Just found an archive of photos from Life Magazine online showing the set and explaining the process for making the simulated "snow".
Click here to see the article. Updated - as of 07/07/13 link still works.

Just got my Blu Ray player and flat screen TV.  By next Christmas, I will definitely have It's A Wonderful Life on Blu Ray.  I have the 60th Anniversary edition.

I don't mean to put a damper on anyone's plans for buying movies on Blu-ray, but a DVD is actually better because it fills the entire screen without any black bars on the top or bottom, but with Blu-ray's, being the movie is actually wider in the theaters then other movies, in order for you to see it as if you were in the theater, they have very large black bars on the top and bottom of the screen because in order for you to see the full width of the movie, they have to get it to fit across the screen, but to get it to fit the screen, they would have to take some of the left and right edge of the movie away.  So basically you are wasting 2/3 of your actual screen space.  Until they can come out with a TV that will be wide enough to fit a Blu-ray so it fills the entire screen without any black on the top or bottom, you are better off with the Widescreen DVD.

I have a 32 inch LCD HDTV and I have about 3 or 4 Blu-Ray movies and I prefer watching the DVD in the Multi-pack because it fills the entire screen.

Yes, you can adjust the Horizontal and Vertical size some, but not a few inches, maybe just a half an inch.

Blu-ray movies are basically filmed at 2:35:1 ratio  And I believe Widescreen is 1:78:1  or 1:85:1 ratio so it fits a 16:9 ratio Television.

Here is a link to a PDF article which helps explain things a little better.

It's a Wonderful Life was filmed and originally shown with an aspect ratio of 1:37.  This is not a widescreen movie.

If you watch it on a 16:9 widescreen HDTV, your screen has an aspect ration of approximately 1:78.

The only way that you can watch it on what is now a standard HDTV (16:9) without image loss is with pillar boxes (called letterboxing) on the sides.  (Note:  Letterboxing can also be black bars at the top and bottom of the film image for a widescreen movie.)

Letterboxing will give you the full image of the movie on your screen.  If the image fills the entire screen of an HDTV set, you will be cropping the image at the top and bottom.  There is no way around this.  Some folks prefer to lose some of the image in order to have the picture fill the entire screen.  That is a personal preference.  I prefer the whole enchilada, so I gladly live with the letterboxing and personally prefer all of my movies to be viewed that way.

Just for comparison purposes, White Christmas was filmed at 1:85 and the Blu-ray release is 1:78.  The Blu-ray version fits that HDTV screen perfectly.  For lack of a better example (off of the top of my head,) Star Wars was filmed at 2:39:1 and released on DVD and Blu-ray at 2:35:1.  Letterboxing produces black bars at the top and bottom of the screen on this movie.

Most HDTVs have the ability to "zoom" in on an image to make it fill your entire screen if the aspect ration is less than 1:78.  Just make sure that you are okay with losing some of the picture when you do that.

In order to get an easy to understand explanation for how It's a Wonderful Life will look on your TV, you can click on this link to the TCM website here.  The 4:3 TV screen size noted there is the standard television aspect ratio of our youth.

Susan's linked article explains all of this in great detail.

There are always compromises if you want to watch any movie where the aspect ratio doesn't fit the aspect ratio of your television set.

The Blu-ray version of It's a Wonderful Life has an aspect ration of 1:34.  It is certainly the most detailed and pristine version of the film that has been released to date.  I have owned this movie on VHS, Laserdisc, DVD and now Blu-ray.  You will love this movie no matter which format you watch it on.

-=Perry

Well thanks for all the input!  I'm sure It's A Wonderful Life on Blu-ray will definitely be an upgrade from DVD.  It stands to reason that a movie made in 1946 can't possibly be made to look like it was made in 2012.

Well it took long enough, but this year I purchased the Blu Ray version of It's A Wonderful Life.  I got the Platinum Anniversary edition.  When I opened the package, it contained two discs.  One was the original B&W edition, the other was the colorized version.  On Christmas Eve, I decided I'd watch the colorized edition since I'd never seen it.  And of course, I could watch it with no commercials!  I'd say Paramount did a good job with the colorization.  The clarity was definitely better than the regular DVD version.

Used to Like IAFL (It's A Wonderful Life) but really have no interest in it any longer, I find it a very mean film, over long by a good 20 minutes Capra and McCarey were very good at dragging out films!  In the 40's the Motion Picture code still insisted crooks were not to get away with crimes so it still irks me that Mr Potter got away with stealing the money from Uncle Billy.  And the topper is that Clarence the Angel could have easily showed or told George about Potter finding the money and not turning it over to the Bailey family!   

01-20-18 @ 14:56 PM
Follow-up to above message:

Been a fan of "A Holiday Affair" 1949 since I first watched it on WOR the old channel 9 here in NY when RKO General owned the station and the film library, saw it in july I think one afternoon on the 1 O'clock film!   The film was shredded by the NYT's when it was released on Christmas Eve 1949 but it really is a charmer and a serious topic -probably taking a cue from Miracle On 34th Street which dealt with a divorced lady raising a child.   TCM has really gotten the film exposure and every year it gains more fans!



*Message edited by the Yule Log.com Message Board Administrator on 01/20/18 to combine two consecutive reply posts by the same member. Also, double-post was deleted.

Hi Chip!

Yes, it's a shame about the lack of exposure for the 1952 film The Holly And The Ivy; it must be a licensing issue, as it's not currently in circulation. The film not only boasts in its cast the great Ralph Richardson, but also the great Celia Johnson who, like Richardson, is totally underappreciated these days. She was particularly good in director David Lean's classic 1945 film Brief Encounter. And as for Richardson, good Lord, he was exceptional in The Fallen Idol, The Heiress (which he did for the great director Willy Wyler), and Long Day's Journey Into Night (which he starred with the great Kate Hepburn).

I hope to God that VCI or someone else picks up the option for 1951's A Christmas Carol, I'd really hate to see that movie fall out circulation. It is by far the #1 film in my list of all-time favorite Christmas movies.

Chip again spot on!    I rec'vd The Holly And the Ivy on dvdr along with another great brit film missing in action here in the states Alastair Sims classic "The Belles Of St Trinians" from a firm in CA I reviewed them on my FB page, according to my sources Trinians is owned here in the states by Paramount!   It was shown last here in the states on WPIX around 1975 in fact it was a New Years Day!

Bob,

That first film in the St. Trinians series, The Belles Of St. Trinian's, was a reunion of sorts for A Christmas Carol cast members Alastair Sim, George Cole (a protégé of Sim), and the always delightful Hermione Baddeley. Sim did two films in the Trinians series, and Cole did four. Hopefully The Belles Of St. Trinian's will be in circulation someday, as it was the best in the series. Sim was a hoot in drag.

As for Bush Christmas, it's too bad that it isn't more widely known today. But thankfully, TCM does show it from time to time.

And regarding the new Christmas CD releases that I proposed and are being negotiated for this year are Jim Reeves, Leroy Anderson, Jack Halloran and Harry Simeone; but for the Simeone, I have to locate the original masters. I also have a proposed John Klein 2-fer CD package that's cooking. And in addition to all that, there's also a good possibility of 2-CD set package releases coming for Andre Kostelanetz, Ferrante & Teicher, Arthur Fiedler and Eugene Ormandy. The 2-CD sets for Andre Kostelantz and Ferrante & Teicher will hopefully contain all three of each artist's Christmas albums; and the 2-CD set for Eugene Ormandy might possibly contain all four of his Christmas albums (the original two with Columbia, and the later two with RCA).

There is even more beyond this, and I will post updates in the future accordingly.

Hi Chip!

You're picking up some fine films here, Bob. Those two 1942 U.K. motion pictures sported two of the most celebrated filmmaker collaborations in British cinema. They also provided feature film debuts for two of the greats of British cinema.

For the movie One Of Our Aircraft Is Missing, you have filmmakers Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (known together as The Archers). And Peter Ustinov made his feature film debut in this movie.

For the movie In Which We Serve, you have filmmakers David Lean and Noel Coward. And Richard Attenborough made his feature film debut in this movie.

Good picks!

Thanks Chip!   If you really want to see a great and underrated Brit war film grab a copy of "The Way Ahead" starring David Niven - Peter Ustinov appears in this too - one of his first roles.     The film as released by VCI is the original Brit version NOT the American edited version titled "The Immortal Battalion" a really under seen gem!!!

Thanks Chip!

Hi Chip!

I hate when stations do that. I know they have to make their money, so I don't care how many damn commercials they show, but don't cut the doggone movie. They should either show it correctly or don't show it at all.