milton Kibbee

Building & Loan Board Member (uncredited)

Acting

Effie Laird

Townswoman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Mike Lally

Building & Loan Customer (uncredited)

Acting

Harold Landon

Marty Hatch (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Meade 'Lux' Lewis

Pianist in Nick's Place (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Jack Lomas

Bar Patron (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

J. Farrell MacDonald

Man Whose Grandfather Planted Tree (uncredited)

Acting

Irene Mack

Townswoman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Wilbur Mack

Building & Loan Customer (uncredited)

Acting

Charles Meakin

Elderly Man (uncredited)

Acting

Priscilla Montgomery

Student in Gym (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Bert Moorhouse

Man with Sheriff (uncredited)

Acting

Evelyn Moriarty

Bar Patron (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Philip Morris

Building & Loan Customer (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

George Noisom

School Dancer (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Bob O'Connor

Bar Patron (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Frank O'Connor

Military Officer in Montage (uncredited)

Acting

Lynn O'Leary-Jameson

Infant Janie Bailey (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Moroni Olsen

Senior Angel (voice) (uncredited)

Acting

Garry Owen

Bill-Poster (uncredited)

Acting

Netta Packer

Elderly Woman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Franklin Parker

Photographer / Reporter (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Suzanne Ridgway

Nick's Waitress (uncredited)

Acting

Mark Roberts

Mickey (uncredited)

Acting

Constantine Romanoff

Bar Patron (uncredited)

Acting

Cy Schindell

Nick's Bouncer (uncredited)

Acting

Almira Sessions

Potter's Secretary (uncredited)

Acting

Cedric Stevens

Townsman (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Brick Sullivan

Man in Fantasy (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Charles Sullivan

Nick's Bartender (uncredited)

Acting

Carl Switzer

Freddie Othello (uncredited)

Acting

Max Wagner

Cashier / Nick's Assistant Bouncer (uncredited)

No Image

Acting

Larry Wheat

Building & Loan Board Member (uncredited)

Acting

Charles C. Wilson

Charlie (uncredited)

Acting

Finn Zirzow

Bar Patron (uncredited)

No Image

Similar Movies

2025

Space Man

An agoraphobic man traps himself in an astronaut costume to avoid the disastrous consequences of his condition

Movie

5.8

2002

Silent Night

Fact-based World War II story set on Christmas Eve, 1944, finds a German Mother and her son seeking refuge in a cabin on the war front. When she is invaded by three American soldiers and then three German soldiers, she successfully convinces the soldiers to put aside their differences for one evening and share a Christmas dinner.

Movie

7.4

1945

Leave Her to Heaven

A socialite marries a prominent novelist, which spurs a violent, obsessive, and dangerous jealousy in her.

Movie

6.7

1944

Going My Way

Youthful Father Chuck O'Malley led a colorful life of sports, song, and romance before joining the Roman Catholic clergy. After being appointed to a run-down New York parish, O'Malley's worldly knowledge helps him connect with a gang of boys looking for direction, eventually winning over the aging, conventional Parish priest.

Movie

6.8

1958

Dunkirk

A British Corporal in France finds himself responsible for the lives of his men when their officer is killed. He has to get them back to Britain somehow. Meanwhile, British civilians are being dragged into the war with Operation Dynamo, the scheme to get the French and British forces back from the Dunkirk beaches. Some come forward to help, others were less willing.

Movie

6.1

2009

Powder Blue

On the gritty streets of LA, the destinies of four people desperate for connection and redemption are about to collide.

Movie

Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog Splat

6.5

2021

Secret Agent Dingledorf and His Trusty Dog Splat

Overcoming bullies and his own loser mentality, 10-year-old Bernie Dingledorf must destroy Dr. Chuckles’s diabolical Laugh Generator before it sends the world into uncontrollable fits of laughter.

Movie

2019

Santa Company: The Secret of Christmas

A feature-length version of the short anime film Santa Company (2014).

Movie

1960

Liqimat Aleaysh

Fathi and Mohsen are unemployed friends. Mohsen falls in love with Dr. Samia, who offers him a job at her father's farm, but the only condition for the job is that the employee have to be married. Fathi dresses up as a woman and goes with Mohsen to the farm as his wife

Movie

6.9

2009

A Christmas Carol

Miser Ebenezer Scrooge is awakened on Christmas Eve by spirits who reveal to him his own miserable existence, what opportunities he wasted in his youth, his current cruelties, and the dire fate that awaits him if he does not change his ways. Scrooge is faced with his own story of growing bitterness and meanness, and must decide what his own future will hold: death or redemption.

Movie

7.0

1944

The Keys of the Kingdom

A young priest, Father Chisholm is sent to China to establish a Catholic parish among the non-Christian Chinese. While his boyhood friend, also a priest, flourishes in his calling as a priest in a more Christian area of the world, Father Chisholm struggles. He encounters hostility, isolation, disease, poverty and a variety of set backs which humble him, but make him more determined than ever to succeed.

Movie

7.8

2000

Nine Queens

Two con artists try to swindle a stamp collector by selling him a sheet of counterfeit rare stamps, the "nine queens".

Movie

3.3

2014

Lucky Fares

One of the Three Kings and Santa Claus spend Christmas in jail, talking about what their future will be like in a world like this.

Movie

8.5

2022

The Christmas Clapback

Every year the three Miles sisters, Jasmine, Kira, and Tisha, battle each other for a chance to win the neighborhood Christmas Church Cook-Off competition. But when Aaliyah, the vivacious Social Media Influencer, enters the competition, the sisters must choose to rise together, or fall divided.

Movie

5.9

2022

The 12 Days of Christmas Eve

When Brian Conway, a successful businessman whose family relationships have suffered, gets in a car accident on Christmas Eve, Santa gives him twelve chances to redo the day and repair the relationships in his life, including with his daughter Michelle.

Movie

6.4

2022

The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

This comical love story follows the story of A.J. Fikry, whose life is not at all what he expected it to be. His wife has died, his bookstore is experiencing the worst sales in its history and now his prized possession, a rare edition of Poe poems, has been stolen. He’s given up on people and even the books in his store offer another reminder that the world is changing too rapidly. But when a mysterious package arrives at the store, it gives Fikry the chance to make his life over and see things anew.

Movie

9.0

2022

A Wesley Christmas

Adult siblings Chris, Todd, and Cydney Wesley travel to their childhood home to celebrate Christmas with their parents and the entire Wesley family. With everyone together and all their physical and emotional baggage in tow, the annual Wesley family holiday promises to be a festive, hot-mess of a Christmas with life-changing impacts on the whole family.

Movie

6.0

2019

VeggieTales: The Best Christmas Gift

Bob and Larry are preparing for their first Christmas show in Mr. Nezzer's theater and the show seems to be headed for disaster. Bob begins to wonder how to celebrate Christmas when everything is going wrong. It's when the Veggies go back to the very first Christmas, where times were tough and things didn't seem to be working out, that they all learn the promise of Christmas - God is with us. It's a timeless story of hope that every family will enjoy!

Movie

7.0

2021

Robin Robin

A bird raised by mice begins to question where she belongs and sets off on a daring journey of self-discovery.

Movie

6.5

2022

Lights, Camera, Christmas!

When a holiday rom-com movie shooting in her town needs a costume designer, Kerry, a local shop owner, steps into the role. While working on the movie, she rediscovers her passion for costume design and finds herself falling for Brad, the film’s famous leading man.

Movie

Recommended Movies

7.4

1947

Miracle on 34th Street

Kris Kringle, seemingly the embodiment of Santa Claus, is asked to portray the jolly old fellow at Macy's following his performance in the Thanksgiving Day parade. His portrayal is so complete that many begin to question if he truly is Santa Claus, while others question his sanity.

Movie

7.8

1939

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

After the death of a United States Senator, idealistic Jefferson Smith is appointed as his replacement in Washington. Soon, the naive and earnest new senator has to battle political corruption.

Movie

8.0

1962

To Kill a Mockingbird

Scout Finch, 6, and her older brother Jem live in sleepy Maycomb, Alabama, spending much of their time with their friend Dill and spying on their reclusive and mysterious neighbor, Boo Radley. When Atticus, their widowed father and a respected lawyer, defends a black man named Tom Robinson against fabricated rape charges, the trial and tangent events expose the children to evils of racism and stereotyping.

Movie

8.4

1980

The Empire Strikes Back

The epic saga continues as Luke Skywalker, in hopes of defeating the evil Galactic Empire, learns the ways of the Jedi from aging master Yoda. But Darth Vader is more determined than ever to capture Luke. Meanwhile, rebel leader Princess Leia, cocky Han Solo, Chewbacca, and droids C-3PO and R2-D2 are thrown into various stages of capture, betrayal and despair.

Movie

8.1

1940

The Shop Around the Corner

Two employees at a gift shop can barely stand one another, without realising that they are falling in love through the post as each other's anonymous pen pal.

Movie

7.0

1938

A Christmas Carol

Movie

7.9

1948

Rope

Two young men attempt to prove they committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party for the family of a classmate they just strangled to death.

Movie

7.6

1968

Night of the Living Dead

A ragtag group barricade themselves in an old Pennsylvania farmhouse to remain safe from a horde of flesh-eating ghouls ravaging the Northeast.

Movie

8.0

1941

Citizen Kane

Newspaper magnate Charles Foster Kane is taken from his mother as a boy and made the ward of a rich industrialist. As a result, every well-meaning, tyrannical or self-destructive move he makes for the rest of his life appears in some way to be a reaction to that deeply wounding event.

Movie

8.3

1954

Rear Window

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Movie

8.2

1995

The Usual Suspects

Held in an L.A. interrogation room, Verbal Kint attempts to convince the feds that a mythic crime lord, Keyser Soze, not only exists, but was also responsible for drawing him and his four partners into a multi-million dollar heist that ended with an explosion in San Pedro harbor – leaving few survivors. Verbal lures his interrogators with an incredible story of the crime lord's almost supernatural prowess.

Movie

7.8

1930

All Quiet on the Western Front

When a group of idealistic young men join the German Army during the Great War, they are assigned to the Western Front, where their patriotism is destroyed by the harsh realities of combat.

Movie

7.5

2008

Synecdoche, New York

A theater director struggles with his work, and the women in his life, as he attempts to create a life-size replica of New York inside a warehouse as part of his new play.

Movie

8.2

1943

Casablanca

In Casablanca, Morocco in December 1941, a cynical American expatriate meets a former lover, with unforeseen complications.

Movie

7.6

1939

Stagecoach

A group of people traveling on a stagecoach find their journey complicated by the threat of Geronimo, and learn something about each other in the process.

Movie

7.5

1946

Beauty and the Beast

The story of a gentle-hearted beast in love with a simple and beautiful girl. She is drawn to the repellent but strangely fascinating Beast, who tests her fidelity by giving her a key, telling her that if she doesn't return it to him by a specific time, he will die of grief. She is unable to return the key on time, but it is revealed that the Beast is the genuinely handsome one. A simple tale of tragic love that turns into a surreal vision of death, desire, and beauty.

Movie

7.3

1947

The Lady from Shanghai

A romantic drifter gets caught between a corrupt tycoon and his voluptuous wife.

Movie

7.7

1950

Harvey

The story of Elwood P. Dowd who makes friends with a spirit taking the form of a human-sized rabbit named Harvey that only he sees (and a few privileged others on occasion also.) After his sister tries to commit him to a mental institution, a comedy of errors ensues. Elwood and Harvey become the catalysts for a family mending its wounds and for romance blossoming in unexpected places.

Movie

6.8

1988

Life Is a Long Quiet River

Two babies are switched at birth. When the mistake is discovered 12 years later, it leads to complications in the lives of both families. One family is affluent, with dutiful and (apparently) contented children. The other family is poor, with rambunctious (even delinquent) children, often hungry, but with lots of laughter in the house.

Movie

7.6

1947

Out of the Past

The peaceful life of a gas station owner is disrupted when a man from his past arrives in town and forces him to return to the dark world he had tried to escape.

Movie