“It's a Wonderful Life” is a Christmas classic that families still enjoy – decades after it was first released.
But festive movie watchers have noticed that an abridged version is streaming on Amazon Prime.
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Released in December 1946, the story centers on businessman George Bailey, who contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve.
He tries to jump off a bridge before his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody, stops him.
The film focuses on moments related to George.
As a child, he saved his brother from drowning but became deaf when he jumped into an icy lake.
He ends up exhausted from his obligations to his career and family because he is involved in business disputes.
George works for a construction and loan company and wants to go on his honeymoon, but a banking crisis foils his plans.
In the film, he heads a housing program that helps residents benefit, but his uncle accidentally loses $8,000 that was supposed to be deposited in the bank.
The money ends up in the hands of the evil Henry Potter, who owns the bank, while George is left scrambling to cover up his uncle's blunder.
In one scene, George says that he wishes he had never been born.
Clarence is seen talking to a seated George and explaining to him that he has to earn his angel wings.
“You'll help me, won't you,” Clarence asks.
“Sure, sure,” George says with a sneer.
George pointed out that the elderly person did not have $8,000 on his property.
Afterwards, the scene appeared to be cut, a move that angered some fans.
In the original version, George despairs when he tells Clarence that he believes he is “more worthy dead than alive.”
Clarence quickly rejects him and tells him that it will prevent him from getting his wings.
“You don't know everything I did,” he told George.
George believes his family would be better off if he were not alive.
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In the scene, he is rude and does not want to consider what Clarence is trying to tell him.
Clarence was angry when George told him that he wished he had never been born.
In a shocking turn, Clarence grants George his wish.
George then discovers that he is not deaf and that he does not need to find the money.
His lips also stopped bleeding. He wiped his face, but there was no blood on his hand.
But the town where George grew up has become sleazy.
Fans got angry
“Prime Video has a 'shortened' version of 'It's a Wonderful Life' that removes the entire Pottersville scene where George sees life if he had never been born,” one film fan fumed.
Another said: “Apart from the bad stuff, there would be such a slaughtered version in the first place.”
A third fan chimed in and compared it to the moment when the song “When Love is Gone” from the Muppets Christmas Carol came on.
Fans have urged streaming companies to leave the Christmas movie alone.
“Every digital and physical copy of this abridged version of It's a Wonderful Life should be destroyed immediately,” one viewer quipped.
“Amazon Prime just tried to start an abridged version of It's a Wonderful Life,” another raged.
“Bitterness. Gumption. How dare they?”
Critics claimed Amazon ruined the classic film.
And some fear other Christmas classics will be too the next.
“Then, will all the ghosts from the Scrooge movies come out?” Critic criticized.
There is no evidence that shortened versions of A Christmas Carol will be broadcast.
The US Sun has contacted Amazon for comment.
