George Bailey, the main character in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life, is given what his guardian angel calls a great gift – the opportunity to see what the world would be like had he never been alive – but what exactly happened when George Bailey decided to never be born? Directed by Capra from a screenplay co-written by him, Albert Hackett and Frances Goodrich, It's a Wonderful Life has since become regarded as not only one of the most cherished holiday traditions, but among the greatest films of all time. It stars James Stewart as Bailey (his first acting role since returning from a heroic tour in the armed forces), as well as Donna Reed, Lionel Barrymore, Thomas Mitchell, Henry Travers, and H.B. Warner, among many others.
The film follows what can only be regarded, as the title suggests, as a wonderful life: George's life. Though it takes him a very long time, and perhaps the most surreal experience any man has had to endure to realize it, George Bailey's life, full of love and friendship, is as grand as one could ever wish for. That being said, his selfless nature, by this point of the film, has landed him in a pretty terrible financial situation – "you're worth more dead than alive," sulks the town's greedy old hag Mr. Potter (Barrymore) – and as he prepares to commit suicide, he's granted this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
The warped reality of George's life overcomes him. With the fabric of his well-spent life in shambles, George can only watch as the world he felt so betrayed by crumbles without his existence. It's a Wonderful Life was neither the first nor the last film to inject the audience into what's better known as "The Butterfly Effect," but perhaps no other production has done so with such bittersweet respect to the lovely burdens of life. Here's everything that happened to the Bailey Family, to Bedford Falls, and even to the world when George Bailey opted to not be a part of it.
Changes To George's Family
As the wingless angel Clarence (Travers) grants George his wish, and the falling snow outside comes to a halt, George cannot begin to imagine what sort of miserable world he is about to step into; and what his plea for nonexistence means to those who love him. The moment of reckoning finally comes to George when he searches his pockets to find that nothing, including the flower petals his sick daughter Zuzu (Karolyn Grimes) gave him shortly before he stormed out of the house.
Panicking, he races back to his home to find that 320 Sycamore Street, the broken down, shabby old building his wife Mary (Reed) had helped turn into a home, has returned to its broken down and lifeless form. Without his wife, who has become a lonely librarian, and without his children, George storms over to his childhood home, where his mother (Beulah Bondi) has become a widow and maid – the life flushed from her eyes as she manages her boarding home. It is there that George finds out that his uncle and business partner Billy (Mitchell) went insane many years ago after losing the Building & Loan (which he inherited in George's absence) and has been locked up in an asylum ever since.
Changes To George's Friends
In It's a Wonderful Life, we see it is not just George's family who is affected by his absence, many citizens of Bedford Falls had relied on George throughout the years for his kindness, his social activism and, most importantly, his friendship. For instance, immediately after stepping into this false reality, George decides to take Clarence to get a drink at the town's bar, owned by his dear friend Martini (William Edmunds). When they get to the establishment, the bar where George had drank not too long ago and was punched in the face by a man whose wife he had bullied earlier that evening, the atmosphere is noticeably different. Nick the bartender (Sheldon Leonard) is still behind the counter, but the crowd has multiplied and gotten rowdier. As it turns out, it's now Nick's bar, as Martini, without George as his helpful ally in the Bailey Building & Loan, was not able to establish the business for himself.
Another shocking effect of George's life comes walking into the bar shortly before he and Clarence got booted out of it. A wandering, scraggly drunk wanders inside, cold and miserable. Nick calls him out as the bar's patrons stare coldly in the old man's direction. It is Mr. Gower (Warner), Bedford Falls' pharmacist and George's first boss. Without George there to stop him all those years ago, Mr. Gower accidentally poisoned and killed one of his young patients and was sentenced to 20 years in jail.
Soon after, George makes his way through town and finds Violet (Gloria Grahame), his childhood friend who has relied on George's financial and emotional support for years, kicking and screaming while being tossed into the back of a police car. Not only do his two good friends Ernie the cab driver (Frank Faylen) and Bert the cop (Ward Bond) not know who he is, but Ernie's marriage is has exploded and he's been left practically homeless and loveless, and Bert, after a suspicious altercation, ends up shooting at George.
Changes To Bedford Falls
Immediately after leaving Nick's bar, George hustles into town where he finds that the sign that once read "Bedford Falls" has been converted to "Pottersville." Without George's help in maintaining the Bailey Building & Loan, Mr. Potter had managed to take control of the humble town and turn it into a rip-roaring village, complete with strip clubs, pool bars, and dance joints by the dozens. The once quiet town has been met and demolished by a storm of chaos.
Changes To The World
Beyond the breath of life restored onto the tree of one Bedford Falls (or Pottersville, as it is in this reality) resident's tree, George's life had actually had an effect on the entire world. The first thing It's a Wonderful Life shows of George is the heroic rescue of his brother, Harry (Frank Albertson). Though George lost hearing in one of his ears, Harry grew up to live a remarkable life, becoming a college football star and a Medal of Honor-winning pilot during World War II.
Without George there to save him when he was nine, however, Harry drowned. And because Harry drowned, every man on the transport the pilot had saved in one reality, was brutally shot down in the other. George Bailey himself never had the opportunity to go to the war because of his ear, but as It's a Wonderful Life has it, his life, just as any life is, is essential to a countless number of people.