| 1 | %% |
| 2 | %% |
| 3 | %% Zero Context Example entries are not allowed on wiki pages. All such entries have been commented out. |
| 4 | %% Please add context to the entries before uncommenting them. |
| 5 | %% |
| 6 | %% |
| 7 | [[quoteright:315:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/wonderful_life.jpg]] |
| 8 | [[caption-width-right:315:''"No man is a failure who has friends."'']] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | ->''"Every time you hear a bell ring, it means that some angel's just got his wings."'' |
| 11 | |
| 12 | The {{Trope Namer|s}} for ItsAWonderfulPlot, and an annual staple of Christmastime viewing, this much-beloved 1946 Creator/FrankCapra film tells of one man's life of self-sacrifice and quiet despair, from which he is rescued by a miracle. |
| 13 | |
| 14 | As the film begins, it's Christmas Eve 1945, and two angels are listening to myriad prayers from various residents of the small town of Bedford Falls, New York, all requesting help for a certain George Bailey. Summoning a third angel, called Clarence Oddbody, they tell him [[ChekhovsGun he must answer the prayers]], but only after he's been told who George is. [[HowWeGotHere Cue Flashback]]. |
| 15 | |
| 16 | Zooming in on Bedford Falls in 1919, the first thing we see 12-year-old George do is rescue his younger brother Harry from drowning in a frozen pond, at the cost of permanent deafness in one ear. A little while later, a girl named Mary Hatch whispers promises of eternal love into that deaf ear shortly before George saves another life, and a pharmacist's career. |
| 17 | |
| 18 | Skipping ahead a few years, we see the now-grown George (Creator/JimmyStewart) attending Harry's high school graduation dance, held in the school's [[SuperMultiPurposeRoom gymnasium/swimming pool]]. There, George tells Mary (Creator/DonnaReed) about his plans for the future: leave town, see the world, go to college, build big things. But before an hour has gone, George learns his father has had a fatal stroke. His dreams will have to be deferred. |
| 19 | |
| 20 | George stays in Bedford Falls to help his absent-minded Uncle Billy (Creator/ThomasMitchell) look after the family business, the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association, on the understanding that Harry will take over when he returns from college. However, Harry brings back a wife, whose father offers him a much better job, which George insists Harry take, sacrificing his opportunity. Soon afterward, George himself is offered a better job, but turns it down, knowing that without him the family business will be taken over by the [[CorruptCorporateExecutive avaricious banker]], Mr. Henry Potter (Creator/LionelBarrymore). He is further tied to Bedford Falls when he and Mary get married, are forced to use their honeymoon nest egg to keep the Building and Loan afloat after a run on the bank, and eventually have four kids together. |
| 21 | |
| 22 | For several years, George's life continues in this vein. Every golden opportunity is frustrated by his self-imposed duties, until one Christmas Eve, when Potter seizes an opportunity, thanks to George's hapless uncle, to steal $8,000 from the Building and Loan, then threatens to charge George with the theft. This latest indignity, on top of his daily troubles, drives George first to verbally abuse his family, [[DrowningMySorrows to get drunk]], and then to [[DrivenToSuicide attempt suicide]], after realizing his life insurance would be able to cover all his debts and then some. |
| 23 | |
| 24 | This is where the film began. Clarence (Henry Travers) appears, prevents George from committing suicide, and then [[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor grants his rhetorical wish]] that he'd never been born, creating an AlternateUniverse in which George never existed. |
| 25 | |
| 26 | Wandering around town, George soon discovers that Pottersville, the alternate Bedford Falls, is teeming with seedy bars, nightclubs, burlesque houses, pool halls, gambling dens, and [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking pawn shops]]. All of his friends and acquaintances are miserable, his brother is dead (as are a number of soldiers whose lives Harry saved in UsefulNotes/WorldWarII), his mother is a bitter widow who runs a dilapidated boarding house, his uncle has been institutionalized since the failure of the Building and Loan, and his wife is a [[OldMaid spinster]] librarian. Clarence then explains how George single-handedly prevented this dire fate. He, and he alone, kept Potter in check, preventing the town from descending into squalor, crime, and vice. |
| 27 | |
| 28 | George takes back his wish and Bedford Falls is restored. When he returns home, the sheriff is there with a warrant for his arrest, but all the neighbors rush in, offering money. Mary had started making telephone calls immediately after George left the house, finding out the truth and spreading the word. George has been saved. His life may never improve, but he now knows that he is appreciated, and has made a difference. |
| 29 | |
| 30 | Adapted by Capra and screenwriters Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, and Jo Swerling[[note]]with uncredited contributions from Michael Wilson and Creator/DorothyParker[[/note]] from Philip Van Doren Stern's 1943 short story "The Greatest Gift", ''It's a Wonderful Life'' was a box-office disappointment on its initial release[[note]]The general consensus is that it was a little too thematically dark and heavy for an immediate postwar audience looking for lighthearted escapism, and being a Christmas movie that opened in early summer probably didn't help either.[[/note]] but enjoyed a popular resurgence in the US beginning in the [[TheSeventies 1970s]], when it was discovered that a clerical error had prevented its MediaNotes/{{copyright}} from being renewed, which meant the film was now in the PublicDomain and any television station could legally show it as often as they wanted without paying for a license. Many Creator/{{PBS}} stations across the country would run it during pledge week, it was a staple on Creator/{{AMC}} during its American Movie Classics era, and around the holidays it wasn't unusual to find as many as four or five local stations in a given market all carrying the movie at some time of the day or evening. It was also issued on VHS, in varying levels of quality, by numerous companies large and small. |
| 31 | |
| 32 | This practice ended when Creator/RepublicPictures, the successor to the film's original rights holder, realized that though they couldn't claim copyright over the film itself, they ''could'' claim the rights to the original screenplay and music... and promptly did so. Republic then announced that from that point forward they would be enforcing their copyright on the music and story, meaning you'd now need a license to broadcast the movie. Creator/{{NBC}} has held exclusive network TV rights since 1994, and typically airs it on Christmas Eve each year; since 2014 various cable channels owned by Creator/NBCUniversal, such as Creator/USANetwork and Bravo, have given the film a few additional showings each year, while its Creator/{{E}} network has run an annual [[MarathonRunning 24-hour marathon]] of it every Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since 2020. Similarly, Creator/{{Paramount}} (whose parent company Viacom, now known as Creator/ParamountGlobal, acquired Republic's library though its Melange Pictures holding company in the late 1990s) currently holds exclusive home video rights for the film (most of the other titles that Paramount owns through Melange Pictures are distributed on home video by Kino Lorber). Creator/PrimeVideo gained the online streaming rights in 2018. Meanwhile, the copyrights to both "The Greatest Gift" and the music score will expire by the time the film turns 95 years old in 2041, meaning that it will once again enter the public domain, this time for good. |
| 33 | |
| 34 | If you would like to read "The Greatest Gift'", choose [[https://www.tor.com/2008/12/25/the-greatest-gift/ this link]]. If you'd rather read the screenplay, click on [[https://archive.org/details/itswonderfullife00good this link]]. |
| 35 | |
| 36 | Not to be confused with ''Film/ItsAWonderfulWorld'', a completely different black-and-white movie starring Jimmy Stewart made seven years prior. Neither one should be confused with the video games ''It's a Wonderful World'', aka ''VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou''; or ''VideoGame/HarvestMoonAWonderfulLife'', which is about farming. |
| 37 | |
| 38 | ----- |
| 39 | !!Just say the word, Mary, and I'll lasso you some Tropes: |
| 40 | |
| 41 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 42 | |
| 43 | [[folder:#–E]] |
| 44 | * NumberOneDime: Clarence's copy of ''Literature/TomSawyer''. |
| 45 | * AccidentalChildKillerBackstory: Zig-zagged. In the original timeline, George Bailey prevents Mr. Gower from accidentally poisoning a child, as the druggist was despondent over the death of his son to the flu, and did not fill out the prescription properly. In the new timeline where George never existed, he wasn't there to prevent Mr. Gower from poisoning the child, and the man is considered a pariah by the local community. |
| 46 | * AcePilot: Harry becomes one during the war, single-handedly shooting down two kamikaze planes that were about to ram a transport carrying troops. Had he not been there, as Clarence explains, every man on that transport would have died. |
| 47 | ** Harry was pretty much TheAce at everything he did: star football player in high school, All-American in college, Phi Beta Kappa member, research engineer ''right'' of college and later, awarded the Medal of Honor (the highest military award there is). |
| 48 | * ActorAllusion: |
| 49 | ** George hopes to go to college to "learn how to build things." In real life, Creator/JamesStewart majored in architecture at Princeton University. |
| 50 | ** Creator/LionelBarrymore played Scrooge in the popular annual radio version of ''Literature/AChristmasCarol'', so casting him as Potter emphasized the similarities in the two characters for 1946 audiences. |
| 51 | ** The newspaper Bert the cop is holding when George asks Ernie the cab driver for a ride, has the headline "[[Film/MrSmithGoesToWashington Smith Wins Nomination]]". [[note]]In-universe, this was likely a reference to New York Governor Al Smith, who unsuccessfully ran for president in 1928.[[/note]] |
| 52 | * AdaptationDeviation: Several, naturally, but the most notable is the change to Mary's fate in the timeline where George was never born. In the film, she never married and works at the library, which Clarence finds too terrible to speak of. In the short story, she was married to an abusive alcoholic — an appropriately horrific fate that would've seemed just as sad and frightening to viewers decades later with no ValuesDissonance involved. |
| 53 | * AdaptationExpansion: The first half of ''It's a Wonderful Life'' is almost an entirely original story, while the second half (the final Christmas scenes) are adapted from "The Greatest Gift" by Philip Van Doren Stern. |
| 54 | * AdaptationNameChange: The protagonist and his wife are named George Pratt and Mary Thatcher in the original story, while George's guardian angel is identified only as "The Stranger". |
| 55 | * AdaptationalVillainy: In "The Greatest Gift", the short story that the movie is based on, Mr. Potter is only the [[TheGhost unseen]] owner of a photography studio and doesn't have any conflict with George. |
| 56 | * AdaptedOut: Mary's abusive husband from the alternate universe in the original story. |
| 57 | * AesopEnforcer: Clarence works as George's Enforcer. |
| 58 | * TheAlcoholic: |
| 59 | ** Uncle Billy is one and then some. In the Georgeless universe, he's put in a sanitarium for it. |
| 60 | ** And Gower, who was imprisoned for poisoning the child whose life George would have saved. Nick even calls him a "rumhead". |
| 61 | * TheAllegedHouse: The house George and Mary have their honeymoon in is a fixer upper, to say the least. |
| 62 | * AllThereInTheManual: The man whose tree George crashes his car into is never named in the film. The short story gives his name as Hank Biddle. |
| 63 | * AlwaysSecondBest: Done with a twist between George and Harry. By most objective standards, Harry is the more successful brother. He's the college graduate who's a former football star, has a lucrative job as a researcher, and is an AcePilot who won the Medal of Honor. George on the other hand has stayed in their hometown running the family business and never achieved any of his dreams. The twist is that by all accounts Harry looks up to George and considers him the more accomplished of the two: so much so that he ''blows off dinner with the President of the United States'' to fly home '''in a raging blizzard''' just because he heard that George was in trouble. And this is because Harry is fully aware that everything he managed to achieve in his live is because George always sacrificed his own dreams to save his ones. |
| 64 | * AnAesop: |
| 65 | ** ''No man is a failure who has friends''. |
| 66 | ** No matter how tough life is, suicide is not the answer. |
| 67 | ** Always enjoy your life because at the end of the day you only have one spell on Earth. |
| 68 | ** Your family and friends are always there for you. Always be grateful for that. |
| 69 | * AngelicTransformation: Clarence Oddbody introduces himself as an "Angel, Second Class" and his reward for helping George is that he is promoted to First Class and earns wings. His name and somewhat bumbling nature suggest that he was once a living man, which is solidified when he mentions having died previously. |
| 70 | * AngelsInOvercoats: UrExample. Guardian angel Clarence wears an overcoat, but it's winter in Bedford Falls, and everyone's wearing an overcoat, so it's not clear that this counts as an example. |
| 71 | * AnswerToPrayers: The film opens with the voices of several people praying for George Bailey, and then the Heavens preparing to answer those prayers. |
| 72 | * TheAntiNihilist: For a movie considered the most inspiring movie ever, it's ultimately this. It makes no secret that life can be despairing and cruel and dreams just won't ever work out. But you can either give up on it or go out and appreciate it however you can. |
| 73 | * ArsonMurderAndJaywalking: After they get thrown out of Nick's, Clarence tells George that he has no forms of ID, so no papers, no cards, no driver's license, no 4F card, and no insurance policy, before pointing out that he doesn't have Zuzu's petals, either. |
| 74 | ** Zuzu's petals are what convinces George that ''something'' isn't right with Clarence; only he knew that he put them in his watch pocket. No one else knows, not even Zuzu, who thought he had "pasted" the flower back together. |
| 75 | * ArtisticLicenseReligion: This film depicts angels as being former humans who have passed away and have to work in order to "earn their wings." This idea is found nowhere in the Bible, and it actually describes angels as beings that are completely separate from humans. |
| 76 | * ArtShift: The Pottersville scenes are done in the FilmNoir style. |
| 77 | * AudioAdaptation: ''Radio/LuxRadioTheatre'' aired a version of the story in 1947, with Jimmy Stewart and Donna Reed reprising their movie roles and Victor Moore voicing Clarence. You can listen to it [[https://archive.org/details/LuxRadioTheater470310ItsAWonderfulLife here]]. |
| 78 | * AuthorTract: That the movie bears down very hard on the value of home ownership and the need for it to build happy, healthy communities, as opposed to the dangerous shacks Potter rents out is ''not'' a coincidence. To audiences at the time it bordered on {{Anvilicious}}. |
| 79 | * BackhandedCompliment: Potter eulogizing Peter Bailey as "a man of high ideals. ...[-[[BaitAndSwitchComment so-called.]]-]" |
| 80 | * BadGuyBar: Nick's. "This oughta be Martini's place!". |
| 81 | -->'''Nick:''' ''(to Clarence)'' Hey, look, mister, we serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don't need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere! Is that clear, or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer? |
| 82 | * TheBadGuyWins: In George's absence, Bedford Falls becomes Pottersville, and everyone who lives there suffers for it. |
| 83 | * BadGuysDoTheDirtyWork: During World War II, Potter served as head of the draft board. It's the only time his LackOfEmpathy was actually used in service of a greater good. |
| 84 | %%* BaldOfEvil: Mr. Potter. |
| 85 | * BarBrawl: Zuzu's teacher's husband, Mr. Welch, finds George at Martini's bar and punches him in the jaw. Martini then kicks Welch out of the bar. |
| 86 | * BarrierMaiden: George's influence protects Bedford Falls from becoming [[CrapsackWorld Pottersville]]. |
| 87 | * BatmanGambit: When George is on the verge of suicide by jumping off a bridge into a river, Clarence decides that the best way to stop him is to ''jump in himself'' and then yell for help, so that George will drop everything and try to save him. It works. Bonus points for the parallel to the childhood incident (which Clarence saw) where George saved his own brother from drowning. |
| 88 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: |
| 89 | ** "[[RetGone I wish I'd never been born!]]" |
| 90 | ** And how. When George and Mary are walking home from the dance, George tells her to break some glass in the Old Grandville House to get a wish. George breaks a window and tells Mary his plans of world travel; Mary breaks a different one but doesn't tell George what she wanted. Mary gets her wish but George doesn't get his. |
| 91 | * BedlamHouse: Uncle Billy in the alternate timeline ends up committed to an institution, and Mrs. Bailey is quick to recommend George (who comes across as a stranger to her in the alternate timeline) as a resident: |
| 92 | -->'''Mrs. Bailey:''' I don't let strangers into my house, not unless they're sent by someone I know.\ |
| 93 | '''George:''' But I know everyone you know! Like... your brother-in-law, Uncle Billy.\ |
| 94 | '''Mrs. Bailey:''' [''apprehensively'']: You know him?\ |
| 95 | '''George:''' Of course I do.\ |
| 96 | '''Mrs. Bailey:''' When'd you see him last?\ |
| 97 | '''George:''' Today, over at his house.\ |
| 98 | '''Mrs. Bailey:''' That's a lie! He's been locked up in an insane asylum ever since he lost his business! And if you ask me, that's where you belong! |
| 99 | * BeingGoodSucks: Pretty much a fact of George's life for the first bit of the movie. He probably has it in him to live the exciting life he wants — if he weren't such a stand-up guy as to keep putting it off to help everyone around him (and, even when that isn't going on, life likes to give him a sharp poke in the side). All that goodwill comes back around in the end, though. |
| 100 | * BerserkButton: When George is mentally unraveling after Uncle Billy loses the money, what tips him over from stress and fear to furious rage is seeing a model skyscraper and bridge. The reminder of his unfulfilled dreams appears to be the straw that broke the camel's back. |
| 101 | * BettyAndVeronica: Mary and Violet, respectively ([[FirstGirlWins George chooses Mary]]). |
| 102 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Harry breaks through the ice as a boy and George is right there in the water hauling him back to the surface within seconds, without stopping to think. We later learn from Clarence that even though the other boys were also rushing to help, without that immediate selfless protective instinct their attempts to save Harry would have failed. He loses all hearing in his left ear as a result of the severe cold and resulting ear infection earned by going under freezing water to save his brother. Harry repays the favor by coming to help George in the end. |
| 103 | * BigDamnHeroes: George saving Harry from drowning at the start of the film. |
| 104 | ** George indirectly stopping a sick boy from being accidentally poisoned by Gower. |
| 105 | ** Actually, pretty much everything George does to stop Potter taking over Bedford Falls counts as this in the long run. If he hadn't been there to stop it (as we see during the Pottersville sequence), the result would have been horrifying. |
| 106 | ** Mary standing up in the middle of a run on the Building & Loan and offering up their honeymoon fund to get the townsfolk through the next six days. |
| 107 | ** Harry pulls one off in the war by saving a transport full of soldiers from kamikaze pilots. |
| 108 | ** Sam Wainwright (and by extension, Mr. Gower, who finally managed to get through to him by paying for what's implied to be multiple telegraphs from New York to Paris in the middle of the night) at the very end of the film, immediately authorizing the transfer of up to $25,000 (in 1940s money!), no questions asked, upon hearing that George needed help. |
| 109 | * BigGood: As Clarence shows, George's exploits in his past made him the BigGood of the entire town. |
| 110 | * BillBillJunkBill: Potter, as head of the draft board: "1A...1A......1A."[[note]]1A means "Available for military service"[[/note]] |
| 111 | * BittersweetEnding: Surprisingly for such a famously feel-good movie. Potter gets off scot-free for everything he did and George never gets the chance to live his dream of traveling abroad and becoming an architect. However, George is now content with his life knowing that everything he's done has saved Bedford Falls from the influence of Potter's greed and he's surrounded by loving family, friends, and neighbors who will go to great lengths to help him. |
| 112 | * BizarroUniverse: Pottersville. All the familiar faces are there (well, [[spoiler:except Harry]]), but they behave much differently. |
| 113 | * BlackAndWhiteMorality: George is a kind, selfless man, while Mr. Potter is a heartless business owner who wants to run the town. |
| 114 | * BlackGalOnWhiteGuyDrama: Harry's running around hitting on Annie (and Annie's threats to knock Harry out with her broom) is obviously meant as a joke, and one suspects both Harry and Annie banter like this all the time. Still, Harry is an 18-year-old white man flirting with a black woman twenty years his senior. Not something you'd see in a lot of movies in 1947. |
| 115 | * BlessedWithSuck: George's bad ear keeps him out of the war while he fights "The Battle of Bedford Falls," (air-raid warden, scrap drive organizer, etc. Even during a war, George is unable to leave the town.) |
| 116 | * BondingThroughSharedEarbuds: A technology-relevant variant happens when George and Mary have to share a candlestick phone when talking to Sam. For the time period, the small distance between them could be considered too intimate for people who aren't even formally dating. |
| 117 | * {{Bookends}}: The first thing we see George do is to save Harry from drowning, and the last thing he does before wishing he was never born is saved Clarence from drowning. |
| 118 | * BreadOfSurvival: Bread is one of the items the Baileys use symbolically whenever a new family moves into a home in their development. Mary recites a blessing as she hands the new owner each item in turn, beginning with, "Bread... that this house may never know hunger." |
| 119 | * BreakTheCutie: George goes through a ''lot'' of turmoil, here. His entire life is a spiral of quiet desperation which is slowly winding him up... until he finally snaps. And it is terrifying. He gets better, though. |
| 120 | * BrickJoke: |
| 121 | ** George repeatedly breaking the knob off the staircase rail. |
| 122 | ** "Hee-haw!" |
| 123 | ** Kind of a dark one (though YMMV in regards to ''how'' dark). George at one point asks Mary what she'd be if they weren't together. She jokingly replies "an old maid" and it's quickly forgotten. Come the AlternateTimeline, though... |
| 124 | * BrieferThanTheyThink: George arrives at the river bridge with exactly 31 minutes remaining in a film that runs 2 hours and 10 minutes. Even if you've seen it a bunch of times, it's easy to forget that Clarence and Pottersville are the third act, not the main plot. |
| 125 | * BrokenAesop: The film's anti-suicide message works well for a superlative community member like George. But most suicidal people don't have anything like George's list of accomplishments, or even loved ones like George has (many suicides have alienated their loved ones, who have given up on them, or are elderly people who have outlived their loved ones). By leaning so heavily on social value as the justification for anti-suicide, instead of arguing for the inherent dignity of all human life, the film risks telling suicidal people who have no value to society (or merely think they do) that they may as well kill themselves. |
| 126 | * ButterflyEffect: When George saves Clarence from the river, it is snowing quite heavily. After his wish, there is none falling (a harsh wind is blowing instead). When he is "restored," the snow immediately falls at the same rate. Somehow George not being there altered the weather patterns for upstate New York. |
| 127 | ** I mean, that's what happens when you lasso the moon. |
| 128 | * ButterflyOfDoom: George Bailey never being born causes Bedford Falls to become Pottersville. As for more details: |
| 129 | ** George saving his brother as a child: |
| 130 | --->'''Clarence:''' Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and drowned at the age of nine.\ |
| 131 | '''George:''' THAT'S A LIE! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport!\ |
| 132 | '''Clarence:''' Every man on that transport ''died''. Harry wasn't there to save them, because ''you'' weren't there to save Harry! |
| 133 | ** George prevented a grief-stricken Mr. Gower from accidentally poisoning a child, which would have caused the child to die and Mr. Gower to serve a two-decade prison sentence before becoming an alcoholic, homeless man. |
| 134 | ** George prevented the failure of the Bailey B&L, which would have closed after his father died, leaving Uncle Billy to end up in the nuthouse due to the stress he endured. |
| 135 | ** Mary never found love. |
| 136 | ** Grief stricken by her husband and Harry's deaths, as well as Billy's institutionalization, George's mother became a bitter woman running a boarding house. |
| 137 | ** Ernie's financial difficulties put a strain on his marriage and his wife took their child and left, leaving him living alone in one of Potter's slums instead of with his family in one of Bailey Park's houses. He mentions that, in 1946(ish), she had left him three years before. This means she left him ''while he was away fighting in the War.'' |
| 138 | ** In-movie, George spends time trying to find the bar owner Martini, one of the last people he talked to before entering Pottersville. A deleted scene showed that Martini and his whole family had died in a massive fire that consumed Potter's slums because George and the Building & Loan didn't build the Bailey Park housing complex they moved into. |
| 139 | ** George goes deaf in his left ear as a result of a bad cold he caught after saving Harry from drowning. This results in him being unable to fight in World War II and enables him to stay in Bedford Falls, and possibly means that it is another stumbling block for Potter, because George is the only one seemingly able to keep him in check and prevent him from taking over the town. |
| 140 | ** Thanks to a comment from George offscreen, Sam was able to set up a factory for making plastics out of soybeans and make a fortune from it. Without George there to make that comment (though we never see Sam during the scenes of Pottersville), he would likely have never set up the factory. |
| 141 | * ButtMonkey: The only thing George wanted to do is travel the world. Everything from saving his brother from drowning to keeping the Building & Loan afloat kept him from leaving Bedford Falls. Even a World War keeps him home, fighting the "Battle of Bedford Falls" (scrap drives, rubber drives, paper drives, etc.). |
| 142 | * CallBack: |
| 143 | ** George ends his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to Mr. Potter by saying that, while his father may have died living paycheck to paycheck, he still helped a lot of people and had many friends, which makes him richer than Mr. Potter will ever be. At the end, when Harry arrives after the townspeople have all pitched in to raise the $8,000 George needs, he proposes a toast to George, "the richest man in town". |
| 144 | ** Mary's comment to George when she reveals she's pregnant ("George Bailey lassos stork!"), refers back to him saying he would lasso the moon for her years before, and her embroidery of him doing just that. |
| 145 | ** When he has a chance to lord over George, Potter brings up George's previous insult that he's a warped, frustrated old man and turns it around, declaring him a warped, frustrated young man. |
| 146 | * CallingTheOldManOut: Clarence gives a philosophical ReasonYouSuckSpeech to Mr. Potter in [[https://puterboy1.tumblr.com/post/189861548121/pages-from-the-script-of-its-a-wonderful-life a scene that only exists in the script]]: |
| 147 | -->'''Clarence:''' You're an old man, Henry Potter; bitter, selfish, and lonely. You're going to die soon — then what? Can you think of anyone in the world — man, woman, child, or animal — that would care? [[ArmorPiercingQuestion Think hard, Potter, are you the richest man around here, or the poorest?]] |
| 148 | * CapitalismIsBad: The portrayal of Mr. Potter as an evil banker, both in the year of its release, and later years has lent this film much credibility as an anti-capitalist film, and even a left-wing one. It gets lost that George Bailey and his family business are also bankers and capitalists, and the film glorifies George as the main pillar that helps other people achieve their dreams. As noted by Capra's friends, the film shows that capitalism can work and be humane, and even quasi-messianic through the figure of George Bailey. Ultimately, it ends up more being a pro-capitalist movie that doesn't shy away from showing the downsides of capitalism and calls out the people who abuse the system like Potter. The main point Capra was making is that unfettered capitalism (making money only to make money, like Potter) is bad; selfless capitalism (making money to invest in a community, which will in turn make money to further invest said community's improvement) is good. It also clearly throws in its lot in favour of small businesses, too. |
| 149 | ** Sam Wainwright, George's childhood friend, eventually becomes considerably wealthy as a man of industry, and despite his former rivalry with George over Mary, does not hesitate to wire his old friend three times the amount he needs to get him out of trouble, trusting that George will pay him back within a reasonable timeframe, or maybe he doesn't care about that, just wants to give George a gift. (Plus fridge: the fact that he could count this as a charitable donation on his taxes doesn't hurt.) |
| 150 | ** It's also telling that the way Mr. Potter kicks off the whole problem is an overt act of theft, something that's wrong in *any* system, not just capitalism. If he hadn't resorted to literally breaking the law he would have easily had his power kept in check. |
| 151 | * CatchYourDeathOfCold: George lost the hearing in his left ear from a cold he caught as a result of saving his brother from falling in the ice. Zuzu catches a cold from walking home with her coat unbuttoned (if you're paying attention, George could be experiencing this as a call-back to what happened to him, thus his vehement reaction). George complains that they ought to all have pneumonia from how drafty their house is. |
| 152 | * CelebrityParadox: ''Film/TheBellsOfStMarys'' is prominently featured on a theater marquee. That film starred Henry Travers, who plays Clarence in this movie. |
| 153 | * CharacterCatchphrase: "Hee-haw!" for Sam Wainwright. |
| 154 | * ChekhovsArmory: Pretty much everything that happens over the course of the movie is shown to be significant when George sees what Bedford Falls is like without him. |
| 155 | * ChekhovsGag: Uncle Billy's being forgetful and scatter-brained is PlayedForLaughs for about 2/3 of the film until his carelessness leads him to leave the company's $8,000 with Mr Potter. |
| 156 | * ChekhovsGun: George losing the hearing in his left ear as a child when saving Harry from drowning means he is unable to enlist (as he likely wanted to) when [=WW2=] breaks out. |
| 157 | ** Zuzu's petals themselves are a symbolic detail, but otherwise immediately meaningless other than being a memento George can hold onto that reminds him of his daughter... that is, until Clarence tells George the petals don't exist in the alternate timeline. Not only does this immediately tell George that Clarence is far more aware than he believes him to be, but that there are horrible implications about the existence of his family in this timeline. |
| 158 | * ChekhovsGunman: |
| 159 | ** Harry, literally. George saves his life in one of the film's opening scenes and during [=WW2=], he becomes a Navy pilot and shoots down two kamikaze planes, saving a transport full of soldiers, which earns him the Congressional Medal of Honor. He later appears at the end of the movie to help George with the money. |
| 160 | ** Sam Wainwright. He first appears as one of George's childhood friends, and as an adult, after a comment made by George about making plastics out of soybeans, he goes on to make a fortune selling plastic hoods for planes in the war. After Uncle Billy misplaces the BBL's $8,000, George tries to contact Sam for help but fails. Luckily, Gower is able to contact Sam, explain the situation, and Sam is able to get him more than enough to save the day. |
| 161 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: Mary, who was in love with George from girlhood onward. |
| 162 | * ChivalrousPervert: George shows signs of this when Mary's stuck in a hydrangea bush without her bathrobe. "Maybe I can sell tickets." |
| 163 | * ChristmasMiracle: However, 90% of the movie is a story about George's life and takes place at some point other than Christmas. It's also just a coincidence that the event that would push George over the edge, Uncle Billy losing the $8,000, happens on Christmas Eve. It could've happened any other day of the year and we'd have had the exact same story. |
| 164 | * ChronicHeroSyndrome: George just has to help everyone at the cost of his own dreams. He doesn't even go through with his own suicide when he sees that someone (Clarence) is drowning and needs help, and he decides to jump in to rescue him instead. |
| 165 | * CloseKnitCommunity: Bedford Falls. |
| 166 | * CloseupOnHead: While George is [[DrowningMySorrows drowning his sorrows]] at the Martini bar, the camera moves up close to his head as he makes a desperate prayer and is crying ManlyTears. There are also many loving shots of Donna Reed's face. |
| 167 | ** In fact, there are many such shots throughout the picture, and they often manage to include someone else in the frame, even if it's just a nonspeaking extra so that you always have a sense of community and George's connection to others. |
| 168 | * {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: |
| 169 | ** Everyone thinks Clarence is nuts at his first appearance, including George. |
| 170 | ** Among the living, Uncle Billy is the best candidate. In the alternate timeline where George was never born, he wound up in an insane asylum. |
| 171 | * CluelessChickMagnet: Young George doesn't notice (or is repelled by) Violet and Mary's advances — he's too busy planning for his future harem in India. Even as he gets older, he still has no idea how much Mary (and possibly Violet) still loves him. |
| 172 | * ClumsyCopyrightCensorship: Some streaming services have posted the movie with [[https://www.joblo.com/its-a-wonderful-life-the-streaming-version-is-an-abomination/ a new score and credits reel]] to avoid paying Paramount. |
| 173 | * ComicallyMissingThePoint: |
| 174 | ** George excitedly shows Ernie a newspaper headline about Harry's Congressional Medal of Honor; Ernie kids him by glancing at the paper and remarking that it's going to snow again. |
| 175 | ** Upon hearing that Ma Bailey had lunch with the President's wife, Eustace asks what they had to eat. |
| 176 | * ContrivedCoincidence: The day of George and Mary's wedding, where George has gathered together about two thousand dollars in cash to finance the various events of their honeymoon, is the same day as a run on the bank and Bailey Building and Loan happens, with George and Mary driving through town right at the start of the run. With a large supply of cash in hand, George is able to singlehandedly keep the BBL afloat by loaning it out in place of the money the BBL doesn't have. |
| 177 | * CorruptCorporateExecutive: Henry Potter, one of the most notable examples in film. |
| 178 | * CrapsackWorld: Pottersville, at least from Capra's wholesome, conservative Catholic perspective. The main part of town is a swinging place packed with bars, dance halls, strip clubs, and gambling dens blasting jazz music. (Just in case you might think that actually sounds pretty awesome, the rest of the town is a depressing, dreary slum full of abandoned houses, where the people George knows are all miserable. George spends most of the Pottersville sequence trying to find the last friend he saw, bar owner Martini. A deleted scene exists in which George finds Martini's grave near Harry's, as Clarence explains that Martini and his family died in a fire because they couldn't move out of Potter's slums.) The primary reason that Pottersville is where Bedford Falls ought to be: George Bailey wished that he'd never been born, and the town wasn't the same without his wholesome influence. |
| 179 | * CreatorProvincialism: At the start of the film, Saint Joseph observes that George is due to kill himself "at exactly 10:45 ''Earth time''". Apparently even ''God'' thinks America (specifically upstate New York) is the epicenter of the Earth. Or maybe he just means the Earth time relative to where George is. (In a later scene, a time is given again, this time specifically referring to it as "Bedford Falls time".) |
| 180 | * CrucifiedHeroShot: If you're looking for it, it's so obvious: when the angels 'pause' George's life (in the first scene we see of his adulthood), he's standing with his arms held up and out in the pose. This is a subversion, however, as George is shown from the side, rather than the front, and has spread out his arms to excitedly ask for a large suitcase. |
| 181 | * CycleOfVirtue: George Bailey is given a chance to see just how much of an impact that he actually had in the world by being shown a world where he didn't exist. Bedford Falls, without his influence, would have been a horrible Crapsack World known as Pottersville. Many people would have died without his intervention, starting with a young boy whom his boyhood employer almost accidentally poisoned. The list goes all the way up to a shipful of sailors saved by his brother, whom he had, himself, saved from drowning in a frozen lake when they were children. |
| 182 | * DaddysGirl: Zuzu seems to be this. |
| 183 | * DavidVersusGoliath: George vs. Mr. Potter. |
| 184 | -->"And are the local yokels making with those David-and-Goliath wisecracks..." |
| 185 | * DeadGuyJunior: George and Mary's first son is named Peter, after George's late father. |
| 186 | * DeadpanSnarker: Mary, of all people, has moments of this. |
| 187 | -->'''Mary:''' [[RefugeInAudacity He's making violent love to me, Mother.]][[note]][[HaveAGayOldTime At the time]], "making love" would have meant "flirting" or "courting".[[/note]] |
| 188 | ** When she sees George walking back and forth in front of her house scraping her wooden fence with a stick, she yells out her window, "What are you doing? ''[[{{Pun}} Picket]]''ing?" |
| 189 | ** When George comes to bed late thinking she's asleep and they share a tender moment: |
| 190 | --->'''George:''' Why did you ever marry a guy like me?\ |
| 191 | '''Mary:''' To keep from being an OldMaid. |
| 192 | ** George himself is a fair snarker in his own right. |
| 193 | --->'''Clarence:''' We don't use money in heaven.\ |
| 194 | '''George:''' Ah, well, it ''comes in pretty handy down here'', bub. |
| 195 | *** Casually musing about selling tickets while Mary (not yet his wife) is hiding behind a bush in a rather embarrassing state. |
| 196 | ** They actually engage frequently in a playful banter reminiscent of ol' [[Film/TheThinMan Nick and Nora]]. |
| 197 | *** This takes on a much [[MoodWhiplash darker shade]] during George's desperation sequence. |
| 198 | ** Annie the cook has her share: |
| 199 | --->'''George:''' Annie, why don't you draw up a chair? Then you'd be more comfortable and you could hear everything that's going on.\ |
| 200 | '''Annie:''' I would if I thought I'd hear anything worth listening to. |
| 201 | *** And later, when the town has come together to help George out: |
| 202 | ---->'''Annie:''' I've been saving this money for a divorce, if ever I get a husband. |
| 203 | * DeathByAdaptation: George's father is still alive when he's an adult in the original story and appears along with his mother in the alternate universe. |
| 204 | * DeathlyDiesIrae: A quiet instrumental "dies irae" plays as George goes to the snowy bridge, [[DrivenToSuicide preparing to throw himself off of it]]. |
| 205 | * DecoyDamsel: Inverted with Clarence, who screams like a girl after intentionally jumping in the river. |
| 206 | * DelayedReaction: George doesn't immediately register when Mary tells him that she is pregnant. |
| 207 | * {{Determinator}}: Bert says that he was searching ''all night'' to find George in the prime timeline because it's freezing outside and Mary told him about what happened at home. Now isn't that friendship? |
| 208 | * DeusExMachina: [[AvertedTrope Completely averted]]. The "god" appears, but when he goes away, George is physically in the same spot he was in before; the only thing that is different is his attitude. |
| 209 | ** And it drives home the point of the whole movie: ''everyone is George''. |
| 210 | --->'''Clarence:''' Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many others, and when he isn't there, he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he? |
| 211 | * DeusExitMachina: Subverted. When George goes to Potter's office to ask for a loan to cover the missing $8,000, Potter asks why he doesn't ask Sam for the money. George tells Potter that he tried but Sam is in London and he couldn't get in contact with him. Later on, when the town gets together to raise the money, Mr. Gower manages to get a cable message to Sam explaining everything and he instructs his office to loan George three times the total. |
| 212 | * DickDastardlyStopsToCheat: Potter knew what happened to the $8,000, yet he could have simply returned it and asked the Board to remove George because he left that much of the company's money in the hands of an idiot. Instead he keeps it and frames George for theft, causing the entire town to come to George's rescue. |
| 213 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: George ends up with only $2 left of his honeymoon money, but had he been a bit more calculating, he could have had a much bigger safety net while still giving his customers needed help. George reluctantly gives Tom every cent of the $242 he demands from his account, despite Tom being willing to take 50 cents on the dollar (i.e., $121) from Potter. George could have instead said, "Tom, you were willing to go to Potter for 50% of your money. I'll give you 60%, and your remaining 40% will stay here so everyone else can get what they need." Not only would Tom get a better deal (and keep all his money), but the B&L would have finished with 50 times the amount they closed with. George might be a great guy, but [[JerkassHasAPoint Potter isn't wrong]] that he's a lousy businessman. |
| 214 | * DigitalDestruction: Creator/{{Paramount}} had ''all'' the grain removed in 2006, giving their [=DVDs=] and Blu-ray Discs of the movie an overly-sterile appearance. Paramount fortunately commissioned a more filmic restoration in 2018, for the movie's 4K Digital debut, and the following year's UHD and Blu-ray releases. |
| 215 | * DisproportionateRetribution: When Uncle Billy misplaced the $8,000 intended for the bank examiner and absent-mindedly handed it to Mr. Potter, and George Bailey is in a tight situation, he threatens Uncle Billy with a bit of physical violence: |
| 216 | -->'''George:''' Where's that money, you silly, stupid old fool? Where's that money? Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison! That's what it means! One of us is going to jail; well, it's not gonna be me! |
| 217 | ** Later at home, as George is trying to recover from the shock of the misplaced money, he turns sour on his family, and yells over the phone at Mrs. Welch who teaches the Bailey children. Mr. Welch goes to Martini's and punches George for driving his wife to tears, especially since she works hard to educate the children. |
| 218 | * DistractedByTheSexy: At one point, a nameless background male character turns his head to watch Violet walk by while crossing the street and nearly gets hit by a car as a result. |
| 219 | * TheDitz: Uncle Billy. |
| 220 | * DivineIntervention: The plot of the film is centered around this, God responding to the prayers of the people of Bedford Falls by sending an angel to keep George from taking his own life. In a more direct but subtle sense, George himself prays to God twice. The first time is in Martini's bar, where he prays for help with his dire financial circumstances. Seconds later, his friends start to ask him what's wrong and if they can help, which is ultimately what ends up saving him. The second time is on the bridge when he pleads with Clarence to restore him to life. It's only after he asks God directly that it starts to snow again, showing he's been returned to his life. |
| 221 | * DoorFocus: After a heated argument, George Bailey leaves Mary's house only to return because he forgot his hat. A little more yelling later, [[SlapSlapKiss smoochies ensue]]. |
| 222 | * DoubleEntendre: After loaning out his own money and having only two dollars left. |
| 223 | -->'''George:''' Let's put them in the vault and see what happens. |
| 224 | * DramaPreservingHandicap: Sam Wainwright is incredibly wealthy and loves George. He wouldn't hesitate to [[UnclePennybags lend George the money he needs.]] Mr. Potter even knows this and asks why George doesn't go to him. So for the sake of the climax not ending in five minutes, Sam is in Europe and George hasn't been able to reach him. George later finds out at the end of the movie that Sam, upon learning what happened, of course immediately orders his office to wire George three ''times'' the amount of money he needs to help him out. |
| 225 | * DramaticWind: Accompanies George's vision of his non-existence. Lampshaded by Clarence, who is irritated at the unwanted special effects. |
| 226 | * DrivenToSuicide: George contemplating jumping off the bridge. Thankfully, Clarence was there to save him. |
| 227 | * DrivesLikeCrazy: George after leaving Martini's, before contemplating suicide, resulting in him driving into a tree. Justified because [[DrowningMySorrows he was drunk]]. |
| 228 | * DrowningMySorrows: |
| 229 | ** George gets drunk in the bar before attempting suicide. |
| 230 | ** George's boss in the past, Mr. Gower, gets smashed after receiving a telegram informing him of his son's death. |
| 231 | * DudleyDoRightStopsToHelp: Just as George and Mary are about to go one their honeymoon, they witness the depositors of Bailey Building and Loan who are about to make a run on the bank; George and Mary reluctantly decide to spend their honeymoon money and help out the Baileys' depositors, and they'll probably never get a second chance to take their dream honeymoon vacation, settling for a makeshift "staycation" honeymoon in Bedford Falls as a result of sacrificing their honeymoon bankroll to help the Bailey Brothers' s S&L investors. |
| 232 | * TheDutifulSon: George stays in Bedford Falls to take over his deceased father's business. |
| 233 | * EarnYourHappyEnding: George is nearly {{driven to suicide}}. But in the end, all his problems are solved and he's surrounded by loving family, friends, and neighbors. It's something of an unusual case in that George's actions after losing the eight thousand dollars don't really help his situation at all. Instead, it's the things he's already done, the faith in his character and the gratitude of the townspeople for how much he's done for them all that drives the film's resolution. George had ''already'' earned his happy ending before his troubles even began. And Clarence finally gets his wings after everything he went through to help George. |
| 234 | * {{Egopolis}}: |
| 235 | ** Pottersville. Ernie lives "in a shack in [[TheCityNarrows Potter's Field]]", the bizarro version of Bailey Park. |
| 236 | ** Downplayed with George's housing development of Bailey Park, which was named after his father. |
| 237 | * EmotionSuppression: George does this ''very'' subtly in the scene where Harry comes back from college with a wife, and announces that he's been offered a really good job, which George knows will mean that he himself won't be able to quit the bank and go traveling. Harry and his wife pass out of the shot and we hear them and George's mother chatting away happily, but the camera follows George for a few seconds as he walks silently after them, with all his earlier good humour completely gone from his face — and then he joins them and you can see him forcing himself to be cheerful again. At least one critic has pointed out that this is the moment in the film where George is almost crushed by the realization that he will never be able to drop everything and do just what he wants. |
| 238 | ** Taken a step further and averted in the musical adaptation, ''A Wonderful Life''. George loses his quiet and his cool when confronting Harry, who openly spurns the agreement they made when he left for college, managing to insult George and their father in the process. |
| 239 | * EmpathicEnvironment: |
| 240 | ** The run on the Building & Loan takes place with a GrayRainOfDepression in the background. |
| 241 | ** The snow ceases to fall when George is in the alternate universe and resumes when he returns. |
| 242 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: Potter gets one when he is shown badmouthing and deriding George's father for his kindness toward his clients, showing his callous and greedy nature. |
| 243 | * EthicalSlut: Violet is as promiscuous as a female character is allowed to be in 1940's cinema, culminating in her clearly implied fate as a hooker in Potterville, making this {{Foreshadowing}} gag in the childhood flashback scene all the harsher: |
| 244 | -->'''Violet:''' I like him.\ |
| 245 | '''Mary:''' You like ''every'' boy.\ |
| 246 | '''Violet:''' What's wrong with that? |
| 247 | * EurekaMoment: After George bitterly wishes he had never been born, Clarence at first tells him he shouldn't say things like that, but then he realizes that by showing George just how awful things would have been had he not been born, he can earn his wings by showing George just how much his life mattered to those around him. |
| 248 | * EvenEvilHasStandards: Subverted. Potter, who's been shown to be amoral but not criminal, almost seems like he's going to return the $8,000 but he ultimately keeps it to see the Baileys ruined. |
| 249 | * EverybodyHelpsOutDenouement: After George overcomes his despair and returns to the real world, all the townsfolk of Bedford Falls come to the Baileys' house to give George the $8,000 that the bank needs to stay afloat, one bill at a time. |
| 250 | * EveryoneHasStandards: In Pottersville, Nick is quite a jerk, but he is disgusted by Gower poisoning the child years earlier, which of course happened because George wasn't there to prevent it. |
| 251 | * EvilCannotComprehendGood: Mr. Potter '''is''' this trope. Seriously, almost every scene and every fifth line of his dialogue features a gross miscalculation of one of the Baileys, or human nature in general. To elaborate: |
| 252 | ** He doesn't understand Peter Bailey's motivation for creating the Building & Loan, or George's motivation for (permanently) postponing his vacation and college education to keep the B&L going... even after George spells it out for him in his TheReasonYouSuckSpeech. The notion that providing decent housing for the townspeople might be rewarding in and of itself simply does not click with Potter. |
| 253 | ** He even assumes that the "discontented, lazy rabble" that runs on the B&L is a violent lynch mob rather then the frightened but decent crowd it actually is. |
| 254 | ** Still not sure who or what he's dealing with, Potter wonders aloud to his real estate flunky how Bailey commands public respect despite not making a great deal of money off of his (potentially lucrative) housing projects. |
| 255 | ** Potter attempts to bribe George with a lucrative job — provided that George dissolve the B&L and hand it over to Potter. Potter makes a good sales pitch... but George is only tempted for a grand total of thirty seconds (time it), before the revulsion hits him. It's Potter's sweaty palm that tips George off to the fact that Potter is still scheming against him. |
| 256 | ** When George comes begging Potter for money because "I misplaced $8,000." Potter (who hid that very money after watching George's Uncle Billy lose it) replies in shock, "''You'' misplaced $8,000?" (emphasis his) — evidently, although Potter expected the loss of the money to cause a lot of problems for his rival, George taking the blame and risking going to jail himself wasn't one of them. |
| 257 | ** Potter's final swing-and-a-miss is easy to overlook, though the climax hinges on it. While gloating over George's downfall, Potter taunts him asking "why doesn't he ask the rabble" for the money, predicting that the "rabble" would run him out of town. Of course, this is ''exactly'' what Mary and Uncle Billy do, and the townspeople rally in support en-masse around George. |
| 258 | ** Honestly, does ''anyone'' who considers a fellow human being "worth more dead than alive" understand anything Good? In the wealth that [[ThePowerOfFriendship truly counts]], Potter is the poorest man in town. |
| 259 | * EvilCripple: Mr. Potter's wheelchair looks like a throne. |
| 260 | * EvilOldFolks: Potter is a cruel, petty, avaricious old man. |
| 261 | * EvilIsPetty: George calls Potter a "warped, frustrated old man" in the board meeting scene that took place in 1928. Potter not only remembers this insult word-for-word, but throws it back in George's face in the last act of the film, which takes place ''17 years later''. |
| 262 | * ExtremelyShortTimeSpan: Although the first two-thirds of the film covers the last quarter century or so of George's life, the flashbacks are shown to be Clarence's mission briefing and go faster than real time. (At the beginning, when Clarence is informed that George will attempt suicide at 10:45 pm, he comments that he's "only got one hour to dress", to which he's told he will "spend that hour getting acquainted with George Bailey".) Even after Clarence turns up for the final act and we see time skips, they are each only about five or six minutes. Near the end, when George returns home, [[FreezeFrameBonus the clock reads 11:54,]] six minutes before the film ends. All told, the film proper begins at about 9:40 pm on Christmas Eve and ends at midnight on Christmas Day. |
| 263 | [[/folder]] |
| 264 | |
| 265 | [[folder:F–J]] |
| 266 | * FailedASpotCheck: |
| 267 | ** George and Mary are the only couple who don't realize they're dancing over a swimming pool until they fall into it. |
| 268 | ** Uncle Billy losing $8000 in an envelope wrapped in a newspaper that he inadvertently gives to Potter. |
| 269 | ** When George is about to commit suicide, Clarence jumps in first, so George naturally jumps in to save him. He fails to realize Clarence ''was not on the single-level bridge near him, despite "falling in" right in front of George.'' |
| 270 | * FamilyBusiness: Obviously the Bailey Building & Loan, started by Peter and Billy, later run by George. The two office workers are 'cousins' Eustace and Tilly, likely children of another Bailey. When Mary (and George) offer the honeymoon fund to satisfy the members during the bank run scene, Billy and the others are also kicking in the money that they have on them as well. |
| 271 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Mr. Potter puts on airs of respectability, but he's a thoroughly loathsome human being. |
| 272 | * TheFettered: George Bailey, to the point where it's actually painful to watch. Mr. Potter does his best to get him to throw off the fetters and Clarence tries to convince him not to be bitter over them. |
| 273 | * FingertipDrugAnalysis: When young George tells Mr. Gower that he accidentally put poison in his capsules instead of medicine, Gower is skeptical until he puts some of the powder on his finger and tastes it, realizing to his horror that George is right. |
| 274 | * ForegoneConclusion: After Clarence is shown the moment where George had to choose between leaving for college or taking over the Building & Loan so it wouldn't be dissolved, he tells God and Joseph he already knows George chose the latter. |
| 275 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: |
| 276 | ** Lampshaded by Joseph's voiceover before Harry (as a boy) almost drowns after breaking through the ice: "Something happens here you'll have to remember later on." This comes back in two ways, first Clarence sets himself up as a drowning victim when George is about to jump off the bridge because he knew he would save him, and when George wishes he'd never been born, Harry did drown because George wasn't there to save him. |
| 277 | ** During the scene in Gower's drugstore, Little Mary says that Little Violet likes every boy, as well as George. Little Violet sees no problem with it. This statement follows her into adulthood as it is implied she ReallyGetsAround, and is made even worse later, taking on quite a harsh turn when she is implied to have become a prostitute in Pottersville. |
| 278 | ** During the family's dinner the night of Harry's high school graduation dance, George notices his father looking tired. His father dismisses it as exhaustion from dealing with Potter that day, but later that night he suffers a fatal stroke. |
| 279 | ** When George is about to throw a rock at the old Granville house, Mary says she would one day like to live in it. George says he wouldn't live in it as a ghost. George and Mary later marry and move into the house exactly as Mary wished when she throws her rock, and in the Georgeless universe, of course the house is still empty and devoid of life because George wasn't there to move in, and neither was Mary, because she ended up as an old maid. |
| 280 | ** Sam says over the phone to George and Mary his father wants to build a factory for making plastics out of soybeans (thanks to an offscreen comment from George). George suggests refurbishing an old factory in town and employing locals who were thrown out of work when it closed. During the war montage, it's revealed Sam did just that and made a fortune — especially when the war began and he got huge government contracts to make plastic hoods for airplanes. This may also explain where he got the money to send to George at the end. |
| 281 | ** When George tries to show off the article of Harry being awarded the Medal of Honor, Ernie has some fun pretending to only notice that the weatherman predicts snow that night. Said snow is one of the differences between reality and George's vision of a world where he was never born. |
| 282 | ** One towards the end, where George and Clarence walk towards where George crashed his car, but because in this version of the world, George doesn't exist, there is no car by the tree. The man who owns the tree George originally crashed into says it's one of the oldest trees in Pottersville. Because that's what happened to Bedford Falls without George to stop Potter taking over the town. |
| 283 | * FreezeFrameIntroduction: In the introduction, God is assigning a guardian angel named Clarence to protect a man named George Bailey. After God shows Clarence some scenes from George Bailey's childhood, God skips ahead to when George Bailey is an adult. When George Bailey turns his face to the camera, God stops time, says to Clarence (and by extension the audience) "I want you to take a good long look at that face," and introduces George Bailey as an adult. |
| 284 | * AFriendInNeed: The entire town, for George Bailey. |
| 285 | * FriendToAllLivingThings: Uncle Billy has a bizarre assortment of animals living with him. |
| 286 | * FromBadToWorse: Potter holding the money mistakenly handed to him by Uncle Billy. |
| 287 | * GenderEqualEnsemble: The Bailey family after George and Mary have children, as there are three males (George, Pete and Tommy) and three females (Mary, Janie and Zuzu). |
| 288 | * GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Even though Jimmy Stewart hated colorization, this movie received that treatment twice in TheEighties, and again in 2007. |
| 289 | * GetOut: '''SLAM.''' "That's ''it''. Out you two pixies go, though the door or out the window!" |
| 290 | ** Also, Martini throws Mr. Welch out of his bar for punching George, and bans Welch from returning. |
| 291 | * GettingCrapPastTheRadar: Harry, a white man, flirts with Annie, a black woman. While {{played for laughs}}, [[https://productioncode.dhwritings.com/multipleframes_productioncode.php Section II.6 of the Hays Code forbade mixed-race relationships until 1956]]. |
| 292 | * GondorCallsForAid: The entire town turns out to help raise the money for George. Mary notified all of his friends about what happened, and they come at the end. |
| 293 | ** George Bailey is easily bailed out of financial trouble; and in fact, he has a number of bar patrons come to his aid at Martini's before he receives the goodness of Bedford Falls' residents at the film's conclusion. Why? Forget the respected man about town (which he obviously is), he is responsible for just about every man in town having a good paying job (and becoming homeowners). George Bailey good-naturedly chides Sam Wainwright into building a plastics plant in Bedford Falls instead of Rochester (right after he and Mary move Martini and his family into their new home). George Bailey literally helped create a middle class in a town that had only the very rich and the mostly poor in power. This is why the so-called "rabble" of Bedford Falls comes out of the woodwork to help George Bailey. |
| 294 | * GoodCannotComprehendEvil: Both Peter and George Bailey fail to wrap their heads around Mr. Potter's inherent cruelty and spite. Peter remarks that Potter has more money than he could ever spend and no family to share it with, and wonders aloud why he remains so hateful despite having everything a man could want. Later, George goes (quite literally on hands and knees) to Potter to beg for a loan, somehow believing that even after a lifetime of Potter openly despising the Bailey family, he'll somehow find it in his heart to give George the funds he needs. |
| 295 | * GoodCapitalismEvilCapitalism: George Bailey and his relatives are the good with their family's Building & Loan business helping the townsfolk obtain affordable homes with loans and housing projects by using investors' money. Mr. Potter is the bad as he uses his wealth to buy up most of the town's businesses and then engages in price gouging so he can get as much of the townspeople's money as possible. |
| 296 | * GoodIsNotDumb: George is idealistic but not foolish. His rant at Potter in the board meeting after his father's death illustrates this. He'll handle things differently from his father (who was "no businessman"), but he won't turn down people in trouble and he'll make certain the homes in his subdivision are attractive, well-made and solid, even if they're just "a couple of decent rooms and a bath." |
| 297 | * GoodIsNotNice: Franklin and Joseph who [[CelestialBureaucracy assign tasks]] to lower ranking angels, describe Clarence as having the [[GoodIsDumb IQ of a rabbit]]. |
| 298 | * TheGreatDepression: George and Mary's wedding day was the day of a bank run on the Building and Loan. This is ''very'' fortuitous, as the $2000 that George withdrew for their honeymoon is what kept the BBL from going under. |
| 299 | * GuardianAngel: Clarence. George is a bit less than impressed; probably he expected someone with wings. |
| 300 | * {{Handwave}}: The question of whether the townspeople can raise enough money to cover George's deficit is handwaved by having a telegram from Sam Wainwright offer George over three times the amount needed. |
| 301 | * HappilyMarried: George and Mary. George's parents are also implied to have been this, and in a single throwaway line midway through the movie, it's implied that Uncle Billy is in perpetual mourning for his own late wife. |
| 302 | * HappilyFailedSuicide: In the end, Clarence successfully convinces George that his life is worth living. George, on realizing he's back in Bedford Falls, runs happily through the snow, even wishing Potter a Merry Christmas, and goes to kiss everyone in his family. Mind this is ''before'' the townspeople save him from going to jail. |
| 303 | * HappinessRealizedTooLate: With Clarence's help, George ultimately realizes that even with his dreams of becoming an architect and travelling around the world no longer possible, he still has friends and happiness, a realization that convinces him not to commit suicide. |
| 304 | * HateSink: [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Mr. Henry F. Potter]] is the richest and meanest man in the town of Bedford Falls. Throughout the film, Mr. Potter strives to bring the town under his heel through buying everything out, with only George Bailey keeping him at bay. On Christmas Eve 1945, Potter is accidentally given an envelope of money by George's Uncle Billy. Potter pockets the money and when George comes to him for a loan when Billy's mistake is discovered, Potter gloats about the fact that George is ruined and sends out a warrant for his arrest out of spite, nearly causing George to commit suicide. When George wishes he was never born, he is shown that reality, where without George's interference Potter has taken over the town of Bedford Falls and renamed it [[{{Egopolis}} Pottersville]], a WretchedHive with rampant crime, alcoholism and unhappiness. Mr. Potter stands out as one of film history's most infamous misers. |
| 305 | * HaveAGayOldTime: |
| 306 | ** "He's making violent love to me, mother!" In this era, "making love" meant something akin to "courting" or even "kissing," as opposed to a romantic euphemism for sex. {{Downplayed|Trope}} in that this wouldn't have scandalized her much less in the '20s with the meaning intended than it would now with the current meaning. |
| 307 | ** Pottersville Nick kicking George and Clarence out of his bar, calling them "[[MistakenForGay you two pixies]]" (which back then was almost certainly meant as slang for hobo or drunk; also, the term '[[http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/pixilated?s=t pixilated]]' was slang for 'kind of crazy'). Or just Nick making fun of Clarence's claims to being an angel. |
| 308 | * HeadTurningBeauty: Violet Bick nearly causes a man to get run over just because he's so distracted by her looks that he nearly walks into a speeding car. |
| 309 | * HeavenAbove: Whenever Clarence the angel talks to distant superiors, the audience will know he's not just talking to himself because he's looking straight up at the sky, which is where angels are supposed to live. |
| 310 | * HellYesMoment: George has a big one, accompanied by a joyous laugh, when Bert points out his mouth is bleeding and his car is crashed into a tree, because he knows now that he's back in the real world. |
| 311 | * HeroicBSOD: George suffers this when he's on the verge of being arrested for embezzlement. |
| 312 | * HeroicSacrifice: |
| 313 | ** George saved his little brother from drowning. This caused permanent damage in one ear, and he nearly died in the attempt. |
| 314 | ** Not in the normal sense, but George and Mary give their honeymoon money to the people who need money to make it through the week that the local bank is closed. |
| 315 | ** George's whole life, really, staying home and working for the people of Bedford Falls. |
| 316 | ** Several of the townsfolk give up their savings to save George from going to jail. |
| 317 | * {{Hobos}}: As George wasn't there to stop him from fatally mixing up a prescription, Pottersville's Mr. Gower is now a homeless, alcoholic ex-con. |
| 318 | * HollywoodLaw: As touching as the townspeople of Bedford Falls coming out in support of George is, this shouldn't have kept him out of prison. George wasn't in trouble because he lost $8,000, he was in trouble because the $8,000 he had recorded on the Bailey Building and Loan accounts has gone missing and he can't find it. The assumption in such a case would be that the money is missing because George embezzled it or had committed fraud by pretending he had money he didn't. With the very public nature of how George gained enough money to cover the deficit, no law enforcement official would accept that as an adequate answer to George's supposed criminal behavior that resulted in the deficit to begin with. |
| 319 | ** In strict fairness, there's no indication that any actual charges had been laid--George hadn't even had a chance to discuss the discrepancy with the bank examiner yet, and Potter openly admits to using his influence on the town to get a warrant out for George's arrest through channels that do ''not'' seem legal--a warrant issued ''before'' the bank examiner even had a chance to raise the issue, before ''any formal investigation'' had been carried out at all? That's incredibly sketchy. The solution may be HollywoodLaw, but it's understood that ''so was the warrant itself,'' so it all comes out in the wash. |
| 320 | ** George is well-known in town as an honest businessman who has shown he'll give the shirt off his back for others. The Sheriff most likely believes there's more to this than meets the eye and is willing to give George the benefit of the doubt. [[FridgeBrilliance He may have even started to figure out who]] ''[[FridgeBrilliance really]]'' [[FridgeBrilliance "misappropriated" the money.]] |
| 321 | ** It's notable that just before the Sheriff rips up the warrant, Carter, the bank examiner, comes up to the table and drops a few dollars off, giving George a look that says, [[HiddenHeartOfGold "Don't tell anyone, okay?"]] Most likely, Carter has seen enough to realize there's no way George outright stole the money, and he told the Sheriff to forget about the arrest. It’s also rather clear that doing the audit, which as an end of year audit goes could easily be done after New Years, on Christmas Eve was NOT Carter’s idea. He’s clearly only here because Potter insisted that it had to be done TODAY which makes you wonder if Potter called someone to send Carter in after getting his hands on the money. This might add to his sympathy towards George as this whole affair has already ruined his day seeing it’s after sundown and he’s still stuck in town when he clearly wanted to be anywhere else. |
| 322 | * HonestCorporateExecutive: George's friend Sam Wainwright makes it big in emerging businesses, and at the end he wires enough money to George to bail him out several times over. |
| 323 | * HonorBeforeReason: A lot of things George does, especially refusing the job Mr. Potter [[DealWithTheDevil offers him]]. |
| 324 | * HookerWithAHeartOfGold: Implied to be the case with Violet. She ReallyGetsAround, but is still respectful to George and virtually everyone else. |
| 325 | * HotLibrarian: While Pottersville Mary isn't really ''meant'' to be this, she's still Donna Reed in [[CuteGlassesGirl glasses]]. They had to apply a mask of concealer just to make her seem average. |
| 326 | * HowWeGotHere: the first half of the movie details George's life and how he got to be in the mental state he was in when Clarence first met him. |
| 327 | * HypocriticalHumor: Two rapid instances occur in the scene where George visits Mary. First, Sam Wainwright teasingly accuses George of trying to steal "his girl"...while he's having a beautiful woman massage his shoulders and light his cigarette. Later, when George suggests he get on the Hatch family's second line, Mary remarks "Mother's on the extension." Mrs. Hatch immediately cries "I am ''not!''"...as she hangs up the phone and runs off. |
| 328 | * ICouldaBeenAContender: George had big dreams of seeing the world, all of them dashed. |
| 329 | * INeedAFreakingDrink: |
| 330 | ** In Pottersville, George convinces himself that a stiff one will clear him right up. |
| 331 | ** Ernie says this after he witnesses Clarence teleport. |
| 332 | ** After George successfully keeps the Building and Loan open with the $2,000 from his and Mary's wedding, he, Uncle Billy, Tilly, and Eustace all down a round of booze from Uncle Billy's flask. |
| 333 | * IOwnThisTown: Potter, with all the businesses he owns, already comes close to it in regular old Bedford Falls. In Pottersville, ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin is in effect. |
| 334 | * IconicItem: Zuzu's petals, which have become famously associated with the movie and the entire ItsAWonderfulPlot trope. A radio adaptation instead made it a bell, which presumably worked better in that media. |
| 335 | * IgnoredEpiphany: When Potter ends up with the misplaced $8,000, he changes his mind and decides to hang onto it when he overhears Uncle Billy looking for it when he had taunted him moments before. |
| 336 | * IllBeInMyBunk : The boys' reactions to seeing Violet walk down the street: |
| 337 | -->'''Ernie:''' How would you like to...?\ |
| 338 | '''George:''' ''[a little too quickly]'' Yes.\ |
| 339 | '''Bert:''' ''[leaving]'' Gotta go home and see what the wife's doing. |
| 340 | * ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: Pottersville's Bert finally has enough of George and fires a wayward shot at him. Probably {{Justified|Trope}}, since God is unlikely to let George get seriously hurt. |
| 341 | ** Not to mention he's shooting at an already moving target halfway down the street at night with what appears to be a revolver, which isn't very good at long range. Even realistically, it would have been more suspicious if he HAD managed to hit him. |
| 342 | * ImprobableInfantSurvival: Almost averted twice at the start, played straight thanks to George. He saves Harry's life as well as that of a sick boy who would have been poisoned with cyanide-laced capsules. Averted with both cases in the alternate world, for obvious reasons. |
| 343 | * ImprobablyCoolCar: Inverted by George Bailey's circa-1920 Dodge tourer. Not treated as an AllegedCar but far older than a prominent citizen and owner of a financial institution would have owned by 1941.[[note]]It might've actually been more believable in 1946, after three years of no new-car production.[[/note]] |
| 344 | * InMediasRes: The film starts on Christmas Eve when everyone is praying for George, then jumps back in time via a flashback started by Joseph. |
| 345 | * InSpiteOfANail: Perhaps the only thing that ''doesn't'' change in the Pottersville alternate reality is that Bert and Ernie are still friends. |
| 346 | * IncessantMusicMadness: When George returns home after discovering that Billy misplaced the deposit money, he begins to mentally unravel while Janie can be heard practicing ''Hark the Herald Angels Sing'' on the piano. Eventually, he snaps and shouts, "Haven't you learned that silly tune yet? You've been playing it over and over! Now stop it! Stop it!!" |
| 347 | * IncorruptiblePurePureness: George Bailey. He loses his pureness in a few brief scenes, when he's freaking out about the missing money. But he always returns to his true self. He apologizes to his children after he yells at them. And he selflessly takes the fall for Uncle Billy, despite his earlier outburst. |
| 348 | * InformedFlaw: Clarence is described by the other angels as having [[KindheartedSimpleton the heart of a child and the IQ of a rabbit]], but he seems reasonably smart from what we see of him. He's the one who comes up with the idea to show George what the world would be like if he'd never been born, and his eloquent speech about the way human lives touch each other suggests a keen mind. |
| 349 | * InstantlyProvenWrong: During the run on the Building and Loan, George tries to calm the anxious depositors by reassuring them that "this thing isn't at black as it appears". Cue the sound of police cars racing by outside with sirens blaring. |
| 350 | * InterruptedSuicide: |
| 351 | ** George is about to jump into the river and let the currents take him. Then he hears a splash and sees a man calling for help. George then jumps in to save the man. It ends up being Clarence. |
| 352 | ** From Bert's expression, after George is returned to his timeline, he seems to think he was stopping George from jumping into the river. It explains why he's not fazed when George shouts at him; his biggest concern was he was worried George was ''dead''. |
| 353 | * IronicEcho: Potter's brow is twisted with rage as he recalls George calling him a "warped, frustrated old man." |
| 354 | -->'''Potter:''' What are you but a warped, frustrated ''young'' man? |
| 355 | * {{Irony}}: When George comes to Mr. Potter, the latter says the former is "worth more dead than alive." ''This'' coming from the man who not only stole that $8000, but is behind every grievance that's kept George in Bedford Falls, not to mention he's the reason every citizen in town struggles just to keep out of his slums. If anything, the town would be financially better off if it weren't for Potter. |
| 356 | * ISurrenderSuckers: Averted. Potter tries to hire George away from the B&L which means a) he'd only have to deal with Uncle Billy, and b) George would be legally obligated to be on ''Potter's'' side (or recuse himself) from any conflict with the B&L. All for a grand total of $60,000, and three years later, George would be fired from his job ''and'' the B&L would be no more. |
| 357 | * ItsAWonderfulPlot: TropeMaker and TropeNamer. Go click on the trope page to see a long list of how many works have either played this trope straight or lampooned it. |
| 358 | * JacobMarleyApparel: Clarence is still wearing the undershirt he wore when he kicked it. "I didn't have time to get changed." |
| 359 | * {{Jerkass}}: Honestly, if you didn't want to just smash Potter in the face before this movie, after viewing it, you will. |
| 360 | ** Potter wastes no opportunity to be a JerkAss and show his contempt for everyone. Take a look at the scene where he invites George into his office to try and bribe him with a job. When George takes a seat, he's surprised at how low the chair is. Potter does that on purpose so anyone sitting there has to look up at him, while he looks down on them. |
| 361 | * JerkassHasAPoint: |
| 362 | ** George himself gets one when he goes PapaWolf on Zuzu's teacher Mrs. Welch. He's absolutely correct that she ought to have told Zuzu to button up her coat on a snowy winter day. While her sickness isn't bad and she's proud of her flower, she could have gotten worse. |
| 363 | ** George employs an incompetent relative in a position of trust and gives home loans to people with bad credit. Sound familiar? |
| 364 | ** George concedes Potter's point that "(his) father was no businessman," and that he doesn't understand why he established the company in the first place—in the middle of a TheReasonYouSuckSpeech no less. |
| 365 | ** George's father tells Potter that he doesn't need the money he invested in the Building and Loan since he has no family to take care of and no children to leave it to. Whether or not Potter has a family or children shouldn't really have any bearing on whether he has the right to expect a return on his investment. |
| 366 | ** Potter himself gets a moment when he paints an extremely accurate picture of George as "an intelligent, smart, ambitious young man...who's been dying to get out on his own ever since he was born." George's uncomfortable silence and eagerness to change the subject suggest that Potter's analysis was so spot-on that it hurt him. |
| 367 | * JustInTime: Pottersville Bert drives onto the bridge as George is fervently praying to have his life back, clearly looking to arrest him. But the original timeline resets and by the time Bert approaches him, he's asking if he's okay. |
| 368 | [[/folder]] |
| 369 | |
| 370 | [[folder:K–O]] |
| 371 | * KarmicDeath / HollywoodHeartAttack: Mr. Potter’s intended fate. |
| 372 | * KarmicJackpot: George spends much of his life helping others, from his brother to the ordinary townspeople. When he's in a spot, Mary calls everyone who helped George, and they also get more people. The end result is he gets more than enough money to pay for the missing $8000. |
| 373 | * KarmicMisfire: After Uncle Billy absent-mindedly loses the $8,000 in Potter's bank, George Bailey insanely blames Uncle Billy, violently shaking him and threatening to send him to jail on hyped-up charges as a result of George's SanitySlippage: |
| 374 | -->'''George:''' [[SuddenlyShouting '''Where's the money, you silly, stupid old fool?!]] Where's that money?! Do you realize what this means? It means bankruptcy and scandal and prison! That's what it means! One of us is going to jail; well, it's not gonna be me! |
| 375 | * KarmaHoudini: Potter, who ends up with the misplaced $8,000 that Uncle Billy was supposed to deliver to the state bank examiner, in a time where Karma Houdinis were banned in the film industry. He was supposed to die of a heart attack after Clarence gave him a ReasonYouSuckSpeech, ''onscreen'' no less, but the scene was cut because Clarence's narration over the scene made it all seem too macabre. |
| 376 | ** Though nothing is shown on-screen, if the rent-collector's prediction is to be believed, the Building & Loan will continue to eat into Potter's business until there's nothing left. |
| 377 | ** Potter's status, given that MediaNotes/TheHaysCode made them strictly verboten. For 1947, this was quite impressive. |
| 378 | * KneelBeforeZod: Potter relishes George groveling before him at last. |
| 379 | ** Also, the chair across from his desk is noticeably shorter than Potter's wheelchair, so that whenever someone comes into his office, he can literally look down upon them. |
| 380 | * LampshadeHanging: Uncle Billy notes that "Nobody changes here!" after Harry comes home from college. |
| 381 | * LandlineEavesdropping: George comes to visit a young Mary while her suitor is on the phone from New York. Mary's mother, who's keen to set her up with the suitor, listens in on an upstairs line and grows increasingly concerned when the conversation doesn't go well and Mary makes George talk to him instead. |
| 382 | * LargeHam: Actually a WorldOfHam, especially George, thanks to Creator/JimmyStewart whenever he's happy or depressed. |
| 383 | * LaserGuidedKarma: After spending his whole life sacrificing his dreams for the benefit of Bedford Falls, the whole town comes to George's rescue at the end to save the Building and Loan, and prevent George from going to prison. |
| 384 | ** On the darker side of things, after George berates his children's teacher Mrs. Welch and argues with her husband over the phone, he's at Martini's Bar when he encounters Mr. Welch... who promptly knocks him to the floor with a right-cross punch: |
| 385 | --->'''Mr. Welch:''' [''after knocking George down''] The next time you talk to my wife like that, you'll get worse! She cried for an hour! It isn't enough she slaves teaching your stupid kids how to read and write, you have to bawl her out! |
| 386 | * LastNameBasis: Potter is always referred to by his surname or as "Mr. Potter". Joseph reveals when we first see him that his full name is Henry F. Potter, and his full name is seen on the door of his office a few times. |
| 387 | * LawOfConservationOfDetail: Much of the first hour sets up what will be changed by George not existing. |
| 388 | * {{Leitmotif}}: Some of Clarence's scenes have an instrumental of "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" playing in the background. |
| 389 | * LickedByTheDog: An overjoyed George at the end, rushing through Bedford Falls, bangs on Potter's window and yells through it, "Merry Christmas, Mr Potter!" Potter replies with a sarcastic "Happy New Year to you, in jail! Go on home, they're waiting for you!" and a final "Huh!" after George runs off homeward. |
| 390 | * LifeAffirmingAesop: Suicidal George Bailey, after seeing what the world would be like if he had never been born, is ecstatic to return to his life and family, in spite of his problems. He is then further affirmed when his friends in Bedford Falls all show up to help him out of the debt that made him suicidal in the first place, proving that, "No man is a failure who has friends." |
| 391 | * TheLoad: Uncle Billy is this thanks to his poor memory, at least according to George's blamings. |
| 392 | * LoonWithAHeartOfGold: In spite of his ineptness and absent-mindedness, Uncle Billy still helps to make meaningful contributions, despite George's disproportionate blamings. |
| 393 | * MaidenAunt: When George gets the chance to find out how the world would have turned out if he'd never been born, he finds that his wife Mary had become a bitter, unhappy Maiden Aunt. |
| 394 | * {{Mammy}}: Annie, with a healthy helping of humor and genuine affection toward and from her employers. |
| 395 | * ManipulativeBastard: Mr. Potter is a textbook example of this trope, constantly scheming and plotting, to ruin George Bailey's life, and by extension, the lives of the inhabitants of Bedford Falls. Not for nothing is he ranked #6 on AFI's List of "Villains" |
| 396 | * ManlyTears: |
| 397 | ** Jimmy Stewart, everybody. The tears were real. Jimmy Stewart got so into the moment that he genuinely started crying while reciting the lines of the prayer. Frank Capra asked him to do it over so he could zoom the camera in and Stewart couldn't duplicate it. So the scene isn't a camera zoom, it's hours of painstaking work to take a small part of the original footage and enlarge it bit-by-bit. |
| 398 | ** George again at the end of the Pottersville sequence as he begs to be given his life back. |
| 399 | ** After Uncle Billy has lost the $8,000, during the search for it George snaps furiously at him and leaves. Left alone, Uncle Billy breaks down sobbing. |
| 400 | * MathematiciansAnswer: When George asks Mary whether she is having a boy or a girl, she just nods and says "Mmm-hmmm!" |
| 401 | * MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: In the AlternateUniverse, when George is running back to the bridge, he slugs Bert the cop, who yells for everyone to get down and starts shooting at George. As George gets to the end of the street, one of the letters of the "POTTERSVILLE" sign blinks out. ''Bert was firing real bullets at George.'' |
| 402 | * MeaningfulName: |
| 403 | ** "Pottersville". In the Bible, the potter's field refers to a place where foreigners (or strangers) are buried. In George's alternate reality, the town is a graveyard where he finds his brother's tombstone, and without George Bailey, the dystopian town of Pottersville in an atetnate universe has "gone to pot." |
| 404 | ** George ''Bail''ey, who sacrifices his honeymoon funds to ''bail out'' the bank customers when they make a run on the bank. |
| 405 | ** There's a more overt reference than that. In the first act, the neighborhood Potter built (that the Martini family moves out of) is actually called "Potter's Field". |
| 406 | ** There is also the Biblical reference as 'The Potter's Field' was the place where suicides were also buried. |
| 407 | ** Of lesser note, Mr. Martini is the owner of a bar. |
| 408 | * MerchantPrince: Mr. Potter uses his money to basically run the entire town except Bailey Building & Loan. |
| 409 | * MinorMajorCharacter: Marty Hatch makes very few appearances in the last two thirds of the film, despite the fact that he is both Mary's older brother and one of George's best friends. |
| 410 | * MistakenForCheating: Potter ''very'' strongly implies that some folk think that George is having an affair with Violet, due to his loaning her money. |
| 411 | * MoodDissonance: At least from the outsiders' perspective; when George returns to Bedford Falls and reaches his home, he finds a bank examiner and some reporters in his house who are there to notify him of his arrest. Given all that George has gone through, he's more thrilled to simply be back and after getting a bit of perspective he doesn't even mind that he's possibly going to jail, so he acts quite ecstatic about the entire situation, much to the bewilderment of the others. |
| 412 | * MoodWhiplash: |
| 413 | ** George's romping with Mary outside of their future home is interrupted by his Uncle Billy, with the news that George's father had a stroke. There's a lot of this all through the story. |
| 414 | ** Then at the end, after nearly two hours of George's frustration, despair and utter disorientation at the Pottersville vision, the moment when he is put back in Bedford Falls, it is a cascade of pure undiluted joy at finding his family exists again and then the full scope of how wrong Mr. Potter is about all the people he's sacrificed his dreams for as they come storming in to help him. |
| 415 | * MorallyBankruptBanker: Averted with the Baileys, and played straight with Potter. While it's unclear what the initial source of the latter's fortune is, midway through the film he buys out the bank during the Depression and it's in this capacity we see him for the remainder of the story. |
| 416 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Gower's reaction after he finds out for himself that George is telling the truth about the poisoned capsules. Even more seeing how he’d just got done roughing George up making it even worse. |
| 417 | ** George has this after Uncle Billy loses the B&L money to Potter and he (George) snaps at his family. |
| 418 | * MysteriousMiddleInitial: Henry F. Potter. |
| 419 | * NakedPeopleTrappedOutside: Happens to Mary when George steps on her robe, leaving her naked in public but fortunately at night (and by accident on his part). |
| 420 | * NeverRecycleABuilding: George and Mary move into an old abandoned mansion which, until then, had been used for the local teens to throw rocks at. |
| 421 | * NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: Bedford Falls is apparently modeled after Seneca Falls, New York, which has a museum dedicated to the film and holds an "''It's a Wonderful Life'' festival" each December. |
| 422 | * NotSoAboveItAll: At Harry Bailey's high school graduation dance, the gymnasium floor is opened by a pair of students, pulling a prank on the dancers. Under the floor is a swimming pool and George and Mary fall into it as they're dancing. The entire student body then jumps into the pool too, while the Principal is standing there yelling and scolding them all to get out of there. After a little while however, the principal just shrugs, and jumps in the pool himself to join in the fun! |
| 423 | ** Throughout the film, the bank examiner is mostly TheStoic who is primarily focused on his job and keeping the Building and Loan running smoothly. However, during the giant party at the end, he silently walks up to the pile of donations that the townspeople have made, throws in a few dollars, and breaks into both a smile and a song. |
| 424 | * OffscreenCrash: After Uncle Billy makes his drunken exit from Harry's homecoming party. But he's all right, he's aaaaaallllllll right! |
| 425 | ** This was actually the result of an unscripted soundstage accident; see ThrowItIn on the Trivia page. |
| 426 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Who wouldn't want to see the subplot where Mary rallies the people of Bedford Falls to help George pay his due $8000? |
| 427 | * OhCrap: A lot of them, mainly from George. |
| 428 | ** Harry at the beginning when he breaks through the ice while sledding. |
| 429 | ** George when he realizes Gower, drunk and grief-stricken by the death of his son, has poisoned the capsules by accident. |
| 430 | ** Gower himself when he realises just how close he came to accidentally killing a child. |
| 431 | ** George and Mary have a moment of this at the dance just before they fall over the edge of the floor into the pool. |
| 432 | ** George when he realizes that unless he takes over running the Building & Loan, Potter will take charge of it. |
| 433 | ** Uncle Billy when he realizes he has lost the Building and Loan money he was going to deposit. George too when he finds out, knowing it will result in police charges against him. |
| 434 | ** Mary when she realizes why George is so angry after he comes home and snaps at the kids. |
| 435 | ** George in the Pottersville sequence when he sees the WretchedHive the town has become. |
| 436 | ** George in Pottersville when he sees his house is a derelict, empty old shell like it was before he moved in. |
| 437 | ** George when Mary doesn't recognize him and he starts yelling for Clarence as the crowd mobs him. |
| 438 | * OlderThanTheyLook: "Two hundred and ninety-three, ahh......next May." |
| 439 | ** Which oddly suggests that he would more likely have been a fan of Creator/JohnMilton than Creator/MarkTwain. |
| 440 | * OldMaid: Mary becomes one in the Georgeless universe because of how she never married. |
| 441 | * TheOneWhoMadeItOut: George Bailey from his youth and teenage years wanted to get out of Bedford Falls, and was set up to do this, but circumstances led him to stay there. Frank Capra noted that the telephone scene between George and Mary is intense because James Stewart visually communicates the conflict he has. He loves Mary, but accepting that means he will give up his dream of leaving the city. |
| 442 | * OOCIsSeriousBusiness: When George comes home later after realizing the severity of his situation, he is quietly despondent and eventually has an anger-induced meltdown. All of this makes sense to the viewer who knows George is panicking over the missing $8,000 and the possible jail time he may face, but Mary, who is unaware of the situation, knows her husband normally doesn't act this way. She sees George walk in and immediately asks if everything is all right, and becomes frightened as George shifts several times between abject rage and an anxiety attack. It's thanks to her awareness of George and his behavior that she begins phoning for help shortly after he leaves and ends up saving George from prison when the town answers the call. |
| 443 | -->'''Pete:''' Is Daddy in trouble?\ |
| 444 | '''Mary:''' Yes, Pete.\ |
| 445 | '''Janie:''' Should I pray for him?..\ |
| 446 | '''Mary:''' Yes, Janie, pray very hard. |
| 447 | * OurAngelsAreDifferent: Angels here are depicted as giant celestial bodies, generally stars or galaxies, that can see into the past and future with concentration. They can take on human form to help people and even change the course of history to make a point or two. The movie also originated the whole 'every time a bell rings, an angel gets his wings' concept. Also, angels here are treated with the common (but totally non-Biblical) belief that when a good human dies, he becomes an angel--after he earns those wings. |
| 448 | [[/folder]] |
| 449 | |
| 450 | [[folder:P–U]] |
| 451 | * PalsWithJesus: While drying out his copy of ''Tom Sawyer'' in the tollhouse, Clarence tells George that he "should read the ''new'' book Creator/MarkTwain's writing now", implying that he's actually acquainted with Twain in the afterlife. (We might also assume that Mr. Clemens is serializing his book chapter by chapter in the Celestial Gazette or whatever, as he and many other writers of that time had in life.) |
| 452 | * PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Potter spews out elitist and snobbish remarks towards the denizens of Bedford Falls. |
| 453 | ** When Mr. Potter tries to buy George out, he shows some prejudice towards Italians when he sneers at the sort of people Bailey has spent his life helping: |
| 454 | --->"A young man--the smartest one in the crowd, mind you--a young man who has to sit by and watch his friends go places because he's trapped. Yes sir, trapped into frittering his life away, playing nursemaid to a lot of garlic-eaters." |
| 455 | ** Potter is also an elitist snob, using epithets such as "riff-raff" and "a discontented, lazy rabble." He sneers that their minds are "filled" with [[SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids "impossible ideas" by "starry-eyed dreamers"]] like the Baileys. |
| 456 | * ThePowerOfFriendship: It's through the close bonds George has cultivated with the townsfolk that he manages to overcome his struggles and realize that he has served a purpose. As Clarence tells him, "No man is a failure who has friends." |
| 457 | * PrayerIsALastResort: George even prays, "Father in heaven, I'm not a praying man..." Slightly subverted, though, since his GuardianAngel has been looking out for him all along after all. |
| 458 | * PrettyInMink: A few furs in the backgrounds of some scenes, and it's mentioned Violet has a few. |
| 459 | * PropheticName: |
| 460 | ** Methinks Mr. Martini's path in life was set from birth. |
| 461 | ** There's also [[Creator/WilliamShakespeare Freddie Othello]], Mary's would-be jealous suitor at the high school dance. |
| 462 | * ProportionalArticleImportance: Invoked. When George shows off the newspaper headline about Harry winning the Medal of Honor, Ernie plays a joke by pretending to only notice the weather forecast ("Gonna snow again."). |
| 463 | * RageBreakingPoint: George is understandably furious and suffering from SuppressedRage when he comes home after Uncle Billy loses the B&L money. What sets him off is Janie continuously playing "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing" on the piano. |
| 464 | * RealAwardFictionalCharacter: Harry Bailey received the Medal of Honor for his heroism in World War II. |
| 465 | * RealSongThemeTune: The traditional minstrel song "Buffalo Gals", heard in instrumental versions over the opening and closing credits and sung in-universe by George and Mary. |
| 466 | * RealityIsUnrealistic: The high school dance scene with the pool opening up beneath the gym floor was called "Movie fakery at its worst" despite there being a real one, since the real one was in Beverly Hills, California (where the scene was shot). Swimming pools under the floorboards were rare then, and a small town in New York State which was being kept respectable by creative refinancing was not ''likely'' to have one back in the late 1920s. We can assume that George found a cheap way to obtain the parts and labor, similar to how he talked Sam into starting his soybean plastic business in a shut-down factory in Bedford Falls. |
| 467 | * ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Bert the cop, in both timelines. In the Pottersville world, he tries to calmly take George to a hospital on thinking the man is suffering a nervous breakdown after letting him explores the ruin of what he claims is his home. Meanwhile, in the prime timeline, he says he spent all night searching for George because he saw his car had crashed and was worried he was dead. Bert also takes time to ask George if he's okay since his mouth is bleeding. When George runs off, gleeful that he's back, Bert is confused but relieved. |
| 468 | * RecklessGunUsage: Pottersville Bert fires multiple shots at the fleeing George, heedless of whatever passerby are clearly in his line of fire. |
| 469 | * RefugeInAudacity: During the school dance, a rival suitor of Mary's attempts to embarrass George by dunking him into a swimming pool situated beneath the dance floor, but George and Mary take it in stride and the partygoers consider it a splash. The principal, after unsuccesful attempt to keep order, eventually jumps in. Not soon after, the rival and his friend shrug with an "If you can't beat them, join them" look before jumping in as well. |
| 470 | * TheRemake: The 1977 MadeForTVMovie ''It Happened One Christmas'', featuring a {{Gender Flip}}ped version of the story with Mary Bailey Hatch as the one who's contemplating suicide on Christmas Eve after her family's Building and Loan runs into trouble. Creator/MarloThomas stars as Mary, with Creator/WayneRogers as her husband George Hatch, Creator/ClorisLeachman as Clara Oddbody, Creator/ChristopherGuest as Harry Bailey, and none other than Creator/OrsonWelles as Mr. Potter! |
| 471 | * {{Remaster}}: In 2018, Paramount commissioned a 4K restoration of the deteriorating camera negative, and replaced torn or missing frames with frames from fine-grain masters. |
| 472 | * RepayingForTheOne: Everyone George's helped over the years band together and take up a collection to bail him out of the trouble with Potter he suddenly finds himself in. |
| 473 | * RetGone: In the definitive scene, where George gets to see what life would be like in Bedford Falls – check that, Potterville – if he never existed. Indeed, none of the townspeople George holds dear – Bert, Ernie, Mary, Uncle Billy, Giuseppe, Harry and his mother – know who he is, and think that this strange fellow is some kind of kook who is out to cause trouble. Worse, Mr. Potter has a vise grip on Bedford Falls, which becomes Pottersville (because George's nullifying influence that always foils Potter isn't there). In the end, George sees that he is needed in Bedford Falls and wants to become a person again. God obliges. Nothing happens until he addresses him. |
| 474 | * RetargetedLust: Bert the cop, after watching the slinky Violet walk down the street, says: "Think I'll go home and see what the wife's doing." |
| 475 | * RhetoricalRequestBlunder: When George Bailey comes to Mr. Potter to apply for a loan, Mr. Potter makes a sarcastic suggestion, which unexpectedly backfires on him later: |
| 476 | -->'''Potter:''' What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities, no stocks, no bonds, nothin' but a miserable little $500 equity in a life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive! [[SarcasmMode Why don't you go to the riffraff you love so much and ask them to let you have $8,000?]] You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail. |
| 477 | ** Moments later, the townspeople dig into their savings and raise the money George needs to make up the discrepancy in the accounts, [[InstantlyProvenWrong disproving Potter's prediction that they would run him out of town,]] much to Potter's chagrin. |
| 478 | * RuleOfPool: As a prank against George in the dancing scene in the high school gym, the floor is opened to reveal the swimming pool under it, so that George will fall in. George and Mary eventually do fall in, but once they land in the water, they just keep on dancing. This causes almost everyone else (including the pranksters and eventually the school principal) to follow them into the pool. |
| 479 | * RuleOfSymbolism: This film is ''loaded'' with symbolism. |
| 480 | ** There's a scene where a young George playfully wishes he had a million dollars, and clicks a cigarette lighter while saying it. When it lights, he exclaims, "Hot dog!" He does this again as a young adult. This represents the romantic, escapist side of George's personality, and [[ManChild shows he still has a child-like sense of wonder]]. |
| 481 | ** George's famous "lasso the moon" speech also symbolizes unrealistic but pleasant daydreams. Later, when Mary shows George the old, broken-down house where they'd eventually live, she made a sign saying, "George Lassos the Moon" [[SugarWiki/HeartwarmingMoments Mary's basically saying anywhere can be the moon if he's with people who love him.]] |
| 482 | ** "Buffalo Gals" was recorded by various artists over the years. The song plays multiple times during the film, each representing George and Mary's relationship. First, it's heard in bits during the opening credits. Then it's played when they dance at the high school, and Mary sings it later that night as she and George are having romance with each other during the "lasso the moon" speech. She puts it on her record player the night George comes over years later in hopes of bringing back some memories, and smashes the record when George storms out and their relationship was at stake. Then hear the song again from Mary just before she tells George she's pregnant, and an upbeat version during the final credits. |
| 483 | ** Even something as simple as the stair post [[RuleOfThree George pulls off thrice]] shares some meaning. The first time George pulled the post off, Mary was repairing the house, and George was handling his daily struggle to keep the Building and Loan going, often returning late after work and forgetting about the broken post. The second time occurred when George was irritated about the $8000 going missing, and he was going upstairs to Zuzu, once again forgetting about the broken post. Here it reminds George of what he doesn't have. And the third and final time occurs after he returns from the alternate reality, and he's beginning to appreciate his value in life. This time, he didn't care about the broken post and he kissed it before putting it back into place. This symbolizes how life is full of flaws and you need to embrace them. |
| 484 | ** During the alternate reality scene, Clarence and George sit in Nick's bar when the cash register bell rings. Clarence remarks "Somebody's just made it" as he explainins the connection between bells and angels getting their wings. Nick kicks them out, thinking he's crazy and jokingly rings the cash register bell repeatedly, saying, "Hey! Get me! I'm giving out wings!". But Clarence's claim turns out to be true, when George returns home towards the ending and a bell rings on the Christmas tree, with his daughter Zuzu saying an angel gets its wings whenever a bell rings. Obviously, the ringing was for Clarence. It's possible the connection between the bells and angel wings are that most bells are beautiful and joyous, pealing out happy times like holidays and weddings like angels. |
| 485 | ** George's daughter Zuzu's flower petals (from a flower she won at school), that George pretended to put them back on the flower after falling off when he's secretly putting them in his pocket, represent life and reality. The petals disappeared after George ceased to exist, and returned when he returns to the real world. For George, they're a token warmly symbolizing all the love and life that wouldn't have existed if he'd never been born. (Because he never would have met Mary and the kids wouldn't have been born.) |
| 486 | ** The film in general as an allegory favor within it. Pretty much all the major characters represent symbols in one way or another. Potter, of course, represents greed, power, and isolation, all ultimately joyless; George is the little guy beaten down by the powerful but who prevails because he's a righteous dude. Mary represents the joys of family and Bedford Falls is every small town where a sense of neighborliness and connectedness shows everyone the real meaning of life. Wouldn't be a Creator/FrankCapra film without it. |
| 487 | *** Another way to see it is as an allegory about filmmaking. Film Spectrum said this about the concept: |
| 488 | ---->''Here, Capra takes us through the entire process, as God (the filmmaker) enlists the help of Joseph (the cinematographer) to slowly bring George's flashback (the movie) into focus for Clarence (the audience). He speaks to us as if we're eager film students wanting to learn how to see movies in a new way, through the cinematic eye, through the film theory perspective:'' '''"Now look, I'll help you out. … If you ever get your wings, you'll see all by yourself."''' |
| 489 | ** [[SugarWiki/VisualEffectsOfAwesome Even the visual effects are there for a reason.]] |
| 490 | *** Take the drug store George worked in for example, the audience sees them through shelves of medicine bottles. Gower is turned away from the bottles, sadly staring at a photo of his son, who just died from influenza. George is worriedly looking toward the bottle of medicine Gower has just prepared, noticing his mistake with the prescription. There's a ton of information just in that shot. What about the wallpaper? Mary papers the house in a pretty traditional 1940s pattern of people and flowers when it's first being repaied. But, on that same night, a troubled George goes up the stairs to see Zuzu, and there's the wallpaper is now a pattern of nautical anchors. George always loved the sound of anchors being lifted because they signaled the beginning of an exciting journey. Maybe they mean he never got away, or that his home is weighing down on him? [[Franchise/TheIncredibles Coincidence, I think not!]] |
| 491 | *** The lighting Capra uses during the alternate-universe scenes is dark and shadowy, to give the scene a terrifying, otherworldly feel. George's abandoned house is all shadows; the police chasing him are silhouetted and backlit; Pottersville is alternately dark and lit up with glaring neon signs. |
| 492 | * RuleOfThree: George pulls the head off the wooden railing three times. |
| 493 | * RunningGag: George climbing the stairs of his house and yanking the head off of the newel post on the wooden railing. |
| 494 | * SanitySlippage: After Uncle Billy misplaces the money, George starts a series of mad rages: ranting at Uncle Billy, getting disproportionately frustrated with his children, berating Mrs. Welch, and even lashing out at Clarence Oddbody when George demands to see Mary in Pottersville, not believing that he's a total stranger to the folks in Pottersville, who don't even recognize who or what he is in contrast to the Bedford Falls residents. |
| 495 | * SayMyName: |
| 496 | ** When Pottersville's Bert has Clarence pinned down and preparing to 'cuff him, Clarence yells out Joseph's name to help him before [[DeusExMachina vanishing into thin air]]. |
| 497 | ** George screams Clarence's name numerous times at the end of the Pottersville sequence, before Bert shows up, as he's fleeing from Bert, and when he gets to the bridge to beg for his old life back. |
| 498 | ** When Bert arrives at the bridge and George continues yelling, he frantically asks "What in the Sam Hill you yelling for, George?!" Realizing that Bert just called him by his name is George's first clue he's back in the real world. |
| 499 | ** George yells Mary's name a few times after he returns to the real world as he joyously runs home. |
| 500 | * ScreamingWoman: Mary as an old maid in Pottersville. She even faints in the arms of some burly men! |
| 501 | * TheScrooge: Potter, for all of his miserable, misanthropic sentiments as Bedford Falls' richest tycoon and the #1 financial bigwig in town. |
| 502 | * ScullySyndrome: George is slow to believe Clarence is really an angel who has altered reality, and keeps waving off the clues that something is wrong, like his restored hearing. "Musta been that jump in that cold water..." |
| 503 | * SecretMessageWink: After George hears the bell ring and realizes Clarence finally got his wings, he looks up and winks at Clarence as a secret thank-you for everything. |
| 504 | * ServileSnarker: Annie, who works as a maid for George's parents. |
| 505 | * ShamingTheMob: When a bank run threatens to put the Building and Loan under. |
| 506 | * SheIsAllGrownUp: George has to be strong-armed into dancing with his friend's "kid sister" Mary at the graduation party, and reluctantly agrees only as a favor to his friend. Then he sees what Mary looks like now, and isn't reluctant any more. |
| 507 | * ShipperOnDeck: A middle-aged man who is tired of waiting for George and Mary to kiss. |
| 508 | -->'''Man:''' Bah! [[YouthIsWastedOnTheDumb Youth is wasted on the wrong people!]] [slams window]\ |
| 509 | '''George:''' [[HeyYou Hey, mister]]! Come on back out here, and [[IWillShowYouX I'll show you some kissing]] that'll put hair back on your head! |
| 510 | ** George's mother also qualifies when she pushes George to track down Mary. |
| 511 | ** Mrs Hatch appears to be one for Mary and Sam Wainwright, saying to her that Sam doesn't want to speak to George (he does), and listening in on the extension phone until Mary points this out to George and Sam. |
| 512 | * ShutUpHannibal: Every time Potter makes a haughty remark about George or appears as a SmugSnake, George always has a fitting reply, pointing out that he is nothing but a "scurvy little spider" who [[ItsAllAboutMe sees]] others beneath him but [[EvilCannotComprehendGood has no idea]] what makes any of the Bedford Falls townspeople tick or why George continues to help the town despite the sacrifices he must make. |
| 513 | * ShutUpKirk: Potter, after a lengthy TheReasonYouSuckSpeech from George capped off with how "in (his) book," his father is richer than Potter will ever be, says "I'm not interested in your book. I'm talking about the Building and Loan!" |
| 514 | * SiblingRivalry Averted entirely with George and Harry. While watching Harry live his own dreams and then some clearly causes George intense pain, he doesn't resent his little brother for it, as he's very aware that he himself has been the one ''choosing'' to step aside, do his duty, and not ask Harry to give up incredible opportunities for George's sake. And for his part, Harry Bailey clearly feels every ounce of that debt--he initially swears to his brother that he intends to honor their agreement, turn down the promising researcher position and run the Building & Loan as promised. He also ''stands up a dinner invitation with the President of the United States'' when he hears about trouble at home. George is his big brother, and Harry looks at him like he personally hung the stars. |
| 515 | * SillyRabbitIdealismIsForKids Potter is a PoliticallyIncorrectVillain who thinks that "the riffraff" of Bedford Falls are "a discontented, lazy rabble" whose minds are "filled" with "impossible ideas" by "starry-eyed dreamers" like the Baileys. He ''[[EvilCannotComprehendGood remains clueless]]'' why George continues to help the town despite his current status, even when George [[ShutUpHannibal tells it to him]] numerous times. |
| 516 | * SingleMaltVision: |
| 517 | ** A snarky old man to George, who insists he drove into the man's tree. "You must mean two other trees." |
| 518 | ** Also used when Uncle Billy gets soused. He asks George where his hat is (he's wearing it); George takes it off his head and offers it to him. |
| 519 | --->'''Uncle Billy:''' Which one?\ |
| 520 | '''George:''' The middle one. |
| 521 | * SingleTargetSexuality: Mary has eyes only for George. Without him, she would have never found love. |
| 522 | * SlapSlapKiss: After George and Mary's phone call with Sam Wainwright, George grabs Mary and starts shouting at her. Pretty soon he runs out of words and it's at that point that he finally admits his love for Mary by hugging and kissing her. |
| 523 | * SmugSnake: Potter is insufferably full of himself and looks down his nose on anyone whose wealth and power are lesser than his. |
| 524 | * SnowMeansLove: It stops snowing after George wishes he'd never been born, and only starts up again after he decides he wants to live again. Also, one of the earliest depictions of a ButterflyEffect. |
| 525 | * SpinOffspring: Jimmy Hawkins, who played George's and Mary's youngest son, Tommy, would eventually write a story about him, ''It's a Wonderful Life For Kids!'' |
| 526 | * StarsAreSouls: At the beginning, some angels are talking and the visuals shown are a galaxy and a nebula that flash in synch with their voices. Then Clarence is summoned and a smaller star shoots into view. Clarence is also explained to have died previously, although we aren't told whether the other two angels were ever people. |
| 527 | ** The first two beings are thought to be God the Father and Saint Joseph. The closed captioning on the DVD, however, calls the seniormost angel "Franklin," and if this is the case Joseph is likely not ''that'' Joseph, either. Franklin was apparently intended at one point to be the spirit of Creator/BenjaminFranklin. |
| 528 | * StartXToStopX: Clarence arrives on Earth just seconds before George throws himself off the bridge and to a frozen, watery grave. How does Clarence stop him? Jump in the water himself and beg for someone to save him. George jumps in anyway, drags him to safety, and sticks around to make sure he's all right. |
| 529 | * StealingFromTheTill: What George is accused of after Potter takes the money. |
| 530 | * StealthPun: Uncle Billy's pet crow is played by Jimmy the raven (a.k.a. [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_the_raven Jimmy the Crow]], an animal performer who also appeared in ''Film/YouCantTakeItWithYou'' and ''Film/TheWizardOfOz''. |
| 531 | * StopTrick: Used for Clarence's escape from Bert. |
| 532 | * StringOnFingerReminder: {{Forgetful|Jones}} Uncle Billy has string tied around multiple fingers. One string is supposed to help him remember to talk to [[TheInspectorIsComing the bank examiner]], but the audience doesn't find out what the other strings are for. |
| 533 | * StrippingSnag: George steps on Mary's robe by accident while walking home from a school-dance-turned-swim, and she needs to hide in the bushes, naked, until he gives her robe back to her. |
| 534 | * StupidSacrifice: Clarence shows George Bailey that without his presence to make a positive difference, the inhabitants of Bedford Falls which turns into Pottersville are worse off as a result of what would happen if George had never been born. In a more Earthly example, George's suicide would have been pointless even if the divine never intervened because the money problems he was going to kill himself over were solved by Mary and Uncle Billy asking everyone for help offscreen while he was in his stupor and the other world, with no apparent help from the angels. If the angels hadn't stopped him, all his suicide really would have accomplished was making his friends' and family's efforts to help him meaningless. |
| 535 | * SuicideDare: "You're worth more ''dead'' than alive!" So sayeth Potter, in one of the most reprehensible, heartless, remorselessly cruel comments ever to make it to the big screen ... and it drives George to the brink. |
| 536 | * SuperMultiPurposeRoom: The high school gym, which opens up into a swimming pool. |
| 537 | * SympathyForTheDevil: George's father seems to feel this way toward Mr. Potter: |
| 538 | --> "Oh, he's a sick man. Frustrated and sick. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul if he has one. He hates everybody that has anything he can't have." |
| 539 | * TakeItToTheBridge: George almost takes a high dive leap from one. |
| 540 | * TakingTheKids: This happened in the alternate world where Ernie's wife left him and took custody of his child. |
| 541 | * TalkingDownTheSuicidal: The whole reason for the plot. The angels have decided to respond to the many people praying for George Bailey by having Clarence do whatever he can to persuade George to not commit suicide. He does this by granting George's wish to have never been born and showing him [[CrapsackWorld the resulting state of affairs]], demonstrating what a positive force George has been in the lives of his friends and family. |
| 542 | * TelegraphGagSTOP: Sam Wainwright sends a telegram from London when he hears George is in trouble. Ernie reads it aloud, including the stops. |
| 543 | -->Mr. Gower cabled you need cash, stop. My office instructed to advance you up to twenty-five thousand dollars, stop. Hee Haw and Merry Christmas! Sam Wainwright. |
| 544 | * TemptingFate: Uncle Billy, when he goes over to Potter's S&L to deposit the money: |
| 545 | -->'''Uncle Billy:''' After all, Potter, some people like George HAD to stay at home. Not every heel was in Germany and Japan. |
| 546 | * TheyDiedBecauseOfYou: Almost done by a pharmacist, but averted thanks to George. The man was so overwhelmed by his son's death that he was going about his day [[DrowningMySorrows in a drunken daze]], and filled a prescription wrong. The error would have ended up killing a kid, but George catches the mistake. |
| 547 | ** In Pottersville, Mr. Gower was convicted of poisoning a child due to a mix-up with the poison and the prescription, and George wasn't there to stop him, because he wished he'd never been born. |
| 548 | * ThoseTwoGuys: Bert and Ernie. Even in Pottersville they appear to be this. |
| 549 | * ThresholdGuardians: Inverted with everyone who offers George the chance to leave Bedford Falls. It seems that George does a RefusalOfTheCall every time. The truth is that his true calling is staying and looking out for his hometown. |
| 550 | * TimeshiftedActor: Characters are shown aging throughout the film, with their actors changing appropriately. |
| 551 | * TitleDrop: Clarence pulls this on George. |
| 552 | -->'''Clarence:''' You see, George, you've really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to just throw it all away? |
| 553 | * TokenGoodTeammate: Almost everyone in Pottersville is a heartless {{Jerkass}} or broken-down soul, but Bert the cop (despite the implication of his [[DirtyCop being on the take]]) remains somewhat moral. When George is panicking in the ruins of his house, Bert calmly asks him to "be a good kid" and come quietly, promising that he'll take him to a doctor to get help; later, he shouts a warning to stand back before he starts firing at George when he runs away. |
| 554 | * TokenMinority: Annie, Ma Bailey's DeadpanSnarker best friend and maid, is the only non-white character with a significant part, though other black citizens of Bedford Falls do appear in crowd scenes. |
| 555 | * TragicDropout: George's dissatisfaction with his life is due to his having been this. |
| 556 | * TraumaCongaLine: The first half has George go through a really horrible time that explains exactly why he was so willing and prepared to attempt suicide. In the course of a single night, he loses the fortune he spent the last ''decade'' building up thanks to both his Uncle's mistakes and Potter's scheming, he's framed for embezzlement with no possible way out, he ends up lashing out at his family and deeply hurting them, he gets into a brutal drunken brawl, and finally he ends up crashing his prized car. |
| 557 | * UnPerson: Clarence turns George into one, allowing him to see what the world would be like if he was just erased from existence and nothing filled his void. |
| 558 | * UnplannedStaycation: After George must give up his honeymoon budget to keep the Building and Loan afloat, he and Mary share a honeymoon in the old Granville House, which Bert and Ernie decorate with exotic posters and music. |
| 559 | [[/folder]] |
| 560 | |
| 561 | [[folder:V–Z]] |
| 562 | * ViceCity: Pottersville seems to be full of less than reputable establishments, including sleazy dance clubs, pawn shops, and boarded-up house ruins. |
| 563 | * VillainousGentrification: What Pottersville represents in George Bailey's vision. Bedford Falls was never entirely perfect to George, and indeed he longed all his life to escape there, but seeing the little good that did exist, and the entire community get destroyed in the alternate timeline scares him out of his resentment. |
| 564 | * VinylShatters: After a fallout with George, Mary, out of frustration, shatters a "Buffalo Gals" record. (This is an example of the primordial version of the trope: the film is set, and was made, before the shatter-resistant vinyl records were common for home use, so the record Mary breaks would be made from the more fragile shellac.) |
| 565 | * VisualPun: When the Martinis are moving to their new house, George offers to bring "the kids" over in his car. As the many children load up, the last one in is a young goat. |
| 566 | * TheVoice: Angels Franklin and Joseph, who only "appear" as stars in the night sky during the opening scene. |
| 567 | * TheVoiceless: Potter's aide never says anything in any of his appearances. |
| 568 | * WarHero: Harry's actions in the Pacific earn him the Medal of Honor. As Christmas approaches, he's coming back to Bedford Falls and the town is getting ready to throw him a hero's welcome. |
| 569 | * WealthyEverAfter: George at the end when the people of Bedford Falls pledge donations to save the Building and Loan (as well as $25,000 from his old friend Sam Wainwright), and thus George, from financial ruin. Put best by Harry: "To my big brother George, the richest man in town!" |
| 570 | * WeCanRuleTogether: Potter attempts to bribe George into giving up the Building & Loan for a cushy job as one of Potter's managers. |
| 571 | * WhamLine: if it hasn't hit you enough that George's existence mattered beyond himself, Clarence bluntly spells out the ripple effects of his brother's now fatal childhood accident for his dense charge. |
| 572 | -> "Every man on that transport ''died''. Harry wasn't there to save ''them'', because ''you'' weren't there to save ''Harry''." |
| 573 | * WhamShot: In the middle of the celebration at the end, George notices a book sitting on top of the money that everyone has donated. George picks it up and finds a note from Clarence, as well as a thank-you for the wings. He smiles because it means Calrence did save his soul. |
| 574 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: |
| 575 | ** In the film, at least, it's never revealed if Potter is exposed for embezzling the money. Several script drafts and parodies showed him facing karma and a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown from the town, but that's not the finished product. |
| 576 | ** Ruth Dakin Bailey. Shouldn't she have accompanied Harry to Bedford Falls at the end? |
| 577 | * WhatTheHellHero: George gets a comic one from Mary when he refuses to give her back her robe, but a graver one later when he takes out his frustrations on the children. Then Mr. Welch delivers one to him in the shape of a fist. |
| 578 | * WhatYouAreInTheDark: George Bailey has had such a moment all his life ever since he was a boy. He and Mr. Gower are the only two people who know he almost accidentally gave poisoned pills to a child. A crueler person would've blackmailed Mr. Gower, but no, not George. Instead, he promises ''not to tell a soul''. Even years well into his adulthood, not one person knows but him. (This pays off in the end when Mr. Gower wires Sam Wainright, asking for help in saving George.) |
| 579 | ** ''And Mary.'' There's a shot of her sitting on her stool at the lunch counter witnessing the whole thing. |
| 580 | ** Not surprisingly, Mr. Potter gets a villainous one: when $8000 that Uncle Bill Bailey was supposed to deposit accidentally falls into Mr. Potter's hands, instead of doing the right thing ''for once in his life'', he [[{{Greed}} hides the money away]], watches George twist in the wind and eventually uses the crises to [[MoralEventHorizon try to drive poor George to]] [[DrivenToSuicide suicide]]. |
| 581 | * WhosOnFirst: In Pottersville, when George enters the bar looking for Martini, Nick thinks George is ordering a martini. |
| 582 | * WretchedHive: Without George's wholesome influence, Bedford Falls would have turned into this as Pottersville in the alternate reality. |
| 583 | * WritersCannotDoMath: When George and Clarence visit Harry's grave in the alternate reality, Clarence says that Harry died at the age of nine. Yet the gravestone reads "1911 - 1919", meaning Harry would have been either seven or eight when he drowned. |
| 584 | * YetAnotherChristmasCarol: The film is basically a (modern) {{inversion}} of Dickens' story. Instead of a JerkAss who learns to be a good man after seeing that people would be either uncaring or outright ''happier'' with him gone, it's about a good man who despairs that he hasn't mattered to anyone, and sees just how much of a difference he has made. |
| 585 | * YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: The essential point Clarence is telling George; rather than a worthless failure, George is a deeply respected community leader who has been a blessing to everyone he knows. |
| 586 | * YouAreNotAlone: The final scenes of the movie is this in spades when every one of George's companions comes to ''his'' aid for once. |
| 587 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: In the {{alternate universe}}, Clarence says that Mary is an "old maid", yet when we see her, she looks a bit younger when she is closing the library. Maybe it must be due to that makeup. |
| 588 | * YoungestChildWins: Appears to be in full force, with George's younger brother Harry becoming a war hero. Averted in the end, as Harry leads the toast for George Bailey, the most popular man in Bedford Falls. |
| 589 | -->"To my big brother George, the richest man in town." |
| 590 | ** We see in the backstory that Harry only won because George stepped aside for him. George looked out for his brother and made several sacrifices for him, including staying behind and looking after the Building & Loan so Harry could go to college (even paying for it with his own tuition). In the alternate Bedford Falls, Harry never lived to see his tenth birthday without George to save his life. |
| 591 | [[/folder]] |
| 592 | |
| 593 | ----- |
| 594 | -->[[AC:Ding Ding!]] ''"Atta boy, Clarence!"'' |
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/context.php
FollowingContext Film / ItsAWonderfulLife
Go To
- Show Spoilers
- Night Vision
- Sticky Header
- Wide Load
