I have an interesting relationship with the movie It’s a Wonderful Life. I unabashedly unironically love it, and I also love to make fun of it. Not in a mean way, but more like how you kid an old friend.

I have probably seen the film about 100 times, starting in the 1980s when it was on local television all the time. Watching a movie that much, you start noticing things about it. And that’s what this post is all about.

I got the idea to write this when I was talking about It’s a Wonderful Life with friends at a holiday gathering a few weeks ago, we were comparing notes so to speak about things we loved, things that hit us in the feels, unusual things, and funny stuff in the movie, both intentional and unintentional. So, here they are, some random observations about It’s a Wonderful Life.

Mary Bailey is the hero of the movie. Mary saved the savings and loan, twice. The first time was offering up their wedding gift for money to get it through the stock market crash, the second was rallying all the townspeople to bring money to George at the end of the movie. You could say Mary invented GoFundMe! She also raised four kids and renovated an old house, despite her husband’s constant bitching about it. Clarence isn’t the only angel in this story. Speaking of that bitching…

George Bailey isn’t the easiest guy to be around sometimes. As you may have known, this movie didn’t do well at the box office, or with some critics. Critics claimed the movie was too saccharine, and George was too good. George really is a wonderful guy with a big heart, but what the critics missed was Frank Capra was wise enough to make George a complicated guy. His grandiose visions of his future are probably something he never shut up about – imagine dealing with him constantly going on about it! He could be a grouchy guy, often resentful, with an anger management problem. Not necessarily the perfect hero without any faults. Sure, he was a wonderful person who helped a lot of people. But he wasn’t perfect, and that makes the movie much better than it would be otherwise.

This is a funny movie. This is especially true during the Pottersville scene. Nick the Bartender in Pottersville might be a mean guy, but he’s also a funny one. His snarky “get me I’ve givin’ out wings” is one of the best lines in movie history. I also loved his line: “Hey look, mister. We serve hard drinks in here for men who want to get drunk fast, and we don’t need any characters around to give the joint atmosphere.” I’ve been to those kind of bars! Yes, I know this is supposed to be George’s nightmare – the shot of George running at the camera with a bewildered “what the hell is happening to me” expression is one of Jimmy Stewart’s finest acting moments. And Violet’s scene where she is really what everyone in her town probably called her – a prostitute – is very dark. But sorry, when George yells “That’s my wife” and Librarian Mary screams and faints, I laugh.

Speaking of Librarian Mary, the librarians I know HATE that scene. I worked with several university librarians in a prior job, and have a few as friends, and when NBC does their Christmas Eve showing of the movie, I can count on some of them making a joking post on social media about how much they hate George’s nightmare being Mary is a librarian. I mean, the way Clarence sets it up with “you’re not going to like it, George!” no wonder librarians hate it, as if her fate was the worst of the Pottersville lot.

At the end of the Mary the Librarian sequence, Bert the cop goes full Dirty Bert Magnum Force. After he’s stopped from accosting his alternate universe librarian wife, George takes off after slugging Bert when he arrives on the scene. Given this is a moral-free universe, Bert opens fire at the fleeing George…on a crowded street! Pottersville Bert is a loose cannon, and a police scandal is waiting to happen. If you watch closely, you’ll see that Bert shoots out the S and the V in the Pottersville sign, and a home in his line of fire has their front light blown out, unless they turned off the light because they were terrified by police gunfire.

In both Pottersville and Bedford Falls, the tree-obsessed old man is the only character to remain exactly the same. Distraught over his dopey Uncle Billy dooming the family business, George Bailey drunk drives into a tree and is immediately set upon by a grouchy old guy who starts ranting at him about how his great-grandpa planted the tree. George runs off. Then in Pottersville, he angrily snaps at a questioning George “DON’T YA THINK I KNOW WHERE I LIVE!” Whether it’s about his tree or coming at anyone who questions where he lives, he is exactly the same grumpy guy in Bedford Falls AND Pottersville. Everyone else is different in each alternate universe, but not that dude.

The politics of both Capra and Stewart were very conservative. Given this is a political blog, it’s worth noting especially given Trump probably views the movie as one where the bad guy wins in the end. Do conservatives get uncomfortable about their business ideals being portrayed in such a light?

A little detail in the telegram to the pharmacist about his son’s death. The pharmacist’s son died of that other famous American pandemic, the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918-1919. The pandemic, unlike ours, was worst for young people, so college campuses were especially hit hard. The telegram was from the son’s college.

A lot of economists agree this is a concise and effective explanation of a building and loan:

The real moral of the story: Don’t let your dumbest relatives have any responsibility in the family business. Sure, Uncle Billy seems lovable, but he lost the 2024 equivalent of $140,219.11 that he stuck IN A NEWSPAPER and nearly destroyed the business. I mean, the guy forgot his nephew’s wedding, George, as in YOURS! Why would you let this guy do anything but clean up all the crap on any surface in the building and loan office from his pet raven that lived there – I mean, the lovable critter had free run of the place and very likely shit all over the place. By the way, my fellow It’s a Wonderful Life fan, you knew that…right?

In any event, I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday if you celebrate, or a wonderful Chinese food dinner on Wednesday is that’s what you do. The last word goes to the people of Bedford Falls…