It's a Wonderful Life Page #22

Synopsis: It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas fantasy drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra, based on the short story and booklet The Greatest Gift, which Philip Van Doren Stern wrote in 1939 and published privately in 1943.[2] The film is now among the most popular in American cinema and because of numerous television showings in the 1980s has become traditional viewing during the Christmas season. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his dreams in order to help others, and whose imminent suicide on Christmas Eve brings about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers). Clarence shows George all the lives he has touched and how different life in his community of Bedford Falls would be had he never been born.
Genre: Drama, Family, Fantasy
Production: Liberty Films
  Nominated for 5 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 1 nomination.
 
IMDB:
8.6
Metacritic:
89
Rotten Tomatoes:
94%
PG
Year:
1946
130 min
2,313 Views


NICK (friendly)

Are you all right, George? Want someone to take you home?

George shakes his head. Martini comes over to his side.

MARTINI (worried)

Why you drink so much, my friend? Please go home, Mr. Bailey.

This is Christmas Eve.

The ugly man next to George, who has been listening, reacts

sharply to the name "Bailey."

MAN:

Bailey? Which Bailey?

NICK:

This is Mr. George Bailey.

Without any warning, the burly man throws a vicious punch at

George, who goes down and out. Martini, Nick and several others

rush to pick him up.

MAN (to George)

And 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, and you have to bawl her out . . .

MARTINI (furious)

You get out of here, Mr. Welch!

Mr. Welch reaches in his pocket for money.

WELCH:

Now wait . . . I want to pay for my drink.

MARTINI:

Never mind the money. You get out of here quick.

WELCH:

All right.

MARTINI:

You hit my best friend. Get out!

Nick and Martini shove Welch out the door, then run back to help

George to his feet. George's mouth is cut and bleeding.

NICK:

You all right, George?

GEORGE (stunned)

Who was that?

MARTINI:

He's gone. Don't worry. His name is Welch. He don't come in to my

place no more.

GEORGE:

Oh �� Welch. That's what I get for praying.

MARTINI:

The last time he come in here. You hear that, Nick?

NICK:

Yes, you bet.

GEORGE:

Where's my insurance policy?

(finds it in pocket)

Oh, here . . .

He starts for the door.

MARTINI:

Oh, no, Please, don't go out this way, Mr. Bailey.

GEORGE:

I'm all right.

Nick and Martini try to stop him, but he shrugs them off.

MARTINI:

Oh, no �� you don't feel so good.

GEORGE:

I'm all right.

MARTINI:

Please don't go away �� please!

George opens the door and exits to the street.

WIPE TO:

EXTERIOR RESIDENTIAL STREET �� NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT �� George's car comes along the empty street, through

the falling snow, suddenly swerves and crashes into a tree near

the sidewalk of a

house. George gets out to look at the damage, and savagely kicks

at the open door of the car, trying to shut it. The noise brings

the owner of the house

running out.

OWNER:

What do you think you're doing?

CLOSE SHOT �� George stands unsteadily near the car, shaken by

the accident. The front lights are broken and the fender is

ripped. George stands dully

looking at the damage. The owner comes up, looking at his tree.

He leans over to examine the damages.

OWNER (with indignation)

Now look what you did. My great-grandfather planted this tree.

George staggers off down the street, paying no attention to the

man.

OWNER (cont'd)

Hey, you . . . Hey, you! Come back here, you drunken fool! Get

this car out of here!

EXTERIOR BRIDGE OVER RIVER �� NIGHT

MEDIUM LONG SHOT �� George is crossing the approach to the bridge

when a truck swings around the corner and nearly hits him.

DRIVER:

Hey, what's the matter with you? Look where you're going!

The truck turns onto the bridge, and George takes a narrow

catwalk at the railing.

CLOSE SHOT �� George has stopped by the railing at the center of

the bridge. The snow is now falling hard.

EXTERIOR RIVER �� NIGHT

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT �� CAMERA SHOOTING DOWN from George's angle TO

the water, dotted with floating ice, passing under the bridge.

EXTERIOR BRIDGE AT RAILING �� NIGHT

CLOSEUP �� George. He stares down at the water, desperate, trying

to make up his mind to act. He leans over looking at the water,

fascinated, glances

furtively around him, hunches himself as though about to jump.

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT �� From above George a body hurtles past and

lands in the water with a loud splash. George looks down,

horrified.

VOICE (from river)

Help! Help!

George quickly takes off his coat and dives over the railing into

the water.

CLOSER ANGLE �� George comes up, sees the man flailing about in

the water, and CAMERA PANS WITH him as he swims toward the man.

MAN:

Help! Help! Help!

EXTERIOR TOLL HOUSE ON BRIDGE �� NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT �� The toll house keeper, hearing the cries for help,

comes running out on the bridge with a flashlight, which he

shines on the two figures

struggling in the water below.

EXTERIOR RIVER �� NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT �� The man in the water is Clarence, the angel whose

voice we have heard speaking from Heaven. George reaches him,

grabs hold of him,

and starts swimming for shore.

WIPE TO:

INTERIOR TOLL HOUSE ON BRIDGE �� NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT �� George, Clarence, and the tollkeeper. George is

seated before a wood-burning stove before which his clothes are

drying on a line. He

is in his long winter underwear. He is sipping a mug of hot

coffee, staring at the stove, cold, gloomy and drunk, ignoring

Clarence and the tollkeeper,

preoccupied by his near suicide and his unsolved problems.

Clarence is standing on the other side of the stove, putting on

his undershirt. This is a

ludicrous seventeenth century garment which looks like a baby's

night shirt �� with embroidered cuffs and collar, and gathered at

the neck with a

drawstring. It falls below his knees.

The tollkeeper is seated against the wall eyeing them

suspiciously. Throughout the scene he attempts to spit, but each

time is stopped by some amazing

thing Clarence does or says. Clarence becomes aware that his

garment is amazing the tollkeeper.

CLARENCE:

I didn't have time to get some stylish underwear. My wife gave me

this on my last birthday. I passed away in it.

The tollkeeper, about to spit, is stopped in the middle of it by

this remark. Clarence, secretly trying to get George's attention,

now picks up a copy of

"Tom Sawyer" which is hanging on the line, drying. He shakes the

book.

CLARENCE (cont'd)

Oh, Tom Sawyer's drying out, too. You should read the new book

Mark Twain's writing now.

The tollkeeper stares at him incredulously.

TOLLKEEPER:

How'd you happen to fall in?

CLARENCE:

I didn't fall in. I jumped in to save George.

George looks up, surprised.

GEORGE:

You what? To save me?

CLARENCE:

Well, I did, didn't I? You didn't go through with it, did you?

GEORGE:

Go through with what?

CLARENCE:

Suicide.

George and the tollkeeper react to this.

TOLLKEEPER:

It's against the law to commit suicide around here.

CLARENCE:

Yeah, it's against the law where I come from, too.

TOLLKEEPER:

Where do you come from?

He leans forward to spit, but is stopped by Clarence's next

statement.

CLARENCE:

Heaven.

(to George)

I had to act quickly; that's why I jumped in. I knew if I were

drowning you'd try to save me. And you see, you did, and that's

how I saved you.

The tollkeeper becomes increasingly nervous. George casually

looks at the strange smiling little man a second time.

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Albert Hackett

Albert Maurice Hackett (February 16, 1900 – March 16, 1995) was an American dramatist and screenwriter most noted for his collaborations with his partner and wife Frances Goodrich. more…

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