<Tr> <Th> Budget </Th> <Td> $3.18 million </Td> </Tr> <Tr> <Th> Box office </Th> <Td> $3,300,000 </Td> </Tr> <P> It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy comedy - drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift, which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and published privately in 1945 . </P> <P> The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be if he had never been born . </P>

Who wrote the book it's a wonderful life