IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE
	La sceneggiatura	I suoni	Jimmy Stewart	La gallery

LA SCENEGGIATURA

EXTERIOR STREET –– NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT –– George moves into the scene. The sign bearing the name of the town reads: "Pottersville." George looks at it in surprise, then starts up the street toward the main part of town. As he goes, CAMERA MOVES WITH him. The character of the place has completely changed. Where before it was a quiet, orderly small town, it has now become in nature like a frontier village. We see a SERIES OF SHOTS of night clubs, cafes, bars, liquor stores, pool halls and the like, with blaring jazz MUSIC issuing from the majority of them. The motion picture theatre has become a burlesque house. Gower's drugstore is now a pawnbroker's establishment, and so on.

CLOSE SHOT –– George stops before what used to be the offices of the Building and Loan. There is a garish electric sign over the entrance reading: "Welcome Jitterbugs." A crowd of people are watching the police, who are raiding the place, and dragging out a number of screaming women, whom they throw into a patrol wagon. George talks to one of the cops:

GEORGE: Hey . . . hey. Where did the Building and Loan move to?

COP: The Building and what?

GEORGE: The Bailey Building and Loan. It was up there.

COP: They went out of business years ago.

MEDIUM CLOSEUP –– George sees the struggling figure of Violet Bick, arrayed as a tart, being dragged into the patrol wagon.

GEORGE: Hey, Violet!
(to the cop)
Hey, listen –– that's Violet Bick!

COP: I know. I know.

GEORGE: I know that girl!

The cop shoves George to one side. He looks around and sees Ernie's taxi cruising slowly by.

GEORGE (cont'd): Hey, Ernie –– Ernie!

EXTERIOR STREET –– NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT –– Ernie stops the cab, and George enters it.

GEORGE: Ernie, take me home. I'm off my nut!

ERNIE (a much harder Ernie): Where do you live?

GEORGE: Aw, now, doggone it, Ernie, don't you start pulling that stuff. You know where I live. Three-twenty Sycamore. Now hurry up.

ERNIE: Okay. Three-twenty Sycamore? . . .

GEORGE: Yeah –– yeah –– hurry up. Zuzu's sick.

ERNIE: All right.

He pulls down the flag on the meter and starts the cab.

INTERIOR CAB –– NIGHT

MEDIUM CLOSEUP –– George and Ernie. Ernie is puzzled by the stranger.

GEORGE: Look here, Ernie, straighten me out here. I've got some bad liquor or something. Listen to me now. Now, you are Ernie Bishop, and you live in Bailey Park with your wife and kid? That's right, isn't it?

ERNIE (suspiciously): You seen my wife?

GEORGE (exasperated): Seen your wife? I've been to your house a hundred times.

ERNIE: Look, bud, what's the idea? I live in a shack in Potter's Field and my wife ran away three years ago and took the kid . . . And I ain't never seen you before in my life.

GEORGE: Okay. Just step on it. Just get me home.

Ernie turns to driving, but he's worried about his passenger. As he passes the burlesque house he sees Bert the cop standing beside his police car. Attracting his attention, he motions to Bert to follow him, indicating he has a nut in the back. Bert gets into his car and follows.

EXTERIOR GEORGE'S HOUSE –– NIGHT

MEDIUM LONG SHOT –– The taxi pulls up to the curb and stops.

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT –– The cab is parked. George gets out and looks at the house.

ERNIE: Is this the place?

GEORGE: Of course it's the place.

ERNIE: Well, this house ain't been lived in for twenty years.

EXTERIOR HOUSE –– NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT –– George is stopped momentarily by the appearance of the house. Windows are broken, the porch sags, one section of the roof has fallen, doors and shutters hang askew on their hinges. Like a doomed man, George approaches the house.

EXTERIOR CAB –– NIGHT

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT –– The police car has pulled up beside the cab, and Bert and Ernie stand watching George's actions.

BERT: What's up, Ernie?

ERNIE: I don't know, but we better keep an eye on this guy. He's bats.

Ernie switches on the spotlight on his cab, and turns the beam toward the old house.

INTERIOR HALLWAY GEORGE'S HOUSE –– NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT –– The interior of the house is lit up here and there, ghostlike, by Ernie's spotlight. No furniture, cobwebs, wallpaper hanging and swinging –– stairs are broken and collapsed. In a voice that sounds like a cry for help, George yells out:

GEORGE: Mary! Mary! Tommy! Pete! Janie! Zuzu! Where are you?

Clarence suddenly appears leaning against a wall.

CLARENCE: They're not here, George. You have no children.

GEORGE (ignoring him): Where are you?
(then, to Clarence) What have you done with them?

INTERIOR DOORWAY –– NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT –– Bert is standing in the entrance, with his gun in his hand. Ernie is a few feet behind him, ready to run.

BERT: All right, put up your hands. No fast moves. Come on out here, both of you.

GEORGE: Bert! Thank heaven you're here!

He rushes toward Bert.

BERT: Stand back.

GEORGE: Bert, what's happened to this house? Where's Mary? Where's my kids?

ERNIE (warningly): Watch him, Bert.

BERT: Come on, come on.

GEORGE (bewildered) Bert –– Ernie! What's the matter with you two guys? You were here on my wedding night. You, both of you, stood out here on the porch and sung to us, don't you remember?

ERNIE (nervously): Think I'd better be going.

BERT: Look, now why don't you be a good kid and we'll take you in to a doctor. Everything's going to be all right.

Bert tries to lead George away by the arm, but George struggles with him, trying to explain.

GEORGE: Bert, now listen to me. Ernie, will you take me over to my mother's house? Bert, listen!
(gesturing to Clarence)
It's that fellow there –– he says he's an angel –– he's tried to hypnotize me.

BERT: I hate to do this, fella.

Bert raises his gun to hit George on the head. As he does so, Clarence darts in and fixes his teeth in Bert's wrist, forcing him to let George go.

CLARENCE: Run . . . George! Run, George!

George dashes out of the house and down the street, as Bert grapples with Clarence, and they fall to the ground, wrestling. We see Bert kneeling, trying to put handcuffs on Clarence.

CLARENCE (cont'd): Help! Joseph, help!

BERT: Oh, shut up!

CLARENCE: Help, oh Joseph, help! Joseph!

Suddenly Clarence disappears from under Bert's hands. Bert gets up, amazed by his vanishing.

BERT: Where'd he go? Where'd he go? I had him right here.

Ernie's hair is now standing on end with fright.

ERNIE (stammering): I need a drink

He runs out of the scene.

BERT: Well, which way'd they go? Help me find 'em.

EXTERIOR BAILEY HOME –– NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT –– George runs up the path to the front door of the house and raps on the door. He rings the bell and taps on the glass, when his attention is caught by a sign on the wall reading: "Ma Bailey's Boarding House."

MEDIUM CLOSEUP –– George at the door. The door opens and a woman appears. It is Mrs. Bailey, but she has changed amazingly. Her face is harsh and tired. In her eyes, once kindly and understanding, there is now cold suspicion. She gives no sign that she knows him.

MA BAILEY: Well?

GEORGE: Mother . . .

MA BAILEY: Mother? What do you want?

It is a cruel blow to George.

GEORGE: Mother, this is George. I thought sure you'd remember me.

MA BAILEY (coldly): George who? If you're looking for a room there's no vacancy.

She starts to close the door, but George stops her.

GEORGE: Oh, Mother, Mother, please help me. Something terrible's happened to me. I don't know what it is. Something's happened to everybody. Please let me come in. Keep me here until I get over it.

MA BAILEY: Get over what? I don't take in strangers unless they're sent here by somebody I know.

GEORGE (desperate): Well, I know everybody you know. Your brother-in-law, Uncle Billy.

MA BAILEY (suspiciously): You know him?

GEORGE: Well, sure I do.

MA BAILEY: When'd you see him last?

GEORGE: Today, over at the house.

MA BAILEY: That's a lie. He's been in the insane asylum ever since he lost his business. And if you ask me, that's where you belong.

She slams the door shut in George's face.

EXTERIOR HOUSE –– NIGHT

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT –– George stands a moment, stunned. Then he turns and runs out to the sidewalk, until his face fills the screen. His features are distorted by the emotional chaos within him. We see Clarence leaning on the mail box at the curb, holding his volume of "Tom Sawyer" in his hand.

CLARENCE: Strange, isn't it? Each man's life touches so many other lives, and when he isn't around he leaves an awful hole, doesn't he?

GEORGE (quietly, trying to use logic): I've heard of things like this. You've got me in some kind of a spell, or something. Well, I'm going to get out of it. I'll get out of it. I know how, too. I . . . the last man I talked to before all this stuff started happening to me was Martini.

CLARENCE: You know where he lives?

GEORGE: Sure I know where he lives. He lives in Bailey Park.

They walk out of scene.

EXTERIOR CEMETERY –– NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT –– George and Clarence approach the tree from which the "Bailey Park" sign once hung. Now it is just outside a cemetery, with graves where the houses used to be.

CLARENCE: Are you sure this is Bailey Park?

GEORGE: Oh, I'm not sure of anything anymore. All I know is this should be Bailey Park. But where are the houses?

The two walk into the cemetery.

CLARENCE (as they go): You weren't here to build them.

CLOSE MOVING SHOT –– George wandering like a lost soul among the tombstones, Clarence trotting at his heels. Again George stops to stare with frightened eyes at:

CLOSE SHOT –– a tombstone. Upon it is engraved a name, Harry Bailey. Feverishly George scrapes away the snow covering the rest of the inscription, and we read:
IN MEMORY OF OUR BELOVED SON –– HARRY BAILEY –– 1911-1919.

CLOSE SHOT –– George and Clarence.

CLARENCE: Your brother, Harry Bailey, broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of nine.

George jumps up.

GEORGE: That's a lie! Harry Bailey went to war! He got the Congressional Medal of Honor! He saved the lives of every man on that transport.

CLARENCE (sadly): Every man on that transport died. Harry wasn't there to save them because you weren't there to save Harry. You see, George, you really had a wonderful life. Don't you see what a mistake it would be to throw it away?

CLOSEUP –– George and Clarence.

GEORGE: Clarence . . .

CLARENCE: Yes, George?

GEORGE: Where's Mary?

CLARENCE: Oh, well, I can't . . .

GEORGE: I don't know how you know these things, but tell me –– where is she?

George grabs Clarence by the coat collar and shakes him.

CLARENCE: I . . .

GEORGE: If you know where she is, tell me where my wife is.

CLARENCE: I'm not supposed to tell.

GEORGE (becoming violent): Please, Clarence, tell me where she is.

CLARENCE: You're not going to like it, George.

GEORGE (shouting): Where is she?

CLARENCE: She's an old maid. She never married.

GEORGE (choking him): Where's Mary? Where is she?

CLARENCE: She's . . .

GEORGE: Where is she?

CLARENCE (in self-defense): She's just about to close up the library!

George lets Clarence go, and runs off. Clarence falls to the ground, where he rubs his neck.

CLARENCE (to himself): There must be some easier way for me to get my wings.

EXTERIOR LIBRARY –– NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT –– Mary comes out the door, then turns and locks it. We see George watching her from the sidewalk. Mary is very different –– no buoyancy in her walk, none of Mary's abandon and love of life. Glasses, no make-up, lips compressed, elbows close to body. She looks flat and dried up, and extremely self-satisfied and efficient.

CLOSEUP –– George, as he watches her.

CLOSE SHOT –– George and Mary, on the sidewalk.

GEORGE: Mary!

She looks up, surprised, but, not recognizing him, continues on.

GEORGE (cont'd): Mary!

Mary starts to run away from him, and he follows, desperately.

GEORGE (cont'd): Mary! Mary!

He catches up to her, grabs her by the arms, and keeps a tight grip on her. She struggles to free herself.

GEORGE (cont'd): Mary, it's George! Don't you know me? What's happened to us?

MARY (struggling): I don't know you! Let me go!

GEORGE: Mary, please! Oh, don't do this to me. Please, Mary, help me. Where's our kids? I need you, Mary! Help me, Mary!

Mary breaks away from him, and dashes into the first door she comes to, the Blue Moon Bar.

INTERIOR BLUE MOON –– NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT — Small tables, booths, perhaps a counter. It is crowded. Many of the people are the same who were present during the run on the Building and Loan. Mary comes running in, screaming. The place goes into an uproar. George comes in, practically insane. Some of the men grab and hold on to him.

GEORGE (shouting): Mary . . .
(to men holding him) Let me go! Mary, don't run away!

MAN: Somebody call the police!

ANOTHER MAN: Hit him with a bottle!

ANOTHER MAN: He needs a strait jacket!

MARY (from back of room): That man –– stop him!

GEORGE (recognizing some of them): Tom! Ed! Charlie! That's my wife!

Mary lets out a final scream, then faints into the arms of a couple of women at the bar.

GEORGE (cont'd): Mary!

MAN: Oh, no you don't!

GEORGE (screaming): Mary!

George can't fight through the men holding him. Desperately he thinks of Clarence, and heads for the door.

GEORGE (cont'd): Clarence! Clarence! Where are you?

EXTERIOR SIDEWALK –– NIGHT

CLOSE SHOT –– Just as George breaks through the door, Bert arrives in his police car. He gets out and heads for the door, to run into George as he comes out.

BERT: Oh, it's you!

He grabs for George, who lets him have one square on the button, knocking him down, then continues running down the street yelling for Clarence. Bert gets up, takes out his gun and fires several shots after the fleeing figure.

BERT (to crowd): Stand back!

Bert gets into the police car, and, siren screaming, sets off in pursuit of George.