# End of It's a Wonderful Life - Is George still in trouble?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [December 26, 2012, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215 "2012-12-26T20:20:19Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/61 "2014-01-09T02:04:31Z")
> [@Lumpy](#):
>
> Oh come on, it’s not that bad. Yes, George never got to see the world and become a famous architect. But the whole point of the movie was that he learned that his accomplishments, though far less visible, were substantial. What he’d thought were merely years of drudgery and sacrifice weren’t for nothing- he’d single-handedly kept one small corner of the world from becoming a hell on earth. And in the process gained the love of his family and the gratitude of the town.
This.
Also, recall the line by Potter’s rent collector (played by Charles Lane), “The day may come when this bright young man will be asking George Bailey for a job.”
George Bailey will very likely become rich in the long run, doing good before doing well.
And the sky’s the limit for the Bailey kids, raised in that environment.
I’m a childless bachelor atheist, and this is one of my favorite movies.
But the music is better in Pottersville 😉
---
### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/62 "2014-01-09T07:44:47Z")
Some points to ponder:
1. Nobody noticed whether there were witnesses to Uncle Billy’s gaffe in the bank–accidentally handing the envelope with the $8000 to Potter in the newspaper.
2. I have to wonder whether Potter’s goon (as the script calls him) would not have risen to the occasion to fink on his boss to save George’s neck. What did he have to lose?
3. Would Potter be foolish enough to “swear out a warrant” against George without evidence? No _won_der the sheriff tore the warrant up (No more probable cause). Better than embroiling Potter in a perjury trial.
4. Potter had taunted George with “Why don’t you go to that riff-raff that you love so much? You know why? They’d run you out of town on a rail!” Well, they didn’t, as we know. So much for Potter’s judgment.
5. Near the very end Cousin Eustace, still singing with the others, sits at his adding machine toting up the money. In the run-on-the-bank scene, when George bailed out his friends with his honeymoon money, Uncle Billy was right there keeping records. Now Eustace was doing it, to the apparent satisfaction of the bank examiner and the sheriff.
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### Author:  [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/63 "2014-01-09T15:50:26Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#):
>
> 1. Near the very end Cousin Eustace, still singing with the others, sits at his adding machine toting up the money. In the run-on-the-bank scene, when George bailed out his friends with his honeymoon money, Uncle Billy was right there keeping records. Now Eustace was doing it, **to the apparent satisfaction of the bank examiner** and the sheriff.
Bolding mine. I can suspend belief and accept time traveling angels. I cannot accept a bank examiner being satisfied. The new money that is coming in is exactly that. It is new money. The old money is still missing. Any bank examiner that would be cool with this would immediately lose any license/certification that he had.
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### Author:  [@cormac262](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cormac262)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/64 "2014-01-09T17:07:28Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> The bank examiner, and the guy with the warrant, reported back to Potter that George Bailey ‘found’ the money - it was under a cash drawer or something.
>
> Potter can’t expose their lie without blowing his own cover, so he uses the $8000 windfall for hookers and blow.
>
> Besides, George has a guardian angel who knows the whole deal and won’t let George go to the slammer.
>
> Nice tidy package.
>
> Also, George’s dad died of a stroke.
What people also overlook is that not only does George not go to prison, but he receives a windfall from his (airtight - well witnessed) “assault and battery” lawsuit against Zuzu’s teacher’s husband !
The epilogue that they don’t show is that Zuzu’s teacher’s husband is so rich he makes Potter and Sam Wainright look like peons ! So George ditches the wife (who does go on to become a librarian) and kids, snags a trophy wife and finally travels the world.
The “The End” is superimposed over a postcard to Potter from Fiji saying “Wish you were here - not. George”
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### Author:  [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/65 "2014-01-09T17:11:59Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#):
>
> Bolding mine. I can suspend belief and accept time traveling angels. I cannot accept a bank examiner being satisfied. The new money that is coming in is exactly that. It is new money. The old money is still missing. Any bank examiner that would be cool with this would immediately lose any license/certification that he had.
It was late Christmas Eve, and the bank examiner was none too happy about having to be there. Maybe when the money turned up he just said “Ah, screw it” so he could go home.
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### Author:  [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/66 "2014-01-09T17:50:18Z")
Cash is cash. Uncle Billy lost $8000 cash and George replaced it (with the help of his friends). Those weren’t loans going in the fishbowl, they were direct donations to George Bailey.
Cash gets lost, even bank examiners know that. There is no evidence of on-going malfeasance by the S&L, so they’d probably give him a pass, especially since he can replace the lost cash.
Hee haw.
StG
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/67 "2014-01-09T18:02:21Z")
> [@Magiver](#):
>
> What kind of guardian angel takes a person drinking and then turns him loose to assault innocent librarians and police officers? He practically walked George into prison. The people who saved George were his cronies who got special favors from the Savings and Loan Company in the form of delayed payments.
Clarence wasn’t there to keep George out of jail or save the Building & Loan - those are petty mortal concerns - he was just there to keep George from killing himself. The solution to the money problem was already building regardless of Clarence’s involvement. Heck, without Clarence, the townspeople and Wainwright would still have coughed up their dough to save the B&L and George’s corpsicle would have been found days later down the river.
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### Author:  [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/68 "2014-01-09T18:11:35Z")
> [@StGermain](#):
>
> Cash is cash. Uncle Billy lost $8000 cash and George replaced it (with the help of his friends). Those weren’t loans going in the fishbowl, they were direct donations to George Bailey.
>
> Cash gets lost, even bank examiners know that. There is no evidence of on-going malfeasance by the S&L, so they’d probably give him a pass, especially since he can replace the lost cash.
>
> Hee haw.
>
> StG
I disagree for the reasons stated upthread. Potter as a shareholder swore out a warrant for George Bailey’s arrest (which was obviously granted) on the grounds that George was misappropriating funds, presumably by gambling and whoring around with Violet Bick. That (if true) would be theft. It’s no different than shoplifting an item from the store and attempting quash the arrest warrant by simply paying the store the value of the item that you took, or returning it.
Yes, WE know that Uncle Billy lost the money, but at this point in the legal process, a judge has found probable cause that George has been misappropriating it. Simply repaying the money by donations or otherwise won’t get a person off of the hook.
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### Author:  [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/69 "2014-01-09T18:31:22Z")
> [@bup](#):
>
> Potter can’t expose their lie without blowing his own cover, so he uses the $8000 windfall for hookers and blow.
Cue Violet!
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [January 9, 2014, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/end-of-its-a-wonderful-life-is-george-still-in-trouble/645215/70 "2014-01-09T18:37:14Z")
This was the end of WWII, there was a Medal of Honor recipient right there, Georges brother. Any "bank examiner’ going “by the book” vs a war hero of that level would find himself out of a job.
Things were different then. Simpler.
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