Everything Wrong With It's A Wonderful Life In Merry Christmas Minutes 

"To my brother George, the richest man in town" that line gets me every. single. time. Seriously, I'm teared up just watching it here.

I love this movie, but hate that Mr. Potter not only didn't get what was coming to him, he ended up getting $8,000 of the building and loan's money. I prefer the Saturday Night Live sketch where Uncle Billy suddenly remembers that he accidentally gave the money to Potter and the whole town goes over to Potter's office and beats the shit out of him.

An interesting thing about this movie: Jimmy Stewart could have stayed home during WWII. He was "old", too tall and too underweight. He fought to join the military. His own studio even attempted to use their influence to keep him out. But he still got in, mostly because he was already a trained pilot. Initially, they just wanted him to make movies for the military (training or propaganda films), but he wouldn't have it. He eventually became a B-24 pilot and flew 20 missions. He rose to the rank of Major, and was the Operations Officer for his unit. The stresses of the war can be seen when you compare a picture of him from 1942 to that take in 1945. Stewart clearly suffered PTSD after the war and when he returned to the U.S., nobody really knew what to do with him. Frank Capra had been a vital source of making war films, such as the "Why We Fight" movies that explained the war to servicemen and civilians alike. General Marshall described Capra's work as a "godsend." But after the war, the two men were out of work. Both were seen as old news. So, when this movie was made, it blew new life into both of their careers. The irony of this film, of course, is that Stewart plays George Bailey, a man who DIDN'T go off to war.

That scene of Jimmy Stewart's face after that guy says, "But George, they'll vote with Potter otherwise!" is in my opinion the greatest-ever example of wordless acting. In the space of a second and a half, you can see half a dozen emotions go through him, without a work spoken or a sound uttered. Jimmy Stewart is PHENOMENAL.

Book shown in intro CinemaSins: so you have chosen death...

“Here’s 15 sins so don’t have to count all the continuity errors.” Keeps counting continuity errors.

I always wondered about Mr. Welsh: what kind of guy would say to his wife, "Well honey, I know you're so emotionally distraught by that guy yelling at you over the phone that you cried for an hour, but it's Christmas Eve so I'm gonna go hang out at a bar."

Quick fact, the one award this movie won was for special effects for the realistic snow! The guy who made the fake snow would later be eaten by a shark while filming for another movie!!! The more you know!

Just as a minor point, while the whole gym/swimming pool seems all kinds of impractical, it was filmed in a real school gym with a real swimming pool under its retractable floor. It is many things, but sadly, unrealistic isn’t one of them.

"And to anyone shocked we would sin a movie this beloved and revered... well, you must be new here."

Bold of you to assume there is anything wrong with It's a Wonderful Life

Sin: Mary needs glasses when George doesn't exist. What goes wrong with Mary's eyes in this alternative timeline?!

Every time a sin dings, a RU-vid critic gets his wings.

Fun fact: It's a Wonderful Life was an initial failure, but the studio lost it's rights to the movie and became public domain until some time later. When it was public domain, it was broadcast on TV and that's how it became a classic.

Something I’m surprised wasn’t mentioned: “You remember the night we broke the windows in this old house?” You mean the night my DAD DIED? Yeah, vaguely.

Me tearing up during the scene at the end DURING CinemaSins...Ding!

I love that by the time the actual plot of this movie starts, there's less than a quarter of the movie left, and it takes another two thirds of the remaining time to accept the premise, leaving only ten minutes for the everything else, and the movie still works wonderfully.

The muppets and now it's a wonderful life? Who hurt you this Christmas?

All I can think of is the “Married with Children” one where Sam Kinnison shows Al Bundy that everyone around him has a better life if he’s dead so he decides to stay alive just to ruin everyone’s day.

They’re right Mary is the hero of the film. George is lucky to have her.

I see you chose to have a mob at your door for christmas and a riot for boxing day. Brave guys.

I've watched this movie every year at least once for my entire life. "Zuzu's petals!" still makes me cry.

Interesting fact. The kid that played young George was actually injured in that scene where his ear was bleeding. The old guy was actually drinking to make his role look more believable and when he slapped the kid on the ear like that he actually busted the kids eardrum making him bleed. That kid is a great actor to finish that scene.

Omg! This movie is STILL amazing after all these years! Yes it is old, but the core of it, the love and hate of what you you have, the fear of loosing it and the realization that you have more then you thought will always be relevant!

I'm kind of baffled that you covered all these, including some pretty nominal sins, and skipped over things like Harry's tombstone saying 1911-1919 when Clarence said he was nine when he died, or that angry guy saying "you must mean two other trees". What two trees? There's just the one tree.

It is a family tradition to watch this movie every year with my parents. A few years ago, we just started joking around and made a fan theory that makes this movie really fun to watch again. Basically, a demon came to Bedford falls to try and take down the Bailey's and give Potter control over the whole town in order to lead more people into sin. Since Clarence seemed to have to wait to use his powers until someone made a wish, it would stand to reason that demons would too. The demon comes to down, and is the unexplained guy who appears in the school to tempt the other guy into opening the pool under George and Mary. This causes George and Mary to end up in the situation where Mary would throw a rock at the old house and make a wish, which the demon was then able to grant. Obviously, even though she doesn't say it, her wish is that George would stay in Bedford Falls. Everything after this is due to the wish twisting events to force George to stay in Beford Falls, which causes all kinds of interesting ideas. The demon's wish would have been responsible for everything that kept George from leaving: George's dad having a heart attack, Harry finding a wife while in college that he doesn't tell anyone about, George being too distracted by the sexual tension with Mary to invest with Sam, Uncle Billy getting the newspaper right when he did to accidentally hand over the money to Potter, and finally the demon even caused the Great Depression just to keep George from getting his Honeymoon. Basically a Literal Genie trope with a demon spin on it.

The scene showing Mary becoming an unmarried librarian spinster (at 16:56) was probably the most unbelievable part of the movie. Donna Reed was gorgeous with equal inner beauty. The notion that she wouldn't have had many other suitors in George's absence was a bit ridiculous.

Clarence: Every time a bell rings, and angel gets his wings Cinemasins: Hold my harp...

Every time a bell rings a angel gets it's wings & Every time a film is sinned, a critic gets a column.

For the record, I've seen this move at least a dozen times. Its a tradition in my family to watch it before Xmas. And I still love it to this day. Great vid CinemaSins.

Sins you missed...Young Mary says she doesn't like coconuts, but George puts coconut on her ice cream anyway. Even if all things transpired the same and young Harry still fell into the ice that day, would NO ONE else have jumped in to save him??

I love the line “this is all kinds of ists”

Ironic how the channels name is "CinemaSins" but considering how many times that ring that bell, hundreds or thousands of angels get their wings every year!

This is a crime. I’m still going to watch this. But you know what you did.

"Harry broke through the ice, died at the age of 9" Tombstone reads: 1911-1919.

“You’ve had A WONDERFUL LIFE” *Roll Zuzu’s petals!* That killed me!

I cannot believe you missed this one: When George has never been born the hearing in his ear returns, his clothing dries, his lips stops bleeding, but he's still drunk. The power of alcohol transcends time and space!!!

I love the “every time a sin is dinged an angel gets its wings” moment.

One thing I'm surprised they don't go into is that half the "personality changes" that happen because of George's nonexistence are primarily because this random dude just ran up to these people claiming to know them- often on extremely awkward personal levels. I don't think many people would be very nice in such a situation.

My main complaint about this movie is that justice was never served on the villain. I kept holding out hope that Potter would be caught and arrested the first time I saw it, but it never happened.

Muppet Christmas Carol and It's a Wonderful Life on back to back videos? Bold, Cinemasins. Bold.

Do you not know that pool is a real thing? It’s located at Beverly Hills High School and reportedly still in use.

“AND inspire the fourth Shrek movie and I CANNOT FORGIVE THAT” Schaffrillas Producitons would like a word with you

They probably didn't need to get $20, even with medical bills. We have the canceled check for my uncles delivery who was born in 1928. It was $5.

I am profoundly disappointed you didn't make a Bert and Ernie joke.

You’re really banking on that “No movie is without sin” thing aren’t you 😂

Donna Reed was so beautiful!!! Even when they tried to “frump” her up

God: "I forgot, you don't have your wings yet." Me: "how does an angel's vision improve or falter with or without wings?"

This is all kinds of 'ists'. Gold.

Whats funny and amazing is I actually watched this movie for the first time, start to finish last night. Lmao what timing.

Even as a kid and long before "The Butterfly Effect" I was a bit doubtful that everything in the past would've lined up so neatly to show us how things would be different if George hadn't been born, but it didn't bother me that much. If Heaven wanted Harry on the ice in this alternate reality to make the point I guess they could do it. But I definitely agreed with Jeremy before Jeremy came along that the Mary part was very dubious (and patronizing); if George never existed and everything else was the same, I thought it was more likely she'd have married rich Sam Wainwright and lived a fabulously plush life, then maybe divorced him over his philandering and lived a fabulously plush life on the divorce settlement. Why would she turn into a timid mousy librarian (who for some reason needs glasses she didn't in the 'real' reality??) over not getting some guy who never existed? My real issue with the movie is it cooks the books. If the solution to George's suicidal misery is seeing how irreplaceable he is to so many people, he already knew that; it's why he takes over the Building and Loan, it's why he saves it with his honeymoon money, it's why he turns down Potter's job offer. He knows it's because of him people in town have decent homes, and that Potter has been held at least somewhat at bay. There's no way he'd think everyone would be "better off" without him; in fact, any dissatisfaction with life he feels is because he's always put others before his own dreams. Clarence's job is actually too easy. What if he'd been assigned to a suicidal person with no family, no accomplishments, who actually wouldn't be missed if he'd never existed? How would he convince HIM life is worth living? I'd like to see that movie (but of course this movie gets me every time, just like Jeremy)

"Is the one harem for love-making and the other for all the kinky shit the other harem won't do?" Yes.

I always felt bad for Nick. He's the only person besides Potter who actually had it better in the George-less world. He owned the bar instead of just working as a bartender.

Please do Akira before the year ends.

0:23 -- MST3K reference! Take a sin off this man!

As much as I absolutely love this film I always think of Jerry Stiller's line from King of Queens "With George Bailey the town couldn't be duller. But without him, there's nightclubs, casinos. It's fabulous...I wish he never had been born." 😂😂😂

I loved that nod to MST3K at 0:24

Don't care, I absolutely love this movie.

As much I love Cinemasins, I love this movie even more. So, I am going to deduct all Jeremy's sins without even watching it. Happy Holidays everyone!

In the short story and in the original script, Mary was.married in the alternate reality but to Sam Wainwright who had changed to a nasty younger version of Potter. The censors at the time did not want George to go after another man's wife (even though it was an alternate reality and technically he was married to Mary first.) so they changed it to her being unmarried. Reportedly, Capra admitted that her ending up unmarried was a mistake and he wished that he had stuck to his guns with the original script idea.

0:24 I know that opening phrase anywhere! Mystery Science Theater 3000!

I don't think that's God at the beginning, it's "Joseph" who is doing the supervising.

Hard to believe that Clarence knowing where the money was and not telling George wasn't a sin.

The biggest mistake in this movie that I've been thinking for years -- isn't even mentioned in this review. Before George was born, the town was called Bedford Falls. So even if George hadn't been born, the town would've still been originally called bedford Falls. So then let's assume that the town was renamed Pottersville because of something George didn't do. Well that would've had to wait until George's adulthood -- perhaps after Peter Bailey died. But even that would've been a fairly involved process. Anyway, there's no way that town could've been called Pottersville for more than about 10 years. But when George calls it Bedford Falls, the reacts like he's never heard of Bedford Falls before. How could that be possible? He was old enough that for the majority of his life, the town was called Bedford Falls. The most he could have possibly said to George is "hey, don't you remember that we re-name the town to be Pottersville a few years ago?"

Now please do Everything Wrong With The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile!!!! You can throw The Godfather in there as well.

This is my favorite Christmas movie

I thought it was the perfect Christmas movie.. and I thought I was the only one that cried every single time

"In the not too distant future...next Sunday A.D." MST3K reference is a win!

Cosmic Clarence would be stellar at CinemaSins

This movie is so good - it’s the first time I’ve ever cried watching Cinema Sins!

for me the greatest sin is sinning this wonderful movie.

"Everytime a bell rings, an angel gets his wings." *All Sins Removed*

The one thing I was hoping to be sinned was that when George discovers Harry's tomb it was in the site of the housing development that his company founded. Since Harry would have died in 1919 and the neighborhood was built in the 30s that means that George built the neighborhood over a cemetery. Also I wanted to hear a "Nick would be excellent at Cinemasins", for when he opens up the cash register and says " I'm handing out wings."

It's funny how when George and his dad are in the dinning room talking, you hear a dog barking but never see the dog.

That last line after "teacher says" had me busting a gut. Fantastic sinning! I was just watching it the other night imaging all the sins you could rack up... Great job!😂

2:25 - The "no-maj Potter" joke had me rolling on the floor, laughing!

Oh, thank you, I've been saying the same things about this movie for years...espy the bit about Mary being an 'old maid'...and because George was never born, Mary ended up needing glasses?? HA HA!!

Pretty sure that the extended opening credits was because the people making the film wanted to make sure that the viewers knew who they were. Back then, you didn't have post-credits extras (you actually didn't have any closing credits at all), and when's the last time you've sat and watched the end credits? If you put them before the film begins, your name is guaranteed to be seen by the viewers.

"With George Bailey the town couldn't be duller. Without him there's nightclubs, casinos, it's fabulous. I wish he never had been born." Arthur Spooner

Glad to know even Jeremy isn’t immune to “To my big brother George - the richest man in town.” I AM crying and you’re crying too.

Everyone here seems so offended and I'm here all like "I've never actually seen this movie".

My family watches this movie every Christmas Eve.

I just watched “It Happened One Christmas” the weird sequel/remake of this movie and it made me realize that there is NOTHING wrong with this movie, it’s perfect! I’d watch the heck out of an Everything Wrong with that movie!

Sin you missed - and one which has been bothering me for forty years... 16:20 "Your brother Harry … drowned at the age of nine." Then George scrapes away the snow to read the dates on the gravestone: 1911 - 1919. Harry was eight, dammit.

i told my mom you made this and it’s her favorite movie of all time... she’s not happy you made this

You missed a sin. Clarence says Harry drowned in the ice at the age of 9. The dates on the headstone only make him 8 years old.

I love how conflicted you were over sinning the phone scene when he heard about soy beans and plastics. Yeah they were only on one date years ago....but dammit the intensity of that moment and the level of complex emotions its able to convey in multiple characters all at once is the peak accomplishment of cinematic art that all film making schools should spend at least a day on teaching how to accomplish what that one scene did.

One of my favorite movies. A good sin would be that Sam Wainwright became a wealthy businessman/stock trader and drove a Duesenberg during the Great Depression. He couldn’t afford a real factory but he could afford a Duesenberg. That stuff was extremely rare back then.

Every time a film is sinned, a critic gets a column.

Wouldn't it be a sin for a pharmacist to have a bottle clearly marked poison with the other drug stuff? Is there a medicinal use for poison?

Even here, after the beloved movie is picked apart, the clips of the ending scene still made me tear up.

Am I the only one bothered by the miscalculation at 16:53 and surprised Cinema Sins missed it? At 16:18 Clarence said Harry drowned when he was 9, but the dates on the grave say 1911-1919, meaning Harry would have been 8 when he died.

"Wallet - Key - Phone check" - every guy is like "same".

Saying something is a cliche cliche

Never understood why Mary turned out to be an old maid entirely because George Bailey didn't exist. Never understood why Mr. Gower didn't go to jail after slapping a kid so hard that his ear bled. Was child abuse legal back then? Never understood why they sang Auld Lang Syne at the end of the movie. It's freakin Christmas. Sing another Xmas song. New Year's Day was a week away. Never understood why Mary shouted "Mr. Martini, how about some wine!" What? Did he happen to have 5 cases of wine in his car on the off chance that 100 people would suddenly show up at the Bailey's house to celebrate a Christmas miracle?

I love the recurring pointing out of the butterfly effect. This is a problem with about half of all time travel movies. There is no question that even the slightest change will eventually alter literally everything. Remember that time you found a twenty on the ground and it let you pay rent or eat or something? Someone had to lose that twenty, and it changed your life, the landlord's week, and so on. If one person didn't exist, a different team would eventually win the world series than before. Go back far enough, and an actual butterfly's wings change would change every single thing.

Since you did this movie can Can you do "A Christmas Story"? I would like to see the movie sin counter hit negative numbers lol

You missed the biggest sin there was no way a state bank examiner would start a job on Christmas eve.

,"I mean after all the entire town is praying for George. Normally. we'd just ignore it and lock him in misery, but...then the people had to go and pray for him and stuff. YOU DAMMIT!!" That's kind of Joseph's attitude through the whole film in a nutshell. Actually the architectural questions would make sense except the scene was filmed in a Beverly Hills High School which had a pool underneath the gym floor. So you would have to ask them. I love the Back to the Future II reference. I questioned Harry's death too. Those kids were more George's friends than Harry's. He would not have been with them more than likely. About Mary being a spinster. Capra distanced himself from that ending later. He wished that he stuck to the original proposed ending where Mary was unhappily married to Sam Wainwright.

I really thought that after the "this gets me every time, and this... Once the corny line about "Teachers says..." would result in an "AND it's gone" moment.