By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Watching the 1946 movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” is a staple for millions of American families during the holidays.
But the Christmas classic that earned five Oscar nominations became a preoccupation of the FBI because then-Director J. Edgar Hoover believed the movie was an anti-american propaganda tool, according to a memo written by a social agent about so-called “communist infiltration” of the movie industry, the Independent reports.
The movie was one of more than 200 films feared to be a weapon of communist propaganda.
The FBI believed the film’s two screenwriters, Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett, “were very close to known Communists and on one occasion in the recent past . . . practically lived with known Communists and were observed” eating lunch every day with “known Communists.”
An agent who watched the movie said it “represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers.”
The hunt for communists is part of the FBI’s dark history under Hoover, who was notoriously paranoid of anti-American propaganda.
