George Bailey/Synopsis

The story of the good samaritan and town hero George Bailey.
==Early Life and Childhood==
George Bailey was born sometime in 1907 and grew up in Bedford Falls. Only a few pieces of his childhood are known, but what is known is that as a 12-year old, he had rescued his younger brother Harry from having fallen through ice from sliding down an icy hill on a shovel, although it made him deaf in the left ear.
George also worked at a local drugstore for Mr. Gower. At the store, he spoke with a flirtatious eight-year-old Violet Bick who ordered candy at the counter and vied for George's attention. Also, there is young Mary Hatch, the childhood sweetheart he would eventually marry. Mary orders a chocolate sundae but rejects George's offer of coconuts on top. George tells "brainless" Mary that cocoanuts come from Tahiti, the Fiji Islands, and the Coral Sea. He wanted to explore and see the world, bragging about being nominated as a member of the National Geographic Society.
When he bends down in front of her, Mary whispers into his deaf ear, vowing she would love George until the day she died.
While finishing fixing her order, George discovers a recent telegram to Mr. Gower informing him of the tragic death of his son Robert, due to influenza. Distraught over the news and drinking as a result, Mr. Gower mistakenly mixes a pill prescription containing poisonous cyanide. Gower gives the order to George for an emergency delivery. Although obedient and diligent, George realizes that the prescription is fatal, but wasn't sure whether to deliver it or not. Not knowing what to do he decides to go his father for advice.
But his father is busy in the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association building, confronting Mr. Potter in his office. George's uncle Billy prevents George from interrupting, but is called away. George enters his father's office and listens to the conversation between his father and Potter. Potter insults Bailey and young George stands up and comes to his father's defense when Potter calls him a failure.
His father rushes him out of the office without giving him a chance to ask about the pills. George returns to the store with the undelivered capsules. Before learning of the mistake, Mr. Gower angrily slaps George's sore ear for disobediently not delivering the order, although the boy describes the druggist's error with the poison. When the old man tests the pills and learns the truth, he breaks down and tearfully embraces George, profusely begging him for forgiveness. George promises never to tell anyone about the mistake.
==Summer 1928==
George moved into adulthood as a young man and he still hasn't told anyone about Mr. Gower's mistake with the poison. He still wanted to leave for Europe on an exotic trip aboard an ocean freighter to see the world. He went in a local luggage and bags store purchasing a suitcase. He is given a second-hand bag with his name inscribed on it -- a present from his ex-boss Mr. Gower.
On the streets of town, townspeople kid with him about his upcoming trip. With friends Ernie the taxi driver, and Bert the cop, he calls himself "a rich tourist" and asks to be driven home in style. Just then, George sees another childhood friend, Violet who became the town flirt. He compliments her on her summer dress as Violet stops traffic and gets everyone to crank their gaze in her direction.
George spends his last night at the Bailey home with his parents, on the evening of brother Harry's high school graduation. Behind his father on the wall are George's framed butterfly collection. His father tells him that Potter, on the board of directors, continues to harrass them. George calls Potter a "money-grubbing buzzard," although Mr. Bailey excuses Potter's miserliness.
George has spent four years since his high school graduation working for his father at the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan Association. He wanted his younger brother Harry to take his place at the Bailey Company for four years while he goes off to college. Mr. Bailey sounds out his older son George about what he wants to do in his future. George boasts about his plans to build things, design new buildings and plan modern cities.
Mr. Bailey also asks about his son's feelings about taking over the Building and Loan. Exuberant about leaving Bedford Falls and traveling in his future, George declines his father's offer to return back home after college to take over the business. His father defends the importance of their business, sacrificing his entire life to altruistically help depositors in his bank and his family.
George doesn't wish to demean his father's work, but explains that he wants to get away and achieve financial/worldly success. His father demonstrates his understanding saying Bedford Falls was no place for any man unless he was willing to go against Potter. He believed in George, who complimented his father saying he was a great guy.
At Harry's 1928 high-school graduation party, George is heartily greeted by old friends including Sam Wainwright, a recent college graduate. Violet approaches and offers her dance card to George. But George slights Violet when he is interrupted by Mary Hatch's brother Marty Hatch.
Marty suggests that George dance with his sister Mary to give her "the thrill of her life". Violet reacts with mock surprise as George turns to look for Mary. His tall figure makes its way through the crowd to find her. When he sees the grown-up 18 year-old Mary, the first time they have met since they were childhood friends, he is visibly impressed with her. Although Mary is listening to a suitor named Freddie tell her a boring story about an experience he has had, she immediately turns away and shows an interest and fondness for George. He takes her away from her partner and they go off dancing together after George tells Freddie off.
George courts his childhood sweetheart as they enter a Charleston dance contest, while unbeknownst to them, the jealous rival Freddie plots his revenge. With the turn of a key and the push of a button, the gym dance floor is opened up, revealing a swimming pool underneath. When the floor separates beneath them, they are so carried away with their hectic Charleston dancing that they don't notice - and they plunge backwards into the pool. Soon, everyone joins them in the water, including the school principal.
After the party, George and Mary walk home together after their party clothes got wet. They wear a hastily-thrown together weird assortment of borrowed clothes - George wore a #3 football jersey and Mary wore a long, loose-fitting bathrobe. They sing an off-key duet of "Buffalo Gals" under the light of a new moon. Then he sweet-talks her, calling his date "the prettiest girl in town" while distancing himself slightly.
On their way home while strolling along the street, they pause in front of an old deserted Granville house, and the gawky George accidently steps on her bathrobe belt, the pretended "train" of her dress. She stops so that they can pretend a chivalrous encounter in a dramatic game. As a courtly lady, she extends her hand for a kiss from her courtier. He approaches closer to her, intending to give her a real kiss, but she coyly and slowly turns away from him, walking away and continuing to sing "Buffalo Gals."
George threatens to hurl a rock through one of its windows. He wants to make a wish - which will only come true if he breaks a window. Mary wishes he wouldn't and confesses that she'd like to live in that old house. He throws a rock and his aim is accurate - he breaks a window on the second floor. Then, he loudly describes his wishes to see the world and build magnificent buildings.
Mary interrupts George by picking up a rock and silently makes a wish of her own (which turns to be living in the old house). Following George's example, she throws it through another window. George curiously asks what she wished for but she refuses to tell her, claiming it may not come true. George asks about her deepest wishes and then offers her a poetic, imaginative fantasy about lassoing the moon and bringing it down to Earth so that she can eat it - it's almost a marriage proposal.
A neighbor on a nearby back porch hears their romantic, non-sensical conversation and challenges George to do less talking and try more romantic action.
Just then, George inadvertently steps on Mary's bathrobe again and she accidentally loses it. She jumps into the hydrangea bushes to hide. Aroused by her predicament, he hesitates to throw her robe to her and teases her in a good-natured way, calling it "a very interesting situation." Mary begs for her robe back as he circles the bush with the bathrobe in his hands. George's imaginative contemplation of possibilities is interrupted when a car roars up the street with Harry and Uncle Billy. He abruptly leaves after receiving the tragic news that his father has had a stroke and died. Mary watches the car drive off.
George had to cancel his dream of traveling abroad to Europe for the summer before college, and he had to handle the affairs of his father's business in the few months following his father's death.
In a meeting of the board of the Bailey Building and Loan Company that gathers to vote on its future and to choose a successor to Mr. Bailey, George listens to Mr. Potter (one of the board members) present a motion to dissolve the Building and Loan Association in a bold-faced attempt to shut it down. Although Potter calls George's father "a man of high ideals," he criticizes Peter Bailey's business sense - he's wasn't a proper business man according to him, maintaining that the company was always a losing proposition. Potter believes that the loan policies of the company only produce "a discontented, lazy rabble instead of a thrifty working class." Potter complains about a few idealistic dreamers like Peter Bailey who would give people a lot of ideas and give people hope.
George responds by delivering an inspired speech in defense of his father's character, fighting selfishness and deceitfulness with honesty and decency. He speaks for the hard-working people of the town, and the way his father made them all better citizens and customers. George is committed to keeping alive the company as the only alternative to allowing Bedford Falls to fall completely under the ownership of greedy and unscrupulous Mr. Potter - the only source for borrowing money.
Potter calls George's ideals sentimental hogwash. The board votes not to sell out to Potter but to keep the Bailey Building and Loan Company under one condition - if George is kept in charge as Executive Secretary to succeed his father. When they suggest that absent-minded Uncle Billy run the company - an unworkable alternative, George realizes his opportunities to go to college and study architecture are closing down, but he again agrees to sacrifice and sidetrack his personal dreams as a victim of circumstance. He will remain in Bedford Falls to operate the company, inherit the responsibilities of running the loan company, and instead send his younger brother to college, using his own college savings.
For the next four years, George managed the company while his brother attended college in his place
==1932==
Harry finally graduated from college in 1932, he came to come back to Bedford Falls to run the family business. At the train station, George waits with his uncle Billy for his brother to return from college for the last time - while eagerly clutching travel brochures to Venezuela and the Yukon in his hands. He believes that he can finally be replaced at the company by his brother and turn over the management to Harry - he can, at last, leave Bedford Falls.
The two Bailey brothers greet each other with overlapping lines when Harry bounds off the train. Unexpectedly, Harry is accompanied by his new bride Ruth , and George learns of Harry's promise of profitable work (out of town) in the research business for his father-in-law's glass factory in Buffalo. George suddenly falls silent, realizing that he is doomed to stay in town. He's left alone as Harry returns to the train for his luggage. His dreams of escape and adventure are dashed, but he keeps his bitterness and discouragement to himself.
The Baileys celebrate Harry's marriage in a family reunion at the Bailey house that evening. After a family photograph is taken outside the Bailey home, everyone moves inside except George and Uncle Billy. When Uncle Billy staggers down the street, George is left alone outside. He looks back through the porch screen door, noticing his mother, Harry, and Ruth getting acquainted. Having a smoke while he paces around the walk a bit, George hears the distant sound of a departing train whistle and abruptly looks up. Earlier he had said it was one of his three most exciting sounds. The sound symbolizes his hopes and dreams fading away forever. Noticing his travel brochures sticking out of his coat pocket, he discards them in disgust. Now that his brother is happily married, his sweet-natured mother tells George that local girl Mary Hatch has just returned to town after finishing college and he should call on her.
After leaving the party at his home, he decides to go downtown, avoiding walking by Mary's house. On a downtown street with many bystanders, he runs into Violet who is willing to be his date. She wonders if George ever get tired of just reading about things. He suggests an imaginative plan for the evening, spinning another poetic, wild fantasy about fleeing from society into the mountains. Violet is scared off and amazed that he would ask her to do something so impossible and uncomfortable. She believes George is a bit crazy and the townspeople publicly ridicule him and laugh in amusement.
He continues to wander through town and ends up half-intentionally passing by the front of Mary's house. After inviting him in from an upstairs window, and George mutters to himself he just went for a walk he finds himself in an uncomfortable encounter - conned into being an unwilling suitor by his match-making mother. Before he enters and joins her in the parlor, Mary has already changed into a lovely dress and fixed her hair. She has also prepared a nostalgic reunion for the two of them, recalling their walk together four years earlier and showing a romantic interest. She has remained true to her youthful vow whispered in the drug store.
In the parlor, she prominently props up and displays a hand-sewn needlepoint portrait titled "George Lassos the Moon" depicting a cartoon figure throwing a cowboy's lasso around the moon and pulling it toward earth, and she plays a recording of "Buffalo Gals" on the phonograph player. He saunters disdainfully up the front walk as she waits at the door, expressing his reluctance. Unthinkingly, he asks why she didn't go back to New York with her friends. To his consternation, she explains how she was "homesick" for Bedford Falls after working in New York for a few vacations.
With a surly, rude, and belligerent attitude, he notices her portrait in the parlor and calls it a joke. Noticing that he is discontented about everything, Mary attempts to suggest a topic of conversation by bringing up an exploratory question on his feelings about marriage.
Mary mother interrupts their already-strained conversation. To aggravate her mother, Mary exaggerates what they're doing. She encourages her daughter to send George on his way, because she expects a phone call from potential fiancee Sam Wainwright in New York. After arguing and yelling at each other, George storms off.
Upset over their awkward encounter and faded dreams, Mary smashes the record of "Buffalo Gals." Exhausted after trying to be loving and patient with George, Mary answers the phone and speaks to Sam - with his familiar "Hee Haw" greeting. Because George has momentarily returned to retrieve his forgotten hat, she is able to let George know that mutual friend Sam is on the phone, making George slightly jealous. Sam asks Mary if he could speak to George Bailey - an old friend. She disobeys her mother's wishes by sharing the phone with George.
They share the same earpiece extension, listening and talking on the same phone. Although the doorway to the parlor slices through the frame, symbolizing the distance between the two of them, they are squeezed together. George is very conscious of her being close to him, and resists his close proximity to her. He is romantically attracted and cannot deny that he loves her, but such an admission would mean remaining in Bedford Falls, where he has been forced to stay against his will and give up his other dreams.
They listen to Sam who tells George. Sam thought George was stealing Mary from him. Mary is unable to go to a different extension, because her mother listens in on the upstairs extension. Sam offers George a 'get-rich-quick' job in his new business, telling him of the bright future in plastics. But Sam wonders if George is available, cheerfully mocking him: "I may have a job for you, that is, unless you're still married to that broken-down building and loan. Ha, ha, ha. It's the biggest thing since radio and I'm lettin' you in on the ground floor." All the while, George squirms and tries to contain himself, standing so close that he can smell Mary's hair.
Sam tells Mary to encourage George with the offer. She looks upward at him and with her lips almost on his lips reinforces what Sam has said in a whisper, but she is almost unable to say the words, "He says it's the chance of a lifetime." The phone suddenly drops to the floor, and instead of grabbing and embracing Mary with a kiss, George holds her fiercely by the shoulders and violently starts shaking her, passionately protesting that he doesn't want to get married.
Then he runs out of words. She responds by crying helplessly, silently, and then George all of a sudden reverses himself and pulls Mary to himself in a fierce embrace. George overcomes his resistance to her and starts to kiss her, passionately, all over her face, holding her intensely. Their undeclared love for each other overwhelms both of them. Mary's mother turns from her eavesdropping on the stairway, running away shocked.
==Marriage==
Mary and George eventually get married. And are finally about to embark on a honeymoon trip as a married couple, to be taken by Ernie's taxi to the train station. Ernie presents them with a gift of a bottle of champagne sent over by Bert the cop, relating Bert's good wishes. They kiss in the back seat, and show Ernie a wad of bills that they plan to use.
The start of their honeymoon is dampened by rain - as they look through the rain-spattered rear taxi window, they notice something happening at the Bank and Loan. The worried townspeople race toward the town's bank and to the Building and Loan to withdraw all their funds - in a bank run that will threaten the town's financial security. Ernie is worried.
Despite Mary's pleading with George to not interrupt their trip, George gets out of the taxi. Once again, George cannot leave his townspeople in a time of crisis. In the rain, he hurries to the Building and Loan. Echoing earlier shots in the film, Mary looks out the rain-streaked cab window as he dashes off.
He finds the iron gate on the doors has been locked, creating a mob scene outside on the street. George unlocks the gate, unleashing the torrent of citizens into the association's lobby, where he finds Uncle Billy calming his nerves with a swig of alcohol. Billy proclaims in an agitated manner they had a problem. The crisis has obviously been fomented by Potter - the bank had called in their loan and Billy, in a panic, closed the loan company. Billy explained that he handed over all their cash which was still less than they owed the people. George is flabbergasted. They have very little cash left on hand to distribute to all the townspeople who demand to withdraw their money immediately.
Meanwhile, Potter has already seized control of the bank during the crisis, and calls George to disingenuously help him. Potter suggests that George tell the people to bring their shares over here so he could could pay 50 cents on the dollar." Faced with tremendous pressure and confusion, George looks at the portrait of his father and a motto on the wall for courage. He realizes he must appeal to the crowd to allay their fears.
George appeals to the townspeople to understand that things aren't as black as they appear, just as sirens scream by outside. He explains to his depositors that they are all in this together - that the "money's not here" but tied up in their neighbors' houses as an investment. Without the Building and Loan, they would all be at the mercy of Potter, who cares little for them, and would offer cash for their shares at half-price during the panic. George pleads with the people to not sell their shares to Potter at half their value.
Mary holds up the money that belongs to them, offering their $2,000 in honeymoon money to bolster the dwindling assets and satisfy the depositors, to tide them over until the bank reopens in a week. George sacrifices and throws away his last chance to leave Bedford Falls. The townspeople, although still fearful, trust in George's honesty and agree to withdraw only what they need to last the week. The fourth person in line meekly asks for $17.50. George leans over the counter and kisses the woman on the cheek, in gratitude. At the end of the day when the building and loan closes at 6 pm and they are left with only two dollars, George toasts the successful halt of the bank run. George, his uncle Billy, and his cousins Eustace and Tilly joyfully prance around the room, celebrating the survival of the Loan company.
Forgetting that it is his honeymoon day, George receives an unexpected call from Mary and is informed that they have moved in at 320 Sycamore, the address of the old, abandoned and dilapidated Granville place where George had earlier resolved to Mary. Outside in the rain, Bert is sorting through travel posters to provide decor and atmosphere for their honeymoon which must now be celebrated in town. His assistant asks: "What are they - ducks?" George is greeted at the door and ushered in, discovering that Mary has improvised an imaginative honeymoon composed of a romantic candlelight dinner in a house with a leaky ceiling and crumbling plaster. The outside of the windows have been plastered with travel posters to erase the reality that their trip to Bermuda was cancelled. The window posters advertise sunny Florida and Hawaii, and a South Seas poster hangs inside on the wall.
Standing in front of the beautifully-set dining table, with a chicken rotating on a primitive spit in the fireplace, Mary sweetly greets him stating is was their home now. While they kiss, they are serenaded outdoors by Ernie and Bert. Emotionally sentimental, Mary thinks back to her secret, silent wish years earlier while they embrace claimed this was her wish Then, when Bert and Ernie have finished their song, Ernie kisses Bert on the forehead.
George and Mary generously help one Italian family, the Martinis, move into their new home in Bailey Park, where four-room frame houses have been constructed for immigrant families. Mary and George offer a brief speech at the Martinis' doorstep during a housewarming party, symbolically holding up a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and a box of salt.
Over the years, George has built a housing development named Bailey Park with dozens of beautiful houses. Most of the owners had once worked for Mr. Potter, who is told how George's establishment threatens his own business, and he reacts with disgust. George's generosity toward the local townspeople makes prospects look dim and cash flow is low, but he is the best-liked man in town. In a contrasting scene, George compares his life to that of friend Sam Wainwright, a successful plastic business entrepreneur, who stops in town in his fancy car on his way to a sunny Florida vacation with his wife. Envious of Sam's success, George pauses with Mary as Sam drives away, jams his hands in his pockets, and then kicks shut the door of his own old car.
Unbelievably, George is summoned into Potter's office, congratulated for beating him, and offered a job to manage Potter's affairs and run his properties - with a starting salary of $20,000 a year. George drops his cigar in shock - this would mean living in the nicest house in town, fine clothes for Mary, business trips or vacations to New York, maybe even Europe. George wonders about the fate of the Building and Loan, and then asks for 24 hours to think it over. When he stands and shakes Potter's hand and is almost ready to accept, he suddenly comes to his senses, realizing that he cannot do business with Potter. He looks down at his hand, draws it away, stares at it, and then slowly wipes it off on his clothing. George emphatically refuses the offer.
His decision comes back to haunt him in his memory, as he enters his bedroom where Mary is sleeping. He glances at Mary's needlepoint creation that hangs on the wall of their bedroom, and is once again flooded with intense memories of his failed, imaginative bravado. Shameful and full of self-reproach, he feels dismayed that he has never been able to take Mary traveling for adventure and romance like he had always promised. He had wanted to leave his small hometown and see the world, but instead presides over his family-owned building and loan, always struggling with his nose to the grindstone and never seeming to get ahead. He wonders why Mary has remained so loyal to him. She surprises him by saying: "I want my baby to look like you!" Comically, she uses the metaphor of the needlepoint and announces that she is "on the nest" (pregnant and soon to 'Hatch' their first child) and that "George Bailey lassos Stork!".
==Several Years Later==
Years of life pass in Bedford Falls, as Mary becomes a devoted wife and mother, Mary first has a baby boy (who got named Pete), and then a girl (who got named Janie). She cares for the children and spends her days making the Granville house into a home, painting and wallpapering walls. George continues his daily struggle to keep the building and loan going, often returning home late after work.
During World War II, Mary had two more children (Zuzu and Tommy), but still found time to run the USO. "George is unable to fight in the war due to his bad ear, but he fought the "battle of Bedford Falls," acting as a whistle-blowing air raid warden and leading the paper and scrap-rubber drives.
==Christmas Eve 1945==
George's brother Harry got awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by the President at the White House. Harry's story is boldly displayed on the front page of the Bedford Falls newspaper. "PRESIDENT DECORATES HARRY BAILEY." That morning from Washington, Harry phones George in his office. Harry's family and friends in Bedford Falls plan for a home-coming to celebrate his native-son fame.
George's partner Uncle Billy is in the bank about to deposit $8,000 in building and loan funds. Unfortunately, while gloating to Potter about Harry's bravery in the war, he absent-mindedly and unknowingly wraps the money in the newspaper he is holding, and passes it to Potter. In his office, Potter discovers the money and keeps it for himself - obsessed with the idea of owning the town and running the Baileys out of business. Potter silently watches from his office's cracked door as Billy frantically searches for the money. Returning to the loan company, Billy wildly searches through piles of papers in his office. At the same time, Violet has come to ask George for a loan to help her start her life over in New York. True to his generous nature, George assists her after which she tells him.
Behind the closed door of Uncle Billy's office, George hears Billy's confession, that he has accidently and carelessly lost the money. George searches in the obvious places in the office, and then races through the snow, hatless and coatless, retracing Uncle Billy's path in a vain attempt to find the cash. He panics when he realizes Uncle Billy's stupidity, becoming enraged with him and slapping him around.
George is thoroughly depressed and disheartened by the catastrophes of the day. He wanders home, ready to give up, and on the verge of possible financial ruin. As he enters into a Christmas-tree decorated living room, he is thoroughly distracted, disturbed and disoriented. His daughter Janie practices "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" on the family piano. Mary decorates the Christmas tree with the older son (Pete). As a fear-stricken George tearfully clutches his son Tommy to his chest and kisses him, he ignores his wife and other children. Mary happens to notice George's private display of emotion, self-absorbed with thoughts of scandal and prison. Mary senses something is wrong, as his little boy decorates his head with tinsel. The tinny-sound of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" played by his daughter (offscreen) causes George to scream at her in frustration. The family turns toward him, shocked that he has shown such an uncharacteristic cruelty toward them with his tongue-lashing. George sarcastically calls his hectic day "another big red-letter day for the Baileys."
And then George finds that his little girl daughter Zuzu is sick with a cold, caught while walking home with her coat unbuttoned so she could protect the rose she had won in school. George feels everything is a burden, blaming his daughter's cold on the old Granville house.
His son asks for help with his homework. George tells him to ask Mary. George leaves the kitchen and goes upstairs to see Zuzu. Another annoyance occurs to him on the way upstairs - he grabs onto the ball post at the bottom of the stairway railing and it comes off in his hand. With a crazed look on his face, he is ready to heave it away in anger, but he restrains himself and recovers enough to replace it. Mary supplies the spelling for the word for her son in the kitchen and she senses that George is seriously upset.
Zuzu greets her father and shows him the flower she has won. When the petals fall off her flower, she hands them to her father to paste back on. Unable to fix the flower, he turns away and pretends to, but he actually puts the loose rose petals in his pocket. Back downstairs, George shouts into the phone to Mrs. Welch, Zuzu's school teacher, blaming her for Zuzu's illness, calling her stupid, silly, and careless. George also turns on Mr. Welch, and physically threatens him to a fight. When his son asks for another spelling, George angrily complains and lashes at his children.
George kicks over a table with models, drawings, and architectural blueprints of bridges and buildings that he has been working on and dreaming about - the profession he was forced to abandon. Self-destructively, he throws things wildly about and then turns to see his kids and wife looking at him with tears in their eyes. He catches himself and apologizes to them for his outburst, but he has frightened and scared them with his violent and bizarre behavior. Mary asks why he was upset with the kids. George leaves his home, while Mary calls Uncle Billy, and the children offer prayers for their troubled father.
George turns to Potter for an $8,000 loan, sitting in a low-bottomed chair in front of Potter. Potter taunts him, suggesting embezzlement, misappropriation of funds or womanizing. He pompously tells George how he used to he cocky, wanted to conquer the world, and once him a "warped, frustrated, old man". Potter refuses to help him, mentioning that George, with a $15,000 life insurance policy, is "worth more dead than alive." Potter threatens to call the authorities.
George wanders out - on Christmas Eve - into the dark night, heading for Martini's Italian restaurant and bar. Seated at the bar, he drinks heavily and utters a prayer for help that is heard up above.
The bartender Nick and Mr. Martini are worried about George's heavy drinking, Near him at the bar is Mr. Welch, husband of Zuzu's school teacher. He angrily punches George in the mouth, and explains how his wife cried for an hour after George screamed at her on the phone. In defense of George, Martini throws Mr. Welch out of the bar. Sporting a bloody lip, George mumbles cynically, and interprets the sock in the mouth as the only answer to his prayer. He reaches for his insurance policy in his coat pocket, convinced that his suicide will be the best solution for everyone.
George despondently wanders outside into the dark, snowy night and gets in his car. He drunkenly crashes his car into a tree, abandoning it to go on foot. Stumbling into the path of an oncoming truck in the snowstorm, he heads for the river and stands in the middle of the town bridge looking into the icy river. During these hard times, he loses faith in life itself and is on the verge of suicide.
Suddenly, an odd, elderly stranger (his guardian angel Clarence) hurtles himself into the swirling icy water. He flounders and calls out for help from below, forcing himself to be rescued by George. George instinctively jumps in after him, forgetting for a moment that he had been contemplating killing himself just seconds before. They are both pulled from the water by the tollhouse keeper, who takes them into the tollhouse to dry off. They hang their wet clothes on a line strung in the room, and the stranger also dries off his favorite book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
Wearing funny underwear, the odd fellow claims he purposely jumped in to save George's life. He also claims that suicide is not permitted where he comes from - heaven. George thinks things are in reverse and didn't believe him. The stranger calmly explains why he jumped in: He knew about how George always put others before himself and purposely got in danger so George would take his mind of the suicide to help him. The old man claims to be the answer to George's prayer rather than the bloody lip.
Finally, the guardian angel introduces himself as Clarence Oddbody, AS2 (Angel Second Class). The bridgetender falls from his chair, thinking they are both crazy and rushes outside to escape from their company. George asks why he was sent to save him and berates his heavenly messenger.
Clarence explains that he doesn't have his wings yet, but is attempting to earn them (after 200 years of failure).
The apprentice angel reminds George how much he has really accomplished in life, but George isn't convinced. Clarence explains that George's death wouldn't solve any problems but the despondent man wishes that he had never been born at all. Clarence is initially against this, but he realizes how showing him his influence on the city would help him, and grants his wish.
With no cares, worries, and obligations, things change - George can hear out of his bad ear, his lip has stopped bleeding from Mr. Welch's punch, and his clothes are dry. On their return to Martini's for a drink - where George expects to return to his normal life, George finds that his smashed car is gone. He also learns that the town of Bedford Falls has been renamed Pottersville.
Martini's has become a smoky, sleazy joint called Nick's Place, owned by a belligerent Nick, the former bartender who doesn't seem to know George. In the bar, Clarence orders mulled wine, heavy on the cinnamon and light on the cloves. Nick responds with a clenched fist. When the cash register is opened, and a bell sounds, the apprentice angel tells George the way to know that an angel has earned his wings.
With a child-like and naive nature, Clarence is unafraid to discuss angels with disbelieving Nick and others in the bar. Embarrassed by his slightly daffy companion, George tells Nick, Clarence never grew up. Clarence divulges his age: 293, next May. Thought to be "two pixies," they are about to be thrown out of the bar when druggist Mr. Gower comes stumbling in. Nick identifies Gower as a "panhandler." Gower is terrified by George's show of familiarity for him. George is told that the drunkard spent twenty years in jail for mixing a fatal prescription and poisoning a kid.
In the snow outside the bar, George finds out for himself that he didn't have an identity, papers, cards, a driver's license, a 4F card or an insurance policy. And Zuzu's flower petals were also gone.
Various changes in the alternative Bedford Falls included:
*Mr. Gower being sent to prison, where he would become an alcoholic bum suffering from DTs (the tragedy of a poisoned prescription-delivery would not have been averted without George's intervention and the boy would have died)
*Potter running everything and life being very different - dismal, merchandized capitalism at its worst. The peaceful small-town of Bedford Falls would become the garish Babylon of Pottersville, filled with bars (note the Blue Moon Bar and Cafe and George's earlier promise to lasso the moon for Mary), pool halls, midnight dance clubs, pawn shops, burlesque houses, girlie peep shows, with prostitutes and drunks roaming the streets. (George is seen in front of the flashing light of the "Indian Club" sign.)
*The Building and Loan being gone, and replaced by a jitterbug dance hall
*Violet becoming a cheap, gaudily made-up floozy who sells her body and is arrested by police in front of a dime-a-dance hall.
*Bailey Park not existing
*Bert and Ernie, not recognizing George and trying to arrest him from suspicion.
*The old Granville house at 320 Sycamore still being empty and haunted after 20 years and becoming a dilapidated, cheerless mansion.
*The Bailey children not existing.
*Mrs. Bailey be the proprietress of Ma Bailey's Boarding House, subsisting on a meager income.
*Uncle Billy, who attempted to run the building and loan after the death of Mr. Bailey, going insane when it collapsed, and becoming institutionalized in an insane asylum.
When George tries to locate Bailey Park, he finds a cemetery where Bailey Park use to be. Clarence clarifies why there aren't any houses: He wasn't here to build them. There in the graveyard in a harrowing scene, he finds his brother Harry's grave and tombstone. Harry would have died in the childhood sledding accident since George wasn't there to save him. And Harry would have never grown up to be a war hero, saving all the lives of the men on the naval transport.
Slowly, George realizes that Clarence is right. But he feels that if he can just find Mary, things will be back to normal. Mary is discovered as an old maid librarian, a sad, lonely, frightened and plain widow without a spring or joyfulness in her step. Her hair is tied back tightly, and she wears unsightly spectacles. George approaches toward her as she closes up the library, pleading and begging Mary to help him, but she doesn't recognize him and screams to get away from him. In a panic, she runs from George when he accosts her. Bert comes to her defense, but is knocked to the ground. His fears deepened, George flees from the center of town, with gunshots ringing in his ears.
At the bridge where he jumped in, George pleads with his angel to end the vision and go back - to take back the wish that he'd never been born. He realizes the consequences of having never existed and begs to be restored to life, to a sense of belonging to everything and communicating with those around him. He prays for the chance to rejoin the living, to reclaim his social identity, his home, his family, and his life, accepting it for what it is rather than worrying about what it is not.
When George returns to the normal world, Bert's police car turns onto the bridge. To the first person he encounters when restored to life, George asks an important identity question. Bert demands to know where he has been, since the whole town has been looking for him.
George was completely ecstatic to be back in Bedford Falls. He races back through town happily greeting every familiar face he sees and shouting out "Merry Christmas." In his second run through town, he is equally hysterical - but now overjoyed. He even shouts at the buildings he recognizes - the Bijou movie theater and its marquee, the Emporium, and the Bailey Bros. Building and Loan. He even wishes Potter a "Merry Christmas" through the window of Potter's office.
Returning home, George bursts through his front door and finds the bank examiner and local sheriff. He greets them with a smile, assuming they are there to punish him for bankruptcy and serve him with a warrant for his arrest. He is delighted at the prospect. He happily leaps up the stairs, accidentally yanking out, kissing and carefully replacing the railing post ball on the stairpost - for the third time. He chuckles to himself. At the top of the stairs, he blissfully embraces his children. Mary enters the house and runs into his arms on the stairs. He kisses her on the face again and again. Dragging him downstairs to stand in front of the Christmas tree, she tells George it was a miracle. Mary has brought his faithful friends, relatives, depositors and citizens of Bedford Falls to their home. They have all rallied with good will and Christmas spirit to support him and save him from going to jail.
Almost everyone in Bedford Falls who was positively affected by his presence is there - Mr. Martini, Mr. Gower, Violet, Annie the cook, and all the people who participated in the bank run. Incredulous, George silently says the name of each one as they come forward, relieved and thankful that they're alive to him. Proving their faith in him for the life he had given them, the townspeople collect gifts of enough money from their private reserves and put them in a large basket. The money amounts to thousands of dollars - enough to save his business from Potter's control. Billy excitedly pours out the donations onto the table.
A wire from London arrives from financially successful Sam Wainwright, offering an advance of $25,000 if George needs it for financial solvency - it includes greetings of "Hee Haw and Merry Christmas." Janie plays "Hark the Herald Angels Sing" on the piano, and everyone joins in singing. Even the bank examiner contributes to the bulging pile of cash, and the sheriff tears up his arrest warrant. Flying through a snow storm, Harry arrives and offers a toast to George and the group, recognizing the real treasure of friends that George has.
While George is holding his daughter Zuzu in his arms, he glances down at the pile of money. His eye catches what is buried on the pile - Clarence's copy of Tom Sawyer left for him as a gift. Zuzu opens it and they find an inscription written in it saying, "Dear George, Remember no man is a failure who has friends. Thanks for the wings! Love Clarence." Mary wondered who Clarence was with George saying he was a dear friend of his.
Suddenly, a little bell on the Christmas tree begins to tinkle as it sways back and forth. Zuzu points to the bell, dutifully reciting what her teacher told her about the significance of a ringing bell. George knew the bell ringing was for Clarence who has earned his wings by succeeding with a tough assignment, and George's awakening of consciousness through divine intervention in his experiences, enabling him to be freed from the confines of earthly pressures. It's unknown whether George is still deaf in his leaf ear, or whether it stayed cured from traveling to the alternate reality.
Category:Synopsis