Special to the Dollar Video Curator! - It’s a Wonderful Life (as long as you don’t screw it up)

(Note from the Curator: In the spirit of the sharing, the Curator has invited a very special guest into the screening room for your viewing and reading pleasure. 'Tis the Season! Get your nog on and enjoy.)

By Guest Curator Guy Fawkes.

It is certainly easier to be a critic than a creator. Who among us, given a chance to take God’s place and knowing what we now know, would create, say, a mosquito or Dick Cheney? Nonetheless, watching a film for mistakes can be amusing for those of us with too much time on our hands.

It’s a Wonderful Life has become a “holiday classic” more likely due to a clerk’s error than anything else. Apparently someone forgot to renew the film’s copyright in the 1970’s thereby throwing the movie into the public domain where networks and local stations began using it profusely as a filler during the holidays, beneficial to them since the nuisance of royalties was removed. Continued exposure to the film is one factor that has led to its acceptance as a “classic”. This is not an unknown phenomenon – witness the large number of Americans who think “decider” and “suicider” are acceptable nouns.

We start the movie with some basic math when we are told (actually Clarence is told) that George Bailey was 12 in 1919 (4:14 into the movie). We then learn of the death of Mr. Gower’s son Robert on May 3, 1919, according to the telegram nosily read by George (7:30). The next thing we know, George has rushed from the drug store to the Building and Loan. A calendar on the wall of the Building and Loan is not quite readable but it is easily determined that it is a month with four letters, 30 days and a Friday the 13^th. (9:18). Unfortunately for the film editor, June is the only month during 1919 that has a Friday the 13^th; so, we are left to wonder if George has stepped into a time warp or worm hole thrusting him, however briefly, into the next month.

When George returns to the drug store, Violet has replaced Mary at the counter and is eating her ice cream, presumably after devouring the “shoelaces”. (10:47).

Moving ahead nine years, George is getting ready to leave town when he encounters Bert and Ernie. Bert is reading a paper with the headline “Smith Wins Nomination” thereby allowing us to know that we are dealing with June 26 to 28, 1928. At that moment, a grown up Violet strolls by followed by a lady holding on to her hat (13:48). Several seconds later, the exact scene is repeated (13:57). Apparently the suggestiveness of Violet causes not only Bert to rush home to see what his wife is doing (wink, wink) but has pushed our hero back into another time warp. “It’s déjà vu, I tell you, it’s déjà vu! It’s déjà vu, I tell you, it’s déjà vu! It’s déjà vu, I tell you, it’s déjà vu! Etc.”

Leaping ahead in the movie, George comes home after Uncle Billy has lost the dough. Mary takes George’s muffler and puts it on a small table by the telephone (1:25:15). We can still see it on the table at 1:26:20 but ten seconds later it has disappeared. Since Potter has no scruples about stealing $8,000.00, we can safely assume he has no qualms about stealing George’s muffler. This assumption is verified when George appears at Potter’s office later (1:32:17) and is wearing the scarf. I guess it never occurred to George that if Potter would steal his scarf he would steal Uncle Billy’s money too.

George’s son Peter is so outraged by this event that he jumps off the chair twice. (1:26:24 and 1:26:30).

Then, as we get toward the end of the film, we are again presented with a math conundrum. When George and Clarence are in the graveyard looking at Harry’s grave, Clarence announces that Harry drowned at nine. As George sweeps back the snow, however, the dates of Harry’s life are shown as 1911 – 1919 (1:59:05).

I have determined that the film editor was a 1940’s version of Stephen Hawking under whose theories all time discrepancies excepting the arrow of time always moving from the past to the future can be resolved. Anarchists United.
- Guy Fawkes