By David Goldman, CNN
(CNN) — A soaking wet George Bailey and Clarence, warming up by the fire in the toll house on the bridge, discuss why Clarence jumped into the freezing water. It was to help George, Clarence tells him.
“Only one way you can help me,” George says sarcastically. “You don’t happen to have 8,000 bucks on you?”
The film then cuts to an elated George running through town, gleefully shouting “Merry Christmas” to the “You are Now in Bedford Falls” sign, Mr. Potter, the bank examiner and eventually his family.
Wait, what?
That’s the surprise you got if you selected the “abridged” version of the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life” on Amazon Prime Video. By the thousands of confused and outraged comments posted on social media on Christmas Day — you weren’t alone if you did.
Amazon streams the full version of the movie for Prime members, but the abridged version is available free for anyone, with ads. The abridged version cuts about a half hour out of the 1946 Frank Capra film’s runtime, axing the entire “Pottersville” scene, where Clarence the angel (second class) guides George through an alternate reality in which he never existed.
Of course, the movie makes no sense without that pivotal part of the story. So why cut it?
Copyright law. Well, an interpretation of it, anyway.
‘The Greatest Gift’
“It’s a Wonderful Life” is loosely based on the 1943 short story “The Greatest Gift,” written by Philip Van Doren Stern.
In “The Greatest Gift,” the main character, George, confides in a stranger on a bridge that he wishes he had never been born. The stranger tells him to go back to town, where George finds his life in disarray. No one knows him, and George’s brother, whom he had saved as a boy, had drowned. George returns to the stranger, who explains that life is a blessing and the world is better with George in it.
“The Greatest Gift” plot is closely mirrored in the Pottersville scene, but the film greatly expands upon it with a long backstory and a short conclusion.
Stern obtained the original copyright for the short story and he renewed it in 1971. Upon his death, the copyright license was left to Stern’s daughter and her three daughters, who formed The Greatest Gift Corporation to manage the rights to his works, according to Jason LeBlanc, the playwright who partners with Stern’s estate to license “It’s a Wonderful Life” for the stage.
The film enters public domain
In 1974, the copyright for “It’s a Wonderful Life” expired, when then-owner Republic Pictures failed to renew it, according to an article published on the Library of Congress’ website.
It’s not clear why Republic Pictures allowed the copyright to expire. The Library of Congress cites a “clerical error,” which may have been caused by the film’s late-December 1946 release to qualify for the 1947 Academy Awards, even though its run in cinemas was mostly in 1947. It’s conceivable that Republic Pictures mistook the release date — and therefore when the 28-year copyright expired.
Regardless of the reason, the expiration of the copyright became a happy accident for the film’s success: The movie had flopped in theaters and was mostly forgotten for decades. But when it entered the public domain, television networks jumped at the chance to broadcast the film to fill the airwaves on Christmas, and it became a beloved classic three decades after its initial run.
Republic Pictures reasserts control
That continued until 1993, when Republic Pictures sent broadcasters letters claiming that it had the copyright to “It’s a Wonderful Life,” after all, and t