Frank Capra's 1946 movie, which introduced now-classic axioms like "No man is a failure who has friends," was based on the short story "The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern, published in 1943. The story is mainly the same as the latter part of Capra's film, in which George Bailey (called George Pratt in Stern's story) contemplates committing suicide before an angel shows him what the lives of his family and friends would have been like if he had never been born. Elements of the film's beginning, including George saving his brother from drowning, originated from Stern's story.
