Headscratchers / It's a Wonderful Life

"You've never been born! ...oops."

• Okay, if Clarence is supposed to be such a bungler, how did he manage to make it so George had never been born without causing George himself to, you know, cease to exist? I'd think it would have wound up with "Okay, George, you got your wish. You've never been born. Now... George? George? Where'd you go, George?"
  • I always thought that such a feat is beyond the means of one demoted angel. Clarence probably sent off a quick telepathic communique to the higher-ups and they did it for him.
    • He did. A huge wind came up and banged the door open. Clarence leaned out and yelled "You don't have to make all that fuss about it!" before shutting the door.
  • "You've been given a great gift, George — a chance to see what the world would be like without you." The angels didn't literally alter reality so that George was never born. They essentially created a simulation of what that reality would be like.
  • I think it's pretty well implied that in the alternate timeline George still "exists" in the same sense that Clarence exists, as a "nobody", a disembodied spirit given a body ex nihilo by supernatural means.

Alt Life Weather and Eyesight

• How is it that George's absence not only affected the weather (in one reality, it's snowing when it's not in the other), but Mary's eyesight? She's wearing glasses in the Pottersville reality, but doesn't in the Bedford Falls world.
  • Maybe without George, Mary spent all the time she'd have otherwise spent chasing after kids working at the library and reading, and her eyes have weakened. The weather, um, maybe Zuzu has magical weather powers or...um, okay, you've got me there.
  • The snow is soft, white and pure, symbolic of peaceful Bedford Falls, while the sleet is cold, piercing, and dark, symbolic of the gloom of Pottersville.
    • Zuzu is Storm!
  • She doesn't wear glasses because she doesn't read enough to notice she needs them. Second one, butterfly effect.
  • Perhaps the change in weather is just a peculiar side effect of the supernatural force creating the alternate reality. This theory is supported by the fact that a large gust of wind occurs at the moment George's wish is granted.
  • The housing developments in Pottersville are less convivially designed than Bedford Falls. They emphasize commercial interests over preserving community life; a lot more commercial thoroughfares funneling traffic to the commercial districts, a lot less walkable space, a lot fewer family businesses as opposed to nasty roadhouse establishments (like Nick's vs. Martini's) that pull in wanderers and truckers. In general, a lot higher volume of automobile through-traffic, a lot more congestion... and therefore a lot more air pollution, which over decades of time would affect the local climate. I am the master of Fanwank Fu.
  • The snowing is an Empathic Environment; what the symbolism of the snow is, I'm not sure. As for Mary's glasses, she was leaving the library. Did we ever see her reading a book during the timeline with George alive? Maybe she uses reading glasses in that one, too.
    • Maybe it's a twisted form of Snow Means Death? (Snow Means You Don't Exist?)
    • Except that the snow was in the Bedford Falls reality, not in Pottersville.
    • Mary no longer cares to look her very best, so why would she ever take the glasses off? She's permanently depressed, having never gotten what she wanted out of life.
    • Mary, in addition to doing much more reading than in the main timeline, has to live in poorly-lit, substandard housing provided by Potter. This led to the earlier deterioration of her eyesight.
  • It's all explained in chaos theory.
  • Mary might need reading glasses in both worlds, but in this one she uses them so much that she forgot to take them off after closing the library.
  • At George's request, Sam's factory was built in or around Bedford Falls, which probably caused some kind of weather-affecting pollution. If George wasn't around, the factory would not have been put there, thus the weather would be different.
  • She's working at the library now. Everyone knows that dames can't handle that much readin'. They'll go blind.
  • It's because George was the only man she ever loved. In this universe, because George never existed and she is living in a Crapsack World, the men in that world would have been just as bad for her. A person of George's quality wouldn't exist. So she rather take her chances of being an old maid than to be a depressed wife.
    • This is all true but I don't understand how it relates to Mary's eyesight.
  • She's living in one of the crappy little shacks Potter provides to working-class people and thus doesn't have adequate lighting at night, causing her to strain her eyes.
  • Glasses might have been one of the few things Mary was vain about, considering them unattractive. In the lousy alternate world, she didn't care about her appearance, having given up. So she needed glasses to read, which is important for a librarian.
  • Or she's working to make herself as plain as possible. It's not unheard of for women in places like Pottersville to be assaulted by drunken men.
    • Conversely, in the alternate world, she may have worn glasses whether she needed them or not because having a "smart person" job was the keystone of what self-respect she could cling to.
  • She's a spinster. What they say is true.
  • Or both Marys need reading glasses and librarian Mary was too distracted by thoughts of getting home safe to remember to take hers off.
  • Constant reading raises the risk of nearsightedness. Alternate Mary is a librarian. She reads a lot. Hence the glasses.
• Clarence may have put his thumb on the scale a bit when creating the alternate timeline, and changed some things (like the weather) to make the world without George seem more miserable.
  • Two Words: Butterfly. Effect.

Omniscient Negligence

• Why didn't Clarence tell George that Potter stole the $8,000.00? Not that it would have made any difference; George couldn't exactly go to the police and accuse Potter of theft with the evidence "An angel told me," and Potter probably owns the Bedford Falls law enforcement, anyway. But it might have helped George realize everything wasn't his fault.
  • Clarence isn't **there** to get George's money back. That's not what miracles are for. It's explicitly stated in the beginning of the movie—Clarence is being sent specifically to stop George's impulsive suicide attempt.
  • George's main problem wasn't the loss of the money, it was despair and a feeling that his life was meaningless. The theft of the money simply brought this psychological crisis to the fore. But once he realized how meaningful his life was, he regained his optimism and put his financial worries into a different perspective. He even says to the man with the arrest warrant "Isn't that great? I'm going to jail". He says it without a hint of irony.
  • Clarence also doesn't NEED to tell him where the money is. The mere mortals of Bedford Falls already had that covered! George's prayer is answered already, not through a magic man showing up with information no one else could give him but through the love of others. That was always the answer to his plea to his God, and it's already coming. Clarence just needs to keep him from throwing his life away long enough to be there when they arrive to help him.

Suicide Prevention Intention

• Clarence is sent to Earth to stop George from jumping off the bridge and accidentally winds up in the river, which causes George to jump off the bridge into the river to save him. This raises questions.
  • It explicitly wasn't accidental—one of the first things Clarence says is "I didn't fall in! I jumped in to save George!" He knows that when George sees people in trouble, he stops thinking and starts helping, so he places himself in the same danger George was in, starts screaming for help, and prompts George to snap out of his own suicidal ideation in favor of saving someone else whose life, in that moment, he values more than his own.
  • But that still involves George jumping off a bridge into the water.
  • There's a difference between throwing yourself into water to kill yourself, and jumping into water in a controlled fashion to save someone. If George had tried to commit suicide, he wouldn't have struggled, but let the water pull him down; he would also likely let himself fall rather than jumping with intent, making it more likely he'd be injured on impact even from a low bridge like that one. When trying to save Clarence, George would have used all his strength to pull the angel to safety. There was also a good chance that George would be reluctant to try again if he was worried about Clarence, or that the cold water would counteract the depressive effects of the alcohol—or at least disillusion George of further attempts at a watery grave.
  • Simply interrupting George's spiral was enough to save his life. Before the alternate reality is even triggered, he was already acknowledging that suicide hadn't been the answer—it would traumatize his family, leave them facing horrible accusations without him there to shield them, and leave his wife and children without a provider. By that point, George's life was saved—everything else was just a kindness.

The cemetery

• Okay, so he goes to Harry's grave, which is located where the housing development was when he actually was alive. But his brother would have died when George was 12, which means that George somehow kept a cemetery from being built when he was only a child, or that they built that housing development over a cemetery. Or that there were changes that George was not responsible for, which defeats the purpose.
  • It's mentioned earlier on the film that the housing development was next to a cemetery; it wouldn't be a stretch to think that the crime rate is high in Pottersville and that it eventually expanded.
    • Yes, but even so, Harry's grave was where housing should be, so it follows that even with him alive, the graves of other people who died around then should still be in the same spot long before George could have any big effect on the town, and yet somehow in Bedford Falls the cemetary didn't expand there when George was twelve.
    • The cemetery could have been relocated to facilitate development. Maybe it was full; maybe the church it was associated with expanded and needed new facilities. Paying for the reinternment of all those graves is exactly the sort of thing George Bailey would have involved himself with, especially if it helps provide decent homes for people.
  • Maybe they're just being inexact about the geography. George says "This should be Bailey Park" while looking out over the landscape. He doesn't necessarily mean that the exact spot he's standing on is meant to be Baily Park, just that some of that land he's looking at should be Baily Park. Perhaps in reality this exact spot is still a cemetery, but the cemetery is smaller and Bailey Park is nearby.

Unmarried Mary

• So this movie is apparently promoting the idea that George and Mary are somehow soulmates, and thus Mary would never be interested in anybody else if there was no George. I call foul. She's a bombshell, and I see no reason why she would not have gotten married.
  • It's not a question of nobody being interested in Mary. For her to marry another man she would have to be interested in him. Being attractive is not the same thing as being interested in anyone who's attracted to her!
    • And in a Crapsack World like Pottersville, what are the odds of her finding the kind of man—dutiful, witty, honest, and selfless, like George—that she actually wants?
  • There's also the fact that we see a ton of prostitutes and the strip clubs and general amorality and the like, so it could have been that the guys who went after Mary in that timeline were only after one thing. Mary certainly has more respect for herself than that, and it could explain why she seemed so timid in general and terrified when some strange guy she never saw before runs over and starts trying to hold her.
    • Fridge Horror: maybe Mary was raped or sexually assaulted in the bad timeline and she chose not to marry because she was too traumatized to have sex.
  • Sam was hiring "masseuses" while he was courting Mary. Between that and the point above, it could easily convince her never to trust any man ever again.
    • But why stay in Bedford Falls at all then? George even pointed out in the real timeline that she didn't have to come back. She went off to college around the time that the Building and Loans would have shut down in the alternate timeline, and if Bedford Falls was such a terrible place after that then why did she come back and stay back?
    • It is her hometown, after all, and maybe things hadn't gotten that bad when she graduated. There's the impression that she's waiting for something, ie George, she hasn't seen yet.
    • If she even went to college in that reality—remember, social safety nets have collapsed here, and Mary's family is comfortable but not wealthy. They might not have been able to afford it in a town with fewer small businesses, less connection, skyrocketing housing prices, and an utterly corrupt bank with no alternatives. In the 1920s, a high school graduate could easily have been hired by a library, especially in a town like Pottersville.

If no George, no Harry?

• Similarly: If George is never born, Harry drowns beneath the ice? No, if George is never born, Harry never tags along with him to go sledding, and so Harry is never exposed to danger.
  • He would still have gone sledding, either by himself or with other friends, who just couldn't save him—the group of boys shown sledding aren't all the same age, and even if they were all slightly older, Harry's not so young that he would realistically be shunned by what appears to be an outing of all the boys in the neighborhood.
    • That's not likely; George introduces Harry as "my kid brother". With no George, Harry would have been the oldest in his family and wouldn't have gone sledding that young. He might still have fallen through the ice, but it wouldn't have happened at age 8.
  • The other boys likely did try to save him, but panicked instead of instinctively jumping. It's common for people in a crisis to freeze up and wait for someone else to act.
    • It's a very quick scene, but when Harry falls through the ice he goes underwater immediately and is dragged beneath the surface, which is a realistic shock reaction. The other boys are already running toward the hole in the ice to help, and they know how to do an ice rescue when George prompts them—lying flat and letting the Bailey kids grab their arms. But George is the one who got there first, and pulled Harry back to the surface where he could be grabbed. Even a few seconds' hesitation could easily have pulled Harry under the ice or to the bottom of the pond despite all the other boys' attempts to help.

Christmas movie?

• Why is this generally considered to be a Christmas movie if a relatively small portion of the movie takes place at Christmas, and has little to do with Christmas itself? You could've put it at Thanksgiving or Independence Day and it probably would've made little difference.
  • Because it's really heartwarming, and Christmas is the holiday most associated with warmth and good feeling.
  • It only became a "Christmas movie" when it was aired in December every year for decades. Look at the original trailer — it was marketed as a Romantic Comedy with no mention made of the now most famous parts.
  • Because the important bits happen at Christmas.
    • And it emphasises the importance of family, friends, and home.
    • And George Bailey is essentially a Christ figure. Clarence showing George just how big an impact he makes on the world is Capra figuratively showing the audience how important an impact Jesus made on the world.
  • Because look at the title cards. You'd never guess from them that it wasn't a Christmas movie.

Could've Called Sam

• Why exactly didn't George invest in Sam Wainwright's business when Sam was letting him in on the ground floor? And even though he didn't, you'd think a rich businessman like Sam could've helped him against Mr. Potter much earlier (he could've had a seat on the B&L board or gotten a friendly to have one). He gave George $25,000 dollars at the end, so he was obviously willing to help out.
  • George doesn't like to take charity from anyone and he thinks Sam helping him out would be that, never mind that if he were in Sam's shoes he'd offer help to whoever needed it.
  • George is a banker who's had to navigate through the 1929 stock market crash by backing his institution literally with money out of his pocket, and he's seen the Great Depression wipe out fortunes. He's understandably more than a little reluctant to bet other people's money on a scheme that may not fly.
    • But George rejects the offer before the crash and he had $2000 cash he was planning to blow on a luxurious vacation. At least some of that money would have been better spent being invested. It’s just weird that he refuses to invest any and then acts bitter and jealous when Sam is successful even though Sam practically begs him to be a part of his business. Not only helping himself, he would have also been helping the community by helping Sam, as Sam’s reopening an old factory at George’s suggestion brings a lot of jobs back to the town.
    • Maybe he put it all back into the B&L in between that scene and the wedding when he does it over again.
    • I've got it. Most of the $2,000 isn't George's money. It's Mary's. It's probably an inheritance from her late father, plus earnings from whatever employment she's had (the library?) since her graduation. In the telephone scene, Sam asks if Mary has any money saved and she says "A little." Now, granted $2,000 in 1933 was over $36,000 now, but that's her money plus whatever George has managed to save back.
    • Sam made the offer sometime in the mid 1920s. Plastics were a very new concept, and some early plastics, especially vegetable based ones, were chemically unstable after a few years and would either warp or crumble. George likely felt it was too risky to invest even his own money in something that was still mostly unproven and unknown.
    • Following from the above, hindsight is 20/20. Sure, it's obvious to us that Sam had a great investment opportunity, but there's no reason why it would be obvious to George at the time. For all he knew, Sam was going to go bankrupt (on account of bad decisions, bad luck, whatever), in which case the investments would all be lost and George would be destitute.

Unmarried Mary 2: Boogaloo

• Without George, why didn't Mary marry Sam Wainwright?
  • She never loved Sam. Even in the prime timeline, if Sam hadn't called and George's disastrous visit had ended there, she was never going to marry Sam. Sam was never an option.
  • Why would she marry someone who was hiring hookers while courting her? Sam didn't love Mary, and she knew it.
  • And Mary was always someone outspoken and free-spirited. So while marriage was more of a social pressure back then, Mary seems independent enough that she wouldn't mind remaining single if she didn't have anyone she could fall in love with.

Mr. Martini's Martinis

• Everything is all settled, George has the money, everyone is partying at the Bailey house, and Mary calls out, "Hey, Mr. Martini, how bout some wine?" Does she think he just carries his bar around with him on his back?
  • He probably brought some with him and she knew it. She was the one who called everyone together to help George out. Either Martini told her "I'll bring some wine to cheer him up" or she told him "How about you bring some wine to cheer George up?"
  • It's practically a party. And if anyone brought wine to the party, wouldn't it be Mr. Martini?
  • Also, she and George gave Mr. Martini a bottle of wine after he moved into his house that the Building and Loan built. It's an In-Joke.
  • Wine should be poured by people who know how.

What about the rest of us?

• Isn't it a little disturbing, the message? I know it's "Everyone depends on you! Everyone loves you!!" and stuff, but the reason they depended on him is because the city practically lived on his continuing to draw breath (in the alternate future, the town's practically a slum!) What about the rest of us measly folks?
  • The message is actually that every person is more important than they think, that our lives touch others in ways we never realize. Or as Clarence says, "Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives. When he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?" Sorry, I have something in my eye...
  • George playing such an essential role in the town is obvious to the viewer because we're watching a highlight reel of his life designed both in- and out-of-universe to demonstrate his importance to us. George doesn't have the benefit of watching that highlight reel...and neither do any of us.
  • It seems obvious to the viewer, and this is an easy mindset to slip into—after all, most of us have never jumped into freezing water to save a sibling, or prevented an accidental poisoning as a child, or kept up a crucial social safety net keeping the working class of our community out of destitution. And many of us don't have happy spouses and a quartet of amazing children. So it's easy to say "Well, if I'd done those things, sure, my life would be valuable, but I haven't, so it's not!" But that's exactly the mindset George was in, and the point is that he's wrong.
    • Most of George's incredible accomplishments aren't obvious to him because it's impossible for us to see the ripple effect of our own actions! Just think:
    • Saving Harry: It's easy even for the viewers to miss how close Harry came to being pulled under the ice, or dragged to the bottom by his heavy clothes. From George's perspective, the other boys were right there to help, so if he hadn't saved Harry, someone else would have—he doesn't know how essential those few seconds were.
    • Mr Gower: He swore never to tell anyone, and even in the moment he knows that it was an out-of-character slip-up by a man he respects deeply, a once-in-a-lifetime mistake. In the Pottersville timeline George is stunned and bewildered to learn that Gower went to prison for manslaughter; considering he couldn't have been older than twelve at the time, George may largely have forgotten that event, or not fully comprehended how deadly the mistake was or how serious the consequences would be, going far beyond an old man losing his reputation.
    • The Building & Loan: George accepted the position after his father's death because the board of directors was swayed by a speech he gave, not because he thought he was the only one who could do it. Uncle Billy has been helping run the place his whole life and is clearly not bad at his job; with a few employees on hand to help him remember deadlines, in George's mind the Building & Loan would have kept running just fine without him or with someone else at the helm. He doesn't realize that his charisma and determination and calm head in a crisis have repeatedly averted disasters that would have ruined the business through no real fault of anyone's. So all the crises as a result of the B&L folding, while things he probably could have thought of in a world without such a service, aren't necessarily linked to his existence.
  • Where are you getting this? The movie says that George shouldn't die; it doesn't say that everyone else should die! Those are two completely different messages! There isn't, like, some other sequence where we see what it would be like if Mr. So-and-So wasn't born and it turns out that everything's fine, or whatever. In fact it's made quite clear that everyone has a part to play. For instance, many men fought in the war and helped save the world from tyranny. (The women, meanwhile, contributed by volunteering with the Red Cross and such.) And the Building and Loan, which did so much good for the town, wouldn't have existed in the first place if it weren't for George's father and Uncle Billy. Everyone outside of Potter is fundamentally a good person, and if George is better than the rest, that doesn't mean that everyone else is implicitly worthless.
  • The entire point of the movie is that things that seem minor to us, or even things we've completely forgotten about or think were just "what anyone would have done," can have ripple effects we don't know about. Yes, even yours.
  • Set aside the big, dramatic stuff and look at Uncle Billy, with nothing standing between a good life with a manageable disability and utter ruin but a loving family and an accommodating job in the family business. George never noticed that he was a load-bearing member of his uncle’s support system, and how could he? How could most of us?

Second Amendment

• At one point, George hits a cop in the Alternate Reality to escape arrest. As George flees, the cop promptly pulls a gun on him and opens fire... as George runs through a crowded street.
  • Arguably, this was semi-justified by the fact that it takes place in the alternate reality Crapsack World, where (apparently) police think little of firing their weapons in crowded places.
  • Alternatively, the policeman could have been firing over everybody's heads in an attempt to scare George.
    • Definitely not — as he fires, you can see the letters in a lit sign go dark as the bullets shatter them.
  • He did call something like, "Everybody, stand back!" before shooting, so there was at least an attempt to warn people.
  • Bert's just not an upstanding or disciplined cop in this world.

All Lives Are Valuable...But...

• But then, what one wonders what the town would be like if Potter had never been born...

  • There's two ways to look at it. One is that the moral only applies to people who at least try to make the world a better place. Someone like Potter, who actively spreads misery and delights in hurting people — well yeah, the world would be better off without them, but that's strictly by their choice. The other is the idea that, as imperfect as the world seems, everything really does happen for a reason. In that case, even Mr. Potter serves some role in the grand scheme of things, and there are people that even his existence has helped. If his life were erased, things would be worse without him (though probably not nearly so much as they were without George, since George was making an effort to help people).
  • Mr. Potter was the one who kept the town afloat during the Great Depression (for his own selfish reasons, sure, but he did). Without him, they would have been in a far worse place financially, and while money isn't everything, he probably saved lives by ensuring that there was some money. He definitely incidentally made lives better for some. George couldn't have saved the town on his own.
  • They have made a story about a jerk who's shown the world would be better without him. It's called A Christmas Carol.

Fire Uncle Billy!

• Who in their right mind let Uncle Billy, the town Cloud Cuckoolander, handle eight thousand dollars?
  • Apparently he'd been taking care of this job faithfully and without problems for many years. Uncle Billy has what presents as something much more akin to severe untreated ADHD than anything that would make him unfit to handle money at all. There wouldn't have been more than a moment's panic if Potter hadn't interfered.
  • Remember that Uncle Billy didn't actually lose any money at all; the money was stolen. Potter committed grand larceny, and that's not Billy's fault! Any decent person would have returned the money or handed it in to a teller upon realizing the mistake (and indeed even Potter nearly did so!)
    • Potter did not nearly give the money back. He realized he had the money, then asked to be wheeled over to the door so he could confirm if it was Uncle Billy's money he had or if he had somehow picked up someone else's money. Once he saw Uncle Billy panicking, he knew the Building and Loan was in trouble and he started thinking about how to exploit the situation. He never expresses the slightest bit of conscience.
  • There's a difference between being forgetful and being irresponsible. Also, you come up with a way to tell an old man that he's not fit for the duties he's been performing faithfully and flawlessly all his life without a really solid reason.
    • Also keep in mind that Billy was apparently one of the founding owners of the business. Trying to tell a guy he's too incompetent to run the business he helped start, especially a family member, would probably be a little difficult. Although still, you could hope that George talked to Billy afterward about retirement.
  • That may be for the better, since Pottersville Mrs. Bailey mentions that after the Building and Loan went out of business, Uncle Billy was put in a mental hospital. Whether that's because he's too loopy to be out on his own or because he just didn't know what else to do with himself is probably up for debate.
    • I always imagined that Uncle Billy simply couldn't handle that his business went belly up, had a nervous breakdown, and was hauled off to the funny farm in a straitjacket.
    • Also, Billy was seen to drink now and then. He got sloshed at Harry's party and had a nip from a flask in the "run on the bank" sequence — seeming to use it as self-medication for anxiety. My guess is that he wasn't an alcoholic, but might have become one, or at least hit the bottle more heavily after the B&L failed, a routine reason to have someone committed back then.
    • The bar for commitment to a mental institution was a lot lower in the 1940's. For all we know (and it it's perfectly within character), Potter may have arranged for Uncle Billy to be committed so he could take over the Building and Loan. Having sometimes perfectly fine people committed was a common underhanded way for someone to get his hands on a business or estate. As it was, this was an era when homosexuals and people with learning disabilities could be confined to a mental institution in most jurisdictions. All it takes is one crooked judge... and psychiatry being what it was back then, it would be next to impossible to convince the doctors to let you back out. Hell, it's still like that in some places (mental institutions can make you crazy). Even if they did let him out, the damage would already be done.
• By the by, $8000 in 1945 is $115,000 in 2020. Why did they have so much cash in one place?
  • ...Because they're a bank.

Happy Ending?

• Why is the ending of this film seen as being "happy?" George is still in the same position he was before Clarence "saved" him (same town, $8000 is missing, Potter gets away clean and an investigation and possible arrest are looming, etc.) In fact, Clarence is the only one in the movie that gets a "happy ending."
  • Wow. How much attention were you paying to the ending??? Everyone helped raise $8000 and the sheriff tore the arrest warrant up before our eyes! George still got a happy ending.
  • Also, the point of the movie isn't about that. It's about George learning to appreciate and love what he has. He does have a good life. It isn't the one he dreamed about, but he has a healthy happy family with a beautiful wife he loves, with a good business (since the money is repaid), and lots of people who love him. And now he can see it. That's the important part.
    • Plus he's been convinced that he was nothing but a loser all his life — never made his dreams come true, sacrifices his own happiness so others can succeed, didn't take risks when he should have — and he's just now learning how much he means to everyone in town. We also have no guarantee that Potter pulls a Karma Houdini; he could still be caught.
    • Even if Potter never gets caught, he will never achieve the kind of wealth that George Bailey has.
    • As the Fridge page points out, in this world Heaven and Angels definitely exist. Potter's an old man, he'll die soon money or no money and be facing judgement.

Slow George

• What is with George being so slow on the uptake? He comes off as a real idiot.
  • I will admit that it takes him way too long to catch on, but let's put ourselves in George's shoes for a minute. Right when you were contemplating suicide, some other guy jumps in and out of the goodness of your heart, you save him. When you're both inside and warm, he somehow knows your name and claims to be your guardian angel. Then, after claiming to grant your offhand remark that the world would be better off without you, he takes you outside and suddenly the whole town is different and none of your friends recognize you. You'd be pretty damn freaked out (which George clearly is), but I doubt your first thought would be "this weirdo I've never met is right, this is a world where I've never been born".
  • This Is Reality. George isn't watching a movie and analzying media tropes, he's a person living his life. Jumping into an alternate universe where you were never born is not exactly something that happens to the average person in real life. It's a simple enough concept when you're just watching a fictional movie, but if it somehow actually happened to you, I think you'd be just as confused as George. The idea that it's all just a dream or something is way more plausible than the idea of it actually being real.

Where's Prohibition?

• You know, it's never mentioned that much of this movie takes place during the Prohibition, including: Harry's graduation where gin is available, Harry's return when Uncle Billy gets drunk as a skunk, George's wedding when Bert (the cop) gives the happy couple champagne as a present, and the run on the bank scene where Uncle Billy can be spotted drinking a quick one out of a flask. Bedford Falls wasn't as innocent and clean-cut as they made it out to be.
  • Prohibition was mostly concerned with the sale of alcohol. People have been making their own alcoholic beverages in their own homes and sharing them with friends and company since alcohol existed.
  • 'Bathtub gin' referred to liquor made in one's home, sometimes literally in the bathtub. Distributing it during a private party (where it is neither sold nor taxed) was one way to get around the ban. Unfortunately, it's very easy to get things wrong and end up poisoning people, so such parties still drew the attention of the authorities.
    • Right; the laws had exceptions (especially if you were one of the upper-crust, but that's another subject entirely).
  • The champagne could have been seized in a raid, but Bert couldn't bring himself to dispose of it and gave it to them. Who's going to expect nice boy George to break Prohibition laws?
  • As mentioned, Prohibition dealt with production and distribution of alcohol. Drinking alcohol was still legal, and any booze purchased before the 18th Amendment went into effect in 1920 could be consumed without penalty. And, the amendment was only effective on a federal level. States were expected to pass state laws to mirror it, but in the case of New York, the state law was massively unpopular and got repealed in 1923. Bert really couldn't do anything about people drinking even if he wanted to (if they didn't engage in disorderly conduct).

Un-arrested

• Fridge moment: the sheriff cannot just tear up the arrest warrant. George will be arrested, booked, arraigned and probably released without needing to pay bail on his own recognizance (meaning he promises to appear in court and signs a form to that effect).^note The fact that George has no criminal record, family and friends in town, and a known work history, means that this is the most likely option. He must still appear in a court hearing. There he can explain the whole thing (I love where he says "I misplaced eight thousand dollars" in front of Potter) and show that the money has been replaced. Then we'll see what the judge has to say, depending on whether he is or is not owned by PotCo.
  • As in Mayberry, maybe the Sheriff is the judge.
    • Plus, George has the money to cover the books now.
    • George deposits $8000 into the Building and Loan account, the bank examiner says, "There's no evidence of any missing money," and Potter is powerless to do anything about it because he can't dispute the investigation without admitting he stole the money.
  • The sheriff can absolutely tear up the arrest warrant, because in America it's common for cops to have official discretion. If they see you break a law, they're allowed to arrest you but they're not legally obligated to arrest you. The idea is that cops might be aware of special circumstances that make the deed ok and the arrest unnecessary. And this is certainly one of those cases!
  • The warrant was already likely legally dubious; there hadn't even been any official investigation yet—when George gets home at the end, the bank examiner's line about wanting to discuss a discrepancy in the books makes it clear that he hasn't even had a chance to ask George to explain it, let alone laid any charges! The warrant was issued on nothing but an accusation by Potter and the application of corrupt leverage. If the bank examiner present at the scene says there's no need to make an arrest, and the sheriff sees the "stolen" money being actively collected to be repaid, Potter would have to outright admit to very serious crimes in order to make any hay over it.

Our Hero, Drunk Driver

• George, the hero, is a drunk driver, and nobody seems to care.
  • Given that this happened when he was about to commit suicide to save his family from debt (or else face a sentence in prison for a crime he didn't commit), I imagine people are willing to cut him a tiny bit of slack.
  • Values Dissonance. Believe it or not, once upon a time, drunk driving wasn't considered that big of a deal: although it was still illegal, it had far less consequences and didn't cause you to be socially ostracized. Which is somewhat justifiable, since back then they didn't yet have the data on just how many people drunk driving kills; sure, it wasn't something you should be doing, but it took a while to realize just how dangerous it was.
    • Mothers Against Drunk Driving didn’t exist yet. In the 1980s, they played a huge role in raising awareness and changing social norms around drunk driving.
    • Also, cars were slower back then, so drunk driving really wasn't as dangerous. Then again, cars also didn't have as many safety features either back then.

Pottersville is Awesome!

• Would Pottersville really be that bad a place? All those nightspots are sure to boost tourism and the economy, and they don't seem to be drawing in too much crime, from what we see.
  • Blame the Hays Code, which meant that Capra couldn't show the drugs and prostitution that would undoubtedly accompany the dodgy nightclubs.
    • That doesn't necessarily mean terror and violence. It's a small town where everyone knows each other, making it more likely that the cops would let drug usage and prostitution slide, if not partake in a bit of the two themselves. The streets don't exactly look ravaged by gang warfare either.
    • Are you quite sure it's still a small town?
    • A cop tries to shoot an unarmed man in the back while he's running down a crowded street; sounds like "terror and violence" to me. Also, a town can still be awful even if there isn't any violence in it. Drug addiction can easily ruin lives even if the cops are ok with it and there aren't any gang wars.
  • The impression of Pottersville I get is that Potter and a few of his cronies are raking in the cash, and everybody else is just hanging on.
  • I think that was the point. It's a slum for the regular folks that are just trying to hold on, while the rich ones are living the good life. It's a world where a selfish, cold-hearted man came to power and changed everything to suit his needs instead of the people's needs. It doesn't have to be a city where gang wars are common to make it a horrible city for decent folks to live in.
  • Considering that Violet is being dragged away by some rather "insistent" cops while she screams about having the goods on a lot of important people, I think there's at least a little corruption going on here. Also, the point made above that the money from casinos doesn't really trickle down.
    • I always assumed that she was lying. She doesn't know Potter; she's just claiming to know him in hopes of getting the cops to let her go. But the mere fact that she'd choose that particular lie shows us that Potter is the de facto dictator around here. In a fair society, you might say "I'm innocent" and expect a fair hearing. But in Pottersville the cops are notoriously corrupt, and they're all scared of Potter, so your only hope is to convince the cops that you're friends with Potter.
  • The cue to what's really going on in Pottersville is that gigantic pawnshop. Think about it.

Tom Sawyer

• What's the significance of Tom Sawyer? At the beginning, Clarence mentions he's been reading it, and at the end he leaves George his copy with the words "Remember no man is a failure who has friends" inside, but why Tom Sawyer specifically?
  • There may not be anything significant about the book itself other than the fact that Clarence is pretty much never seen without it. Maybe Frank Capra just said "Clarence should be holding a book. Tom Sawyer is a pretty good book, so why not that?" Also, the way Clarence holds it, he tends to look almost like a priest holding a bible in some scenes, so it may have been intended to be one, but then they figured that an angel reading a bible would be a bit redundant in a way.
  • It's a first edition. Clarence got it when it first came out, back in 1876. It's a way to let the audience know this isn't just some nutjob.
    • Is that really telling? The movie was shot in 1946 and the actor playing Clarence was old enough to have actually been given a first edition.
  • There is a part in the book where Tom Sawyer is falsely presumed dead by his family. Tom then sneaks back to his house and secretly views his family's reaction to his own death. Clarence then takes this part of the book to come up with a similar idea to allow George Bailey to see the world had he never been born.
  • I think it's funny when Clarence off-handedly mentions Mark Twain's new book, because if there really is a Heaven and Twain is in it, the first book he would write would be called Why I, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Am Really, Really Sorry For All Those Nasty Things I Wrote About God.
  • I think it's mostly there to remind us that Clarence had an earthly life before he became an angel. If you think about it, the phrase "Even an ordinary man can be an angel" kinda sums up the message of the movie.

"I wish I had a million dollars"

• What's that thing with the flame in the drug store George keeps wishing on?
  • I think it's a thing for lighting cigars (presumably for one just bought in the store). No idea what the 'wishing' part is about though.
    • It doesn't always light. The kids noticed this and immediately started using it for an 8 ball. If it lights, you get your wish.

Just repay?

• Okay, so it's great that the townspeople paid for the Building and Loan to stay open. But what about the original money that went missing? Nobody ever proved George didn't steal it. I know Bert tore up the arrest warrant, but I don't see why. Wouldn't George still have to be investigated to see what happened to the eight thousand dollars?
  • What $8000? As of the next morning, that cash will be in the bank where it's supposed to be. All Potter will have hard evidence of is a minor delay in making a bank deposit on Christmas Eve, which is hardly proof of embezzlement.
  • Think of it this way. If George goes to trial, he's guaranteed a jury of his peers, which would be the townspeople. And the townspeople have demonstrated such faith in him that they're willing to believe he'd never steal the money, even when that's exactly what it looks like. In addition to fulfilling his debt and making what happened a victimless crime, they've also demonstrated that there's no way George'll ever get convicted. Tearing up the arrest warrant doesn't necessarily invalidate it. It just buys George some time for the money to get onto the books, at which point the case is so thoroughly blown apart (no jury that'll convict him and now no missing money) that the charges would have to be dropped.
  • The SNL parody may have a point: Uncle Billy may finally remember how he "gave" the money to Potter in the newspaper by mistake and admit how he'd screwed up. As this is in keeping with his past mistakes, it would further vindicate George, the loss of the $8000 being an honest mistake instead of a deliberate theft. As stated elsewhere, this could not be proven in a court of law, but even bringing it up would be enough to further George's cause over Potter's. The banker would lose whatever respect he had left in the town, though it's doubtful people would resort to Torches and Pitchforks.
  • Even the bank examiner chipped in. They're probably not going to press the issue too hard. Banker was a bit late getting his deposit in because of a family celebration and Christmas. The end.
  • Also, George is innocent until proven guilty. It's not up to the defense to prove George didn't steal the money; it's up to the prosecution to prove that he did. Since there's now no evidence that a crime was even committed at this point, the case is moot.

New York trip cancelled

• At the end, when happy ending is piled upon happy ending, Violet cheerfully exclaims "I'm not really going to New York!" Huh? Is going to New York a bad thing? An unattached girl like her, a bit too flashy for Bedford Falls, might actually like and thrive in New York.
  • Be it ever so humble, there is no place like home. Sometimes you need to walk away from a place to know it was the best place for you.
  • What Violet actually says is "I'm not gonna go, George". George gave her the money she would need to leave, she ended up using it to help him out instead. Perhaps she still intends to go, just later when she's earned the money back. She's being humble; after all, George gave her enough money that would supposedly be enough to get her to New York and set up there which would be quite a lot and she thought it would be better suited helping George out.
  • It's extremely subtle, but some fans have apparently intuited that Vi was pregnant and that she was going to New York to have an abortion or give the kid up for adoption, and start a new life where no one knew her. Instead, she decided to stay in her hometown and trust the people around her to have compassion.

All the time in heaven

• At the beginning of the movie, Clarence is told that George Bailey will attempt suicide in one hour, and in the meantime he'll be shown visions of George's life so that he knows how to handle him. Except the section of the movie covering George's life story takes a lot longer than one hour.
  • Time moves differently for angels than for mortal humans.
  • The bible makes it clear many times that God's time is different than our time. We see a quick fill in explanation to Clarence about who George is and what his problems are, that makes up the bulk of the movie. Clarence later tells George that he watched him grow up and knows everything about him. He didn't get to understand George that well just from what we see. It's just that time works differently in heaven than it does on Earth. It's one of the few things about the movie's depiction of heaven that matches the biblical description.

Wedding money

• Where did George and Mary get $2,000 for their honeymoon?
  • Honeymoon present, maybe? Or their savings?
  • I was always under the impression Sam Wainwright gave them that money as both a wedding present and a gesture of goodwill letting George know that he wasn't bitter he got the girl and wished them well.

Bert the bootlegger

• When George and Mary are driving off to their honeymoon, Ernie passes them a bottle of champagne and says, "Here, Bert the cop sent this over. He says to float over to Happyland on the bubbles." Shortly thereafter, there's a run on the bank, which starts the Depression era part of the movie. The stock market crashed in 1929; prohibition was repealed in 1933. Was Bert the cop a bootlegger?
  • The local bar still seemed to be in pretty good business before that scene, so I'd chalk it up to the writers forgetting about Prohibition.
  • Runs on banks weren't limited to the day the stock market crashed. Ernie says he's heard of runs on banks, though he's never seen one before. There was a huge bank panic in Real Life March of 1933. (Also, Pete was born in '34 and we know they wouldn't have wasted much time starting a family.) The heavy rain in the wedding / bank run scene also points to March. But the telephone scene, where George confesses his love, takes place in mid-spring, more like May, immediately following Harry's graduation and marriage to Ruth. This must have been 1932. Most couples still take several months to arrange their weddings (their church may also have required them to post banns (announcements) several months ahead). I'm going to put this one down to Artistic License as far as the booze is concerned. People probably knew repeal was just around the corner (like marijuana legalization today) and were a bit more free with it.
  • 1933 would fit because Mary graduated high school in 1928 per the banner at the graduation dance. Four years of college would bring them to 1932, give some time for them to date and get engaged, and it's 1933.

Mr Welch Away

• Why was Mr. Welch drinking at a bar, alone, on Christmas Eve? And not consoling his poor wife after being yelled at by George?
  • Welch says his wife cried for an hour. She probably went to bed exhausted, and her frustrated husband went out for a drink.
  • He was angry on behalf of his upset wife, went to the bar for a drink to cool down.

Boo-Hoo, George

• Am I the only one who can't work up much sympathy for George's "plight"? During a time when there was "one-third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished" and thousands of young American men were being slaughtered in strange countries far from home or returning amputees or worse I'm supposed to go "George owns his own business, lives in a spacious house with a beautiful, adoring wife and four sweet, healthy children! The horror!" I'm sure many of the poor people he dealt with would have liked to travel as well. It isn't the tragedy of the 20th century that one middle class man who has everything else doesn't get to.
  • George's plight isn't that he doesn't get to go travelling, it's that he is about to serve a prison sentence for a crime he didn't even commit and will most likely lose his wife, children, and home as well as losing the Building and Loan to Potter, which is the one thing he has been fighting for the whole film. Also, he doesn't own his own business, it's a mutual trust owned partly by Mr. Potter and by those investing in it by taking out mortgages and making savings. He would gladly give it over to someone else were it not for the fear of Potter taking it over completely.
    • How was he going to lose Mary? The money was the straw that broke the camel's back, but George is shown to be a generally miserable person who hates his life the entire film. I know he gains some appreciation for it at the end, but it's not because Clarence caused him to count his blessings, rather that he showed George how his "sacrifices" were worth it and that his friends weren't the terrible people the cynical George seemed to think they were. The "no man is a failure who has friends" moral seems to say that even if you fail financially, you can still be considered a spiritual success, but it doesn't really fit the film because until George made the choice to be the fall guy for his alcoholic uncle, he was a success on every level. Though given that he's entirely to blame for his situation by choosing not to invest in Sam Wainwright's business and refusing to let his brother take over the Building & Loan even though he wanted to, I think George either actually enjoyed feeling like a put-upon martyr or was subconsciously too afraid of failing to seriously pursue his goals.
    • He was going to lose Mary because he was going to go to prison. And there are plenty of times when George is shown to be enjoying himself (the prom dance, his flirting with Mary afterwards, even his honeymoon when he has just given up all of his honeymoon savings), so the idea that he is just a generally miserable person is not valid. George doesn't invest in Sam Wainwright's business because he doesn't trust it to make a profit and he doesn't want to risk anything on a dodgy business venture. And he doesn't let his brother take over the Building and Loan because his brother at the time is married and has been offered a better job with his father-in-law's business. (His brother doesn't seem to protest too much about this decision.) Finally, George's life isn't as rosy as you are making out, it's implied that he isn't earning enough at the Building and Loan to keep his family in comfort (there is a comment about his children not being as well-dressed as other children at the school) and his house started out as a wreck at the beginning of the film and has still not been properly fixed by the end.
    • The point of the story is that George learns to appreciate the life that he has, because it turns out to be, ahem, "wonderful" after all. So yes, he does have a lot to appreciate, and learns to do so at the end.
  • George may "have it all" on paper, but his business is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy/insolvency, his home is old, problematic, and drafty, his townspeople's gratitude has been quiet albeit given, and he fears that losing his livelihood, plus the criminal charge of theft, means he fails his role as provider for his family. It's possible it's his fear of disappointing Mary that hurts him the most; only the vision of "Pottersville Mary" as sad, lonely, and bitter let him see the final truth.
    • He was loved by Mary much more than he loved her. He definitely cared about what she would think, but I guess he was more concerned about the town in general and tormented by now seemingly definite and final crushing of his dreams.
    • More loved by Mary than he loved her? Can't say I agree with that. She definitely developed feelings first, but eventually they developed a mutual love.
  • The film is called It's a Wonderful Life. If you're trying to argue that George's life is pretty great, you're actually agreeing with the film. The whole idea here is that George doesn't realize how good things are and how important he is (mostly in terms of how much good he's done for others) and thus he's contemplating suicide. Clarence comes down to convince him that throwing it all away would be a huge mistake. Furthermore, George has every right to dream big and it's understandable that he feels disappointed when those dreams don't come true. (Though it's the threat of bankruptcy, wrongful imprisonment etc. that actually sends him over the edge.) And it's not as if he's forgotten the less fortunate; he's constantly helping them out!

Another Angel...

• Would someone claiming to be a supernatural creature be that unusual to someone who works in a bar?
  • It'd still be annoying even if it's semi-common. Plus, Clarence was claiming to be an angel from the very minute he entered the bar, so he could be seen to not be drunk yet.

Life insurance

• Does George not know that life insurance doesn't pay for suicides?
  • Maybe Potter was counting on that as well, a vengeance beyond the grave?
  • In any case, George was almost too broken to care.
  • Probably why he was going to throw himself into the river rather than hang himself. In as bad a storm as there was, it's possible that an investigator would chalk drowning up to an accident.
    • There were too many witnesses to his extremely unsettled mental and emotional condition (and these include his wife and kids, whom he spoke when he was still sober and who all seem to be decent enough not to lie about the matter just for the sake of money). Of course, it's entirely possible that it didn't cross George's mind in his state of mind.
    • Most of the witnesses to George's state of mind would be sympathetic to his situation, save Potter, and given their community would likely find it unthinkable that George committed suicide. Furthermore, those witnesses also saw him drunk, and the last person to see him saw him stumbling away from the scene of a drunken car accident. It'd be believable to cast it as an accident.
  • Some policies will, with the stipulation that a certain amount of time has to have passed between taking out the policy and the policy-holder committing suicide. Since we don't know how old George's life insurance policy was, it could very well be in this category.

Bloody Mary

• Does Mary kill George's father? I mean, she makes her wish and instantly news comes that George's dad is dead, forcing George to stay in Bedford Falls and allowing Mary to get everything she wants.
  • Mary just wished for George and her to get married. She didn't know it would come about in the form of George getting tragedy after tragedy that forces him to never be able to leave Bedford Falls every time he tries. So if she killed George's father, it was through an accidental Jackass Genie sort of way.
  • She also said that if she shared her wish, it wouldn't come true. George shared his and look what happened!
  • He'd likely had the stroke already; they had already had time to call the doctor to go to the house and then leave to find George.
  • There is no indication that Mary's wish has any sort of supernatural power. Also note that the common "I wish I had a million dollars" wish is clearly not reliable. The only supernatural power in this setting is God (and his angels), who obviously wouldn't kill an innocent man like that.

Label Your Meds

• How is it that a presumably intelligent person like Gower even had that bottle of a poisonous powder in his work area where it could wind up in medicines he prepared? Even if there's a valid reason for it to even be on the premises, wouldn't he be a bit more careful about avoiding accidentally mixing up white powders?
  • The bottle is clearly labelled; that's how George knew something was wrong!
    • Gower's son had just died and he was drinking to cope; this is not a situation that had ever happened before or was ever likely to happen again, and as he clearly doesn't make a habit of drinking on the job he wasn't prepared for how badly it would affect his judgement.
  • You'd think he'd still store the poison more securely and well away from similar-looking items he could confuse it with if overly tired (or if a substitute pharmacist comes in).
    • He would be more careful, when sober, but he was drunk then, so...
  • Do some medicines, such as pain relievers, call for a speck of such poisons?
    • It was cyanide. Tiny amounts are sometimes used in emergencies to bring down blood pressure: otherwise it's used in testing, not given as a medicine. (The kid with diphtheria would have been getting sulfa drugs, at that time.) The fact that he didn't check the bottle is probably to show just how far gone he was.
    • It's the kind of mistake drunk people make all the time. He likely had the bottle out for legitimate purposes earlier in the day, got the order for diphtheria medication, intended to get the right bottle out and put it on the counter, got distracted (probably by thinking of his son and/or yelling at George), saw a bottle of white powder where he'd intended to put the medicine bottle, and continued as normal. The fact that it's a tragic, uncharacteristic mistake made at the lowest moment of his life is the point.
    • It's also possible he was planning to do away with himself, got it out for that reason, then the order for the prescription came in.

One guy affecting the world?

• We saw what changes would have happened to Bedford Falls (or should I say, Pottersville) had George not been born. But what about bigger changes on a state or even national level? Imagine something that small having bigger effects on a grander scale?
  • There was a national level change: George saved his brother's life, his brother saved a ton of soldiers who went on to help win World War II. And remember, George hasn't left his town in his whole life, so he's limited in the amount of change he could have caused. Outside the nation matters less, because Clarence needed to show George how much he helped the lives of people he cared about.
    • Plus the fact that each person in the town (and all those soldiers, who would have been from all over, possibly including Allied troops from other countries) had family, friends, etc., in other cities, states or countries (think about Martini, one of the many immigrants Potter is complaining about, who must have relatives in the old country) whose lives were affected by their existence, and who in turn affected other people, and most if not all would have different outcomes (not always for the worse) in the Pottersville reality than Bedford Falls.

It's all about you

• George sees what he (subconsciously) thinks would happen if he wasn't alive to effect the present. Yes, one person can have a wide-spread affect on an area/people, and yes George did a lot a of good by taking on things he didn't need too; but to have his entire town turn into a den of hive of scum and villainy not to mention catastrophic war efforts because of him... that plays just a bit too his own ego, especially considering how much he gave up to stay in Bedford Falls. More likely, Clarence gave George his "wish" which was to see if he wasn't such a martyr to himself, how the town would turn out. Which would explain why the lame future for Mary was just "librarian" instead of "stripper/or worse", because for George the worst future he could think of was Mary not getting married and working a job past her prime. It also explains why one small town would be so dependent on one individual; yeah, Potter is an ass, but the movie says that absolutely no one would step up to him at any point as he attempts his takeover of the town, except' for George, which is why Clarence shows this to him, to make him at least think'' he needs to live and that his life was worth saving in exchange for saving Bedford.
  • This doesn't make any sense. There's no indication that the alternate world is just a reflection of George's subconscious thoughts. The whole thing is arranged by God himself (via Clarence), who presumably has an objective perspective on things. Thus, if the alternate world makes George look awesome by his absence, that's because he's actually awesome. He's a good man who influenced many lives without fully realizing what he accomplished. George doesn't wish for an illusion to make him feel better; he just says "I wish I was never born". So that's what God sets up! The idea that Mary being a mere librarian instead of "stripper/or worse" would soothe George's ego makes no sense. It's actually just the opposite: If Mary had been in the "stripper/or worse" category it would have made George look more important, by sharpening the contrast between the two worlds.

Why not Pottersville?

• In the alternate timeline, Bedford Falls has turned into... well, you know already. The point is, in the real timeline, why doesn't Potter just press ahead with Pottersville anyway? So what if the Building & Loan somehow clings on to existence? It be that much of an impediment, surely?
  • Look at Mexico, look at all big cities. What happens when the 1% take over with no one to speak for the "Little people" (99%)? People like the Martinis literally DIE in a fire in slums. (there was a deleted scene where George, in the AU Bedford Falls, finds the Martinis' graves not to far away from Harry's, and Clarence explains that they died in a fire because they couldn't afford to leave the slums).
    • The OP wasn't saying that that they, personally, wanted a Pottersville, they were asking why Potter, the villain who does not care about all that stuff you just said, didn't go ahead with the plan in the first reality. The only answer I can think of to that is that yeah, George's company and influence in the community did provide just enough of an impediment to prevent it from happening.
  • The availability of affordable, decent single-family housing allows people to have savings and safety nets, and fosters a sense of community and pride—the residents of Bailey Park own their homes, and thus have investment in the community and strong reason to want to invest in it and keep it strong and safe.
    • Not paying through the nose to make rent on a barely-livable shack also means they have the funds and energy available to own and run businesses. That in turn allows Bedford Falls to remain a community centered around filling the needs of its residents rather than filling it up with the kind of cash-grab joints that serve only to enrich their owner.
  • It's not like Mr. Potter deliberately set out to fill the town with strip clubs and dive bars. In the alternate timeline, the townspeople would be significantly poorer and unhappier, because they would be paying Potter's high rents for shabby houses instead of modest mortgages for nicer houses.
    • Plus, the town would be lacking one of its major employers, since George wasn't around to tell Sam Wainwright where to build his plastics factory.
    • The poverty and depression of the townspeople would in turn make the town's "respectable" businesses less profitable—in a town where, remember, building rents are going through the roof—while driving up the demand for entertainment (to take people's minds off their troubles) and tourist venues (which cater to out-of-town customers, not the people who live and work there—think of Vegas). And once you open one or two sketchy nightclubs, there aren't a lot of "respectable" businesses that want to be next door to a sketchy nightclub, so you get a kind of snowball effect that ends in an entire vice district, as we see in the film.

Potter: An Evil Old Folk, but How Old?

• How old is Mr. Potter supposed to be, anyway? Sure, he looks about middle-aged during George's childhood (and even then, it's kinda hard to see for sure because he's in his horse drawn carriage), but from George's young adulthood to the present day, over a period of a good few decades, Potter looks like the evil old codger we all know and love to hate. His appearance doesn't really change throughout the story, and he starts out looking really old instead of really aging from "kind of old" to "maybe he should consider finding a cemetery soon." Yeah, he's old, but how old?
  • Potter is rich, rich people have great doctors and the best medical care and tend to live for very long. Check people like Queen Elizabeth, George Soros or Baron Rothchild.
    • What I told you he's literally the Devil himself? After all, this is a world where we know Angels, at least, exist and intervene in human affairs, and Potter doesn't do a single thing during the movie to disprove it. To be serious though, and to quote George Carlin, 'The good die young, but Pricks live forever!'

It's a good thing you were born, but after that?

• I get that the Bad Reality was concocted in response to George deciding that, instead of wishing he was dead he wished that he'd never been born. And the vision showed George clearly why it was better that he'd been born. But what was Clarence going to do if George had still decided that it would be better if he were dead after he'd made the world a better place? After all, in the old reality he still thinks he's going to be arrested and lose everything, and his only hope was implied to be getting insurance money for his family from his suicide. Was Clarence just banking on George being so glad to be home that he forgot about that until he got the money?
  • The lesson here is helping George realise his worth so that he'll be able to face his problems. If the Karmic Jack Pot didn't happen, George could have explained to the authorities that Uncle Billy had mislaid the money—a serious mistake but not embezzlement—and there probably would have been an investigation into where it went and traced it back to Potter at some point. There are always other options when someone is on the verge of suicide, and helping them get into the mindset of realizing that is key.
    • George's mind set was "throw myself into the river in the hopes my insurance will be enough", forgetting that he'd be leaving four children without a father and Mary without the love of her life, not to mention the business would crumble without him in charge - so it seemed like a quick fix with disastrous long term consequences. George is a doer at heart, and would find another solution if the townspeople didn't show up to help him out.

"If you close your doors before 6pm you will never re-open"

• Potter says this line while there's a run on the Building and Loan. Is there any specific reason he specified 6pm? Is there a law that says you have to give money to every depositor before 6pm? Or is 6pm just their usual closing time, and this is Potter's way of saying "If you can't provide for your depositors, they'll all take their shares to me and then you'll go under because you'll have nobody left?". I think it's the later, but George does make a fuss about staying open until exactly 6pm, so maybe there's a legal issue I'm unaware of.
  • Most likely closing time. If they run out of money (and "close their doors" to stop the run) before the end of business, then everyone's going to cash in at the bank and Potter will use his new majority ownership to crush the place.
  • It's closing time and a legal issue—remember that Potter is on the Board of Directors for the Building & Loan. If they close the business before its usual closing time due to lack of funds, he'd be perfectly within his rights to declare it a failed business, force it to declare bankruptcy, and close the place down as unable to meet its commitments.
  • A better question is why was the Building and Loan open at all? It was the day of George and Mary's Wedding. Such an important and planned out event like a wedding would've took up the entire morning and most of the day. It's not out of the question for a small family business like the Bailey Building and Loan to be closed up for such occasion.
    • Perhaps George wanted it to stay open for those few evening hours just to make sure people could still access the Building and Loan. He'd probably feel terrible if someone, say, went bankrupt because he closed the building.

George rescuing his brother

• When George rescues his brother, he loses hearing in his ear after a fever. But shouldn't his brother have been the one who got sick, since he fell in the freezing lake?
  • What difference does it make whether someone fell in like Harry or jumped in like George? Also we don't know what happened to Harry in the immediate aftermath because George was the one spotlighted; for all we know Harry did also get sick, he just didn't get so sick that he got the ear infection that George did, purely by chance.

Gower poison

• Why did Gower even have that bottle of poison powder in his work area to begin with?
  • I may be wrong, but it's possible that either the substance was only poisonous in combination with other things in the capsules, something that was supposed to be topical but was toxic if ingested, something that particular patient would have a bad reaction to, or a usually harmless in small amounts drug being administered at an absurdly high overdose because Gower mixed up the drugs in his grief. (All we know is George says it's poison and Gower is horrified when he tastes it — that doesn't mean it's always poison, only in the context of capsules meant for a sick kid. I don't believe we got a good look at the bottle he mixed it in, but it has been a while since I've seen it.) It's also possible Gower was so drunk he grabbed rat or roach poison — which would have a legitimate reason for being in an establishment that also sold food items, but obviously hopefully not in close proximity to the medicine/food.
    • Watch the scene more closely, and the bottle is clearly marked "POISON" on one side. It's most likely the latter case; insect or rat poison that Gower keeps, both for use in his own business to keep vermin out, and to sell to the townspeople who may ALSO need poison to rid their homes of vermin.
    • The poison is cyanide, usually kept for use in tests. Its only medical use is as tiny doses to lower high blood pressure.
    • Plus there's plenty of chemicals which, in small doses, are perfectly safe, but in large doses are dangerous. These are often covered with big skull-and-crossbones labels telling people not to mess around with them. Considering Gower has a young boy working for him, he probably has bottles labelled with 'POISON' specifically to make sure George doesn't go anywhere near them.
    • And if you read anything by Agatha Christie, you'll find a lot of references to people "signing the poison book" when purchasing something at the pharmacist that is poisonous. Pharmacists likely had greater control over substances sold elsewhere now. (Poison register books are a British thing, but it's reasonable to assume something similar existed in the U.S., probably at the state level.)
• Speaking of Gower, during the sequence about Gower and the pills, Mary is sitting at the counter and witnesses the entire thing. George swears he'll never tell about the mistake; Mary doesn't reveal that she saw it all, but she keeps silence also.

Heavenly nomenclature

• Obviously the heavenly host is under no obligation to explain its nomenclature system, but "AS2" doesn't really make sense as an abbreviation for "Angel, Second Class." "A2C" would work better.
  • Someone once worked out that the S stood for Seraphim, and while that's not a seraph's job, it was Christmas and heaven was probably an absolute zoo.
  • The angelic designations in the film may be based on the U.S. government Civil Service ones, known as GS (General Schedule). The GS numbers refer to pay grades. AS, then, would be Angelic Service or Angelic Schedule. With this system, Clarence will become an Angel Third Class when promoted.
  • Another likely possibility is that it's based on the Navy's system of enlisted ranks and rates - a Boatswain's Mate Second Class is a BM2. Not all rates (i.e., job titles) are exact acronyms, so there wouldn't be any need for angels to be, either. Clarence would then likely get a promotion to AS1, that is, Angel First Class.

Joseph being on the same level as God and Jesus

• Just a minor thing, but why is Joseph up there with God the Father and Jesus? Not to besmirch him, as he was after all Jesus' earthly father and by all accounts a good man, but shouldn't the Holy Spirit or something be part of the Great Trifecta in the Sky instead?
  • I think we just have to assume that God works in mysterious ways.
  • It may be worth noting that the Holy Spirit isn't usually depicted speaking aloud.

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