Directed by: Frank Capra
Starring: James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Donna Reed, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers
Continuity mistake: On the day before Christmas, George is showing a couple guys the newspaper about Harry being decorated by the President. The paper goes from being folded in half to open depending on the angle.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning in the soda shop, the first little girl (Mary) is facing toward the camera, away from the other girl that comes in. When they start talking however in the next shot, both are facing outward.
George Bailey: Just a minute... Just a minute. Now, hold on, Mr. Potter. You're right when you say my father was no businessman. I know that. Why he ever started this cheap, penny-ante Building and Loan, I'll never know. But neither you nor anyone else can say anything against his character, because his whole life was... Why, in the 25 years since he and his brother, Uncle Billy, started this thing, he never once thought of himself. Isn't that right, Uncle Billy? He didn't save enough money to send Harry away to college, let alone me. But he did help a few people get out of your slums, Mr. Potter, and what's wrong with that? Why... Here, you're all businessmen here. Doesn't it make them better citizens? Doesn't it make them better customers? You... You said...what'd you say a minute ago? They had to wait and save their money before they even ought to think of a decent home. Wait? Wait for what? Until their children grow up and leave them? Until they're so old and broken down that they... Do you know how long it takes a working man to save $5,000? Just remember this, Mr. Potter, that this rabble you're talking about...they do most of the working and paying and living and dying in this community. Well, is it too much to have them work and pay and live and die in a couple of decent rooms and a bath? Anyway, my father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be!
Trivia: During the scene where a drunken Uncle Billy walks home, a loud crashing sound is heard. The crashing sound was due to a crew member dropping a large tray of props. Thomas Mitchell quickly ad-libbed the line that he was all right. The crew member who dropped the tray was afraid he would be fired but instead director Frank Capra gave the crewman a ten dollar bonus for "improving the sound."
Question: Is cousin Tilly Bailey, the secretary at the Building and Loan, Uncle Billy's daughter?
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Chosen answer: We know that Tilly (Matilda) Bailey is not Uncle Billy's daughter, because when Billy "loses" the deposit money and rushes back to BBB&L, George tells him that Harry's on the telephone and we hear Tilly say, "Hurry up Uncle Billy, long distance from Washington," so presumably she's George's cousin and Uncle Billy's niece. (When there's the run on the bank we see her desk, and there are a few photographs of men, one of which may be her father).
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