"Sentimental Hogwash!"

Rating: Null/10 (11 July 2000)

George Bailey is a thoroughly nice guy, the backbone of the small American community into which he was born. George's story is that of America in the first half of the twentieth century - a happy childhood before the First World War, ambition growing with maturity, then trouble for the family in the wake of the 1929 crash. George and his family make it through the Depression, and are blessed with success as George's dearly-loved brother Harry wins the Congressional Medal of Honour in World War Two. From this high point, George's fortunes take a steep nosedive, and the defining crisis of his life is suddenly upon him ...
George's twin ambitions since early childhood have been to explore the world (travel has always fired his imagination) and to "build things". Events are constantly cheating him out of his travel plans, and sheer selflessness prevents him from getting an education, his passport out of Bedford Falls and into a career as an architect. Like his father before him, George is too kindly ever to advance his own personal aims.

His adversary and nemesis is Old Man Potter, "the richest and the meanest man in the county". He is as unlike George as a man can be. Immobile and with no curiosity about the world, Potter dominates the small town, and is universally feared and despised. Without family or home life, Potter has only his money, which he ruthlessly ensures will increase and multiply. George believes in the community ("we've got to have faith in each other"), whereas Henry F. Potter regards the people as exploitable "rabble". On George's study wall hangs a portrait of Abraham Lincoln. Potter has a bust of Napoleon.
This famous Capra tear-jerker is a masterpiece of emotional manipulation, and incidentally a tremendous piece of cinematic craftsmanship. The film has two premises, firstly that the fabric of the nation is sound so long as Americans stick to the early settlers' values of communal mutual assistance, and secondly, an enlightened liberal doctrine of the perfectability of mankind. If ordinary folks are offered chances for betterment, by means of building improved housing and encouraging financial thrift, they will prove themselves to be sober, hardworking citizens, keen to advance the prosperity of their progeny. George is the liberal hero who embodies these beliefs. His dream is to raise "dozens of the prettiest little homes you ever saw", and when the Martini family takes possession of its property, George is on hand to see Giuseppe realise the American Dream - "I own my own house!"
The young George knows that he doesn't want to squander his life "cooped up ... in a shabby little office". However, George is the responsible type, and to protect the working people from Potter, and put Harry through college, he assumes the burden of running the family's Building and Loans business. He grows to realise that his father's legacy is a noble one, the foundation of America's future.
George continues to dream of "anchor chains, plane motors and train whistles", but the thoughtlessness of others keeps him trapped in Bedford Falls. Alone outside a house party, he reacts wistfully to the wail of a distant train. His crisis of conscience when Harry announces the marriage and the new job is a tremendous piece of cinema. Kind, decent George goes through silent turmoil as it sinks in that his hopes have been dashed again.
If the propositions on which the story rests are simple folksy ones, the story itself is a strong one, told with great zest. Pacy effervescence keeps the action moving snappily along. Mary loves George from childhood, as we see in the drugstore sequence. The prepubescent George shows the traits we come to love in him - industriousness, reliability and social conscience - and he saves Gower the druggist from committing an appalling act of negligence, at great cost to himself. The tight narrative sweeps us from the kiss to the wedding, and from the honeymoon taxi to the run on the bank. World war Two, during which "George fought the battle of Bedford Falls", is an object lesson in concise story-telling.
One of Capra's narrative techniques is to exploit clashes of opposites. We plunge from elation to despair as Harry's triumph gives way to the financial disaster. Christmas bonhomie is tainted by the chilling presence of the bank examiner. George's desperate prayer in Martini's bar is accompanied by a jolly Italian ditty. The 'drowning' drama is followed swiftly by a gentle comedy scene.
The heart of the film is the relationship between George and Mary. A silent look passes between them at the high school dance, and we know that they have fallen in love. Their charleston dance (a superbly-choreographed sequence) cements the incipient romance and is followed by a great two-handed scene in which the lovers throw stones at 320 Sycamore, the house which will one day be theirs. George's later visit to Mary's house once more blends romance and comedy with splendid success. It is a joy to watch the aching desire of each for the other as they listen to Sam's phone call.
Clarence the wingless angel offers George "a chance to see what the world would be like without you". The nightmare sequence shows Bedford Falls (now known as Pottersville) to be a seedy Gomorrah of jazz bars and strip joints, peopled by a surly, unhappy populace. George's creed is borne out - "each man's life touches every other man's life", and he sees that his patient, benign influence has worked its magic. Bedford Falls is a better place for having known George Bailey.
Watch out for a young Gloria Grahame as Violet, launching a career of playing bad girls. And is that Donna Reed in Martini's, posing as the bar girl in the peroxide wig?