[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Perhaps Donna Reed was a witch, and all of George’s troubles stemmed from her. The moment she threw that rock through that window in that old house – a supernatural feat in and of itself – George became trapped and her personal toyboy. Perhaps all would have turned out better for George had she been burned at the stake early on.
[/QUOTE]
“I like the cut of that man’s gibberish!” – The Tick
Stranger
Well, I just find it odd that Mr. Bailey had a stroke at that precise moment. I don’t know what further proof is needed.
[QUOTE=thirdwarning]
According to the original story Mary didn’t end up a lonely spinster, she ended up married, to a drunk. George visited her in the guise of the Fuller Brush salesman.
So her life could have been a lot worse, too.
[/QUOTE]
Yes, it could have been a traveling salesman joke! 
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
Because it seems to me that he has what is pretty much a dead end job
[/QUOTE]
Ditch digger, dish washer, president of a savings and loan.
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Well, I just find it odd that Mr. Bailey had a stroke at that precise moment. I don’t know what further proof is needed.
[/QUOTE]
Don’t misunderstand, I think it’s an intriguing premise that puts a new spin on the story, but we then wonder why Donna Reed would saddle herself with Jimmy Stewart. Of course, we can wonder the same about Grace Kelly in Rear Window (although marrying a prince in real life didn’t work out all that well, either.)
Stranger
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Perhaps Donna Reed was a witch, and all of George’s troubles stemmed from her. The moment she threw that rock through that window in that old house – a supernatural feat in and of itself
[/QUOTE]
Apparently they had someone ready to knock out the window at the right time but they didn’t need it. Donna Reed had a great arm.
[QUOTE=Stranger On A Train]
Of course, we can wonder the same about Grace Kelly in Rear Window (although marrying a prince in real life didn’t work out all that well, either.)
[/QUOTE]
In what way did the marriage not work out well?
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
It’s not “slow.” It takes its time and lets you know and become so familiar with the characters that you feel like you live in Bedford Falls and know them yourself.
BTW: The scene of the high-school dance, when Carl Switzer, who used to be Alfalfa in the Our Gang series, opens up the floor. That was filmed in a real high-school gym where the floor really was like that. However, on our DVD’s special features, Tom Bosley claims it was Beverly Hills High. However, my father used to tell me it was HIS old high school, Hollywood High, which he was attending when they filmed it. (And assuming it really was Hollywood High, the school doubled for alt Whitman High in the old *Room 222 * television series.)
[/QUOTE]
You should always trust Tom Bosley.
Also “Room 222” was shot at Los Angeles High, although most of the buildings used for the exterior shots aren’t around any more.
[QUOTE=Walloon]
In what way did the marriage not work out well?
[/QUOTE]
She was pretty much a brood mare for Prince Rainier and his family, and he forebade her from a further film career. He (and allegedly she) had a number of extramarital affairs and were never especially close, even in public.
Stranger
[QUOTE=BobT]
You should always trust Tom Bosley.
Also “Room 222” was shot at Los Angeles High, although most of the buildings used for the exterior shots aren’t around any more.
[/QUOTE]
I’ve seen since confirmation on imdb that Tom was correct. My father went to Hollywood High. I must be confusing all three high schools as one. That or dear old Dad was telling some long tales.
[QUOTE=Bayard]
That’s true. She was Donna Reed for Pete’s sake! Did George’s departure leave the rest of the men in Bedford Falls blind? George was a good catch and all, but I’d bet there were others willing to take his place.
[/QUOTE]
The scene when George returns home after rejecting Potter’s crafty offer of employment, when Mary tells George she’s pregnant. Before she tells him the news, when he first walks into their darkened bedroom, he asks her why she ever married him. She says something like, “To keep me from being an old maid.” And he says she could have married anyone else in town, and she says something like, “I didn’t want to marry anyone else in town.” Maybe she was not just blowig smoke.
I did find it odd, though, that she was bound and determined to remind George of the night his father died, with that “George Lassos the Moon” sign, which appears twice in the film. That’s the first thing it would have brought to my mind, if it were me.
[QUOTE=Equipoise]
Yes. I think it’s stupid because it implies the opposite, that if you don’t have any friends, that you ARE a failure. Maybe yes, maybe no, but a lot of shy or introverted people with no friends don’t really need that kind of slap in the face. CAN someone be a worthwhile human being without friends? Yeah, I would hope so.
[/QUOTE]
I guess it’s theoretically possible, but I’ve never seen an example. “Shy, introverted” people usually have a few frends. People with NO friends are usually assholes.
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
I did find it odd, though, that she was bound and determined to remind George of the night his father died, with that “George Lassos the Moon” sign, which appears twice in the film. That’s the first thing it would have brought to my mind, if it were me.
[/QUOTE]
Well, sure. She’s gotta remind him of what could happen…
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
The scene when George returns home after rejecting Potter’s crafty offer of employment, when Mary tells George she’s pregnant. Before she tells him the news, when he first walks into their darkened bedroom, he asks her why she ever married him. She says something like, “To keep me from being an old maid.” And he says she could have married anyone else in town, and she says something like, “I didn’t want to marry anyone else in town.” Maybe she was not just blowig smoke. …
[/QUOTE]
From the first Mary and George scene, he’s 12 or 13, she a couple of years younger,He leans down to finish scooping out the ice cream, his deaf ear toward her. She leans over, speaking softly. CLOSE SHOT –– Mary, whispering.
MARY: Is this the ear you can’t hear on? George Bailey, I’ll love you till the day I die.
*She draws back quickly and looks down, terrified at what she has said.*George was literally her first and only love.
CMC +fnord!
It has been mentioned in previous threads about this movie that being an unmarried librarian is not necessarily a bad thing.
Moviemaker Frank Capra, Jr., head of EUE Studios in Wilmington, NC, died on Wednesday, 12/19/07.
[QUOTE=crowmanyclouds]
From the first Mary and George scene, he’s 12 or 13, she a couple of years younger,He leans down to finish scooping out the ice cream, his deaf ear toward her. She leans over, speaking softly. CLOSE SHOT –– Mary, whispering.
MARY: Is this the ear you can’t hear on? George Bailey, I’ll love you till the day I die.
*She draws back quickly and looks down, terrified at what she has said.*George was literally her first and only love.
CMC +fnord!
[/QUOTE]
But she wouldn’t have known him to fall in love with him in the alternate timeline. He wasn’t even around to save Harry from the lake and go deaf in his ear.
[QUOTE=Sir Prize]
But she wouldn’t have known him to fall in love with him in the alternate timeline. He wasn’t even around to save Harry from the lake and go deaf in his ear.
[/QUOTE]
Which takes us back to her assertion that George had saved her from becoming an old maid and that she didn’t want to marry anyone else. She had a gut feeling (I mean one that was not a baby kicking). Sam Wainwright certainly would not have lasted; remember the girl on his neck when he telephoned her house back when everyone thought he and Mary would get together?
[QUOTE=Siam Sam]
Which takes us back to her assertion that George had saved her from becoming an old maid and that she didn’t want to marry anyone else. She had a gut feeling (I mean one that was not a baby kicking). Sam Wainwright certainly would not have lasted; remember the girl on his neck when he telephoned her house back when everyone thought he and Mary would get together?
[/QUOTE]
My favorite part about that scene is that, obviously George and Mary have no idea that Sam has a high-priced chippie with him. As far as either of them know, Sam’s about to pop the question to Mary. They never hung up the phone.