As a general rule, comedy attends to and reflects upon human desires for love, life, and fertility. Comic plots emphasize sequences of reversal and recovery that in turn reflect mythological sequences of death and rebirth….

Elements of the miraculous, the wonderful, and the fantastic are found in all comedies. Shakespeare's comedies abound with fantastic characters and situations….

Capra's films present no exception to this general comic characteristic. Aspects of the improbable, the fantastic, and the unexpected always seem at work in Capra's films, throwing characters off balance, upsetting their sense of equilibrium, deceiving and confusing normally perceptive individuals. Few people, after all, ever find themselves seated beside a runaway heiress on a New York-bound bus. Few people inherit twenty-million dollars. Few Boy Scout leaders suddenly find themselves in the U.S. Senate. Few beggars find themselves hosting the Governor of New York at a penthouse reception.

Hence, the...