FBI Considered “It’s a Wonderful Life” Communist Propaganda!

Dear Commons Community,

We have been inundated during the past year by stories of the U.S. government surveillance program that maintains files on its citizens.  Here is a surveillance “blast from the past” compliments of Will Chen (Wisebread) regarding an FBI file on the director (Frank Capra) of the seasonal holiday film, It’s a Wonderful Life starring James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, and Donna Reed.  In 1947, the FBI considered the anti-consumerist message of this film as subversive Communist propaganda and that it smeared American values such as wealth and free enterprise while glorifying anti-American values such as the triumph of the common man.   The FBI specifically commented on the way Mr. Potter (banker played by Barrymore) was portrayed:

“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.”

The report goes on to comment how the film maligns the upper class in American society.

It’s a Wonderful Life is not one of my favorite holiday films but it did not deserve to be branded communist propaganda. We can take great comfort in knowing that such activity would never happen today. : – j

Happy Holidays!

Tony

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