MOVIES - Dec. 23, 1988

Expressing outrage at a Rome TV station’s plans for a Christmas Day broadcast of a colorized version of his Christmas fable, “It’s a Wonderful Life,” director Frank Capra has authorized an Italian writers’ society (Associazione Nazionale Autori Cinecinematografica) to seek a court injunction to halt the broadcast. The effort is the latest in a series of attempts by the Directors Guild of America to stop the colorizing of old movies. Capra, a former Directors Guild president, said in a letter to the Italian society that making the movie a color version ruined his film and made the version an embarrassment to him and his friend James Stewart.