Every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings... Frank Capra's 1947 It's a Wonderful Life is probably the most loved Christmas movie of all time. (Yes, even more so than Die Hard.) It features an archetypal performance from Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey, the ambitious small town guy who never quite manages to fulfil his dream of moving away, and starts to think that his life has had no purpose – until an angel called Clarence (Henry Travers) pays him a visit to show him what would have happened had he never been born.
This all-Amercian variation on A Christmas Carol is sappy as hell, but darn it, if you're not in tears by the end, you're made of sterner stuff than us. The Orpheum is screening the restored version on two consecutive mornings on December 23 and 24; all tickets are just $12, with $2.50 from each one sold donated to Food Bank. Now that's what we call making a difference.
