It's A Wonderful Life dubbed "subversive" by Hoover's FBI....

[WCGreen]

Ruining Your Holiday....Why the FBI Thought "It's A Wonderful Life" was a Subversive Film
Franklin & Marshall Professor uncovers the "dark side" of Capra classic

LANCASTER, Pa. -- "It's A Wonderful Life" is one of the most popular and heartwarming films ever made. Long regarded as the definitive Christmas movie, "It's A Wonderful Life" tells the tale of a man's life that is recognized as wonderful and truly rich after he suffers through many hardships and trials.

Yet in 1947, the FBI had some very different ideas about this holiday classic. In fact, the FBI branded "It's A Wonderful Life" and seven other films, including "The Best Years of Our Lives" as subversive.


WAIT, IT GET's BETTER......


In searching for subversive frames in Hollywood films, the FBI set up three categories of "common devices that were used to turn non-political pictures into carriers of political propaganda." These devices included smearing values or institutions judged to be particularly American, such as wealth, free enterprise and the profit motive; glorifying values or institutions judged to be particularly anti-American, such as failure or the triumph of the common man; and making casual references to current events that belittled American political institutions.

"According to the FBI, "It's A Wonderful Life" fit into the first two categories," said Noakes.

The casting of Lionel Barrymore as a "scrooge-type" resulted in the loathsome Mr. Potter becoming the most hated person in the film. According to the official FBI report, "this was a common trick used by the communists."

And, the triumph of George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) represented the triumph of the common man, thus satisfying the second condition.

http://server1.fandm.edu/departments/CollegeRelations/PressReleases/1997-98/PR075.html



When the bell rings, Hoover get's another pair of women's nylons....


They were bat shit crazy back then.... It's sounds like something Newt Gingrich and Michael Medved....

[atommom]

1. Oh, they're still crazy, and they're still criticizing pop culture.

Sadly, though, there doesn't seem to be much subversiveness to criticize these days...

[leftofthedial]

33. and they're still champions of the Potters of the world

as American patriots

[PaDem]

2. Hoover may well top my list of all-time worst Americans.........

a sick dude.

[hamletsophelia]

3. hoover was subversive

[Erika]

4. Dick Cheney is a twin for Mr. Potter

How interesting.

[rosesaylavee]

5. Nuts.

To add insult to injury, the film's producer and director, Frank Capra, was reported to have "associated with left-wing groups and, on one other occasion to have made a picture which was decidedly socialist in nature--'Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'"

So. The little guy going to DC and standing up for the constitution was 'socialist'. Hoover was insane, wasn't he?

[WCGreen]

8. And he was the guy who obsessed with communists and

considered the free exercise of speech as more damaging to the US than organized crime...

[Tom Joad]

13. He was also obsesssed with red high heels, but that may or may

not be true.

[tuvor]

6. Garsh, Mary.

[sandnsea]

7. And Jimmy Stewart was a Republican

So go figure that one out. :crazy:

[janx]

9. I have a question that my daughter and I marvel about:

Why was it terrible that "Mary is working at the LIBRARY!" ?

[WCGreen]

10. Perseption in the old days was that

a woman working in a library was an old maid...

Kind of like Marian the Librarian in The Music Man....

[janx]

14. You can see why my daughter and I laugh about the

character now, yes?

I never watched or heard The Music Man.

[Warpy]

15. It was terrible that she hadn't MARRIED and produced

SIX KIDS!!!! The HORROR of a woman who had a JOB and an INCOME and wasn't breaking her ass doing housewife and mother slave labor! The SACRIFICE she made because ole George was never born!

Schools in the 50s and 60s had little numbers known as "hygiene films," moralistic one reelers geared to make us phobic about life, love, sex, and anything that didn't originate with church and authority. Single career women were always used as examples of poor mental health and worse.

It was part of that old post WWII push to get women out of jobs that paid a living and into the kitchens of conquering heroes. That's why it was so terrible to have Mary be a librarian.

[janx]

17. I was born at the end of 1957...but I wasn't raised that way.

As a matter of fact, I was the one who raised this matter to my daughter, who is now 23, after we had seen the film many times.

OH MY GOD! MARY IS WORKING AT THE LIBRARY! :rofl:

Maybe I missed those films. :shrug:

[Warpy]

19. You missed them because we laughed at them

and the schools retired them.

They were pretty damned funny.

[janx]

20. Like "Reefer Madness"?

I missed that one by not too many years, but I heard about it later. Also, I saw some films that I missed about table manners, Beaver Cleaver style.

Is that what you mean?

[badgerpup]

23. Reefer Madness, Cocaine Fiends, and Sex Madness...

Does it tell you anything that these were often shown as 'shorts' before a screening of
The Rocky Horror Picture Show?

Far from being impressed or scared, the audience laughed its collective ass off.

I seriously doubt that anyone was turned from the Path Of Vice by these propaganda flicks...:eyes:

The song "Hot Voodoo Makes Me Want To Be BAD" in the Cocaine Fiends bar scene was kinda cool though...:rofl:

[Berry Cool]

24. Don't forget, they were popular as shorts on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" too

with freshly dubbed-in commentary. (The Home Economics Story was a real classic--the warm saga of a group of young ladies who go to college to learn all about how to become the best housewives possible.)

Don't forget, folks, that in earlier unenlightened times, a single career woman who showed no signs of being marriageable or inclined to marry, and who had never had a man introduce her to the, um, pleasures of love, was also thought to possibly be a l...um, a les...oh, I can't even say it, it's so terrible! :scared: And Lord knows a fine redblooded man like J. Edgar Hoover couldn't have any of that in a movie.

Of course, what makes me laugh a little about It's a Wonderful Life is that somehow, simply by virtue of working at the library, Mary has somehow acquired the need to wear glasses. Now I know that this is because of the old-fashioned meme that people who read too many books ruin their eyes, and that "bookish" or "intelligent" people are inevitably eyeglass wearers, and that under that same meme, wearing eyeglasses is supposed to render women unattractive, hence make them more convincing as "old maids" who can't find a man to marry. But, one could read it a different way...i.e., that because Mary hasn't been able to find a man, she's had to take care of her sexual needs on her own...and of course, you know what happens when you do that...it's a wonder she doesn't need dark glasses and a cane!

So you see, George Bailey did a whole lot more than just save his brother from drowning, and save a lot of American sailors from certain death, and save the building and loan, and save Bedford Falls from the evil of Mr. Potter...he saved poor Mary from going blind!

It IS a wonderful life!

[On the Road]

11. I Think "It's a Wonderful Life" is One of the Best Movies Ever Made

and this makes it all the better.

Someday, people will look back at the Patriot Act and the War on Terror this way. Count on it.

[janx]

18. It's a fun didactic film with a good message,

but I wouldn't count on it to be one of the best films ever made.

[On the Road]

25. You Really Should Reconsider It

it has a remarkable complexity and depth. Frank Capra was a master screenwriter, and this was his best. A lot of great art is

Usually movies which potrary things like angels, community stature, and the benefits of home ownership or assuming family obligationwooden and predictable. This one is unique, surprising, and unpredictable. Jimmy Stewart's character has a very dark side, just as the movie has a vicious streak.

Some quotes from Roger Ebert, who has a similar take on it:

"What is remarkable about "It's a Wonderful Life" is how well it holds up over the years; it's one of those ageless movies, like "Casablanca" or "The Third Man," that improves with age....

The movie works like a strong and fundamental fable, sort of a "Christmas Carol" in reverse: Instead of a mean old man being shown scenes of happiness, we have a hero who plunges into despair."

"It's a Wonderful Life" is not just a heart-warming "message picture." The conclusion of the film makes such an impact that some of the earlier scenes may be overlooked.... And the darker later passages have an elemental power, as the drunken George Bailey staggers through a town he wants to hate...."

If this is an ordinary movie, I don't know there aren't any others like it.

[Tom Joad]

12. The film did not do very well in the beginning, but only gained "classic"

status as it was rerun on TV.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It's_a_Wonderful_Life

Jimmy Stewart, outside folks known personally by me, easily was my favorite Republican person.

[Tom Joad]

16. Jimmy Stewart was not only a republican, but a FBI snitch,

writing to jedgar hoover about the commies in Hollywood.

For years James acted as J. Edgar Hoover’s (director of the FBI, 1924 - 1972) informant, filing reports on the criminals and communists he saw infesting Hollywood. When Henry Fonda discovered Stewart had been a Hoover informer, Fonda refused to talk to him for years.

Jimmy also did a puff piece for the FBI in this movie:
The FBI Story (1959)

In this salute to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Jimmy Stewart portrays one of J. Edgar Hoover's finest man, and Vera Miles co-star as his steadfast wife.

The colorful career of Agent Chip Hardesty (Stewart) spans over three decades, from 1924 to the late 1950s. Based on two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Don Whitehead's bestseller, and tautly directed by craftsman Mervyn LeRoy, the film describes how, along the way, he tangles with everything from the Ku Klux Klan to a bomber that commits mass murder for the insurance money.

Hardesty's fiercest exploits come in the 1930s when he stares down a gun barrel at Baby Face Nelson, Pretty Boy Floyd, Machine Gun Kelly, Ma Barker, and John Dillinger.

[janx]

21. kick

before I retire to read and sleep

[Union Thug]

22. Peace, justice, kindness and generosity are subversive???

Only the "free market" could create this kind of mega-dissonance.

[OzarkDem]

26. Hilarious!

'When the bell rings, Hoover get's another pair of women's nylons...."

:spray: :rofl:

[WCGreen]

27. Crack me up.....

[IndianaGreen]

28. And today the RW labels a film like "Happy Feet" as anti-family

and environmental propaganda. How little have things changed?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

29. Pretty much everything Frank Capra ever did tilts left...

if for no other reason than he sympathetically portrayed average people and distrusted power and wealth.

[WCGreen]

30. I am shocke, I tell you, shocked.....

[Bad Penny]

31. It's a Wonderful Life...Meet John Doe...Mr. Smith Goes to Washington

Capra's anti corporate/governmental corruption, anti fascist trio of masterpieces. As evil and effective Barrymore was in IAWL, you should get a load of Edward Arnold as the power hawk in the other two. He's so Cheney-like in looks and manner it's chilling. Capra unashamedly wore his heart for the common man on his sleeve and is one of my heroes. He even plays satirically with the wingnuts paranoia that liberalism = communism in You Can't Take it With You, which was just on Turner Classic Movies this evening.

May someone piss on Hoover's grave tonight

[Uncle Joe]

32. Thanks for posting WCGreen, kicked, too late to recommend n/t

[Dinger]

34. Mr. Smith Goes To Washington Pissed Of Some hoover-types Too (nt)