Mary Owen remembers…
I think World War II had a big influence on this film. I mean everyone participated in the war effort no matter who you were. My mother answered soldiers letters and she went to the Hollywood Canteen and danced with the guys stuff like that but Capra and Jimmy Stewart were different. Jimmy Stewart came back a highly decorated bomber pilot and Capra was making the why we fight series that incredible hour documentary so he was privy to all kinds of atrocity footage and everything from the war and pretty close to the front lines too so when they came back they had both been away from Hollywood for five years so… they came back different people and away from the business… so there was a lot of insecurity on the set because of that and I know my mother thought maybe it had to do with her because she was not very well known at the time.
Jimmy Stewart said should we rehearse it mom said no…They got that scene on the first take, if you can imagine.