# It's a Wonderful Life - Do you like it or not?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies
**Created:** [December 17, 2009, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638 "2009-12-17T14:56:55Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 12
### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2014, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/221 "2014-12-27T17:02:42Z")
> [@Bill\_Door](#):
>
> You know who I feel sorry for? Nick, that’s who. One minute he’s his own boss who sells hard liquor to men who want to get drunk in a hurry, the owner of his own saloon doing a really great business, and the next he’s working for wages for Martini in George Bailey’s Bedford Falls. What do you think George Bailey did to ensure that Nick ended up behind the bar in someone else’s gin joint? Nick was sure better off with George drowned and buried at the age of 12.
You forget: In the primary reality Nick \* was \* Martin’s employee, in the nice little town of Bedford Falls, with no ‘men looking to get drunk in a hurry.’ Martini didn’t have the jazz piano; he had the juke box, playing bright, festive Italian music. It was a nice little place; Martini did not want fights in his establishment, and George Bailey was an old friend. So he and Nick kicked Welch out. I would love to have a business like that–but with no Welches.
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### Author:  [@Frostillicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frostillicus)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2014, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/222 "2014-12-27T17:44:53Z")
I showed it to my students in my high school film class two weeks ago. None of them had ever heard of it, let alone seen it. Also, they HATE black and white movies.
They all loved it. 🆒
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### Author:  [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)
#### Post date: [December 27, 2014, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/223 "2014-12-27T18:59:40Z")
> [@Frostillicus](#):
>
> I showed it to my students in my high school film class two weeks ago. None of them had ever heard of it, let alone seen it. Also, they HATE black and white movies.
> They all loved it. 🆒
I had never seen it when my older brother invited our sister and me to watch it on TV one morning. I was 13 at the time; I had never heard of any of the actors, except for seeing \* Vertigo \* in a movie house in the 50s, with Jimmy Stewart. I cried at the ending, of course; and the movie has become a permanent favorite. 🙂
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/224 "2018-12-09T19:29:42Z")
Bumped.
Did you know there was a 1977 gender-reversed _It’s A Wonderful Life_ starring Marlo Thomas (and Wayne Rogers and Orson Welles)?
> **[It Happened One Christmas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Happened_One_Christmas)**
>
> It Happened One Christmas is a 1977 American made-for-television Christmas fantasy-comedy-drama film directed by Donald Wrye, starring Marlo Thomas, Wayne Rogers, Orson Welles, and Cloris Leachman. It originally premiered as The ABC Sunday Night Movie on December 11, 1977.
> The film, a gender-reversed version of the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, centers on Mary Bailey Hatch, a young woman who dreams of seeing the world but is forced by circumstances to remain in her small hometown as head of t...
[![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jldjq8TIEQ)
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### Author:  [@Tzigone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tzigone)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/225 "2018-12-09T19:38:09Z")
> [@](#):
>
> One of my favorite scenes occurs early in the movie, when George is walking Mary home after they fell into the swimming pool at the dance. A man startles them, and Mary runs into the bushes, losing the robe she was wearing. George starts to toss it to her, then stops.
>
> George (with a smile spreading over his face): This is a very interesting situation!
>
> Mary: Throw me my robe!
>
> George: A man doesn’t find himself in a situation like this every day …
>
> Mary: Shame on you! I’ll tell your mother!
>
> George (thoughtfully): My mother’s way up on the corner there …
>
> Mary: I’ll call the police!
>
> George (still thoughtfully): They’re way downtown … anyway, they’d be on my side.
>
> That exchange just tickles me no end.
Never seen it, but decided to read this thread. Without context, this guy sounds like an asshole. Sounds like he’s deliberately keeping someone else uncomfortable and embarrassed so he can get an eyeful. Hope that’s not it.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/226 "2018-12-09T20:00:19Z")
> [@Tzigone](#):
>
> Never seen it…
I’ve heard of such people but wasn’t sure they actually existed. 🙂
The next time I watch it, I’m going to compile a list (which I’ll post) of every rationalization George gives as to the weird stuff that’s going on. “Bad liquor…are you a hypnotist…everybody else is crazy…”
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/227 "2018-12-09T21:15:06Z")
I also love the 1940’s lifestyle assumptions that just don’t fly today. To wit:
An unmarried woman in her 30’s is an “old maid” and must wear glasses and men’s clothes.
Someone who loses their business and declares bankruptcy will go insane and live their days in an asylum.
Police are justified in firing their weapon down a crowded street, to bring down a drunk-and-disorderly suspect.
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### Author:  [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/228 "2018-12-09T21:54:54Z")
I always liked the assumption that potter would of turned the town into the Midwest bowery if it wasn’t for George ……and remeber this is one of the movies that became “classic” because the copyrights ran out and everyone played it endlessly until the early 2000s
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### Author:  [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)
#### Post date: [December 9, 2018, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/229 "2018-12-09T22:00:14Z")
It’s the movie that earned Alfalfa his Academy Award.
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/230 "2018-12-10T03:22:46Z")
I have always liked it. I was disappointed when it was stolen out of the public domain, so now it’s hardly ever on anymore.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
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### Author:  [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/231 "2018-12-10T07:30:53Z")
I’ve always liked Norm’s comment about the movie on _ **Cheers!** _: “Trust me as an accountant, you lose $8000 of other people’s money and nobody’s gonna come bail you out!”\*
My favorite moment in the movie is when George’s brother splashes that Japanese airplane. 🆒
\*Or words to that effect.
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### Author:  [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/232 "2018-12-10T14:28:01Z")
> [@Jim\_Bow](#):
>
> Another thing to consider is that this was Stewart’s first movie after returning from the war. He lost a lot of men under his command, and had also visited, after the armistice, several of the sites his unit had bombed. He was carrying a lot of, what they now call “baggage”. Plus he had also been told, by several experts, that he was too old to restart his career.
> Capra was a good friend, and had Stewart in mind from the start.
>
> I think that a lot of what Stewart had witnessed came out in several of the scenes.
> [@Frylock](#):
>
> I would love to know where this information comes from. It seems to shed so much light on Stewart’s performance.
I’ve been on this message board for nearly twenty years, and that is the NICEST _“cite?”_ that I could ever hope to see!
You go, **Frylock**! You’re keeping Capra’s spirit alive! 😃
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/233 "2018-12-10T16:00:41Z")
> [@jsc1953](#):
>
> I also love the 1940’s lifestyle assumptions that just don’t fly today. To wit:
>
> An unmarried woman in her 30’s is an “old maid” and must wear glasses and men’s clothes.
Not only that, she becomes the…librarian! Oh, the horror! She must have had some spooky connection to George, as she couldn’t find any other guy in the entire universe to marry?
> [@jsc1953](#):
>
> Police are justified in firing their weapon down a crowded street, to bring down a drunk-and-disorderly suspect.
It’s not without film precedent -look at the merry-go-round scene in Strangers on a Train. Cops not only shoot into a crowd, it’s a crowd with kids!
Maybe that was standard police procedure? The reason police protocols don’t allow shooting into crowds isn’t because people all of a sudden got smart, but because cops killed too many innocent bystanders. Like all safety rules, someone had to die before they were made.
Mind you, I like the movie a lot. but you see it enough times and the weaknesses start to show.
The thing that bugs me about George’s character isn’t that he’s a doormat, but that he’s a bully! Look at his behavior during the war. He goes power mad as air raid warden with his whistle. Give a wimpy guy a little power and he becomes a dictator.
It isn’t like there were any German bombing runs on upstate New York.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/234 "2018-12-10T16:15:04Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> Not only that, she becomes the…librarian! Oh, the horror! She must have had some spooky connection to George, as she couldn’t find any other guy in the entire universe to marry?
Especially given she had a boyfriend before that who would have been a good choice to give her. Still, that part is so much shorter than I think it might have been easier to just leave her unmarried than to have to explain anything.
The main thing that gets me is how slow the movie is building up George’s life before we finally get to the main part. It’s just so different and violates the “rules” for where the structures go in movies.
Yet it so completely works.
I actually have the colorized version on my computer. I know, I know. It’s not the best. But I mess with the colors a bit and get something that’s just easier to make out than black and white without looking too garish. I never noticed so much of the details until they were in color.
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### Author:  [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/235 "2018-12-10T16:48:44Z")
[quote=“Elendil\_s\_Heir, post:224, topic:521638”]
Bumped.
Did you know there was a 1977 gender-reversed _It’s A Wonderful Life_ starring Marlo Thomas (and Wayne Rogers and Orson Welles)?
[It Happened One Christmas - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/It_Happened_One_Christmas)
[/QUOTE]
Whoa. When you say gender reversed, you mean it. I jumped around and saw the same scenes, heard mostly the same lines, even the same character names except Mary and George are reversed.
I suspect that movie is in copyright hell once It’s A Wonderful Life was found not to be in the public domain.
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/236 "2018-12-10T16:50:23Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> …The thing that bugs me about George’s character isn’t that he’s a doormat, but that he’s a bully! Look at his behavior during the war. He goes power mad as air raid warden with his whistle. Give a wimpy guy a little power and he becomes a dictator.
>
> It isn’t like there were any German bombing runs on upstate New York.
Well, obviously the Luftwaffe never attacked Bedford Falls because they knew George was on the job.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/237 "2018-12-10T17:02:43Z")
> [@Ruminator](#):
>
> It’s one of my all time favorite movies and I don’t associate it with Christmas.
>
> However, I don’t like Frank Capra’s socialistic message embedded in it.
That was the only part I liked.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/238 "2018-12-10T17:05:33Z")
> [@Tzigone](#):
>
> Never seen it, but decided to read this thread. Without context, this guy sounds like an asshole. Sounds like he’s deliberately keeping someone else uncomfortable and embarrassed so he can get an eyeful. Hope that’s not it.
Your hope is going to be dashed.
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/239 "2018-12-10T17:12:16Z")
> [@Tzigone](#):
>
> Never seen it, but decided to read this thread. Without context, this guy sounds like an asshole. Sounds like he’s deliberately keeping someone else uncomfortable and embarrassed so he can get an eyeful. Hope that’s not it.
That’s not really it. He was being a jerk, but he wasn’t doing it just to get an eyeful. He was teasing. He wasn’t really going to sell tickets.
George was just an overgrown kid. Like a dog chasing a car, George didn’t know what to do with the girl now that he caught her. So he did stupid shit like tease her because he thought it was cute or funny. It wasn’t, of course, but he wasn’t doing it maliciously. If anyone had actually come along, George would have protected Mary.
Just kiss her, you fool!
What?
Aw, youth is wasted on the young!
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### Author:  [@EscAlaMike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EscAlaMike)
#### Post date: [December 10, 2018, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-a-wonderful-life-do-you-like-it-or-not/521638/240 "2018-12-10T17:16:28Z")
> [@Ruminator](#):
>
> However, I don’t like Frank Capra’s socialistic message embedded in it.
Socialist? I don’t recall any characters advocating for state control of the means of production, even implicitly.
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