It's the story of George Bailey, his life and how one man can effect so many other lives. Whether he knows it or not.
The story begins in Bedford Falls. All through the town we can hear people praying for a George. The cop, the taxi driver, women, children; everybody who is somebody. The sound travels all the way to heaven where God and St Peter are discussing the influx of prayers. They realize it is Georges crucial night and they send for Clarence.
Clarence is an angel second class who hasn't got his wings and whose turn it is to help a human. George is that human and Peter is non too happy about it. God tolerates Peter's insubordination and Peter and Clarence begin studying Georges life. Clarence can't see the past so Peter has to help him. I must say Peter in this movie is much along the lines of Santa in Rudolph. He's kind of a jerk.
Clarence sees a boy riding down a snow covered hill on a shovel. It's George. He's there with his buddies, Sam, Marty and his little brother Harry. Who is not scared by the way. When Harry shovels down he goes too far on the ice and falls in. George jumps in and saves him but loses his hearing in his left ear because of an infection from the cold.
Next we meet Mr Potter. Mistaken by Clarence as a king, we are told by Peter Mr Potter is the richest, meanest man in Bedford Falls.
George is whistling while he enters Mr Gowers drug store where he works. Visibly disturbed, Mr Gower yells at George for being late and not being a canary. Here we meet the two ladies vying for Georges affection now and in the future, Violet, who likes all the boys, and Mary Hatch. (Sigh.)
George is sent on a home delivery by Gower. Knowing something is wrong, Gower's son has passed away of influenza, George goes and talks to his father after eyeing a Sweet Caporal add about asking father...he knows. Cigars? Is there anything they can't do?
We meet Uncle Billy and George's dad at the office. He is having a tussle with Potter, who is every bit as cantankerous as Peter said.
George goes back to the drug store without delivering the pills and Gower, visibly drunk, goes ballistic. He slaps George and makes his ear bleed and calls him a lazy loafer. George explains he knows Gower is unhappy because of the telegram about his son and he put poison in the pills. Gower tastes the pills, realizes what he has done and gives George a big hug and George says he won't tell anyone.
The next scene George is about 22 I'm guessing. Out of high school and waiting to go to college. He had to work at the Bailey Building & Loan to get enough money to go to school. He is buying a large suitcase so when he travels the world he has a place to put the stickers. He goes home via Ernie the taxi driver and Bert the Cop, yes the Sesame Street characters were named after these two characters, and we meet his mom, Harry his brother and Annie their maid. He tells his pop he is a great guy then goes off to Harry's graduation party where Harry looks like the BMOC because he gets to introduce the big Charleston contest.
Then it happens. We see Mary all grown up. Hubba. Hubba. George steals her form Othello, Alfalfa from the Lil Rascals, and proceeds to fall in the pool built under the floor which saved the school another building when Othello opened the floor because he was jealous.
We are introduced to grownup Sam and Marty as well. Side notes, Marty does a Hee Haw thing and Marty is Mary's brother.
George and Mary are walking home when George finds out his father had a stroke. He rushes home and you can see the genuine look of concern on Mary's face. She loves that boy. Which she told us back in Gowers drug store. She whispered it in his bad ear.
George ends up staying in Bedford Falls to run the Building and Loan and sends Harry to school on his dough. Four years pass and George is waiting for Harry as he comes home from school. When Harry gets back, George is ready to go exploring. It's what he has talked about since he was a boy. Well, Harry got married and George is stuck again. Who gets married and doesn't tell anyone?
That night George expresses his love for Mary and the two are wed. He saves the Building & Loan from the evil clutches of Mr Potter after the bank collapsed by using his own honeymoon money to appease his investors. He proceeds home to Sycamore Street where Mary has prepared their future home. The home is significant in that earlier after the graduation dance as George and Mary walked home, they threw rocks at the house and made wishes. George told his wish about exploring but Mary kept silent. Until now. She wished on that day years ago that she and George would be married and live in that house.
Sly old Mary. Makes us love her all the more.
They raise a family and absent minded Uncle Billy loses $8000. (And on the same day as Harrys homecoming parade. See, he won the Congressional Medal of Honor for saving the lives of every man on a transport in WWII.) George knows he'll be blamed. Potter calls the cops on George for malfeasance. George finds out he is worth more dead than alive. He gets punched in the mouth by an angry teachers husband. George balled out the teacher for sending Zuzu his daughter home with an open coat which caused her to get a cold.
George crashes his car into a tree and wanders over to the bridge. You can see in his eyes he ain't right and he is about to jump. He goes to climb up the railing when Clarence out of nowhere jumps in first. George dives in and saves him. Woohoo!
Clarence gives George a great gift. A chance to see what the world would be like without him. He goes to Martinis. The bar his friend owns but now it is Nicks and he is not so nice. Gower comes in and looks like a bum. He spent 30 years n jail for poisoning a kid. (Remember)
His car is gone, Ernie doesn't know him, his house is old again and Bert doesn't know him. Worse yet, his mother doesn't know him. He goes to the cemetery where...Harry is buried. Died in the ice. (Remember) All the troops died on the transport because George didn't save Harry.
The deepest cut of all is that Mary is an old maid and doesn't recognize George.
At his wits end, he heads back to the bridge after running from Bert the cop. While saying he wants to live again, it begins to snow. Which it was doing the last time he was on the bridge but never did during his "dead time". Bert calls him George, his lip starts bleeding again and...Zuzus petals, Zuzus petals, There they are!
He rushes home to find his children, reporters and cops. He doesn't care. He's alive.
One by one the townspeople come to bail George out. They give without question straight from the heart. Exactly as George did. All because of Mary spreading the word.
The movie ends with Clarence getting his wings and George saying, "Atta boy Clarence!"
If you haven't seen this movie; first, shame on you and second, see it. I left out a bunch of stuff and you probably even have a question or two. All will be answered on your journey through Bedford Falls.
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