Is It’s a Wonderful Life the ultimate Christmas movie? It’s the story of George Bailey, a man on the brink of suicide, who is saved by Clarence, an angel who shows him how the world would have been without him.

It’s fifty years since this film first appeared, and it’s still as gritty & tough with a fabulous central performance from Gene Hackman. So much so . . . that he grabbed the best actor Oscar in the 1972 academy awards.