There is just so much movie here. For some it may be too much. But in the same secretly sarcastic way most telemarketers say the phrase, the title of this one is particularly apt.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

This film is a remake of "It's a Wonderful Life", with Marlo Thomas taking the spot of Jimmy Stewart. The angel is now also female, being played by Cloris Leachman, Aside from a nice homage to Frank Capra, it really does not serve much purpose.The best thing about this film is Orson Welles, but even that is a bit sad because he is too great a talent to appear in such a film. Why is he in made-for-TV fare? He is a legend and should be treated like one. Beyond that, the film is a bit tedious... of the group I watched it with, I was the only one who stayed awake. Indeed, it takes pretty much forever to get to the point. (They tell you early on all the events shown will be important. In some sense, this is true, in another sense it's rubbish.)

I saw "It Happened One Christmas" in about 1978, I think on Christmas Eve, while sitting alone waiting for my wife to get off work and join me for the holiday. I hadn't seen Marlo Thomas since the original airing of "That Girl" in the '60s. It was wierdly fun to see her on something, and I had never seen nor heard of Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life." Later when I did see "It's a Wonderful Life," I immediately connected the story to that of "It Happened One Christmas," and thought it was scandalous how the original had been ripped off, and how geeky it was by comparison to the classic it had been "appropriated" from.Today I wish I could find the knock-off on DVD. Now that I've seen Capra's original so many times, it would be fun to see the Marlo Thomas version again, if for no other reason than to bring back the nostalgic feeling of that evening that I first saw it. I remember that I was very touched by the story that night, geekiness of the treatment notwithstanding (or perhaps partly because of it!), and that it contributed to setting me up emotionally for a very special Christmas holiday with my spouse.

I saw this movie when I was 15 years old. I never forgot it. It has remained in my heart all these years. I forgot the name of the movie but not that Marlo Thomas was in it. I have been trying to get a copy of this movie now, that I know the name of the movie. It is a great movie. I have Its A Wonderful life and its good too. I just like It Happened One Christmas better. It touched my heart and got into my soul. Some movies do that to you and this one did it for me. I loved that it was in color. I love the modern version. I liked the switch of gender. I related to the struggle in the movie. I was going through a hard time in my life at the time and it gave me hope.It also made me realize that perhaps our lives are not only for ourselves but for others as well. This movie is a real jewel. You can watch it alone or with your family. One movie is not hard to find and the other should be made available so more people can decide for themselves. I wish It happened One Christmas to everyone. We are not all going to be moved by the same movie.This movie did it for me. If you want a copy of this movie I just found a great website for those hard to find movies. Go to www.myhouseoffilms.net/TVHOMEPAGE click on holiday movies. scroll down until you find the title of the movie,It Happened One Christmas. You can also try My Houseoffilms.net/ and contact Toni and give him the name of the movie you are looking for. I can't wait to see the movie after all these years. I have only seen it the one time. The impact of It Happened One Christmas is profound to me. I want it in my collection, and so should anyone who wants it.

I assume slamming "It's a Wonderful Life" is probably like knocking the book "A Christmas Carol"--both are sacred, no matter how sick people actually are of them (are the round-the- clock showings of "Wonderful" really necessary?). I'm another one who saw this remake first, and then attempted to watch the original. I suspect that 1930s-era film may be one of the most difficult periods for modern audiences to appreciate. I found the original "It's a Wonderful Life" impossible to watch--saccharine and sappy in the extreme. The characters in the remake were much more believable, and to me this was a very successful update. The pain of both the main characters--Rogers' character, returning from WWII with a permanent injury, and Thomas' lead, who is trapped in a life she didn't plan for-- are quite realistic. Thomas seems *genuinely* suicidal; the causes of her depression are clear, and also, like a depressed person, she has become isolated from her family and is snapping at those around her. The premise of the original film, if you think about it, is quite serious; it has a kind of "Our Town" melancholy hanging over it, but this seems lost amid layers of hoke in the very dated original. I haven't seen "It Happened One Christmas" in years, and keep hoping in vain that it will be re-released, or at least shown at Christmastime.