[1] Although Barrymore won an Academy Award for Best Actor in A Free Soul in 1931, in the 1940s he was best known as the voice of Ebenezer Scrooge in the CBS radio dramatizations of A Christmas Carol.

Elderly, disabled, and miserly, Potter owns most of the businesses in the fictitious town of Bedford Falls, including the bank.

One business that he does not completely own is the Bailey Brothers Building & Loan, though he holds a minority stake giving him a seat on the company's board of directors.

Richard Corliss of Time magazine described Barrymore's portrayal as, "... Scrooge, the Grinch and Simon Legree in one craggy, crabby package".

[4] The FBI's internal memo said that the film "represented a rather obvious attempt to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a 'scrooge-type' so that he would be the most hated man in the picture.