Liveblogging "It's a Wonderful Life"

1min
Altered it to fit in the time slot? But they haven't cut the title cards in the opening credits and everybody fast-forwards those anyway. Maybe this will be subtle...

10min
Little George sees the "Ask Dad" sign and goes running to the Building and Loan for his Dad. Whenever I see this scene I think of the 1950s sitcom Father Knows Best.

13min
15 minutes in and I'm already teary eyed. George gets slapped around by Mister Gower before the old gentleman realizes George has just saved his bacon.

Who is the actor for Gower? Is it just me or are bit part actors these days not nearly so good? And this movie is full of great ones. Also Beulah Bondi as Ma Bailey. I just saw her has Fred MacMurray's mother in the Preston Sturges Christmas movie "Remember the Night." She must have specialized in mothers.

25min
Violet coming on to George at the high school dance. Mama: that actress was Ado Annie in Oklahoma.

P: Do you know why this movie became so popular around Christmas? They forgot to renew the copyright on it. For years it was in the public domain and every channel could play it for free. It's only been in the last decade or so they regained control over it by asserting the copyright for the movie's soundtrack.

27min
Best "across the room" gaze in the movies: George's and Mary Hatch's eyes meet.

45min
George Bailey tells Potter where to get off after Potter denigrates the Building and Loan. When he's through Potter flicks his tongue briefly over his lips and an eyebrow stiffens. Lionel Barrymore is amazing.

1h
George and Mary share the phone and then fall into each others arms. Dad: Donna Reed and Jimmy Steward didn't rehearse that scene. Capra said he just told them where they needed to end up.

1h10
Bank Run. Goodbye Honeymoon.

Dad: "It's a Wonderful Life" or "How To Be Happy Without Ever Taking a Vacation"

Now George is giving away his honeymoon money to help Bedford Falls survive the Depression. "How much do you need Miss Davis?" "Can I take $17.50?" And then George Bailey kisses her. Mama: that actress played the grandmother in The Waltons.

1h25
George's wedding night. Taxi driver friend Ernie and cop friend Bert are helping Mary stage a makeshift fancy hotel. Bert and Ernie? Inspiration for Sesame Street?

1h47
The loose finial on the banister makes it first appearance.

1h48
Everybody joins the war effort. George misses the war while his brother gets the Congressional Medal of Honor.

Dad laughs at Potter growling "1A" over draft papers.

Paul: who is the voice of God in this? Good question. Although isn't it Joseph who is narrating mostly?

1h52
Uncle Billy accidentally hands his deposit to Potter while teasing him about Harry's medal.
Mama: If he just hadn't been gloating...

1h56
George to Uncle Billy: "Where's that money you silly old fool... One of us is going to jail and it's not going to be me." But we know it will be. Like somebody had to help his Dad with the Building and Loan. Like somebody had to give up a trip to Europe to help settle an estate. Like somebody had to send his brother to school. Like somebody had to run the Building and Loan once his brother was out. Like somebody had to provide honeymoon cash to coast his neighbors through a Depression. Like somebody had to stay home when everyone else went to war. This movie is all about frustration.

2h1m
George kissing his son desperately.
Dad: boy, he's a good actor

2h4
More finial trouble. It's the small details of frustration that Capra gets so right.

2h9
Potter asking George why he needs the loan. Playing the market? Another woman? What's really galling in all this is that he knows what happened to the money. He's got it. Worse, he has just seen George take responsibility for the loss when Potter knows Uncle Billy lost it. You lost it? says Potter incredulously. But he still can't resist crushing George while he has him.

2h16
George praying in Martini's bar. This scene is better at panic than the crazed stare into the camera George will deliver later. Then it is a bit campy horror. Here it is just sick and out of options.

George driving through snow.
Dad: they really do dark and sinister well.
This is where the movie starts to get surreal. This shift frightened me when I was little. The music goes creepy.

2h20
"...a bust in the jaw in answer to a prayer a little while ago"

"...angel second class" and the local guy falls out of his chair and darts outside. Dad: that's old Hollywood - the wide eyed gape.

2h22
"Comes in pretty handy around here, Bub." Meaning money, George to Clarence the angel. I wonder if more people will watch "It's a Wonderful Life" this year given a recession. And I wonder if it will strike people differently when they do. Or stand out again in a different way. The whole story (and George's life) revolves around the fortunes of a Building and Loan. And the run on the bank in the early part is a credit crunch in microcosm ("You're thinking of this place all wrong. As if I had the money back in a safe. The money's not here. Your money's in Joe's house... and a hundred others").

2h24
Clarence is about to take everything anyway, all the previous life with its difficulties and obligations

Everyone takes this upcoming sequence, where George sees what life would be like if he'd never been born, as demonstrating how truly valuable every human life is. But from George's standpoint surely the lesson is how cold and terrible it is to have no connection to anyone (that close up on George's crazed expression when his home is an empty ruin). When he comes back into his old life his joy is more about people knowing him and loving him than about the fact that he was effective in life after all.

2h35
George thrown out of Nick's bar. No drivers license. "There not there either." "What?" "Zuzu's petals."
Dad: space music!

2h41
Oh no! Pottersville! Jazz music!
Mother: Like Hot Springs
Paul: Like a little Vegas
Bars, girls, neon, and Ernie's broken marriage: Capra on social decay

2h48
"Where's my wife Clarence! Where's my wife!"
Dad: this part is a little overcooked

Q. How do you make Donna Reed look dowdy?
A. Library
This will be the last stereotype to go. Ever.

2h55
Town saves George. While singing Christmas carols. It's nice that they kept it in a big hullabaloo instead of spotlighting the individual contributions/testimonials with silence. The euphoria of a crowd makes it all seem more possible. And infectious.

2h58
Me: I love that movie!
Dad: Well, we've seen it again
P: In real life, he's still going to jail