Thought on "It's a Wonderful Life"

[watervole]

I'm a long time lover of the classic Christmas movie "It's a Wonderful Life".

Like many others, I've often wondered about Clarance the angel and the line: "every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings." 

It seems an odd line to come from nowhere.  What was in the scrip-writer's mind when he wrote it?  To have the line actually be related to the overall story suggests that he was familiar with such a belief/custom/saying.

I think I may have found a possible origin.  

I was browsing Wikipedia and ended up in the article on Indulgences   (For those who don't know, the over-simplified explanation is that by buying an indulgence, a sinner could avoid part of the punishment in purgatory for a sin)

Luther, who was a key figure in the Protestant reformation was strongly opposed to the sale of indulgences.  

 In Thesis 28 Luther objected to a saying attributed to Tetzel: "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs".^[40] 

I think that quote of Tetzel is the likely origin of the Angel getting his wings saying.  

Comments

[lonemagpie.livejournal.com]

More likely they just wanted a line that rhymed with "gets his wings"... This is Hollywood we're talking about!

And obviously it's not a patch on Die Hard...

[davidwake.livejournal.com]

Or Luther was riffing on the bells and wings perhaps.

[wibble-puppy.livejournal.com]

That line reminds me of the things in Peter Pan about fairies: "When a new baby laughs for the first time a new fairy is born, and as there are always new babies there are always new fairies", "Every time a child says, 'I don't believe in fairies,' there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead", and most nauseatingly of all, "When the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies".

I adore Peter Pan, and am a massive fan of Barrie, but the stuff about fairies is grim.

[sammason.livejournal.com]

I never watch Xmas films if I can avoid it but that line sounds as though it might be a reference to this poem (http://www.poetry-online.org/donne_for_whom_the_bell_tolls.htm) which, of course, inspired the title of one of Hemingway's great novels.

[hawkeye7.livejournal.com]

I'd heard that many times, but never made the association. It seems quite plausible, given Capra's conservative Catholicism.

[jon-a-five.livejournal.com]

My favourite bit is at the beginning of the film where the brother comes home and reveals he's got a job in the big city and won't be taking over the bank. The look on James Stewart's face as he realises he's trapped in this small, shitty dead end town is the most emotionally honest part of the film for me!

[undyingking.livejournal.com]

Mm, sounds pretty plausible to me. (I also love the film!)