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Mistakes

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. See more...

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Genres: Drama, Family, Fantasy, Romance

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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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. [Depending on which month he was born and which he died, he would be either 8 or nine.]
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Since it's cold and snowing throughout most of the movie, how come you never see the people's breath? This is because when they filmed these parts, it was very hot outside, but it's still a mistake. [Seeing a person's breath is not entirely dependent on how cold it is, but rather how much or how little humidity there is in the air.]
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When Clarence picks up his copy of "Huckleberry Finn" to see if it is dry, the book is in perfect condition. The pages of book that had been soaked in water would been swollen and corrugated, and many pages would very likely have stuck together as the book dried. [I believe that the copy of Clarence's book, that was wet after jumping in to save George, became like new again because it was as if it all never happened - including jumping in the water. Since George was never born their clothes are dry (because they were never wet to begin with), as is the book - because he was never born.]
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In the scene when George and Clarence head towards town from the bridge, George is looking for his car, which crashed into a tree. George asks the owner of the house, "Where's my car? My car. I crashed it into this tree." And the home owner responds, "You must mean two other trees." There is only one tree. [He doesn't say "Two other trees", he says "You must mean some other tree". There is obviously no accident and he is commenting that he must have mixed up his location.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
George is in a life crisis that leads him to contemplate suicide at a bridge. Clarence shows George how much George's life means by showing him how the world would be. if George wasn't born. But Clarence doesn't show George what the world would be like if George completed his suicide. Clarence gave reasons why George should have lived up to the bridge scene. But Clarence doesn't give reasons for George staying alive beyond the bridge scene. Life insurance and remarriage are already two benefits to the family's problems. According to the plot, George's dilemma is whether to jump off the bridge or not. [You're missing the point by a parsec or so. Clarence is there to SAVE George's life, to give him a reason to go on living; indeed, Clarence's future as an angel depends on him doing so. He's not there to just dispassionately show him the options and let him kill himself if he still wants to; that wouldn't exactly be very angelic, would it.]
Edit Corrected by Tailkinker
In the scene where Clarence tells George that his brother died at the age of 9 because he wasn't there to save him from falling through the ice, but when you see the tomb stone, it shows Harry Bailey was born in 1911 and died in 1919. That would make Harry only 7 or 8 years old. [True but it's not like cemeteries ever make mistakes like that. I have visited many cemeteries over the years and I can't tell you how many mistakes small or major I have seen and this includes wrong dates. Normally when the family realizes this they have the cemetery change it, but not always.]
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When George 'never was born' it stops snowing. How does George's existence affect the weather? [It doesn't but any being powerful enough to create a world where George was never born could easily stop the snow (to add to the effect if nothing else) without having to explain why.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
When George goes back to look for his car after his wish is granted, and the car is gone, if you look closely, there's actually a scratch in the tree that looks like the one his car put there. [This is certainly not a mistake, another car may have crashed into the tree.]
Edit Corrected by tw_stuart
The chronology is inaccurate in places. Harry's high school graduation takes place in either 1928 or 1929 (I can't remember the exact date, but it is posted on the banner in the gym). More than four years later, after Harry has returned from college and on the day of George's wedding, the stock market crash occurs. [Even though the stock market crash took place in 1929, a run on the bank could have happened at any time.  In fact, Harry came back in 1933, and a run on the bank would more likely happen in 1933 than in 1929.]
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When the board of directors are meeting at the Building and Loan, Mr Potter says that Harry Bailey was not a business man. George replies "You're right, my father was no business man. Why he started this building and loan I'll never know. What did you say a few moments ago the people save their money, save their money for what?" Mr Potter never said anything about saving money. [We didn't hear the whole meeting we only heard the last parts of it. So when he said a few minutes ago he could have been referring to the part we never heard.]
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In the drugstore scene at he beginning part of the film, young George serves Mary, who is sitting at the counter, a glass bowl of chocolate ice cream. George is then suddenly ordered by Mr. Gower to deliver a box of pills to a sick boy. George is aware the pills are poison and instead rushes off to speak to his father at the Building & Loan. When George returns to the drugstore with the undelivered pills, Mr. Gower is heard on the telephone saying that the pills should have been delivered an hour ago when George left the drugstore. There is then a shot of Mary, sitting at the counter with the same glass bowl of ice cream, untouched and unmelted, within the hour that George was gone. [How can you be so sure it's the same ice cream! Maybe when he was gone she asked Mr. Gower for a new bowl of ice cream.]
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In the scene where George gives his speech in the board room at the Building & Loan just after his father dies, he tells Potter how not having the Building & Loan "gnaws" at him. If you listen, James Stewart pronounces the word "gnaw" phonetically as "ga" "naw", as though he had never used the word at all. [George doesn't use the word "gnawing." What George says to Potter is "You're talking about something you can't get your fingers on, and it's galling you." (meaning it's annoying, irritating or infuriating him).]
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In the 1930's the Bailey Building and Loan finances the construction of "Bailey Park", a housing development. It is made clear that it is built on previously vacant land (one of Potter's henchmen says: "I used to shoot rabbits up there"). In the "Pottersville" sequence George Bailey goes to the location of Bailey Park and finds a cemetary where his brother, who died in 1919, is buried. If the land was already in use as a cemetary no later than 1919 it couldn't have been available for use as a housing development in the 1930s. And it's hard to see how George never having been born would have prevented the land from being used as a cemetary in what would have been his childhood. [Why is this impossible? Cemetaries are relocated all the time. All we know is that in 1919 it was a cemetary. Perhaps sometime in the 20s, the cemetary was relocated to accomodate Bailey Park. In between the relocation and the first hose being built, Potter's henchman could have hunted rabbits on the land. Furthermore, who is to say that the man didn't hunt rabbits IN the cemetary. A little creepy, but so is Potter. So his help would likely be a bit creepy too.]
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The scene at the party for Harry and his new bride, when Uncle Billy is three sheets to the wind and is leaving, there is a crashing sound. During the shooting of the scene, someone dropped the film reel containers. They kept it in and made it sound like he had run in to the trash cans - great ad libbing! [I hate to say it but this is false; in a book by Stephen Cox about the movie, he says that the crashing noise off-camera was already written into the script before the scene was even shot.]
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The names of the Muppet charaters Bert and Ernie come from this movie, the cop and the taxi driver. [This is an urban legend that was explained in a book about the movie by Stephen Cox. Jim Henson's staff swears it is nothing more than a coincidence.]
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Bailey Building & Loan is on the second floor. There is only ONE entrance, and it has stairs. How does wheelchair-bound Mr. Potter get up there? The old codger that pushes him around couldn't do it! [How do you know it only has one entrance? We never see the back or sides. Plus- knowing Potter- he probably did have his henchman bring him up the stairs.]
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