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Man on Porch: Why don't you kiss her instead of talking her to death?

George Bailey: You want me to kiss her, huh?

Man on Porch: Ah, youth is wasted on the wrong people.

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It's a Wonderful Life (1946) - 21 mistakes

starring Donna Reed, Henry Travers, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell (add more)

Genres: Drama, Family, Fantasy, Romance

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Continuity: In a scene near the end of the movie, George enters the Building and Loan with a Christmas wreath on his arm. On hearing that he has a phone call from his brother Harry, he tosses the wreath on a table and picks up the phone. In the next second, the wreath is back on his arm.

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Continuity: When George Bailey crashes his car into the tree after leaving "Martini's Place", notice its position against the tree; an upward angle. In the ending scene when he's running home he cheers and taps the hood of the same car, now at a downward angle.

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Continuity: In a scene early on in the film, where George Bailey (James Stewart), Bert (Ward Bond) and Ernie (Frank Faylen) chat in the street, they suddenly stop due to the appearance of Violet (Gloria Grahame) in her "this is what I wear when I don't care how I look" dress. The camera cuts back to them and we see a dark haired woman in a hat pass in front of Ernie's taxi. As Violet crosses the street, we see another shot of the boys staring after her - and the dark haired woman passes in front of the taxi again.

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Factual error: Harry Bailey's tombstone has the dates of 1911 and 1919 making him at most 8 years old when he died, but the angel states that Harry died when he was 9.

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Visible crew/equipment: When Mary leans across the drugstore counter to whisper in George's bad ear, there is a small piece of tape on the edge of the counter right in front of her hand, presumably to show the actors where to position themselves for the shot (the tape isn't visible in the other shots showing that same section of the counter).

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Continuity: When George Bailey is going to jump off the bridge, watch the snow carefully. In one of the shots where Clarence is shouting in the water the snow all of a sudden quits, then it goes back to snowing when George jumps in.

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Continuity: When George is kicking stuff and knocking stuff over in his house (after yelling at his children), his hair is messed up. In the next shot, it's combed again.

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Continuity: When Ernie is about to take George during his "never born" sequence, if you look at the building next to the taxi, there is the Indian Club. As Ernie is driving along around 20-30 seconds pass inside the cab. When we see outside the cab and Ernie signals to the policeman, you can see the cab has only traveled roughly 20 meters from the Indian Club.

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Factual error: In the closing scene Ernie the cab driver is wearing a military shirt with an Air Force insignia on the sleeve, but we were told earlier that Ernie parachuted into France. His shirt should have had a different patch.

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Continuity: When the pharmacist hits young George, the amount of blood coming from George's ear changes back and forth between long shots and close ups.

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Continuity: During a confrontation between old man Potter and Peter Bailey at the Building and Loan, Potter's bodyguard stands behind the wheelchair on its left side. But in the close-up shot of Potter, the arms and hands of his bodyguard can be seen extending from the right side of the wheelchair. In the next full screen shot, the bodyguard is seen on the left side of the wheelchair once again.

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Other: In the scene on the bridge, before Clarence jumps, George's hands do not indent the 2-3' of snow on the rail. In a later shot, after George jumps, you see two "snowless spots" on the railing.

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Factual error: In the drugstore scene where Mary whispers in George's bad ear, there are several shots showing a Coca-Cola thermometer on the wall where George hangs his jacket. This particular scene was to have taken place in 1919, but this particular thermometer wasn't produced until 1939.

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Continuity: When Uncle Billy sees Potter in the bank, he walks to the teller window and there's no line, but a second later there's a line of a dozen or more people behind him.

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Character mistake: Harry Bailey's tombstone has the dates of 1911 and 1919 making him 7-8 years old when he died, but the angel states that Harry died when he was 9 years old. If he was born the latest at 31-12-11 and died 31-12-19 he would have been exactly 8 years. If he was born 1-1-11 and died 13-12-19 he would have been 8 years 364 days, one day short of 9. If he was born later than the day of the year he died he would have been 7+.

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Continuity: When Bert the cop is struggling with Clarence and Clarence disappears, you can see Ernie's shadow which shows him pointing and gesturing with his hand before he actually does it.

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Other: During Harry's party, when George is outside talking to his mother she encourages him to see Mary and George says "Point me in the right direction." He then exits right and immediately returns. As he passes by, there is a glitch in the film and for a brief moment everything speeds up. This is most evident if you watch the people dancing in the house because they appear as though they clicked into "fast-forward motion" briefly and then return to normal.

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Continuity: When George first finds his brother's grave the death date is visible, but after arguing with Clarence he has to wipe snow from the base of the stone to reveal the date.

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Revealing: When George is on the bridge and says "I wanna live again", and Burt drives up, in the shot where George hugs Burt, then Burt pats him on the back, you can see Burt's handprint in the fake snow that was used (a mixture of foamite soap and water) on the back of George's coat.

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Continuity: The old man's cigar disappears when he sends young George to deliver a prescription.

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