James Stewart: A Wonderful Life

James Stewart: A Wonderful Life (1987)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Johnny Carson hosts this nice tribute to actor James Stewart. The film shows clips from his most popular movies (with the exception of Rear Window, which was in rights troubles at the time) and features interviews with various co-stars and friends including Peter Bogdanovich, Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Carol Burnett, Clint Eastwood, Richard Dreyfuss, Sally Field, Walter Matthau, Gene Kelly, Lee Remick and Katharine Hepburn. We get all sorts of nice stories told but the real highlight is Carson walking and talking with Stewart himself. An earlier interview is also shown with Stewart where he reveals various things including saying that Jean Harlow was the best kisser he was ever with in a movie. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington gets a lot of attention and Dreyfuss shares a lot of interesting thoughts about it. The Western's of Stewart's also get a lot of talk and some nice information is shared including the fact that he wore the same hat through most of these films. Oh yeah, Harvey makes a special appearance as well.

Any one-hour encapsulation of an important actor's life and work is bound to feel a little trivial and rushed. Still, this documentary does actually have Stewart in it, with Johnny Carson, and it does tell you a good deal about his life. However, The Greatest Show On Earth is mysteriously omitted, Rear Window isn't included because of copyright problems at the time, and his later pieces (Airport '77) are politely skipped over. But, for those who know nothing about Stewart's overall career, a worthy, short introduction...although watching the movies is a lot better.

"James Stewart: A Wonderful Life," hosted by Johnny Carson, is from 1987, ten years before Stewart's death. His last years were fraught with illness, and after his wife's death, he became reclusive.

Here, however, he talks with Johnny Carson about his career, and there is some wonderful old footage of him with Henry Fonda and Margaret Sullivan doing summer stock, and some stills of him in plays, as well as family photographs.

There are interviews with Richard Dreyfuss, Lee Remick, Gloria Stewart, and Peter Bogdanovich as well, and scenes from Philadelphia Story, Anatomy of a Murder, It's a Wonderful Life, etc.

In the end, we revel in Stewart's accomplishments but we don't find out too much about him as a man. The aw, shucks veneer hid an intelligent man, a Princeton grad, a committed actor, and an ambitious one.

Stewart left us a great legacy of films. It's evident he was more interested in that than letting us in on who he really was. And that legacy is more than enough.