...had a lot of these mind-bending,reality-twisting, out-of-body/ghost/heaven type movies, of which It's a Wonderful Life and The Ghost and Mrs Muir seem to have been the pinnacle. A testament to the greatness of Hollywood's Golden Era.
I agree. Also include Stairway to Heaven (aka A Matter of Life and Death), Heaven Can Wait (1943), Between Two Worlds, The Cockeyed Miracle, and Beyond Christmas. Topper and On Borrowed time have the same theme, but were made in the 1930s.
shareI don't know if it's a cause/effect thing, but the first half of the decade produced one hell of a lot more death than usual, with estimates of some 55 million killed in myriad horrible ways in the war. And of course the war ended with the introduction of the new bomb that could kill an entire city in a few seconds. The combination of realities may well have prompted keener interest in the notion of somehow living on after we die.
I have seen enough to know I have seen too much. -- ALOTOshare