We’ve seen many homages and parodies of this film over the decades, but neither of us had seen the original in a very long time. Everyone remembers the part where George sees what the world would be like without him, but that takes up surprisingly little of the film’s run-time.
We watched the version on Amazon Prime, but it’s also available to stream at many other places. Naturally, DVD and BluRay editions are available as well.
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1946 It’s a Wonderful Life
Directed by Frank Capra
Written by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra
Stars James Stewart, Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore
Run Time: 2 Hours, 10 Minutes
Trailer:
Bad One-Sentence Summary
An angel shows a banker that money really does solve all problems.
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This is the ultimate feel-good Christmas movie as far as happy endings go. Okay, that’s technically a spoiler, but considering the age of the movie, that’s probably okay. We watched the full version, as everyone should, but strangely there’s an edited version that cuts out the angel stuff that contains much of the point of the movie. The full version is lengthy, but it’s really well made, and it builds nicely as it goes along. It’s worthy of being called a classic.
Spoilery Synopsis
It’s snowing in Bedford Falls. Everyone in town prays for George Bailey; everyone wants God to give him a break. Up in the sky, it’s decided to send Clarence to help. They tell Clarence that George is considering suicide, and they want to save George. If he succeeds, then Clarence can finally have his wings. They show Clarence the town and explain it all.
We see young George and his friend sledding down onto the frozen lake. George’s younger brother Harry slides too far and breaks through the ice. George pulls him out, but George ends up getting sick and going deaf in one ear. We also see Mr. Potter, the meanest and richest man in the county. Young Mary and Violet are both interested in young George.
George’s boss, Mr. Gower, gets a notice that his son has died of influenza, and he’s all broken up about it. George sees a big bottle of poison on the shelf and George realizes that the old man accidentally put poison in an old lady’s prescription. He tells Gower what he’s done, and the old man is shocked at his mistake.
We then cut to young adult George. Old man Gower has bought George a new suitcase with his name on it. Everyone in town knows and likes George. Harry’s about to graduate, and George is planning to go on a world-spanning trip after college. George’s father constantly argues with old man Potter about everything.
There’s a big dance tonight, and Violet is still stalking George. So is Mary, and George is way more interested in her. They stop slow dancing and do the Charleston. Suddenly, as a prank, the motorized floor is opened up, and there’s a swimming pool underneath that George and Mary end up falling into. Everyone jumps in afterward. Afterward, George tells Mary all his big dreams and plans for the future.
Suddenly, people drive up and say that George’s father has had a stroke. George gives up his European trip to handle things for his now-dead father’s building & loan. Mr. Potter wants to dissolve the building & loan entirely since George’s father had no business sense. The old man is a serious Scrooge-type, and George takes offense at the old slumlord. The building & loan is one of the few places in town that isn’t controlled by Potter. The board votes Potter down on the condition that George stay in town and run the business.
George gives up his college education to stay and run the building & loan; he sends Harry to college with his own money. Harry graduates and comes home married to Ruth. Her father gave Harry a good job, but George was waiting for Harry to come and take over the building & loan so he could travel. Once again, George’s plans to see the world are ruined due to his responsibilities.
After turning down yet another big business opportunity, George and Mary get together and get married.
On the way to their honeymoon, they stop; there’s a run on the building & loan. George runs to the building & loan to see what’s happening. Uncle Billy is hiding inside; the bank has called their loan, and they don’t have the money to pay it. Potter calls to gloat; he’s behind the angry mob outside. All the people in town want to withdraw their money. Old man Potter will pay the clients half of their investments to switch to his bank. George explains the old man’s plot to the crowd. Mary offers their honeymoon money, and that’ll hold them over until the bank reopens next week. They have survived the day with two dollars left!
Some friends like George so much that they still arrange for him to have his honeymoon in a swanky hotel… sorta.
Years pass, and George and his building & loan finance a whole new housing development, Bailey Park, that they offer to low-income people at cost. This annoys Mr. Potter tremendously. George’s old friend Sam stops in for a visit; an idea George had let him get extremely wealthy, and it’s clear that George is jealous of the missed opportunity.
Potter meets with George about acquiring the building & loan. George makes $45 a week, which doesn’t let him save much. Potter knows all about George’s dreams of travel and success, and he’s very tempting. The old man offers George $20,000 a year to manage his businesses for him. At first, George jumps at the idea, but then he reconsiders and turns down the old villain. He goes home to find that Mary is pregnant.
World War II breaks out, and everyone helps out; George and Mary have kids. Potter and Sam make their fortunes even bigger. Harry was a war hero, and many of the characters went off to fight; not George, because of his bad ear.
Back to Clarence getting his briefing. He sees that just today, George reads in the paper that Harry is getting the Congressional Medal of Honor. At work, the bank examiner shows up. Elsewhere, Uncle Billy goes to deposit $8,000 to the bank but accidentally hands it to Potter instead. Potter figures out what happened immediately but doesn’t say anything.
Billy tells George that he’s lost the $8,000, and George flips out since the bank examiner is right there. George actually gets mean about the money; “One of us is going to jail, and it’s not gonna be me.” The old man cries.
George goes home to his happy family; he knows he’s ruined. He’s grouchy and sullen, and Mary picks up on that right away. “Why do we have to have all these kids?” George tells off his kid’s teacher for sending his kid home with a cold. He finally loses it and trashes the living room in front of everybody, making the children cry. Mary gets the story from Uncle Billy.
George goes to Potter for help. The DA is looking for George; he will be arrested for the discrepancy in the books. Potter plays dumb about where the money actually went. George does have a life insurance policy, but he’s got no other assets. “You’re worth more dead than alive, George!”
George goes to Mr. Martini’s bar and prays for help. Then the schoolteacher’s husband punches him in the face. Drunk George crashes the car and walks home. He stops on the bridge and looks down, fingering the life insurance policy in his pocket…
Suddenly, George sees an old man fall off the bridge, and he jumps in to save him. Later, the old man says he jumped in to save George; suicide is against the law. The old man is Clarence, and he says he’s an angel, second class. “I’m the answer to your prayer.” He’s George’s guardian angel. “You don’t know how much you’ve done.”
“The town would’ve been better off without me,” whines George. “I wish I’d never been born!” This gives Clarence an idea, and he makes that wish come true. “You’ve never been born.” Suddenly, George’s lip stops bleeding and his bad ear works just fine.
The crashed car isn’t where George left it. The town’s name is now Pottersville. They go to Martini’s bar, but Martini doesn’t own the place now. “Everytime a bell rings, some angel gets his wings.” Old man Gower comes in, and now he’s the town drunk, a failure after spending twenty years in prison for poisoning some kid. Clarence explains that George wasn’t there to save that kid from the poison. George starts to believe Clarence’s story is true.
George storms off home, alone, and the town is quite different now, with nightclubs, bars, dancing girls, and all manner of atrocities. He sees Violet, who appears to be a prostitute now getting arrested. When he gets to his house, it’s been abandoned for twenty years. No Mary, no kids. Officer Bert tries to arrest George, but Clarence uses his magic to get away.
George goes to see his mother, who runs a boarding house, but she doesn’t recognize him. She says Uncle Billy’s been in the insane asylum for years and years. He wants to talk to Mr. Martini next, he lives in Bailey Park - the area of affordable housing that George developed, but that’s just a cemetery now. He sees Harry’s tombstone; George didn’t pull him out of the frozen lake. All those men Harry saved in the war died as well. “See George, you really had a wonderful life.” Clarence says Mary is an old maid; she runs the library now. George terrorizes her by insisting he knows her, and she screams.
George runs back to the bridge where he met Clarence and calls for him to return. He wants to go back to his regular life.
Bert the cop drives by and wants to know what’s wrong with George. He knows George now. George is overjoyed to find that his mouth is bleeding again. He runs through the town of Bedford Falls, wishing everyone a Merry Christmas.
At home, the bank examiners, the DA, and the lawyers are there to arrest him. His kids are there, but Mary and Billy have gone out looking for George.
Mary returns and brings in a huge crowd of people. “It’s a miracle,” she says. Uncle Billy brings in a big basket of money. Everyone in town donated money to save George. All the characters have chipped in to save him from ruin. They know how much he’s helped the whole town, and even friend Sam, overseas, has donated what George needs. The bank examiner even puts in some cash.
Harry finally returns from the war, which makes it even better for George. George then finds a note from Clarence that ties it all together. They hear a bell on the Christmas tree ringing; Clarence has gotten his wings.
Brian’s Commentary
Uncle Billy's raven -"Jimmy the Raven" -appeared in over 1000 feature films, including every Capra film from 'You Can't Take It With You' (1938). Jimmy is the "crow" that landed on the Scarecrow in 'The Wizard of Oz' (1939). It was ranked as the “#1 Most Inspirational Movie of All Time” by the American Film Institute (2006), as well as the twentieth “Greatest Movie of All Time” in 2007.
Obviously, the story has been retold so many times that it’s nearly a cliche, but I don't think I ever watched it all the way through before, or at least it’s been so long that I forgot a lot of it. There’s just so much that happens even before Clarence shows up, but that’s the only part I knew about; I had no idea it was so long.
As I was watching, I commented that it seemed to go on and on with stuff not related to the Clarence plot, but it all builds up to the point where we really sympathize with poor George and what all he’s given up. I’ve heard that there are some edits of the film that completely leave out the part where George sees what the world would be like without him. That’s the whole point of the film, but there is a whole story here, even without that.
This one shifted a lot as it progressed. In the beginning, I thought it was slow and had too much going on, but by the time it was over, I was impressed tremendously with it. It’s not really about the world without George, it’s about George’s world.
Kevin’s Commentary
I had seen the whole thing before, but it had been a while, at least twenty-five years ago. I didn’t remember it being this long, but I was never bored. It starts slow and keeps building on itself. The cast and direction are excellent, with many people playing two versions of themselves. I’d highly recommend it.
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