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

LA SCENEGGIATURA

EXTERIOR STREET –– DAY

MEDIUM SHOT –– George runs down the street until he comes opposite a two-story building with a sign on it reading: "Bailey Building and Loan Association." He stops. Potter's carriage is waiting at the entrance. Suddenly he runs up the stairs.

INTERIOR OUTER OFFICE BLDG. AND LOAN –– DAY

FULL SHOT –– The offices are ancient and a bit on the rickety side. There is a counter with a grill, something like a bank. Before a door marked: PETER BAILEY, PRIVATE, George's Uncle Billy stands, obviously trying to hear what is going on inside. He is a very good-humored man of about fifty, in shirt-sleeves. With him at the door, also listening, are Cousin Tilly Bailey, a waspish-looking woman, who is the telephone operator, and Cousin Eustace Bailey, the clerk. The office vibrates with an aura of crisis as George enters and proceeds directly toward his father's office.

CLOSE SHOT –– Uncle Billy listening at the door. As George is about to enter his father's office, uncle Billy grabs him by the arm.

UNCLE BILLY: Avast, there, Captain Cook! Where you headin'?

GEORGE: Got to see Pop, Uncle Billy.

UNCLE BILLY: Some other time, George.

GEORGE: It's important.

UNCLE BILLY: There's a squall in there that's shapin' up into a storm.

During the foregoing, Cousin Tilly has answered the telephone, and now she calls out:

COUSIN TILLY: Uncle Billy . . . telephone.

UNCLE BILLY: Who is it?

COUSIN TILLY: Bank examiner.

INSERT: CLOSE UP Uncle Billy's left hand. There are pieces of string tied around two of the fingers, obviously to remind him of things he has to do.

BACK TO SHOT –– Uncle Billy looking at his hand.

UNCLE BILLY: Bank examiner! I should have called him yesterday. Switch it inside.

He enters a door marked: WILLIAM BAILEY, PRIVATE. George stands irresolute a moment, aware of crisis in the affairs of the Bailey Building and Loan Association, but aware more keenly of his personal crisis. He opens the door of his father's office and enters.

INTERIOR BAILEY'S PRIVATE OFFICE –– DAY

MEDIUM SHOT –– George's father is seated behind his desk, nervously drawing swirls on a pad. He looks tired and worried. He is a gentle man in his forties, an idealist, stubborn only for other people's rights. Nearby, in a throne-like wheelchair, behind which stands the goon who furnishes the motive power, sits Henry F. Potter, his squarish derby hat on his head. The following dialogue is fast and heated, as though the argument had been in process for some time.

BAILEY: I'm not crying, Mr. Potter.

POTTER: Well, you're begging, and that's a whole lot worse.

BAILEY: All I'm asking is thirty days more . . .

GEORGE (interrupting): Pop!

BAILEY: Just a minute, son.
(to Potter): Just thirty short days. I'll dig up that five thousand somehow.

POTTER (to his goon): Shove me up . . .

Goon pushes his wheelchair closer to the desk.

GEORGE: Pop!

POTTER: Have you put any real pressure on those people of yours to pay those mortgages?

BAILEY: Times are bad, Mr. Potter. A lot of these people are out of work.

POTTER: Then foreclose!

BAILEY: I can't do that. These families have children.

MEDIUM CLOSE SHOT –– Potter and Bailey.

GEORGE: Pop!

POTTER: They're not my children.

BAILEY: But they're somebody's children.

POTTER: Are you running a business or a charity ward?

BAILEY: Well, all right . . .

POTTER (interrupting): Not with my money!

CLOSE SHOT –– Potter and Bailey.

BAILEY: Mr. Potter, what makes you such a hard-skulled character? You have no family –– no children. You can't begin to spend all the money you've got.

POTTER: So I suppose I should give it to miserable failures like you and that idiot brother of yours to spend for me.

George cannot listen any longer to such libel about his father. He comes around in front of the desk.

GEORGE: He's not a failure! You can't say that about my father!

BAILEY: George, George . . .

GEORGE: You're not! You're the biggest man in town!

BAILEY: Run along.

He pushes George toward the door.

GEORGE: Bigger'n him!

As George passes Potter's wheelchair he pushes the old man's shoulder. The goon puts out a restraining hand.

GEORGE: Bigger'n everybody.

George proceeds toward the door, with his father's hand on his shoulder. As they go:

POTTER: Gives you an idea of the Baileys.

INTERIOR OUTER OFFICE BLDG. AND LOAN –– DAY

CLOSE SHOT –– George and his father at the door.

GEORGE: Don't let him say that about you, Pop.

BAILEY: All right, son, thanks. I'll talk to you tonight.

Bailey closes the door on George and turns back to Potter. George stands outside the door with the capsules in his hand.