Every time I watch the movie (and I watch it almost every year), I'm glad I did. Not many movies hold up to multiple viewings, and the fact that this one does proves its depth of feeling and detail.
I woke up this morning thinking about George Bailey's righteous indignation ("this rabble you're talking about, they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this town"), of the tender scene between George and his mother (played by the actress Beulah Bondi, who was Stewart's mother on screen five different times) and of Uncle Billy's animals (the pet crow was actually a pet raven named Jimmy, which Capra used in every film he made starting with "You Can't Take it With You" in 1938).
I learned these factoids this morning, and they make me marvel ... but it was the beautiful and steady build-up of details last night that left me ... as usual when I watch this movie, in tears ...