A soaking moist George Bailey and Clarence, warming up by the fireplace in the toll home on the bridge, talk about why Clarence jumped into the freezing water. It was to assist George, Clarence tells him.
“Only one way you can help me,” George says sarcastically. “You don’t happen to have 8,000 bucks on you?”
The movie then cuts to an elated George working via city, gleefully shouting “Merry Christmas” to the “You are Now in Bedford Falls” signal, Mr. Potter, the financial institution examiner and ultimately his household.
Wait, what?
That’s the shock you bought if you happen to chosen the “abridged” version of the Christmas basic “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Amazon Prime Video. By the 1000’s of confused and outraged feedback posted on social media on Christmas Day — you weren’t alone if you happen to did.
Amazon streams the full version of the film for Prime members, however the abridged version is obtainable free for anybody, with adverts. The abridged version cuts about a half hour out of the 1946 Frank Capra movie’s runtime, axing the whole “Pottersville” scene, the place Clarence the angel (second class) guides George via an alternate actuality wherein he by no means existed.
Of course, the film is mindless with out that pivotal half of the story. So why reduce it?
Copyright regulation. Well, an interpretation of it, anyway.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is loosely based mostly on the 1943 quick story “The Greatest Gift,” written by Philip Van Doren Stern.
In “The Greatest Gift,” the most important character, George, confides in a stranger on a bridge that he needs he had by no means been born. The stranger tells him to return to city, the place George finds his life in disarray. No one is aware of him, and George’s brother, whom he had saved as a boy, had drowned. George returns to the stranger, who explains that life is a blessing and the world is healthier with George in it.
“The Greatest Gift” plot is intently mirrored in the Pottersville scene, however the movie drastically expands upon it with a lengthy backstory and a quick conclusion.
Stern obtained the unique copyright for the quick story and he renewed it in 1971. Upon his demise, the copyright license was left to Stern’s daughter and her three daughters, who shaped The Greatest Gift Corporation to handle the rights to his works, according to Jason LeBlanc, the playwright who companions with Stern’s property to license “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the stage.
The movie enters public area
In 1974, the copyright for “It’s a Wonderful Life” expired, when then-owner Republic Pictures did not renew it, in accordance with an article revealed on the Library of Congress’ web site.
It’s not clear why Republic Pictures allowed the copyright to run out. The Library of Congress cites a “clerical error,” which can have been brought on by the movie’s late-December 1946 launch to qualify for the 1947 Academy Awards, despite the fact that its run in cinemas was largely in 1947. It’s conceivable that Republic Pictures mistook the launch date — and subsequently when the 28-year copyright expired.
Regardless of the cause, the expiration of the copyright turned a glad accident for the movie’s success: The film had flopped in theaters and was largely forgotten for many years. But when it entered the public area, tv networks jumped at the probability to broadcast the movie to fill the airwaves on Christmas, and it turned a beloved basic three a long time after its preliminary run.
That continued till 1993, when Republic Pictures despatched broadcasters letters claiming that it had the copyright to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in spite of everything, they usually may now not broadcast the movie without spending a dime, the Los Angeles Times reported at the time.
Republic Pictures had simply been acquired by Viacom, now half of Paramount. The new firm’s executives have been shocked to study that it had been making a gift of “It’s a Wonderful Life” without spending a dime, particularly after the 1990 Supreme Court choice Stewart v. Abend, which discovered actor Jimmy Stewart and director Alfred Hitchcock needed to pay licensing charges to launch a new version of “Rear Window” as a result of the quick story on which it was based mostly remained copyrighted, despite the fact that the movie’s copyright had since entered the public area.
Republic argued that it maintained the unique rights to movie variations to “The Greatest Gift.” The firm additionally acquired the rights to the movie’s rating. It used each of these arguments in the letter it despatched to the broadcasters, which acquiesced. Republic then entered into an unique settlement with NBC to broadcast “It’s a Wonderful Life” from then on.
Stern’s granddaughter Sarah Robinson, who runs The Greatest Gift Corporation, maintained in a 2023 iHeartRadio interview that Republic by no means truly obtained the underlying story rights, and her grandfather’s property had the proper to sue the broadcasters who aired and streamed the film — however her firm has chosen to not. Regardless, the public area standing of “It’s a Wonderful Life” was unsure.
With the movie’s licensing complexities, some artistic sorts opted to check the limits of copyright regulation, in accordance with movie historian Mikhail Skoptsov.
For instance, in 2020, parody web site RiffTrax launched a cut-down version of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” dubbed over with a comedic commentary and streamed on free streaming platform Tubi. The lacking portion: the Pottersville scene.
In a blog post about their parody version, RiffTrax mentioned it reduce the Pottersville scene as a result of it believed the relaxation of the movie to be in the public area.
“The main copyrighted stuff comes down to 1) material from the short story ‘The Greatest Gift’ that part of the film was based on, and 2) some musical rights for background songs,” the web site mentioned.
RiffTrax distributor Legend Films in 2021 launched the similar reduce of the movie, with out the commentary. It was initially streamed on Tubi as the “Legend edition,” and it stays accessible on Hoopla, a free web site for library card holders. Legend didn’t reply to a request for remark.
That version then started streaming on Amazon Prime in 2024 as the “abridged version,” however the shortened movie’s credit proceed to quote Legend Films as the distributor. It’s not clear why Amazon streams it. (Amazon additionally didn’t reply to a request for remark.)
But right here’s a chance: Legend’s experience is in colorizing outdated movies. In addition to Legend’s abridged version of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” Amazon additionally streams Legend’s colorized version of the movie for Prime prospects.
The story of the abridged version of “It’s a Wonderful Life” is as advanced as the copyright saga itself. As attention-grabbing as the story could also be … the unique version of the film is healthier.