IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE: The Passion of George Bailey and a Glorious Christmas Curse

·       From the Irish caidhp bháis, meaning death cap

·       From the Scots kye booties, meaning cow boots (a hobble placed on cattle to prevent them from straying)

·       From the Hebrew חבש (khbsh), meaning to bind or to imprison

Derivation of word KIBOSH [kahy-bosh; ki-bosh; i.e. ‘put the kibosh on’; restrain, halt or prevent an activity from continuing]

Beloved holiday film classic; box-office disappointment; alleged Communist propaganda; culturally-significant film inductee by the United States Library of Congress; and entry on “AFI’s 100 Years 100 Movies” list of the most important American films of all time (initially #11 in 1997; #20 as of 2007 and the time of this analysis) ~ Director Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946) is also an essential fantasy and a deceptively existential and supernatural holiday film with a dark undercurrent of sinister stirrings and divine, yet, unearthly sensations.

 

“Central Park [New York, U.S.A.] In Winter” published by Currier & Ives (1877-94)

“George Bailey: This Is Your Life!”

Never mind that the film opens like a glittery Christmas card brimming with vintage imagery reminiscent of joyful and nostalgic holiday seasons long passed in its reflection of auld lang syne, albeit, subpar Currier & Ives.  As soon as we’re confronted with the snow-laden signpost designating:  “YOU ARE NOW IN BEDFORD FALLS” - - we have just been formally invited as tourists, thank heavens, to watch in 130 minutes, the life and times of one Mr. George Bailey (James Stewart) unreel within the impenetrable barriers of a cinematic snow globe which literally and figuratively encase our protagonist inside Bedford Falls’ invisible force field that has clearly been composed of multi-pane, frosted glass mouth-blown by some mischievous and puckish spirit(s).

Incidentally, during the film’s third act, George even scans the landscape, from screen left to right, as if he’s surveying the inner edges of the bowl in which he’s suppressed.  Furthermore, the very etymology of “Bailey” suggests an area open to the sky, yet, entirely surrounded by walls.  It appears this imbroglio of cinematic existence was ordained.

“Well, I’m going to get out of it.  I’ll get out of it.  I know how, too.” :: George Bailey: Sacrificial Lamb and Prisoner of Bedford Falls

What follows the film’s opening sequence is over a half-dozen disembodied and concerned pleas for Mr. Bailey’s well-being by the townspeople amidst the deserted, frosty evening streets of Bedford Falls, New York, U.S.A.  The town’s appellation is a moniker which implies a town which is descending, sinking or falling to lower depths, since a waterfall is never actually seen nor is it revealed in the film that a single or multiple cataracts within the community even exist.

Of course, there is the slight descent of a frozen river, the site of the sensational shovel slide sequence where young George and his friends accelerate down an icy incline into a perilous pond which may or may not similarly be “the falls” adjacent to Mt. Bedford that are “beautiful up there in the moonlight, and there’s a green pool up there” as George attempts to clumsily lure Violet Bick (Gloria Grahame) into a late night stroll there.

And not even the pure, white snow (manufactured by RKO’s innovative effects department using 3,000 tons of shaved ice; 300 tons of gypsum; 300 tons of plaster and 6,000 gallons of a special mixture of foamite, soap and water - - the crew would later win a technical Academy Award for their achievement in snow-making) can uplift the ominous dark tone of the chilly, Christmas Eve atmosphere that introduces Capra’s film.

In a bold move on behalf of the filmmakers, we are instantly transported from a snowy white-on-black tableaux of Bedford Falls to a darker and stelliferous white-on-black spatial and celestial plane where the film-camera’s lens orbits a passing planetoid, likely, the Earth’s Moon - - a celestial body and its beams which will be discussed, often times, supernaturally and romantically; sung by; sketched into a caricature; coveted; wished upon and/or referenced at least two dozen times, not to mention provided as a name for a local tavern, “The Blue Moon Bar” - - so as to navigate toward and eavesdrop on a conversation between an angel named Joseph (Joseph Granby) with a senior angel dubbed Franklin (Moroni Olsen) who send for Clarence Odbody (Henry Travers), a clockmaker with “the I.Q. of a rabbit” and “the faith of a child.”

The latter of whom, Clarence, has the recognition of “A-S-2” (Angel, Second Class) on account of his not having his wings, presumably, a necessary item in an angel’s toolkit.  The stars that exist in this seemingly infinite space are frozen and refuse to twinkle except for the three flickering, heavenly bodies who engage in a narrated dissection of George Bailey’s existence up until this crucial night when he contemplates suicide.

“George Lassos The Moon” as a Victrola phonograph plays “Buffalo Gals” (featuring lyrics: “… and dance by the light of the moon.”) in the next room

As the characters who populate Capra’s film circumnavigate around Bailey, George himself is frozen in the community and unable to escape the concealed boundaries of Bedford Falls.  Not even an attempt at suicide can eject George Bailey from the hometown morass where he seems destined, or rather, doomed to live the rest of his (un)natural existence.

A few characters even hatch a scheme on George’s wedding night going so far as to adorn his surroundings by plastering posters of “romantic places, beautiful places … places George wants to go” to the interior walls and windows of his new home - - a literal construction of George’s physical environment.

With some cinematic hocus-pocus, the angel Joseph not only illuminates the hazy filter of the camera lens for Clarence to see the moving images of George’s life, but also adjusts the focus for the audience partaking in the self-reflexive ‘life/film-within-a-film’ viewing experience.

Along with Clarence, we are first introduced to Little George Bailey (Bobby Anderson) as a young lad of twelve in a wintry scene sledding with his young peers along a snowy embankment toward a pond that has frozen over and features a threatening whirlpool at the far corner beneath its icy surface.

Young Explorers or Pirates?

Quite eerily, the patches that adorn the young boys’ woolen caps are respectively emblazoned with a skull-and-crossbones making them emblematic ‘death/skull caps.’  Coupled with the film’s many images of and references to the Earth’s Moon, these are motifs which occur repeatedly throughout IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE contributing to its illusory and supernatural quality which appears as if some Dark Arts are likely at play.  Even upon announcing his younger brother, Little Harry Bailey (Georgie Nokes) and his turn at a slide down the potentially treacherous slope, George proclaims through his megaphone (certainly, an unusual device to bring along to an outing with friends), “And here comes the scare-baby.”

As the children cheer each other toward the impending doom of the frigid vortex awaiting them at the edge of the pond - - even as multiple “No Trespassing” signs adorn the area - - Harry issues the first of the film’s many pleas for George’s help when he breaks through the ice begging George to sacrifice his own well-being to save Harry from the depths of the whirling, icy grave thereby costing George his hearing in his left ear.

Herein lies the first of many clues for George’s inability to escape the veiled clutches of his hometown.  Quite cinematically, this unilateral hearing loss (or single-sided deafness) is an impairment which not only allows George (and the audience watching the film) to hear Capra’s film in monophonic / monaural sound, but it has also been scientifically documented that UHL or SSD has been known to cause irritability, lack of awareness of others’ personal space and most compellingly, a feeling of social isolation:  a device which literally handicaps George by keeping him bound to Bedford Falls (further exemplified by his 4-F designation during wartime and being classified as physically, psychologically or morally unfit for military duty).

The angel Joseph shuttles to the next sequence where the same group of boys walk arm-in-arm, all whistling down Main (Genesee) Street on a warm Spring afternoon.  This immediately follows a stunning graphic match of the boys similarly linked into a human chain (at George’s behest, “Make a chain, gang!  A chain!”) to rescue Harry (and George, himself) from the icy maelstrom; the act of which diametrically converges into what resembles a cross with the screen wipe transition from screen left in the following shot as Spring pushes Winter aside to screen right - - in front of ever-moving traffic without the boys realizing a car is dangerously closing in on them.

After and Before 

George, the assumed leader of the youthful posse, seems to have a death wish that he instigates over his friends.  They even stop at a stand still (at George’s command, incidentally) just a few feet from the headlights of an approaching automobile as they catch sight of Henry F. Potter (Lionel Barrymore), the town magnate and as Joseph narrates, “the richest and meanest man in the county,” being hauled down the opposite side of the street in his hearse-like, horse-drawn carriage with a door encrusted with a lavishly-designed “HP” decoration.

Perhaps in an alternate cinematic universe, this was the initial(s) inspiration for author, J.K. Rowling, and her do-gooder against the Dark Arts:  Harry Potter?  Incidentally, later in his adult life, George does exult to his co-workers how they’re “a couple of financial wizards.”

As George leaves his friends to go to work at his place of employment in Old Man Gower’s Drugstore, he crosses his fingers, closes his eyes and flips the switch on an old-fashioned cigar lighter as he utters a phrase transcending beyond his mortal plane that he will materialistically repeat once more when he turns twenty-one:  “Wish I had a million dollars.”

With a collision of wish making, superstition and potential spell-casting on display, George Bailey is playing with powers out of his control and digging a supernatural grave from whence he will be unable to escape.  Crossing the ethical bounds of employer/employee conduct, an inebriated Mr. Gower later slaps George’s sore left ear causing it to bleed quite horrifically when George fails to deliver mistakenly-placed poisoned capsules on Gower’s behalf to a customer.  This is the same ear into which Little Mary Hatch (Jean Gale) and George’s future wife sitting on the opposite side of the druggist counter bewitchingly whispers, “Is this the ear you can’t hear on?  George Bailey, I’ll love you till the day I die.”

By making this second sacrifice for the good of Gower and saving a child from being poisoned, George’s employer forgives him with a phrase that will echo later in the film, “Oh, George, George…”, and George (nor we, nor Clarence) will see Mary again until George is twenty-one.

Since his younger brother’s near-drowning accident at the pond, George is finally noticing and heeding the advice of the signs placed around him.  Unable to decide on his own how he should’ve acted when Gower accidentally ordered George to deliver capsules of poison to a client, Bailey spots a Sweet Caporal cigarette ad in the drugstore window stating:  “Ask Dad, he knows.”

This prompts George to race down the street to his father’s “Bailey Bros. Building & Loan Association” where he first encounters his Uncle Billy Bailey (Thomas Mitchell) and Cousins Matilda “Tilly” Bailey (Mary Treen) and Eustace Bailey (Charles Williams) all three of whom, for some strange reason, never seem to significantly age in the film.  This is later made abundantly clear when Harry returns to Bedford Falls as an adult and remarks to his Uncle Billy, “You haven’t changed a bit,” to which Billy eerily responds, “Nobody ever changes around here.  You know that.”

… or rarely changes jewelry!

George’s Uncle Billy superstitiously wears pieces of string around his fingers as daily reminders of tasks to complete which literally makes him a palm reader.  And is it any coincidence that a calendar displaying the number “13” (considered an unlucky number in many parts of the world, it even has its own phobia: Triskaidekaphobia) shows prominently in the top-left corner of the frame behind him as he speaks to George?  It’s considerable to note that George is twelve going on thirteen at this point in his young life holding down a soda counter on his own, making deliveries and presumably fielding other requests/purchases of customers at the time of his after-school employment with Gower, the druggist.

Uncle Billy issues a nautical command to the boy explorer to stop as he orders George to “Avast, there, Captain Cook.”  This may provide a literal explanation for the skull-and-crossbones badge on George’s winter cap he donned earlier.

Billy tries to dissuade George from disturbing his father, “Pop” Peter Bailey (Samuel S. Hinds) who’s engaged in a business meeting behind a closed door marked “Peter Bailey Private” which doesn’t stop George.  Nevertheless, George intrudes to find Peter facing off against Potter in a heated argument over $5,000 that Bailey’s homeowners are required to pay in mortgages while Billy tangles with a Bank Examiner on the telephone in the office next door.

Always in close proximity to Potter stands his trusted ‘goon’, bodyguard and ‘silent butler’ (Frank Hagney) who noiselessly caters to Potter’s every whim and is the driving/pushing force of the throne-like wheelchair upon which Potter preys on his victims.

The visual dichotomy of the workingman of the middle class, Peter Bailey, as he literally stands against the opposing seated miser of the upper class, Henry Potter (and, likewise, Uncle Billy taking his responsibility as a loan officer to consult with the State Bank Examiner in the next room via telephone), suggests the film’s central theme of the power struggle and often times, stranglehold, that money has over every living, breathing human being.

And although “no man is a failure who has friends,” it certainly helps to have money in close proximity.  And herein lies the crux from which much of the film’s torment radiates affecting every living Bedford Fallsian:  that the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association office which, ironically, is centrally located at the core/heart of town is furthermore both a blessing (that it provides financial loans to would-be homeowners) and a curse (investors risk losing their money if said funds aren’t protected) over all who do business with it or cross its threshold.

As Peter faces off against the immobilized Potter, one can’t help but notice how much Potter is the domineering force in the room.  Even in his wheelchair-bound state, he orders his servant to shove him closer to Bailey which emphasizes the power he lords over others.  Quite astonishingly, he does this without looking his bodyguard in the eyes and throughout the film, never once acknowledges the goon’s existence.

The reason for Potter’s condition is never revealed in the film, however, his physical impairment may be due to a lack of compassion and contempt of those in his social and familial circles which corrupted his anatomy. Henry’s surname, Potter, designates one who creates pottery, but perhaps more symbolically:  one who has gone to pot - - the derivation of which was commonly used in the 17^th century to idiomatically signify going to ruin, to deteriorate and to be damaged because of a lack of care or effort.

Young George, armed with a naïve confidence and positioned at the periphery of the adults (as is the audience) consumed by their heated discussion, tries to get the attention of his father not knowing that the circumstances of which are, as Uncle Billy nautically put it, “a squall ... that’s shapin’ up into a storm” and of a seemingly greater consequence than conferring about Gower’s potentially hazardous prescription delivery.

Saint Peter (Bailey)

Quite significantly, it’s noteworthy that George had to forgo speaking with the three apparently competent older adults in Peter Bailey’s anteroom although the sign at the druggist compelled George to “Ask Dad.”  Whereas the three Baileys immediately appeared skittish, nervous and child-like themselves, Peter’s persona not only brings a sense of distinguished gravitas and authority to the loan office, but, incidentally, his back is bathed with the shadow of a cross, undoubtedly from the sunlight physically shining against the window frame behind him.

This instance shows Peter to be a spiritually minded father of man (and not just of George and Harry) as he strongly advises against Potter foreclosing on the families who haven’t paid their mortgages because “these families have children” and that “they’re somebody’s children” to which Potter questions, “Are you running a business or a charity ward?”

Peter admonishes Potter by calling him “a hardskulled character” (a return to the skull motif) as Potter retorts by calling Peter and Billy a pair of “miserable failures.”  Just as George is pushed over the doorway of his father’s office, he voices his disgust by reminding Potter how his father is “the biggest man in town,” a line that foreshadows a similar phrase concerning George during the film’s finale.

Beasts of Burden

Religious imagery abounds in Capra’s film wherein the elder Bailey is likely and characteristically being sainted in a visual sense by the shadow of the cross cast on his back.  And like father, like son, this symbolic imagery will soon surround George.  After Peter passes away, it is even decided at a Building and Loan Association Directors Meeting that George is appointed “as executive secretary to take his father’s place” which further illustrates not only how George will carry on his father’s legacy of creating better citizens and customers who don’t have to crawl to Potter and live in his slums, but also symbolically in how he’ll be engaged as Bedford Falls’ savior par excellence and not abandon his clientry.  It so happens that George also takes over his father’s physical office space on the Building and Loan premises to literally and figuratively continue his father’s work.

George Bailey: Christlike

The film’s only major freeze-frame (lasting just under 30 seconds) is also it’s most significantly representative of George Bailey, with arms outstretched, being fitted upon a concealed cross.  Quite cunningly on behalf of the filmmakers, as George is seeking a large suitcase in a luggage store, his behavior is suggestive of the baggage or burden that Bailey will carry on his back through the duration of the film.  When the shopkeeper, Joe Hepner (Ray Walker), inquires after the bag’s purpose and the boat on which he’ll be traveling, it’s further fitting that George advises he’s going to be “working across on a cattle boat.”  Furthermore, it’s ironic how closely George affiliates with such livestock and beasts of burden when amidst their conversation he certifies to Joe, “I like cows.”

Apropos of the consecration of the shadowy cross upon Peter Bailey’s back, it’s worth noting the legend of the Christian Donkey, which, it’s been believed that to ride upon such a mount signified one who came in peace.  And just as it was written that a donkey carried Jesus’ mother, Mary, into Bethlehem, Jesus was also seated upon a similar mount when he rode into Jerusalem.

During the course of Jesus’ Passion, Christians believe that the donkey was well aware what suffering lay in store for their lord and savior.  Upon witnessing Jesus’ crucifixion at the summit of Mount Calvary and wishing it had been capable of carrying the burdens and Cross for Jesus, the loyal donkey turned its back to the spectacle at which time the Lord cast the shadow of the Cross onto the shoulders and back of the animal to remain for all time as a reward for all to see the reminder of God’s love.

Literal beasts of burden, donkeys have been revered for their playfulness, intellectual curiosity, reputed stubbornness and most particularly, being utilized as a domesticated working animal for the past several thousand years.  Donkeys have most commonly been used as pack animals carrying the burden of great weight for humans by transporting heavy loads between locations on their backs.

  

Sam Wainwright and donkey worship

So it’s no surprise that Sam Wainwright (Frank Albertson) perpetually engages in a juvenile taunt of his peers with his own brand of onolatry (worship of a donkey) from adolescence through adulthood at least a dozen times in the duration of the film.  Little Sam (Ronnie Ralph) first displays his trademark “Hee-haw” complemented by a waggling of his hands by his ears to George during his initial slide into the pond.

At first, childlike, Sam’s repetitively mocking “Hee-haw” braying soon becomes a disquieting insult as young Sam and his friends tell George who’s heading to work for Old Man Gower, “Got to work, slave.  Hee-haw.  Hee-haw,” as if putting a hex on George for what he will inevitably become:  a servile beast of burden.  Is it also any coincidence that a donkey, for whom it is known to have large ears, that there is characteristically much attention given to George’s ears especially after he loses his hearing in his left ear and is also savagely slapped on the same ear by his employer Gower (just as a farmer may whip livestock to perform his bidding)?

Furthermore, George is likened to a pack animal who needs to carry the burden of the Bailey Building and Loan office throughout much of his adult life.  George remains a loyal and dependable asset not only manacled to his family, but also to everyone in his orbit.  And like a donkey who has a reputation for exhibiting stubbornness, George frequently wishes for a million dollars and tells others about his dreams of traveling the globe.

Uncle Billy rather rudely ignores George’s attempts at travel on one occasion as George ponders, “You know what the three most exciting sounds in the world are?”  With meals on his mind, Billy answers inaccurately as George endearingly retorts, “Anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles” to which Billy immediately offers his nephew a peanut.

“Hee-haw!”

The Bailey Building Savings and Loan is George’s Cross to bear and he accepts it.  And amidst Sam’s enduring braying:

·      during the Charleston contest at the high school dance when George (and the audience) first glimpse Mary since her youth;

·      years later, when George reconnects with Mary and Sam over the telephone during a pivotal (and powerfully romantic) conference call;

·      yet again after George has married Mary and they’re ceremoniously providing a house blessing over a client’s home in Bailey Park;

·      and finally during the climax as Ernie reads a telegram from Wainwright which features Sam’s signature “Heehaw” in writing;

it’s Mary who finally unleashes a sharp “Oh, who cares,”  as if she’s had enough of Sam’s adolescent behavior.

Down the Hatch

George Bailey’s destined love interest in Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) is symbolic for both bearing the namesake of Mary, the Virgin mother who had borne Jesus Christ and a surname of Hatch that is also rather portentous.  One metaphorical meaning of Hatch represents the causing of one’s young to emerge from an egg.  Following George’s incredulous ask upon her reveal that she’ll be having a baby, “Mary, you on the nest?” Mary confirms, “George Bailey lassos stork.”

However, more ominously, there are four hatches featured throughout the film against (or more aptly, into) which George is confronted and for better or worse, are undeniable in their presentation as to the effect they have on George and those around him.  In fact, Clarence stresses this point further to George in his remark, “Each man’s life touches so many other lives, and when he isn’t around he leaves an awful hole, doesn’t he?” represented in the following instances:

1.   the icy pond which cracks open and nearly consumes Harry and George in its chilly whirlpool;

2.  in addition to his love of travel, George dreams of becoming an architect.  It’s revealed he had the idea for the construction of the adjustable auditorium floor hatch over the swimming pool in Bedford Falls High School, which, ironically, he plunges into during a Class of 1928 Charleston dance contest signaling the end of America’s engagement with the Roaring Twenties. This second hatch is in strong contrast with the seemingly limitless vortex at the pond into which young Harry and George risked descending into its unknown depths.

A classmate of Mary’s who’s jealous of George securing her affections puts the venue’s attendees in danger by pitting them into the film’s second watery cavity by opening (and unveiling) the new sliding floor above the pool.  Yet again, this was another creation of George Bailey’s as the school principal, Mr. Partridge (Harry Holman) notes to George, “Putting a pool under this floor was a great idea.  Saved us another building.”

Although the auditorium has a false bottom floor into which the adults dive, numbered markers confirm the depth of the natatorium below.  When Mary and George tumble into the pool and continue to successfully perform (which may be argued as the first exhibition of) synchronized swimming to the Charleston inviting the remainder of the student body and faculty present to join them, this shows how Bedford Fallsians laugh in the face of danger, but most importantly, represents how consistently fortunate George is from being consumed by a potentially dangerous watery grave.

From a religious perspective, just as the prophet Moses led his people in a mass exodus from Egypt through the miraculous parting of the Red Sea, there doesn’t seem to be a person in Bedford Falls who isn’t willing to follow George into a watery jubilee.

3.    Idiomatically, it becomes necessary to batten down the hatches and prepare for tumultuous weather as the day of Mary and George’s wedding (which should assumedly be a happy occasion) occurs in unison with a run on the bank of Bedford Falls and the Bailey Building and Loan suggesting the commencement of America’s Great Depression.

A proverbial hatch is unleashed from the heavens and a deluge of rainfall - - the first and only storm of its kind in the film which will last the entire day - - is loosed o’er Bedford Falls as its residents anxiously rush to settle their respective finances amidst a literal “Bank Run” and stay afloat both physically and financially.  Of visual interest, notice how the rice thrown onto Mary and George following their wedding ceremony is graphically transmuted into rainfall.

  

Turning rice into rain

4.   The fourth and final hatch featured in the film occurs on a bridge over troubled water culminating with George’s attempt at suicide which evolves into a rescue mission to save Clarence who has simultaneously plunged into its choppy and frosty maw.  George looks into the icy waters below that will be his quietus to cure his (financial) woe.

But upon catching sight of Clarence floundering amidst the riotous waves, through a baptismal descent into the river, headfirst, with arms out-stretched before him in a controlled fashion, poised in the arc of a diver and obviously not intending an act of self-inflicted ruin, George has taken his first step - - or rather, leap of faith - - in completing his inaugural trip abroad from Bedford Falls and into an alternate reality.  From a pictorial perspective, the architecture of the bridge’s framework in the beams directly behind George on its pedestrian walkway resembles an arrow pointing straight down.

Since Clarence is imbued with celestial powers to transcend space and time, as George’s guardian angel, he will provide Bailey with one of the most unique voyages he or anyone born to live may ever be fortunate to experience, albeit cinematically.  It’s important to note that George’s treacherous dive into this watery hatch (just as he’d accomplished when he rescued his younger brother from the frosty pond) is the only way he could have accomplished this journey:  not by boat, plane or train as he deluded himself with earlier - - but by plunging through the aqueous looking-glass where Clarence will guide George through Pottersville, a sinister realm parallel to that of Bedford Falls.  This singular dive, complemented by George’s wish that he’d never been born, acts as the proverbial punch of his ticket stub which triggers the proceedings so that he may undergo a critical rebirth.

Amniotic fluid aside, George and Clarence dry off their drenched belongings after being rescued by their mutual savior, the toll house keeper (Tom Fadden), as he curiously watches the soaked pair warm themselves over a cup of java in total silence.  But upon his noticing something out of the ordinary when Clarence is pulling a garment of outdated underwear over his bare-skinned back - - perchance, there was a gaping hole where a pair of wings should be appended (making it a literal “Od(d)body”)? - - the silence is broken when “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” (based on the French melody, “Ah! Vous dirai-je, maman” and first published in 1761) appears extradiegetically for a second time in the film and becomes evident as Clarence’s signature leitmotif.

Clarence casually comments he came from Heaven and startles George and the tollkeeper … as “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” plays for the third time in the film.

Its first appearance in the film arises when the angels Joseph and Franklin send for Clarence and charge Odbody with rescuing George Bailey.  After getting tossed out of Nick’s bar, Clarence asks his supervisor, Joseph, “How’m I doing,” to which his silent reply is accentuated by the playing of “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”  The melody plays again a fifth and final time when Clarence disappears from Bert’s grip amidst a tussle at George’s former home.

The clothesline, a popular device which separated characters in Frank Capra’s IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT and here, is a pictorial metaphor separating Clarence from George and signifying a separation of earth-bound and heavenly planes.

Strange things are afoot when George’s world is upended in that:

·      a simple flashlight focused on the potentially drowning pair c/o the toll house keeper appears as if it’s an extravagant (and metaphorical) floodlight;

·      George develops a colossal immunity to the cold and regains his hearing in his left ear (and his lip stops bleeding following a scuffle with Mr. Welch (Stanley Andrews) in Martini’s Bar) when any average human being who dove into icy waters as he and Clarence did would assuredly come down with a fever.  George even declares to Clarence, “Must have been that jump in the cold water.”  Oh, and his clothes are miraculously dried - - however, from a scientific perspective, spending time in cold water increases recovery by vasoconstricting the entire body’s blood vessels and nerves;

·      through some meteorological magic, the weather ceases to snow - - by some spectacular bewitchment, George’s not being born somehow affected the pattern of the weather when heavy snowfall immediately transforms into an elemental gust of wind - - and at the very moment George prays “to live again,” the wind becomes calm and snowflakes begin falling from the heavens;

·      the once cheerful and warm atmosphere of Martini’s Bar has transformed into a honky-tonk infused Nick’s Bar wherein the air is a lot smokier, beer and shot glasses are scattered amongst its tables and main service counter and a general feeling of aggression is further substantiated by the framed images of boxers decorating its walls and beams as Nick’s hired muscle watch over the premises to help ensure there are no “characters around to give the joint atmosphere” (at one point, an aggravated Nick slams an aptly named bottle of “King” black-label, blended whisky onto the bar counter asserting his power as the saloon’s overseer);

Pugilistic Nick

·      the twelve-lettered moniker and welcoming surroundings of Bedford Falls drops the “You Are Now In” designation from the town’s gateway sign and is mutated into the twelve-lettered, sinister aberration, Pottersville.  It’s fitting that Clarence remarks to George that he’ll “see a lot of strange things from now on.”  And so, the once durable and understated wooden signpost is henceforth magically replaced with a newfangled and ostentatious, yet, fragile, bulbed beacon.

Noir – el, Noir – el

Upon arriving in Pottersville, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE starts to take on an otherworldly noir complexion which features distinctively stylistic elements of low-key lighting as well as the film’s protagonist, George Bailey, becoming a brutalized victim of the system amidst his new shadowy surroundings.  A howling siren punctuates the night air with a piercing squeal reminiscent of an air-raid warning.  Within the short time George is in Pottersville (roughly sixteen minutes of screen time to be exact), he is characterized as someone who is self-destructive; on the lam from the local police; and estranged from everyone he once knew and/or with whom he held an intimate relationship including his wife (Mary), mother (Mrs. “Ma” Bailey), admirer (Violet) and friends in the public sector (Bert and Ernie).  In point of fact, Clarence confirms to George, “You’re nobody.  You have no identity.”

  

Bert the cop, with gun drawn, hunts for George Bailey.

Who’s been living in MY house? :: A curious arrow-through-the-heart-shaped memento with a dark, runny discoloration maligns the wall.

Except for the heavy snowfall; a fleeting glimpse of a Santa Claus cutout; a darkened wreath upon Nick’s tavern door; a pair of diminutive “MERRY XMAS” neon signs; one string of fairy lights and a few packages tucked under someone’s arm, there’s a hint that even Christmas and its corresponding Eve have lost their charm.  The conspicuous holiday regalia seen earlier strewn throughout Bedford Falls have been inexplicably removed.

And for the few moments Bailey is a stranger in this strange land of photographed chiaroscuro (compliments of directors of photography: Joseph Biroc; Joseph Walker and Victor Milner) which is never presented in daylight, George is presumed to be a drunkard; thrown out of a barroom into the snow-clad street after which time he and Clarence are publicly and contemptuously humiliated by the bar owner and his patrons; shoved aside by a member of law enforcement; interrogated and manhandled by a police officer and his unofficial deputy while under the bright beam of a spotlight from Ernie’s taxi cab lamp; hostilely pried from his wife’s arms as she faints at the horror of the concept of their marriage; shot at as a moving target by his former friend as Bert unloads six rounds from his revolver (bursting three of the “POTTERSVILLE” bulbs [S, V and I] in the process which enounces “POTTER LLE” or Potter ill as a deliciously ironic malapropism) and served the ultimate disgrace of being told by his biological mother that he’d never been borne by her becoming the ultimate personal peril in learning that his existence is completely fraudulent.

As a melodramatic disaster aroused from Clarence’s incantation is unleashed:

“You’ve got your wish.  You’ve never been born.

You don’t exist.  You haven’t a care in the world.”

George’s family and friends and the goodliness of Bedford Falls have run afoul.  Any semblance of Bedford Falls being designated as a commonwealth is now a misnomer.  Humanity becomes temporarily flawed, unbalanced and immoral and the townspeople are motivated by and society thrives on sex, greed and alcoholic intoxication.  Potter’s sinister utopia also features the film’s only instance of panhandling.  It’s as if the inmates are running the asylum as there is a greater, more elevated police presence with officers of the law working after hours with some carrying night sticks as folks rush around George, to and fro, and occasionally jaywalk - - a throng of people look on and giggle approvingly as the authorities raid a dance hall and toss a group of screaming women (including Violet Bick) into the rear of a paddy wagon.  In the alternate Bedford Falls’ timeline, Mr. Potter practically found Violet to be a repellent and promiscuous freeloader.  As she’s being uncontrollably carted off into the belly of the Black Maria, she insists to her captors that she knows “every big shot in this town … I know Potter!”  If this is the least bit credible, it’s reasonable to infer that knowing Potter is socially debilitating.

Earlier in the film during the run on the bank when panic was in the air, Potter recommended that George enlist the support of the police department in anticipation of mob activity to which George immediately refused.  Under new management in Pottersville, a furlough granted to its police force doesn’t seem imminent.  The prescient script by screenwriters Capra, Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Jo Swerling and Michael Wilson presenting the disturbing microcosm of Pottersville seems a rather accurate reflection of contemporary American society in [insert current year here].

In questioning Clarence about the emotional turbulence he’s experiencing, George argues that his guardian angel has “got me [him] in some kind of spell, or something” which affirms the film’s supernatural influence that seems to maintain its grasp over George.  Quite shockingly, if George passed through the liquid portal of Pottersville around 10:45 PM, Mary must likewise be engaged in her own personal anguish of having to lock up the Pottersville Public Library later that same evening - - not knowing George really took a toll on her as she likely refunded much of her joie de vivre.  All the while, there is a negative tone to the proceedings with multiple signage in Potter’s police state advising: “No Parking”; “No Dogs Allowed”; “Keep Moving”; “No Left Turns”; “Keep off the Grass”; “No Smoking”; “No Vacancy” …

Competing with the raucous jazz notes filtering from the brick and mortar gin joints, gambling halls, fight rooms and vulgarly various and sundry stripteasing parlors peddling female flesh is an air of cynicism that appears to have more nip (puns of both spirits and sex intended) than that of the bitter cold emanating from the mantle of pure white snow - - which, at this moment of the picture, takes on a more gloomily gray hue with encroaching shadows upon it.

George is overwhelmed by what he sees next …

George Bailey + Mary Hatch

= Peter Pan

Apropos of the four aforementioned icy hatches, a few additional elements of IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE seem to draw another dark, literary parallel with novelist and playwright, Sir J.M. (James “Jamie” Matthew) Barrie and his most famous creation, “Peter Pan.”  Just days before Jamie’s older brother David’s fourteenth birthday, the two went skating on a frozen water body.  The event ended tragically when David was knocked onto the ice by “a friend,” advised the younger Barrie and fractured his skull, which, according to the doctor who executed the death certificate, also mentioned David had been suffering from inflammation of the brain upon connecting with the ice.

Following the tragedy, Jamie would apparently wear his deceased brother’s clothing and whistle as David did as a coping device for his despondent mother, Margaret Ogilvy, who began distancing herself from Jamie - - especially when it was controversially speculated that he may have been the “friend” who knocked David down.  Evidently, Ogilvy found great solace that David passed away at such a young age and that he would remain a boy forever and in a unique twist of fate, Jamie, himself, ceased growing upon turning fourteen years old. 

Peter Pan on Ice … too soon?

And so, David Barrie may have been the unlikely model for inspiring “Peter Pan or The Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up” in addition to the following connections with Frank Capra’s IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE:

·      The name “Bailey” is strikingly similar from a homophonic perspective to “Barrie”;

·      George Bailey’s father, Peter, shares the same namesake with Barrie’s youthful creation, Peter Pan;

·      Philip Van Doren Stern’s short story, “The Greatest Gift,” and the story on which IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE is based, features an instance of George being unable to save his (younger) sixteen-year-old brother Harry’s life by pulling him out of a swimming hole upon his being seized with a cramp;

·      Just as Jamie whistled like his older brother, David, following the skating tragedy, in Capra’s film, George and his young friends are seen whistling immediately following their near sledding disaster at the icy pond - - shortly thereafter, George is heard whistling so much that his employer, Mr. Gower, advises, “You’re not paid to be a canary.”

o   Incidentally, J.M. Barrie’s novel, “The Little White Bird,” featured the first introduction of the Peter Pan persona which explains how Pan engaged in flight (as he was once part bird) and how he sang (or whistled) like a bird, portrayed in Pan’s playing of the flute;

o   From a mythological perspective, Peter Pan may suggest the Greek God, Pan, who, like Barrie’s creation was “a betwixt and between” (part animal and part human) just as Pan, God of the wild and the woodlands who played piercing music from his pipes and was a companion of spirited nymphs associated with nature (just as Peter befriended much tinier and magical fairies) was a human hybridized with the hindquarters, horns and legs of a goat - - interestingly enough, like the donkey, a goat is another beast of burden.

Pan plays for a tree nymph / Peter Pan plays for Wendy - - and his shadow

·      Harking back to an earlier nuance of Mary’s last name, Hatch, in Barrie’s popular “fairy play,” Peter Pan advises his archenemy, Captain Hook, “I’m youth, I’m joy, I’m a little bird that has broken out of the egg.”  As someone who has mastered the art of flight and deemed a “boy who would not grow up,” it can be surmised that George Bailey’s wings, contrastingly, have been clipped, however, he is a strong representation of persistence and youth, eternal or otherwise;

o   Upon Mary and George’s hurling rocks at the Granville house windows to ensure their wishes come true, a grumpy neighbor, frustrated with George’s inability to be affectionate with Mary and his “talking her to death,” reprimands George that “youth is wasted on the wrong people.”

·      On two occasions does Uncle Billy refer to his nephew George as “Captain Cook” - - this is either a reference to the famous British explorer (also named James) whom the boy wishes to emulate or perhaps, it’s a slip of the tongue allusion to fictional pirate, “Captain James Hook,” (also named after Peter Pan’s author and creator, James) although his young nemesis, Peter Pan, is whom George seems to exhibit a similar affinity for danger, adventure and encircling the world;

o   Uncle Billy twice issues a seafaring command to George, “Avast, there, Captain Cook.”  The pirates in Barrie’s story regularly sing “the same dreadful song” beginning the verse with the word, “avast.”

·      Just as Captain Hook portrays a pirate seeking vengeance on young Peter Pan, Henry F. Potter shares a similar grudge against young (and adult) George Bailey further exemplified by the fact that both Hook and Potter characterize their respective antagonists as “cocky.”  And where Hook and Pan are able swordsmen whom are skilled with a blade, Potter and Bailey verbally parry on occasion care of their financial institutional knowledge.  Hook and Potter are also, likewise, incapacitated by a disability in that the cadaverous Captain is without a right hand (in his original introduction) with an iron hook in its place; Potter, on the other hand, is perpetually wheelchair-bound for reasons unknown;

·    Through a turn of phrase, Barrie’s narrator declares that when “odd things happen to all of us on our way through life without our noticing for a time that they have happened … we suddenly discover that we have been deaf in one ear.”  Similarly to George Bailey who is also burdened by being deaf in his left ear, through a manner of expression, “such an experience had come … to Peter.”

·      George Bailey and his young friends wear a skull-and-crossbones patch on their caps in their imaginative imitation of pirates (or explorers?) and this Jolly Roger is the pirate’s brand displayed in a white skull and crossbones on a black background as well as being the name of the ship and home of Captain Hook and his roguish crew.  Even upon Mary Darling (Wendy’s mother) seeing Peter Pan for the first time, he is described as “a lovely boy, clad in skeleton leaves and the juices that ooze out of trees.”

·      Whereas villainous Hook employs his right-hand man, boatswain, Mr. Smee (or depending on the replacement of the iron hook in his severed hand’s place, his left-hand man), Potter, in like manner, is never seen without his faithful, close-lipped man Friday and consistently shares the same frame of screen space with him;

“You want a drink or don’t you?” :: Nick threatens Clarence with his left hook - - perchance, another allusion to J.M. Barrie’s Captain’s iron appendage :: “Or do I have to slip you my left for a convincer?”

·      Tiger Lily is the beautiful princess of Barrie’s Piccaninny Indian tribe who desires Peter Pan over all of the potential suitors she refuses in her orbit who bears a commonality with Violet Bick - - also similarly named after a flower - - who prefers George Bailey amidst the menfolk of Bedford Falls, all of whom typically look amorously upon Violet;

o    It’s worth noting that Henry F. Potter isn’t the only character in the film with the ability to stop traffic reminiscent to when George and his friends irresponsibly came to a dead stop in the middle of Main Street upon catching sight of Potter’s public presence.  This isn’t to assert that civil regulations appropriated by the Department of Transportation aren’t upheld and that the citizenry of Bedford Falls share a common disregard for traffic signals and pedestrian safety;

A motion picture house rests in the background as the men watch Violet Bick in motion

o When the sight of Violet Bick complemented by her stunning floral-print dress manages to simultaneously secure the gaze of George, Bert the motor cop (Ward Bond), Ernie the taxi driver (Frank Faylen) and an elderly man, the latter of whom nearly leaps out of his skin when he gets a horn-full from an oncoming motorcar as he carelessly stops in the middle of a crosswalk.  Incidentally, once Bick steps onto the sidewalk as the men (and the camera) continue to stare in her direction, Violet walks directly in front of a flower retailer;

·      Wendy Moira Angela Darling, eldest daughter of Mary Darling refers to Peter Pan as “just my [her] size” and has an innocent affection and admiration of Pan who appreciates homemaking, storytelling and wants to become a mother; similar to Mary Hatch, who shares all of these qualities with Wendy, Mary displays a fondness for George at a young age and as she ages in the film and continues to listen to George’s dreams of travel and adventure, like Wendy Darling (who refused to travel to Neverland with Peter Pan again), returns to her parents and accepts that she needs to grow up;

o   Mary Hatch attends college before settling down with George, is seen “remaking the old Granville House” into their home and builds a brood with George with whom she tells stories and is a faithful wife and mother - - incidentally, Mary and Violet display a harmless, lifelong jealousy with each other over George just as Wendy Darling and Tiger Lily (as well as the fairy, Tinker Bell) possess for Peter Pan;

o   Mary (which was also the name of J.M. Barrie’s wife) and George Darling are the parents of Wendy, John and Michael in Barrie’s story, whereas Mary and George play the matriarch and patriarch presiding over the Bailey family and children Pete, a namesake of Pan (Larry Simms); Janie, incidentally, Wendy’s first child is named Jane (Carol Coomes), Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) and Tommy (Jimmy Hawkins);

·      Just as “winking is the star language” in Barrie’s universe, the three stellar angels in Capra’s film communicate with each other by winking; or as the 19^th century English lullaby, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star” suggests in the film’s repeated musical motif, twinkling;

o   It’s worth noting that Barrie’s glittering firmament is responsible for blowing the window to the Darling nursery open through which Peter appears to Mary, her children and dog, Nana.  Identically, upon George’s wishing he’d never been born, Clarence looks up to the heavens as he appears to be consulting with his angelic colleagues, Joseph and Franklin, “What do you think?  Yeah, that’ll do it.  All right.”  And as Clarence turns to George to advise that his wish has been granted, a powerful gust of wind blows the tollkeeper’s shack’s door open to which Clarence responds (looking upward), “You don’t have to make all that fuss about it.”

o  As an unique footnote, Clarence’s occupation is that of a clock-maker and the crocodile which devoured Captain Hook’s right hand also “swallowed a clock which goes tick tick inside it” and the inhabitants of Neverland are able to follow its presence by listening for the ticking sound emanating from its gigantic belly.

· Sam Wainwright continually taunts his companions with his excessive “hee-haw” donkey braying just as Tinker Bell mocks Peter (and Lost Boy, Tootles) with the story’s only repeated insult nearly a half-dozen times:  “silly ass,” synonymous for a donkey;

·      Just as Captain Hook attempts to sneakily poison the child, Peter Pan, so does Mr. Gower in his negligent state as he’s coping with his own child’s loss nearly poison a child which he accomplishes only when George Bailey wasn’t present (never born) to stop him from performing the task;

·     As Clarence advises George, “every time you hear a bell ring, it means that some angel’s just got his wings.”  This is not Holy Scripture, but provides Capra’s film with a lofty, divine law which acts as a bridge between spiritual and mortal planes.  Two such regulations are prescribed in Barrie’s Neverland wherein Peter counsels Wendy that “every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”  In order to save Tinker Bell’s life upon consuming a draught of poison meant for Peter, Pan addresses the sleeping children of the world and asks them to clap their hands if they believe in fairies which not only revives Tinker Bell, but also connects the realms of the fictional Neverland with that of sleeping children across all earthly time zones who may be dreaming of the wondrous world located “second [star] to the right and then straight on till morning.”

o   Additionally, as Barrie’s narrator informs about Peter and the resentment he has against grown-ups, “there is a saying in the Neverland that, every time you breathe, a grown-up dies” as Peter intentionally takes “quick short breaths at the rate of about five to a second” when Wendy and her brothers wish to take their leave of Peter and return home to their parents.

o   When George confronts his mother, now a resident of Pottersville, she condemns George as a stranger and suggests he belongs in an insane asylum.  Peter Pan likewise advises Wendy of a similar contempt held by his mother as he confesses, “I thought like you that my mother would always keep the window open for me, so I stayed away for moons and moons and moons, and then flew back; but the window was barred, for mother had forgotten all about me, and there was another little boy sleeping in my bed.”

·      When settling down for a libation in Nick’s bar, Clarence brings some unwanted attention to the fact of his being an angel to which George attempts to impress upon Nick that Clarence “never grew up” just as Peter Pan never did.  Upon his ultimate frustration at George and Clarence, Nick orders his bouncers to toss them out of the place “through the door or out the window” but only after calling them “you two pixies,” another name for fairies which populate Barrie’s Neverland.

o   Strikingly, Barrie illustrated his famous fairy, Tinker Bell (also, “exquisitely gowned in a skeleton leaf”), as a common fairy whose language consists of the sound of a ringing or tinkling bell, specifically, “the loveliest tinkle as of golden bells.”  Per the story’s narrator, “You ordinary children can never hear it, but if you were to hear it you would know that you had heard it once before.”

Bells Will be Ringing

According to the American Tinnitus Association, if someone happens to experience a ringing in his or her ears that no one else can hear, upon being evaluated, it’s possible that person may be diagnosed with Tinnitus.  No matter whether it’s subjective (perceivable noises that only the patient can hear) or objective (noises which are audible to others as well as to the patient), the undeniable presence of bells featured throughout IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE abounds - - even before the film itself begins.

A replica of the “Liberty Bell,” the iconic symbol of American independence currently located in Philadelphia, PA (as of the time of this review), couldn’t be a more appropriate logo to ring in the cinematic proceedings as its vibratory motion and 3D-shadowed font is showcased within an undisclosed belfry’s bell chamber.  Founded in April, 1945 by Frank Capra, producer Samuel J. Briskin and film directors/producers, George Stevens and William Wyler, Liberty Films was literally a declaration of their motion picture production independence outside of the Hollywood studio system.

Ironically, like the flawed hairline crack adorning the original Liberty Bell, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE suffered at the box office - - especially from direct competition with partner Wyler’s multiple Oscar winner, THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES (1946) which accumulated the season’s fortunes and major accolades and was partly responsible for depreciating capital for their incorporated effort - - forcing their fledgling production company to strategize next steps and become a subsidiary of Hollywood giant, Paramount Pictures, until Liberty Films was terminated six years later. 

… of Liberty Films

The resounding logo and complementary bell-ringing once again appears upon the completion of the film before the closing titles, but not before being featured as a series of sleigh bells over the opening titles; in a ringing cash register (once in Gower’s Drugstore and thrice x two in Nick’s bar); a ringing telephone (three times); on a movie theatre marquee; and a tinkling silver bell ornament.  The latter example of which begs the question:  Was the ringing bell on the Bailey’s Tannenbaum meant to signal the securement of Clarence’s wings as the bell-ringing obviously arrived too late.

As George and Zuzu leaf through Clarence’s signed copy of “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” the angel’s inscription thanking George for the wings already confirms receipt of his feathered appendages.  Or does a pair of wings become affixed to an angel simultaneously with a bell-ringing announcement?

Lepidopterists (butterfly enthusiasts) or believers in those pursuing their wings?

“Look, Daddy.”

It’s fitting that Zuzu says “Look, Daddy,” as opposed to, “Listen, Daddy,” upon the miniature bell’s tinkling when their Christmas tree starts to sway.  In light of George’s being deaf in one ear as well as those who may not have the faculty or sense of perceiving sound at all, it’s conventional for one to understand the concept of a ringing bell at the sight of a swinging cup or waist connecting with the strike or clapper to achieve the effect of resonation and desired acoustical properties, be it from a town / church bell to a common handbell.  Depending on a bell’s strength and magnitude, if hearing a resultant tone isn’t possible, the bell is an instrument that makes it possible to feel the vibration thanks to its idiophonic percussion.  Nevertheless, the small bell on the Bailey’s tree seems as mighty in its ringing proclamation of confirming Clarence’s moving up in class than the famed Great Bell of Dhammazedi recorded at roughly three hundred tons could possibly achieve.

“Look, Daddy” is actually a recurrent phrase uttered by Zuzu earlier in the film when a few petals fall from her flower and George pretends to paste them back together, instead, putting the fallen petals in his pocket.  Besides his bleeding mouth, Zuzu’s perished petals act as a symbolic remnant of life in Bedford Falls and George’s return ticket to escape from its alternate universe of Pottersville.

Zuzu’s exclamation that “teacher says, ‘every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings’” and George’s agreeing with her brings up another interesting point.  Earlier in the film, George berates Zuzu’s teacher, Mrs. Welch, calling her “silly, stupid, careless” and for doing so, is later socked in the jaw by her defensive husband at Martini’s bar.

That George affirms Zuzu’s acknowledgment about his friend’s graduation from A-S-2 status in light of his deplorable remarks earlier is a glowing example of forgiveness - - however, Henry F. Potter, the Welch family and the homeowner (J. Farrell MacDonald) whose tree George collides his car into were probably the only residents of Bedford Falls not in attendance at the ceremony that closes the film in the Bailey’s residence.  The animosity that must exist on Mr. Welch’s behalf towards George is palpable.  Furthermore, Mr. Martini makes it abundantly clear to his bartender, Nick (Sheldon Leonard), that Mr. Welch is no longer welcome in his bar.  One can only imagine that George does the right thing by patching things up between these few townsfolk following Harry’s “Welcome Home” celebration.

Mr. Welch: the interloper?

Relevant to both concepts of repairing and ringing, respectively, it seems appropriate to mention Tinker Bell’s occupation as is explained by Peter Pan and his narrator: “she is called Tinker Bell because she mends the pots and kettles [tinker = tin worker].’ ‘[Similar to “cinder” plus “elle” to get Cinderella]” - - does this allusion to Henry F. Potter, ring a bell?

The Devil is in the Details

Capra’s film creates an unflattering portrait of Henry F. Potter and of the banking industry in general which the FBI officially regarded as Communist propaganda.  “The most hated man in the picture,” a 1947 FBI memo read, “this is a common trick used by Communists.”  Additionally, “this picture deliberately maligned the upper class, attempting to show the people who had money were mean and despicable characters.”

Incidentally, both of the film’s banking professionals, Potter and Carter, the Bank Examiner (Charles Halton), the latter of whom regularly reviews the Bailey’s books with tremendous insight and diligence, send icy shivers down the Bailey clan’s spines, the winter weather, notwithstanding.  Whenever Carter’s in-person or telephonic presence is known, Tilly, Billy and Eustace tend to act nervously and seek immediate alleviation; typically from George, the perpetual ombudsman.

Potter is in direct opposition to the good-natured efforts of the Baileys’ as they supply humanity to their economic ventures in the free market.  Contrastingly, Potter is a shrewd businessman, a stockholder of the Bailey Building and Loan office and a member of its board of directors - - as well as a personified wake-up call to the idealism of the Bailey partnership - - so when Uncle Billy carelessly hands Potter an envelope with $8,000 he is about to deposit at Potter’s Bedford Falls Trust and Savings Bank, Potter cruelly keeps this secret transaction to himself and the mute bodyguard who controls the movements of his devilishly, throne-like wheelchair.

Moments like these further amplify how loyal Potter’s goon is to his master in how he’s as wooden and inert as the furniture Potter sits upon.  And come the climax, the missing $8K deposit (adjusted for inflation from Christmas Eve, Monday, December 24, 1945 to 2017 as of the time of this analysis would be valued roughly at $109,633.54 USD) is never revisited and becomes an unsolved mystery which has undoubtedly benefited Potter’s coffers.  The only time Potter’s goon leaves his master’s side is when George wishes Potter a “Merry Christmas” and he curiously peeks out Potter’s window in George’s direction as he races home.

Potter’s Parlor of Pain

Compounded to Potter’s harshness is the fact that he is never seen in a domestic setting.  It can be surmised that when he’s not attending board meetings or engaged in torrential arguments in the Bailey Building and Loan office, Potter spends the remainder of his time cooped up in his “library” or “office” (as defined by the film’s screenplay) and in between jaunts to the town’s locales, he’s shuttled by his fiendishly architected horse-drawn carriage.  It’s significant that as corruptible as the bank’s overseer is in Potter, the bank’s main lobby is portrayed as perpetually well lit and an inviting presence to those who dare enter.

The moment Potter first crosses the threshold of the bank, pushed by his trusty attendant, several servile bank employees flock to Potter in order to be the first to wish him a “Merry Christmas.”  The sterility of the surroundings imparts a coldness matched with its collection of black and white veined marble furnishings installed throughout.  As if protecting themselves from potential burglars, the tellers work behind a barred and windowed structure and veritable strongbox that ensures complete and total separation between banker and client, save for the limited space of the pass-thru where currency or other documentation is exchanged.

On the other end of the spectrum, very literally, is the Bailey Building and Loan office which has enough egress over the main counter that George is able to vault over it in a simple leap (which he does on two occasions) adjacent the limited chicken wire mesh at the cashier window.  It's also noteworthy that Bailey's office entrance (being located on the second floor) isn't wheelchair accessible which must be a frequent nuisance for Potter to have to ascend the flight of stairs from street-level.  Unlike the temporary Tannenbaum ensconced in the lobby of Potter’s bank, Bailey’s office features various vases of flowers and dioramas of model homes - - the latter being a miniaturized opportunity of George’s clients to “Own Your Own Home” with “Payments Like Rent.”  The safe located on its premises features a branded logo of a stream winding through a wooded area - - perhaps this is an artist’s impression of Mount Bedford that George spoke of so dreamily to Violet.

Amidst the film’s exciting bank run crisis when Bedford Falls’ banking system nearly reaches complete destabilization (and historically triggered America’s Great Depression), a little over two dozen panic-stricken customers of the loan office crowd themselves around the front counter who represent those who “do most of the working and paying and living and dying” in the community.  This moment is profound in two respects in that Bailey’s loan office is representative of something that Potter can’t get his fingers on, which George notes, is “galling” and irritating to Potter as well as being exemplary for the potential turning point - - should those present at this financial assembly consume all of Bailey’s funds - - thereby engaging in a slippery slope to becoming Pottersville.

At the onset of the bank run as Mary and George are en route to their honeymoon holiday and enthusiastically reveal to Ernie the details of how they plan “to shoot the works,” history repeats itself rather diabolically for George as the entire community simultaneously races to the bank and brings their plans - - and Ernie’s cab - - to a screeching halt.  As the newlyweds rather carelessly acknowledge not caring about what happens after their post-nuptial binge, a brand of black magic or karma has been cast and in a particularly curious choice of words on Ernie’s behalf upon reporting of the panic in the rainy streets, with relation to the donkey and George’s impaired auditory organ, he advises “that’s got all the earmarks of a run.”

Unable to encourage George to leave town, Mary realizes that she, too, is cursed.

George remembers his burden and the duty and privilege to serve his community.  He sacrifices his honeymoon kitty of $2,000 save for $2.00, each single of which he curiously dubs “Papa Dollar” and “Mama Dollar.”  This is an eerie personification to George and Mary as Uncle Billy, George and Cousins Tilly and Eustace put the two “great big important simoleons” in the locked safe (an allusion to Bedford Falls where they are by now apparently eternally bound), order the bank notes to “better have a family real quick” and strikingly, Eustace circulates wedding cigars as if the bills are engaged in post-wedding bliss inside of a pitch-dark depository!

Another curious omen is the black crow (Jimmy the Crow) who haunts the loan office (and shares the same namesake as George Bailey’s James “Jimmy” Stewart, both of whom are trapped in Bedford Falls and the loan office, respectively) as it caws - - and even towers over one of George’s model homes which seems a grim harbinger of things to come - - and occasionally careens from one end of the office to the other.  Jimmy even sinisterly squawks (its disapproval?) from an unseen corner of the office during the sacrilegious ceremony as the Baileys collectively oversee the consummation of the currency as they’re bedded down in a wire tray and locked inside the reinforced vault.

 

Amidst these strange goings-on, both historical and supernatural, it’s George’s persistence in doing the right thing for his community with whom he’s constantly intermingling, for instance, when he pleads with his clients: “We’ve got to stick together, though.  We’ve got to have faith in each other.”  Knowing each of his clients by name and not concealing the Bailey employees within a secured compartment - - as seen in Potter’s bank and his horse-drawn transportation - - which rather seems like an insult to incur such a separation upon one’s own client(s) as if they had a pestilence or were thought to be thievish.  In point of fact, as of the time of this analysis, there’s only one such contemporary financial institution that practices such positivity, unparalleled client satisfaction and an unmatched code of moral benevolence that seems out of touch with Potter’s values.

Potter’s sanctuary is a surprising fun house of misdirection with regards to his furnishings and décor which had either undergone a restoration (transporting his belongings from the aforementioned “library” to his “office” at the bank) or the angles of which are photographed throughout the film are featured as an elaborate shell game - - wherein the audience are the “flats;” Potter, his goon and the actors who populate the space are the “shills” and Capra and his technicians are the “sharps.”

Almost home … entering the lobby of the Bedford Falls Trust and Savings Bank 

(An entrance mat might be a nice touch to soak up the snowy moisture) 

Potter’s portrait looms over his patrons 

Let the shell game commence! :: two busts of Napoleon (in foreground [black] and diagonally in background [white]); Potter’s portrait above the fireplace mantel; the ornate draperies; carpeting; the (former) bank president (Sam Flint); elegant chandelier and the library and bureau behind Potter (seated in his stately wheelchair) and his goon featuring a decorative blackamoor statue and gas lamp 

The bank president; overhead chandelier; Napoleon (in the background, but positioned in a new angle) and draperies

During Potter’s appointment with the bank president, he wipes his brow, apparently under the strain of his financial institution’s impending takeover by Potter - - or else it’s due to the heat emanating from Potter’s grand fireplace.  We never get the impression he had to drive very far to engage in a meeting to take an audience with Potter while the town is being deluged by rainfall as no one in the room is seen with a raincoat and there’s no sign of standing transportation awaiting him through Potter’s windows.

Therefore, it’s very possible that Potter’s library, where this rendezvous is taking place, is located on or near the bank’s premises, perhaps, in an opposite wing of the compound.  As Potter is simultaneously speaking with George by telephone to advise he’s “just guaranteed the bank sufficient funds to meet their needs,” to which George expresses to his Uncle Billy that Potter “just took over the bank,” Potter clearly confirms the site of his library/office with relation to the bank in his next telling statement to George to “just tell them [George’s people] to bring their shares over here and I will pay them fifty cents on the dollar.”

Incidentally, Potter’s “library” and “office” are populated by the same desk, embroidered guest chair and matching carpeting, the latter of which is customarily consistent amongst rooms under the same roof. 

Library 

Office

Reineman, the Rent Collector (Charlie Lane); Potter (seated in the same wheelchair) and his goon; the bureau and blackamoor statue

Cut to new angle with Napoleon bust and less ornate drapery against windows

Twin Napoleon busts (the one in the foreground is positioned closer to Potter’s desk); carpeting; shades against window, but no drapes

George pleads with Potter …

… as a new set of window blinds appears behind Potter …

 

… and the diabolical desk décor …

  

… disappears!  But the small skull and bust of Napoleon remain.

Potter’s library and office, respectively, which rather resembles one’s parlor or living room is alternately populated with a fireplace, gas-powered lamps and a bevy of conceited and devilish décor; a panoply of sinister stuff such as onyx colored furnishings, a desk-set complete with a hardened skull and chain-link coupling as well as a framed portrait of himself.  Potter the Conqueror even owns a bust of French Emperor Napoleon (two, in fact, perhaps more).  The inscription on Potter’s door is also more ornate than Peter Bailey’s in that it includes an etched border and the title of “President” as if to further signify his superiority over his employees and clientele.

Henry also gifts George with a cigar (and offers to send him an entire box of stogies) designed to entice him into his ruse of incorporating and absorbing the Bailey Building and Loan.  In this setting and under these circumstances, each puff of smoke from George’s mouth connotes sooty vapors emanating from hellfire as opposed to a cordial comfort of hazy hospitality.  Incidentally, it seems like this is George’s inaugural visit to Potter’s office as he struggles to sit in the elegant, yet, stunted chair opposite Potter’s majestic seat of power.  It’s also as if the cushion was upholstered in tacks and a false bottom as George appears to sink into and shudder as if he were slightly punctured by the inanimate furnishing.

  

Making a deal with a devil

Potter is just as confined, in a sense, to his wheelchair as George is confined to Bedford Falls when he intimates to George of their respective financial responsibilities, “You have been stopping me.  In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing.  Take during the [Great] depression, for instance.  You and I were the only ones that kept our heads.  You saved the Building and Loan and I saved all the rest.”

Upon shaking hands to seal a pact with Potter for an incredible salary in addition to managing Potter’s affairs which would thereby liquidate George’s namesake office and family business, George recoils and quickly realizes the Mephistophelian mistake he’s potentially made and in his revulsion, physically rubs his hands together and once more against his sport coat to symbolize his disgust of the deal.

With Potter enraged, George storms out of his office signifying his defiance of Potter advising “I’d say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider” and in a moment of jest, George even includes Potter’s goon in his last stand with “… and that goes for you, too.”  Except for one occasion when Potter asks his servant to push his wheelchair closer to a conversation with Peter Bailey, this is, of course, the only time in the entirety of the film when Potter’s bodyguard is even slightly acknowledged by anyone other than Potter whilst making eye contact.  George then repeats the remark to an off-screen secretary as he departs through the bank’s vestibule - - basically insulting anyone with professional ties to Henry F. Potter.

What federal investigators didn’t highlight in the aforementioned memo pertaining to the film’s dubious claims of communist sympathies is that Sam Wainwright, who is characterized as having a profoundly entrepreneurial spirit as he regularly and unselfishly promotes the betterment of his friends (scouting Harry to be recruited into his college’s football team and providing George an exciting job opportunity in plastics) and colleagues during wartime (through his company’s implementation of plastic plane hoods), comes into great wealth and is hardly portrayed as a member of the upper class who is “mean and despicable.”  As one who successfully graduates from college; travels by way of Bedford Falls to New York City to Florida to Europe and London; owns an elegant black town car and marries his wife, Jane (Marian Carr), whom, is described in the screenplay as “a very attractive, sophisticated-looking lady, dripping with furs and jewels”; Sam is likewise represented as “the epitome of successful, up-and-coming businessman,” his immature donkey braying, notwithstanding.

In reference to the FBI’s memo purporting that Uncle Billy “was too old a man to go out and make money to pay off his debt to the banker” is contradictory to the film’s logic in that he’s bound by the banking procedures of his family business and not the sole designee responsible for the return of the missing $8,000.  As the Catholic Capra was a strong proponent of the Golden Rule of “Love Thy Neighbor,” and regularly proclaimed a cinematic philosophy of fairness and generosity in his films, Uncle Billy’s literally handing over the Bailey’s substantial sum to Potter is karmic payback for his excessive taunting of Potter and the pride of his family’s accomplishments (his nephew Harry winning the Congressional Medal of Honor) that he’s casting for his amusement at the expense of Potter’s humiliation.

Billy Behind Bars

The above image is the closest visual representation we’ll get to see of Uncle Billy going to jail when George later berates him for not recalling what he did with the sizable wad.  George declares “bankruptcy and scandal, and prison” is imminent and in the Pottersville timeline, his Uncle has taken residence “in the insane asylum ever since he lost his business.”  Under much physical strain and exhaustion and a habit of absentmindedness, Billy confirms to George how he also lost his partner, Laura, after turning his home upside down and unlocking rooms in search of the missing money which have been sealed since her passing.

Potter, as one whose physical, familial and neighborly qualities have very nearly decayed, has nothing further to lose, except for his life and reliance by his fellow stockholders and investments with whom he’s associated (Bailey Building and Loan; Bedford Falls Savings and Trust; and his heading the Draft Board, the latter of which is ironic in how he’s responsible for selecting citizens to mandatorily leave Bedford Falls for military duty as he reads from his documentation: “One-A… One-A… One-A…”: the classification meaning “Available for military service”).

Coming from a filmmaker who brought us YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU (1938; based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart), having great wealth fails to meet all mortal expectations - - just as Potter is Bedford Falls’ most prominently wealthy citizen, he is also bound by his wheelchair and like George, is on a short leash with respect to traversing county lines.  During Harry’s homecoming when Sam Wainwright sends a cable advising he’s advanced George “up to twenty-five thousand dollars,” the smile on his face literally dissolves.

George’s demeanor only seems to light up when each attendee approaches the makeshift financial altar (where Eustace begins tallying donations on his cash register) to make an offering of peace - - and not because of the amount of money they commit to the table which almost seems like a defamatory act in light of George’s spiritual ascension.  Young Pete Bailey seems seduced by the contributed currency as he sifts through the fallen cash with wild-eyed exhilaration.  George and Mary will undoubtedly teach him and the other Bailey children about the official meaning of wealth, fortune and prosperity.  Whereas Potter earns the badge of “the richest and meanest man in the county” by the angel Joseph, Harry Bailey publicly dubs his older brother, George, “the richest man in town!” and the look on George’s face is hardly one of overwhelming enthusiasm as he must surely be cognizant of the financial fate that befell Potter.

“A toast … to my big brother, George.  The richest man in town!” 

Sharply contrasted with the joy of simply being alive speaks more meaningful notes.

George’s resounding emotion and fragile, outstretched arms match the solid permanency of the beams of the bridge’s architecture.

A drastic difference from when George arrived in Pottersville

After leaving the site of the bridge where George was “thinking seriously of throwing away God’s greatest gift,” in his moment of revelation and resurrection, George wishes “Merry Christmas” to the brick and mortar storefronts no longer bearing the Pottersville brand as well as a modicum of passersby who are by the same token, very possibly, clients of his Bailey Building and Loan.  Upon arriving home, George even affectionately kisses the inanimate finial on the newel post that had three times loosened in his hand throughout the film.

Breaking character … Potter’s goon leaves his master’s side for the first time as George throws his arms up for the fifth and final time in the film, Christlike 

Real Time With George Bailey

Just after maestro Dimitri Tiomkin’s flourishing score closes out the film’s opening title sequence, a soothing series of plucks from a harp emerge as the welcome sign “YOU ARE NOW IN BEDFORD FALLS” comes into view.  Shortly after glimpses of various storefronts, homes and prayers for George Bailey’s consideration and attention from a higher power present themselves, one of the film’s greater curiosities appears in George Bailey’s running down main street.

According to the film’s screenplay, it is 8:00 PM in the evening when George meets and pleads with Mr. Potter to lend him with the necessary $8,000 to satisfy the bank examiner’s review of the Bailey Building and Loan office’s accounts payable.  And by 10:45 PM “Earth time” as confirmed by Clarence’s heavenly overseer, Franklin, George makes his way to the bridge where he plans to jump into the river.  But just before George engaged in what may have been his final confrontation with Potter, Mary not only impresses upon her children to pray for their discouraged father, but also contacts Uncle Billy by telephone in addition to others who begin collecting money for George behind the scenes and pray for George’s well-being.

As each prayer for George’s health, happiness and prosperity is uttered throughout the snowy evening air of Bedford Falls, this is captured in tandem with a mobile camera filming statically or dollying along the buildings’ frontages.  Time appears as if it could be disjointed, but the intercutting between the various properties is connected by Mary’s invisible telephone communication spanning down main street and throughout the community.  This parallels George’s celebrated jog down the snowy median as he wishes “Merry Christmas” to those with or without a pulse that populate the hearty downtown as he makes his mad dash towards home - - as if he’s running alongside the very telephone cables linking the town together.

Perhaps it’s inevitable that twice George takes the catwalk to the same spot at the center of the bridge wherein at this point, he may be aligned with a similar unseen communicative transmission with a divine power.  When George adds to the growing amount of prayers accumulating in his favor in his plea to “live again,” escape from Pottersville and return to Bedford Falls, the blowing wind gives way to a gentle, falling snow just as it had done before when he first approached the bridge and before Clarence redeemed George’s wish that he’d never been born.

George’s prayers have been answered 

As the chilly white fragments begin to cling to George’s hair and overcoat, it can be surmised that amidst this final display of heavenly prestidigitation, that Clarence is being fitted for his wings.  Earlier, Clarence advised George that he’s drawing near his 293^rd birthday within five (Earth) months time by May, yet, is remarkably well-preserved for someone approaching his tercentenary.  Celestial and earthbound time is respectively accelerated and compressed in that one hour is devoted to the preliminary screening of George’s existence (which captures nearly two hours of the film’s total running time) and a little over a quarter-of-an-hour of screen time is committed to George’s wading through the chaos of Pottersville.

If we are to question whether or not George made his perilous dive into the river, the only person able to authenticate such a meeting occurred is the tollkeeper, who, after being startled by Clarence’s incredulous comments about his lofty age and “the new book Mark Twain’s writing now,” he left his post in a New York minute and apparently hasn’t stopped running.  In applying a clinical explanation to the goings-on after George first arrived at the bridge, it’s possible the fantasy of Pottersville and what preceded it in the tollkeeper’s shack could have been a delusion induced by “some bad liquor” George consumed earlier at Martini’s bar.  An even stranger possibility arises if drinking an imaginary brew at Nick’s bar further bewildered George.

By the time George returns to the bridge a second time and calls out for Clarence for help, the tollkeeper, who was originally posted in the nearby shack, doesn’t appear upon George’s return to the Bedford Falls timeline and it’s Bert who rounds the corner in his patrol car.  Strangely enough, after George leaves Bert in the dust on the bridge, Bert manages to quickly pick up Harry from the local airport as well as his accordion.

Although George’s Building and Loan office typically closes on weekdays at 6:00 PM, it’s significant to note that his home never closes.  So on Christmas Eve at just five minutes to the witching hour (seen in the longcase clock below), several members of the Bedford Falls community and his office’s clientele drop in to the Bailey household to pay their respects and help George recoup his earlier losses by providing him with some surprisingly substantial financial gains.

The film reaches its emotional zenith at Harry Bailey’s homecoming celebration hosted by George and Mary as neighbors come in from the cold and bask in the warmth of what George deemed earlier as a “drafty old barn” wherein they “might as well be living in a refrigerator.”  This merry reunion is significant not only to celebrate Harry’s return home from Washington, D.C., but also of George’s emergence from Pottersville where many of the same attendees refused to accept or recognize him and Harry, himself, was a bygone memory and pushing up daisies.

Now if only George Bailey can escape Bedford Falls?

During a quiet moment with Violet Bick behind the closed door of his office, George remarks to Violet that “it takes a lot of character to leave your home town” - - but from his experience, how would he possibly know that?  Nevertheless, he’s been as patient as, if not more so than Clarence has in his anticipation of earning his wings amidst his peers beginning to gossip behind his (formerly wing-less) back.

It’s implied by the script that a departure beyond the boundaries of Bedford Falls may not be possible for some time - - as it took Clarence more than a bicentennial to complete his mission and earn his wings.  Even after accomplishing four major sacrifices:

1. saving his younger brother Harry’s life by renouncing the hearing in his “trick [left] ear”;
2. providing his loan office clients with necessary cash originally designated for George and his wife’s honeymoon;
3. recompensing the misplaced $8,000 on behalf of his Uncle Billy with money accrued (and then some) at Harry’s homecoming ceremony;
4. transferring Zuzu’s “smitch of temperature” to himself after taking the plunge into the chilly waters near the boundaries of Bedford Falls;

it would allegedly take a profound, selfless act to counteract George’s history of wish making and collisions with the superstitious.  But, therein lies a clue: for it was George’s wish that he’d never been born that made him appreciate the wonderful life he had achieved and was critically important in Clarence achieving his goal of being rewarded with his wings.  Perhaps in the presence of another angel could George Bailey make a wish to leave Bedford Falls, but it’s very doubtful at this point now that he’s strengthened his ties with his family, friends and business associates - - not to mention the town of Bedford Falls and his drafty home seen in how he’s paid so much affection to the finial on his banister.

A second clue rests in Clarence’s thoughtful inscription in his gifted copy of Mark Twain’s “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (which features a drunkard by the name of Muff Potter) in that “no man is a failure who has friends.”  With George’s abundance of friends and willingness to stretch himself for the benefit of those in his orbit, perhaps George’s goal of departure is imminent.  With companions like Ernie and Bert, both the law and transportation are on George’s side and as we now know, both can travel to the local airport. 

Throughout IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE, Potter is a consistent thorn in the Bailey’s side and, according to George, “probably drove him [his father, Peter] to his grave” just as, per Potter, “the Bailey family has been a boil on my neck long enough.”  It’s obvious a great many friends enrich George, whereas Potter has only his goon.  Although Peter acknowledges of Potter that he has “no family – no children,” the goon’s relation to Potter as a relative or extremely devoted confidant - - and quite possibly, the cinema’s most unique personal secretary - - is open to interpretation.  But in keeping with Clarence’s inscribed wisdom, should Potter be deprived of his closemouthed assistant, he would surely become a failure thereby making George “the biggest man in town” wherein anything would be possible - - such has having his invisible restraints obliterated and an imperceptible travel ban lifted.

In a bit of self-reflexive brilliance, Clarence and his two superiors, likewise, provide George Bailey with a loan and temporary grant of seeing what his life would have been like without his being born.  By the film’s climax, George Bailey, who is noted as being “the richest man in town,” is undoubtedly able to repay his loan including any interest that may have been imposed upon him.  In short:  he’s good for it.  In this regard, IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE may be the greatest cinematic act of lending of a commodity as precious as a human life that has ever been presented on screen.

Keeping with the spirit of the proceedings, The PopGuide wishes “Happy Easter, Season's Greetings and joyous tidings for a Happy New Year!" - - as we raise a glass and say, "down the hatch!”

“American Winter Scenes, Evening” created by Nathaniel Currier (1854)