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

LA SCENEGGIATURA

INTERIOR BAILEY DINING ROOM –– NIGHT

MEDIUM SHOT –– Pop Bailey is seated at the dinner table. Mrs. Bailey and Annie, the cook, look up toward the vibrating ceiling. There are SOUNDS of terrific banging and scuffling upstairs. Annie pounds on the ceiling with a broom.

MOTHER (calling out): George! Harry! You're shaking the house down! Stop it!

POP: Oh, let 'em alone. I wish I was up there with them.

MOTHER: Harry'll tear his dinner suit. George!

ANOTHER ANGLE –– Mrs. Bailey is calling up the stairs.

ANNIE: That's why all children should be girls.

MOTHER: But if they were all girls, there wouldn't be any . . . Oh, never mind. (calling upstairs): George! Harry! Come down to dinner this minute. Everything's getting cold and you know we've been waiting for you.

GEORGE'S VOICE: Okay, Mom.

She goes up the stairs.

Pop is smiling and poking his plate. A commotion is heard on the stairs, the boys imitating fanfare MUSIC. Down they come, holding their mother high between them on their hands. They bring her into the dining room and deposit her gracefully into Pop's lap.

BOYS: Here's a present for you, Pop.

Pop kisses her. Mother gives Pop a quick hug, then turns with all the wrath she can muster on the two boys.

MOTHER: Oh, you two idiots! George, sit down and have dinner.

HARRY: I've eaten.

MOTHER: Well, aren't you going to finish dressing for your graduation party? Look at you.

HARRY: I don't care. It's George's tux.

Annie crosses the room, holding her broom. Harry reaches out for her.

ANNIE: If you lay a hand on me, I'll hit you with this broom.

HARRY: Annie, I'm in love with you. There's a moon out tonight.

As he pushes her through the kitchen door, he slaps her fanny. She screams. The noise is cut off by the swinging door. George and his mother sit down at the table.

GEORGE: Boy, oh, boy, oh, boy –– my last meal at the old Bailey boarding house.

MOTHER: Oh, my lands, my blood pressure!

CLOSE SHOT –– Harry, as he sticks his head through the kitchen door.

HARRY: Pop, can I have the car? I'm going to take over a lot of plates and things.

MOTHER: What plates?

HARRY: Oh, Mom –– I'm chairman of the eats committee and we only need a couple of dozen.

MOTHER: Oh, no you don't. Harry, now, not my best Haviland.

She follows Harry into the kitchen, leaving Pop and George. As she goes:

GEORGE: Oh, let him have the plates, Mother.

CLOSE SHOT –– George and his father, eating at the table. There is a great similarity and a great understanding between them.

POP: Hope you have a good trip, George. Uncle Billy and I are going to miss you.

GEORGE: I'm going to miss you, too, Pop. What's the matter? You look tired.

POP: Oh, I had another tussle with Potter today.

GEORGE: Oh . . .

POP: I thought when we put him on the Board of Directors, he'd ease up on us a little bit.

GEORGE: I wonder what's eating that old money-grubbing buzzard anyway?

POP: Oh, he's a sick man. Frustrated and sick. Sick in his mind, sick in his soul, if he has one. Hates everybody that has anything that he can't have. Hates us mostly, I guess.

MEDIUM SHOT –– the dining room. Harry and his mother come out of the kitchen, Harry carrying a pie in each hand and balancing one on his head. CAMERA PANS WITH them as they cross.

HARRY: Gangway! Gangway! So long, Pop.

POP: So long, son.

GEORGE: Got a match?

HARRY: Very funny. Very funny.

MOTHER: Put those things in the car and I'll get your tie and studs together.

HARRY: Okay, Mom. You coming later? You coming later, George?

GEORGE: What do you mean, and be bored to death?

HARRY: Couldn't want a better death. Lots of pretty girls, and we're going to use that new floor of yours tonight, too.

GEORGE: I hope it works.

POP: No gin tonight, son.

HARRY: Aw, Pop, just a little.

POP: No, son, not one drop.

CLOSE SHOT –– George and Pop at the table. Annie comes in with some dishes.

ANNIE: Boys and girls and music. Why do they need gin?

She exits.

GEORGE: Father, did I act like that when I graduated from high school?

POP: Pretty much. You know, George, wish we could send Harry to college with you. Your mother and I talked it over half the night.

GEORGE: We have that all figured out. You see, Harry'll take my job at the Building and Loan, work there four years, then he'll go.

POP: He's pretty young for that job.

GEORGE: Well, no younger than I was.

POP: Maybe you were born older, George.

GEORGE: How's that?

POP: I say, maybe you were born older. I suppose you've decided what you're going to do when you get out of college.

GEORGE: Oh, well, you know what I've always talked about –– build things . . . design new buildings –– plan modern cities –– all that stuff I was talking about.

POP: Still after that first million before you're thirty.

GEORGE: No, I'll settle for half that in cash.

Annie comes in again from the kitchen.

POP: Of course, it's just a hope, but you wouldn't consider coming back to the Building and Loan, would you?

Annie stops serving to hear his answer.

GEORGE: Well, I . . . (to Annie): Annie, why don't you draw up a chair? Then you'd be more comfortable and you could hear everything that's going on.

ANNIE: I would if I thought I'd hear anything worth listening to.

GEORGE: You would, huh?

She gives George a look, and goes on out into the kitchen. Bailey smiles and turns to George.

POP: I know it's soon to talk about it.

GEORGE: Oh, now, Pop, I couldn't. I couldn't face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office.

He stops, realizing that he has hurt his father.

GEORGE (cont'd): Oh, I'm sorry, Pop. I didn't mean that remark, but this business of nickels and dimes and spending all your life trying to figure out how to save three cents on a length of pipe . . . I'd go crazy. I want to do something big and something important.

POP (quietly): You know, George, I feel that in a small way we are doing something important. Satisfying a fundamental urge. It's deep in the race for a man to want his own roof and walls and fireplace, and we're helping him get those things in our shabby little office.

GEORGE (unhappily): I know, Dad. I wish I felt . . . But I've been hoarding pennies like a miser in order to . . . Most of my friends have already finished college. I just feel like if I don't get away, I'd bust.

POP: Yes . . . Yes . . . You're right, son.

GEORGE: You see what I mean, don't you, Pop?

POP: This town is no place for any man unless he's willing to crawl to Potter. You've got talent, son. You get yourself an education. Then get out of here.

GEORGE: Pop, do you want a shock? I think you're a great guy.

To cover his embarrassment, he looks toward the kitchen door and calls:

GEORGE (cont'd): Oh, did you hear that, Annie?

CLOSE SHOT –– Annie listening through glass in door.

ANNIE: I heard it. About time one of you lunkheads said it.

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

GEORGE: I'm going to miss old Annie. Pop, I think I'll get dressed and go over to Harry's party.

POP: Have a good time, son.