The Glorious Finish

"One man's life touches so many other lives, when he is not around it leaves an awfully big hole."

- It's a Wonderful Life (1946)

Rank #1, American Film Institute's 100 Most Inspiring Movies ever made.

IMDB: 8.7

Director: Frank Capra

Plot:

# An angel (a old man named Clarence) helps a compassionate but despairingly frustrated businessman, George Bailey, by showing what life would have been like if he had never existed #

George Bailey (James Stewart) is the quintessential good-natured man whose sparkling sense of humour makes up for his being just a touch sheltered. The young man dreams of wiping the dust off his provincial upbringing by travelling the world and making the big time. His hometown of Bedford Falls, however, is reluctant to let him go: after being called upon to run his father's modest real estate company, and later getting reeled into financing his younger brother Harry's college education, George becomes an invaluable asset to the community of the small town of Bedford Falls, regardless of his own desires.

George aborts his plans to draft metropolitan skyscrapers and build low income housing instead, saving impoverished people of Bedford Falls from the clutches of the old greedy sinister, Mr.Potter (Lionel Barrymore), on numerous occasions. That is, until the day, his dear uncle makes a business error (he tragically misplaces $8000 in a shop) that drives George into the ground financially. Potter finds the misplaced money and hides it from Billy. When the bank examiner discovers the shortage later that night, George realizes that he will be held responsible and sent to jail and the company will collapse. Thinking of his wife, his young children, and others he loves will be better off with him dead, he contemplates suicide.

Enter the old Clarence, a guardian angel. Through his magic, Clarence shows George what life in Bedford Falls would be had he not been born. The Potter controlled town is an uprooted ruin: a haven for  the corrupt and the culprits. It is a place where a young Harry drowns in water and dies because George isn't there to rescue him, and where George's would-be wife Mary (Donna Reed), no longer the mother of his 3 children, as she lives her life as an old maid.

The nightmarish alternate reality brings George to his senses, an enlightening experience that helps him to dismiss the idea of suicide and he rushes back home to celebrate Christmas with his family, running and cheering all the way. The Bank examiners wait for his arrest for the $8000 deficit at his home, and before they could do so, the whole Bedford Falls community run helter-skelter, collect the deficit money, and save their honest and beloved George.

Widely regarded as a seminal work in both Frank Capra and James Stewart's career.