It's a Wonderful Life

People seem to loathe the movie. It’s actually heartbreakingly wonderful.

I love the old fashioned Christmas decoration. Those bells-classic!

Out you two pixies go!

Too smarmy for me.

It's not a difficult premise George. Stop yelling for a minute and FIGURE IT THE FUCK OUT. God you are a stupid yokel fuck!

"Jimmy Stewart is a hot piece"

Funniest line ever on the Datalounge! Jimmy Stewart was a skinny, nerdy, pathetic dumb fuck.

Wasn’t he also a down low KKK, white hood wearing racist?

Yeah, I loved the film and watched it every year. Lost all interest when I heard about Stewart’s off screen activities.

Yes, R7, Jimmy was a big klansman. He was the grand poobah wizard of Bel-Air. Didn't they burn giant dollar signs on Rodeo Drive? I know I read that somewhere, possibly on here.

It's the one of the best post war film noir. There's not bad performance. Capra used shots and angles that he never used before. And this Isi Jimmy Stewart first film after the war. He is a different actor from this movie on. The shiny eagerness of his pre-war films is gone. War changed some source of his acting. From 1946 to 1962 he gave consistently excellent performances- even in Harvey.

Gloria Grahame slept with and then later married her stepson.

George never, ever got anything he'd dreamed of. He becomes grateful for what he has but I think it's tragic that he had to set everything aside.

^^ If George eere smart, hes have run off with Violet Bick.

Zuzu had such soft, delicate petals.

[quote]Gloria Grahame slept with and then later married her stepson.

What's wrong with that?

"There's not bad performance."

Personally, I've always hated the guy who played Clarence the Angel, he was so fucking twee.

But he doesn't ruin the film, which really is excellent. It's beautifully made and has genuinely universal appeal; if there's any way to play 2-D movies 300 or 3000 years from now, anyone who sees this melodrama will still identify with George Bailey and their feelings will be given a good wringing-out. Every adult has to make compromises because life is never what we want it to be, and that's something that everyone experiences in real life and which filmmakers rarely explore.

[quote]...Clarence the Angel, he was so fucking twee.

Well Nick the bartender thinks he's gay.

That's actually an interesting scene, when George and Clarence are in the bar and Clarence orders a "flaming" rum punch, then changes his mind to something with "cloves and cinnamon", and George whispers to him that "you'd better not mention your 'wings' around here," and Nick finally tells the "two pixies" to get out.

I never read into the bar scene. Now I have to rewatch for the subtext. I, too, loved the old-fashioned decorations. I grew up in a microscopic town, and for a time, that's what the main street looked like every Christmas. For years, I thought that was the norm. A mini neighborhood in my current city has brought back the style and has a Bdford Falls Christmas vibe.

No gaybirds!

The scene.

^ There's definitely some gay subtext there.

Yep, R20-I never saw it before, and now that's been pointed out, I can't believe I missed it.

"People seem to loathe the movie."

Who "loathes" it? It's considered a classic, one of the greatest films of all time.

Nick needs to be touched by an angel.

[quote] Jimmy Stewart was a skinny, nerdy, pathetic dumb fuck.

He was a war hero and Lt. General, IIRC.

After the war, while filming on location in Spain, he went to check in to his hotel. The manager refused, and told him he was told not to rent rooms to “Hollywood types”. Stewart took out an ID. The manager looked at it, and said “Well, we certainly can rent a room to Lt. General James Stewart of the United States Army!

I love the Charleston scene. It looks like so much fun! (Linked)

Sam Wainwright is wearing a “Zoot Suite” at the prom, at 2:12.

Harry Bailey is adorable in this scene.

Through much of the dance, you can see both George and Mary looking to the viewer’s foreground, left. Off screen, there are a couple of professional dancers that they are mimicking. At 2:16, you can see the pros on screen. Notice that George and Mary are doing the same steps.

I love the minor characters and little things that fill out the movie.

Like: “Hee-haw”, which doesn’t really require much explanation.

Or when Uncle Billy loses the money, and says he even looked in the rooms that have been locked since Clara (whomever) died. Sad!

And Uncle Billy’s pet crow. Apparently, the crow was in dozens of movies.

Lionel Barrymore really was in a wheelchair but was so well liked that he got plenty of work.

I watched this with my nephew and so much of the movie goes right over his head. Things like:

Bank runs

VJ Day

VE Day

The difference between a Bank, and a Building & Loan.

1-A vs. 4-F

Blackout shades

Etc.

Harry Bailey was SO hot. He got all the family looks.

What’s the deal with “dime a dance” parlors in Pottersville? Were those dancers prostitutes?

We had some of those Christmas tree bells when I was a kid. I assume my family had them since the 1940s. I miss them.

Funny how most of the women in the dance scene at r25 have 1940s hairstyles and it's supposed to be 1928.

^Well, Stewart was 38, playing a character who was about 21.

It seems with many movies they do that with hair styles. Otherwise, they can become a distraction, I understand.

Also great, the guy on the porch who tells George to just kiss her instead of talking her to death.

R29, places where you could dance with a girl for a dime actually existed in the early 20th century. I believe they were generally considered sleazy places where desperate men paid for time with desperate women, and some were probably fronts for prostitution (if not all).

Hollywood used those places to substitute for brothels, when the story called for a brothel and the Production Code forbade any mention of prostitution. In "From Here to Eternity" the Donna Reed character is a hooker who works in a brothel, in the movie she works for a pay-for-a-dance place where the proprietoress says "... and no funny business". So yeah, in "Wonderful Life" the mention of dance halls is supposed to make the adults in the audience think of brothels.

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?

[English: Outa here, gays.]

Thanks, R34.

I think it’s fun decoding movies.

It was a flop when it came out, I understand.

I would never describe this movie as sappy and sentimental. It has some of the darkest moments in 40's cinema. Young George getting slapped on the ear by the pharmacist is shocking, and the whole sequence where Stewart plays a man having a nervous breakdown is deeply upsetting.

R38, plus the Dad dies.

And Mary gets naked (well, implicitly).

Along with “Who’s Afraid of Virginia W.”, and “Rudolph...”, it’s probably my favorite movie.

I remember this coming on tv ALL THE TIME in December when I was growing up. I hadn’t watched it in years and I decided to watch it last Christmas...I wasn’t prepared for it as an adult. It really hit me hard and I fucking CRIED. I know, Mary! It was so dark and real in a way that old movies never are.

Also, I too loved Jimmy Stewart. Always preferred him to Cary in The Philadelphia Story as well.

R42, do you think you understood the old tiimy stuff? See R27.

It's a depressing movie for a depressing time of the year. What's its moral? "Be happy with what you have, it could be a lot worse. Also, the guilty tend to get away with their crimes."

Damn, R44, Clarence tells you straight out at the end: [italic] “A man is a success if he has friends.” [/italic] (something like that.)

Parallel universe Ma Bailey is pretty dark.

More dark stuff:

Cemetery visit.

Uncle Billy gets locked up.

Mr. Gower’s son dies from the influenza.

Old maid Mary becomes a librarian! (Sad!)

She’s just about to close up the library!

R48, It's "She’s just about to close up the librareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

Apparently everyone George came in contact with came to a sad end without him except Potter, who becomes King of the whole town and renames it Pottersville. All the townspeople who would have had decent homes would presumably have been displaced, either homeless or living in dumps or flophouses. Mr. Gower is imprisoned for poisoning a child and becomes a homeless drunk after he gets released. Violet Bick, the town flirt, becomes a haggard prostitute. Ernie the cab driver is bitter and alone, having been deserted by his wife, who takes off with the kids. Uncle Billy is in an asylum. Harry is dead, along with all the men he would have saved if George had been there to save HIM. George's mother is a hateful, miserable old bag who runs a boarding house. And poor Mary is an old maid librarian who wears glasses.

I always thought that having Mary's sad fate be that she became a plain Jane old maid librarian was ridiculous. At the dance she's a vibrant, gorgeous young woman; not marrying George Bailey made her morph into a plain little mouse who is unmarried and works in a library? How silly. I always thought that Mary should have had another suitor; oh, I know Sam Wainwright was sweet on her, but I'm talking about another kind of suitor. I wish she'd had another suiter, one who was good looking and had money, but was also controlling and with a dangerous streak. She turns him down for George and he doesn't like it; he tries to rough her up but George intervenes and he angrily goes off. I would like to have seen a scene like that in the movie. And when George comes back after Clarence makes it so he's never been born, he sees Mary with the suitor. She's his wife; he has her arm in a lock grip and she's sporting what looks like a black eye. George punches the guy out and accosts Mary, screaming that he loves he and needs her. Thinking him a crazy man, she runs into the bar for help...and then there's the rest of it. I would like to have seen things played out like that, instead of the dumb premise that without George Bailey Mary would have been a plain, lonely spinster.

^ I like that scenario.

[quote] R50: All the townspeople who would have had decent homes would presumably have been displaced, either homeless or living in dumps or flophouses.

They all rent from Mr. Potter. This is known.

R50, there was no one other for virginal Mary than our George.

How come the sad sacks here threaten suicide but never threaten to become a librarian?

R50-your scenario is better. I always got a kick out of the fact that the worst fate for Mary was to become a single librarian. Sorry, but I know a lot of married women who would find that life enviably preferable.

R43, My mother would try to explain everything to me as a child. WW2 and why the townspeople were demanding their money back and other things that were completely out of my sphere. I don’t know how much I really grasped though. I think the movie gutted me as an adult not because I understood the world they lived in better, but because I truly understood that ALL his dreams came to naught. It hit home for me that I might never do half of the things I’ve dreamed and that was so fucking depressing.

Also, probably seasonal affective disorder.

"They all rent from Mr. Potter. This is known."

And they all live in dumps. What else would you expect from a slumlord like Potter?

Don't forget us garlic-eaters!

I like how Bert and Ernie are still friends in the Georgeless universe.

What about those of us who like skinny, gawky, supposedly nerdy types? I can’t help but find James Stewart hot. He’s so good in Mr Smith Goes to Washington.

R60, you’d like Stewart as a Senator in [italic] “The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance”. [/italic] One of my favorite movie names.

R56, yeah, it was a different world. They didn’t even have Social Security back then. Not that it’s relevant to the movie, but still.

r61=Gene Pitney

"There was no one other for virginal Mary than our George."

Oh, come on. I could believe her when she said she'd never have married anyone but George when he existed. But to have her never marry anyone if George had not existed? Seems far fetched to me. Would the absence of George have changed her whole personality and looks from a beautiful, vivacious girl to a plain, uptight one? I didn't buy that.

R64, yes it’s far fetched, but is it odder than Clarence being George’s guardian angel? It’s a fantasy, after all.

" It’s a fantasy, after all."

There was a lot of realism in the movie, too. The sudden death of loved ones, financial hardship, dreams and ambitions that fail to come to to fruition due to unexpected events...for a fantasy it had a lot of stark realism.

I find that instead of electing a George Bailey for president, we elected a Mr. Potter, and are now living in Pottersville instead of Bedford Falls... Angry, suspicious, garlic eater hating Pottersville. Violet Bick as our First Lady......I want to go back, Clarence....

George had Lincoln in his office, Potter had Napolean....

And its wrong, but I love the Cooks pickaninny ways - I wuz saving for a divorce, if i ever gots me a husband.....

Very astute, R67!

It’s Annie, the Black cook.

With reference to George saying he loved his father: Annie: “It’s about time one of you lunkheads said it!”

Oh my god-Mr. Potter IS president!

Some critic said the Pottersville seemed a lot more "fun' than Bedford Falls. Yeah, if you consider vice (prostitution, gambling, drinking) and human suffering (poverty no doubt reigned in Pottersville) "fun."

^ That critic must have low morals and a weak character.

I wonder if there was a gay section of Pottersville?

I think it was located on the Hershey highway....

R70, Pottersville would be the place you drive to from Elmira to vacation at.

I also like the grumpy guy who worries about damage to the oldest tree in Pottersville. It’s detail like that, that seems missing in so many other films.

I know that if an actor speaks in a film, he gets a higher pay for his work. Sometimes you can see when the extra really should say as much as “hello” or “thank you”, or “f-you”, but awkwardly doesn’t. I guess it’s to save a few bucks but it spoils the movie. IAWL isn’t like that, and it shows.

I like it when George gets into it with Mr. Welch. "Who's this? Oh, it's Mr. Welch! All right Mr. Welch anytime you think you're man enough just come over and I'll...". Then he ends sitting next to Mr. Welch at Nick's bar. "My wife cried for an hour after she got off the phone with you!"

I always worry if Mary got the deed transferred for the old Granville house. I’d hate to see them tossed out after fixing it up.

Trivia: a crew member stood by to break the window when Mary threw her rock at it, but she managed to break the window in her first try.

More trivia: when Uncle Billy leaves the wedding party, and drunkenly falls into those garbage cans off screen, that wasn’t supposed to happen. What actually happened was a crew member accidentally knocked something over, and Uncle Billy ad-libbed by saying “I’m all right, I’m all right.” Then George cracks up about it.

Allegedly. Does this sound real, or is it just a BS story.

"He's making violent love to me Mother!" I laughed at this when I was kid because why would Mary tell her mom that she and George were having sex?

R79, it was to get that busybody mother off the phone extension.

"Making love" didn't come to mean "having sex" until after the sexual revolution of the '60s. In earlier days, it meant wooing, or making out -- never intercourse. That was never spoken of in movies back then.

Speaking of bit parts, loved the guy who was a in the booth next to the bridge - a few words, but those facial expressions, and the bit of slapstick sliding the chair down the wall - a small gem in the movie.... And of course Ernie and Burt.......

I read on DataLounge that that pool still exists under a Beverly Hills high school.

Clarence Oddbody was born in May, 1653.

^ And yet he presented as late 19th century by being a Mark Twain fan. That inconsistency always bugged me. Plus that quasi-British accent.

Clarence was also supposed to be a clock maker, I thought.

The ending always gets to me, especially when the camera pans over the faces of those who be dead or ruined if not for George Bailey.

The big life lesson from "It's a Wonderful Life," comes late in the film, delivered straight from heaven. "Each man's life touches so many other lives," explains Clarence Odbody, Angel Second Class. "When he isn't around, he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?"

Clarence’s book inscription was “No man is a failure who has friends.” I think that’s dumb life lesson.

"Making love" didn't come to mean "having sex" until after the sexual revolution of the '60s. In earlier days, it meant wooing, or making out -- never intercourse. "

Didn't Scarlett O'Hara say something like "Are you making love to me, Rhett Butler?" in GWTW?

Because yeah, the meaning changed some time in the middl of the 20th century. It used to mean flirting or courting.

It’s great to read a real cinematic discussion about this film and not just a “holiday discussion” about it.

I have seen this movie many times over the years and have the opportunity to see this on the big screen several times. I think it is an excellent film and think it’s even more enjoyable on a big screen!

I’m really loving this thread and appreciate all of the details and unique observations that you guys are highlighting and bringing to the discussion.

This is one of the reasons that I love a lot of the film threads on DL; there are a lot of real cinema lovers here!

The unique story and screenplay, Stewart’s bold, fearless, and surprisingly dark performance, and the distinct and wonderful cinematography and direction are just a few of the reasons this is one of my all time favorite films.

This really is Capra and Stewart at their best, and the mix of fantasy and a real dark, noir-ish tone and look really sets it apart and surprises me each time I watch it. It gets very intense and dark for a movie people too often describe as just a “holiday film” or “sentimental feel good story”.

It’s actually a film with a lot of layers to it and is a real gem.

I reacted to it so differently as a child than I did as an adult and I was surprised how sad and touching I found it in totally different ways when I revisited it as a “mature” (no longer a kid) viewer.....

It really is an amazing and unique movie that I never tire of (and am even noticing new things about now just from reading this great thread...).

I miss the days when it was in the public domain. Throughout the month of December, you could turn the television on any time of day and IAWL would be airing on some channel. There were also times when it aired on two or three channels at the same time.

I wish NBC wasn't so stingy with the broadcast rights. At this point, they're being ridiculous, airing the movie with 10-minute commercial breaks every 5 minutes. And they have no qualms about going to commercials mid-scene. At least Turner Classic Movies would give It's A Wonderful Life the respect it deserves.

When it became a flop Stewart and Capra blamed Reed. She was bitter about it for the rest of her life. When there were salutes in the 70s to Capra and Stewart all of the sudden they gave credit to her but she was not very pleased about it. It genuinely hurt her career at the time.

[quote] Clarence was also supposed to be a clock maker, I thought.

No, he was a cock sucker.

Stewart, to me, always had a very dark/angry undertone in every role, even as early as The Philadelphia Story (1940). I do agree with the comment above that probably his combat experience in WWII, combined with aging, accentuated it. But to me he was at his best in roles that used that undertone and downplayed the aw-shucks aspect of his persona. He could be downright frighteningly intense in roles like George Bailey or Scottie Ferguson in Vertigo.

I liked him in his later years where he mixed his aw shucks folksiness with his dark side like in The Trial of Lassie.

Agree, R94. Stewart was a unique actor and movie star in that he had these almost polar opposite sides to his screen persona.

I also could not imagine any other actor of his time bringing exactly what he did to those roles (George Bailey and Scotty Ferguson).

He could also be excellent in complicated lead roles, like that of the ambitious and morally ambiguous lawyer in “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959)—another great film.

There are not real “movie stars” like this anymore, and I doubt there will be again....

Yeah, Stewart really was a terrific actor. He always seemed to play variations on the same aw-shucks guy, but he had such HUGE emotional depth that he could make those mannerisms fit absolutely any kind of role.

He could do anything from fluffy family comedies like "Take Her, She's Mine" where there wasn't a hint of his dark side visible, to comedy with a tinge of darkness like "Harvey", to straightforward suspense films like "Rear Window", to the depths of despair and back again in "Wonderful Life", to descending completely into madness in "Vertigo". He really was an excellent actor, and if had been a more admirable human being I'd be a huge, huge fan.

I like the scene when the garlic eaters get their house, and Sam Wainwright shows up with his trophy wife. When he arrives, Mary says to George, with subtle contempt in her voice, that it’s Sam, and George says something like “Never mind that”, implying that they don’t really like him but remain friendly because Sam likes them.

There are a lot of such scenes, that hint at things that go on off screen, and I like that. It’s like life.

In his early MGM films there really is no glimpse of his deep talents that were shortly to be brought out by Capra. How did he get those jobs? Hmmm...

^ Maybe by being tall and gangly with a funny looking face. Someone must've thought his look was good for "character" parts. He could easily have ended up a supporting character actor for his whole career.

Are the networks still showing this thing over and over from Thanksgiving until Christmas?

R91 can't you just buy a dvd? I don't miss the old public domain Wonderful Life. It was restored so beautifully a few years ago and this year we get a 4K!

So as a child it was a Christmas movie with Jimmy Stewart. It was a "count your blessings/being a good guy means always doing the right thing" kind of movie- all Christmas movies about the same thing. But as an adult I see it as a post war film about confusion, duty, and chances. I also see how it reflects emotional, social, and financial abuse of the post war country. Don't forget it's 1946 really in this movie. Here is a world where if the good guy does the right thing he loses. Stands up for his father- left with the bank, little brother is selfish and pussywhipped so he can't come back to town, and he is custodian to a drunk, dimwitted uncle. Even his marriage proposal is dark and violent. Watch Stewart rough up Mary when he is giving into to the idea of marrying her. Only a gun moll would take such abuse and call it love. And Gloria Grahame's character is the town slut in both the real world and the dream. And even when Gorge is being rewarded for his past deeds by everyone ,but the rich whites, Potter never returns the $8,000.00 .

Most of all watch Stewart"s internal anger. Before the world he only really got to show a hint in the After The Thin Man. But now he is no longer shinny and new- neither is the country. George represents both.

PS I think Nick"s homophobia is due to the idea that without George he wouldn't be respectable and kind.

r91 and r1102, the whole movie has been posted on vimeo.com for years. You can see it free without commercials anytime you want.

I wonder if it was intentional that Potter totally gets away with stealing the money, or just a forgotten loose end.

And why exactly did Violet have to leave town?

It must have been deliberate, R105; there’s no way a director would accidentally overlook punishing hammy Lionel Barrymore. I think we’re meant to conclude that George is likely to prevail over the old, ailing Potter—but it’s not a sure thing.

[quote]I wonder if it was intentional that Potter totally gets away with stealing the money, or just a forgotten loose end.

I believe it was implied that the townspeople later beat him to death, for that and various misdemeanors.

That was on SNL, R107.

Of course Potter would keep the money. Nobody knew what happened to it, only that dimwit Uncle Billy somehow misplaced it. I guess the townspeople didn't need details; they only knew that George was "in trouble" and donated to the cause.

Wasn't Violet jobless and husbandless and without any real prospects in Bedford Falls? Was that why she wanted to leave town, to have a fresh start somewhere else? I got the impression she'd been living off of well off boyfriends but was now without one and had gone through all of them in town and needed to go to a new town to make new male friends. She decides not to go though; I suppose it's implied that she'll change her ways and not be the town fast girl anymore.

Violet was going to leave Bedford Falls to be a prostitute in NYC. That's why George was so surprised to see that she had changed her mind about leaving.

"Violet was going to leave Bedford Falls to be a prostitute in NYC."

How did you come to that conclusion? What did she say or do to make you think that?

I think the film would have been a hit on its initial release if at the end the townspeople had beat Lionel Barrymore to death. Not the character but the actor.

^ Really? I thought he was well liked in the industry and the public.

He was well liked. He was indeed in a wheel chair, so filmmakers went out of their way to cast him.

This film is both "Capra-corn" and an unsparing look at the realities of adulthood. Because that's how adulthood goes for most people, your plans don't pan out and you don't get what you wanted, and life takes you in directions you never intended and there you are. You learn to be happy with what you have (or not), and give up the youthful dreams as things happen and priorities change.

It's very rare that films are made about that process. Most films are intended to help us escape from the reality of it.

George Bailey's plans never panned out due to his saintly selflessness. He wants to "see the world" but everything he does chains him to Bedford Falls. He forgoes going to college and remains at the Building and Loan to prevent the evil Potter from taking over the town and becoming a slumlord. Harry is supposed to take over after he comes back from college but he marries a rich girl who wants him to work for her father, so George continues to stay at the Building and Loan. Her married and has a bunch of kids which further bogs him down in small town life. He misses out on the "excitement" and "glory" of war due to deafness in one ear, which he got after his heroic rescue of his drowning little brother from an icy grave. If George Bailey had maybe once in his life put himself first, maybe his dreams would have come true. But since he didn't, he reaped what he had sown; a dull, small town existence.

When they began showing it endlessly on television, I never took much notice. It was on for many years --and even a colorized version! -- but I really hadn't seen it until about 20 years ago. It is sentimental, of course, but no one is harmed by being reminded of the things that make life worth living. The lesson of each of us having the ability to make a difference in the world is timeless. I was born in the 50's and those Christmas decorations remind me of how our little town was decorated at Christmas. I'm not much for thinking that items from my youth are magical, but seeing 1940s Christmas movies makes me think it was the golden age of decoration.

"Nobody knew what happened to it"

Potter's manservant was standing right behind him when Potter unfolded the newspaper that was wrapped around the money. Then, Potter immediately ordered him to wheel Potter over to where he could see Uncle Billy looking for the money. Hey, there's the sequel: "The Moral Dilemma of a Manservant." Should he do the right thing and turn in his boss or keep quiet and keep his job, working for the richest man in town (Potter, not George)?

Re: Zuzu

Today it may seem odd that George is so worried about Zuzu, but penicillin was not in wide use in 1945 and there was no polio vaccine. Kids getting sick in those days could be life-changing or fatal.

Barrymore may have been well liked but his hammy performances drive me up a wall.

Except for Grand Hotel in which I find him incredibly moving. Even Joan outdoes herself in this. It kills me when she says to him with enormous hope, 'They can cure anything these days.' MGM dramas are much darker than people give them credit for.

I finally made this connection: "My little ginger snap." That spinster librarian helped me research it.

R108, one of SNL’s greatest skits ever.

[quote]Re: Zuzu

Just think -- in thirty years we went from Zuzu to Pazuzu.

R121, I love it!

I always assumed that Zuzu was just a shortened, endearing form of Susan. Now I wonder if she had an entirely different name and they called her Zuzu for another reason, perhaps red hair.

I had always wondered why Mr. Martini, being an Italian, had such a prominent role throughout the movie. It seemed odd in the middle of the all-American town of Bedford Falls. I didn't think about Capra wanting to normalize the perception of Italian-Americans.

R117. I totally agree. The new LED lights are hideous.

[quote] Trivia: a crew member stood by to break the window when Mary threw her rock at it, but she managed to break the window in her first try.

There was no window

It was CGI, right?

There was no window where Mary grew the rock. They just made a breaking window sound.

Btw, it’s Mary’s fault George never got anywhere. Her wish - that George never leaves Bedford falls and marries her - comes true. Poor George,

Before George married Mary he was always thwarting his own dreams. He saves Harry, gets a bad ear infection and loses hearing in that ear, making him ineligible for army service, thus missing out on the "glory " and "excitement" of going to war. He takes over the Building and Loan after his father dies, and instead of handing the reins over to Harry after Harry completes college (George ends up never going to college), he valiantly stays on there so Harry can get a cushy job working for his rich father in law. All this is before marrying Mary. But after marrying her he does cement himself as a fixture in Bedford Falls by his responsibilities as a husband and the father of four kids. George Bailey's life turns out the way it did due to his selfless nature. He tries to be good, but all it does is keep him from doing everything he wanted to do in his life.

Plus Mary only did missionary. No oral.

r131 The hell you say? She did anal with me.

Stewart's post war movies also include

"Magic Town" - where he plays a cynical pollster and "Call Northside 777" - based on a real story, he plays a newsman who follows up on an ad placed by the mother of a man who she believes was wrongly convicted of murder.

But his post war period was punctuated by the darker westerns he did, starting with "Winchester 73" (no awk shucks Jimmy here), "Bend in the River" - a favorite of mine with a great cast, particularly Arthur Kennedy, "The Naked Spur", "The Far Country", and "Night Passage".

Nick was really a self loathing closeted pansy who knew about anal.

I forgot one of the westerns... "The Man from Laramie" should be added.

I .ime all of Uncle Billy’s animals. He had a crow, and a squirrel. Apparently the crow was in a number of films.

Youth is wasted on the wrong people...

[quote]Yes, [R7], Jimmy was a big klansman.

Other than being an asshole and a Republican cunt, please, don't say it's so.

It's on tonight at 8:00 on NBC. I don't have the patience to watch it all the way through, but I do like to catch the ending, which always gets to me, especially when the camera pans over the faces of the people who would be dead or ruined if not for George Bailey.

Even though it is available on streaming, I think I will record the NBC airing, and then watch it in pieces over the next few days.

R140, you truly have had a wonderful life.