'It was probably the strongest picture I made': How Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life became a Christmas classic Alamy Released in 1946, Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life was derided as an "over-sentimental" Christmas yarn. On its release in 1946, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times critiqued It's a Wonderful Life for its tone, noting that "the weakness …
