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

LA SCENEGGIATURA

EXTERIOR MAIN STREET –– BEDFORD FALLS –– SPRING AFTERNOON

MEDIUM SHOT –– Five or six boys are coming toward camera, arm in arm, whistling. Their attention is drawn to an elaborate horsedrawn carriage proceeding down the other side of the street.

MEDIUM PAN SHOT –– The carriage driving by. We catch a glimpse of an elderly man riding in it.

CLOSE SHOT –– the boys watching the carriage.

GEORGE: Mr. Potter!

CLARENCE'S VOICE: Who's that –– a king?

JOSEPH'S VOICE: That's Henry F. Potter, the richest and meanest man in the county.

The boys continue until they reach Gower's drugstore. The drugstore is old-fashioned and dignified, with jars of colored water in the windows and little else. As the kids stop:

GEORGE: So long!

BOYS (ad lib): Got to work, slave. Hee-haw. Hee-haw.

INTERIOR DRUGSTORE —– DAY

MEDIUM SHOT –– George comes in and crosses to an old-fashioned cigar lighter on the counter. He shuts his eyes and makes a wish:

GEORGE: Wish I had a million dollars.

He clicks the lighter and the flame springs up.

GEORGE (cont'd): Hot dog!

WIDER ANGLE –– George crosses over to the soda fountain, at which Mary Hatch, a small girl, is seated, watching him. George goes on to get his apron from behind the fountain.

GEORGE (calling toward back room): It's me, Mr. Gower. George Bailey.

CLOSE SHOT –– Mr. Gower, the druggist, peering from a window in back room. We see him take a drink from a bottle.

GOWER: You're late.

MEDIUM SHOT –– George behind soda fountain. He is putting on his apron.

GEORGE: Yes, sir.

WIDER ANGLE –– Violet Bick enters the drugstore and sits on one of the stools at the fountain. She is the same height as Mary and the same age, but she is infinitely older in her approach to people.

VIOLET (with warm friendliness): Hello, George.
(then, flatly, as she sees Mary)
VIOLET: 'Lo, Mary.

MARY (primly): Hello, Violet.

George regards the two of them with manly disgust. They are two kids to him, and a nuisance. He starts over for the candy counter.

GEORGE: Two cents worth of shoelaces?

VIOLET: She was here first.

MARY: I'm still thinking.

GEORGE (to Violet): Shoelaces?

VIOLET: Please, Georgie.

George goes over to the candy counter.

VIOLET (to Mary): I like him.

MARY: You like every boy.

VIOLET (happily): What's wrong with that?

GEORGE: Here you are.

George gives Violet a paper sack containing licorice shoelaces. Violet gives him the money.

VIOLET (the vamp): Help me down?

GEORGE (disgusted): Help you down!

Violet jumps down off her stool and exits. Mary, watching, sticks out her tongue as she passes.

CLOSE SHOT –– George and Mary at fountain.

GEORGE: Made up your mind yet?

MARY: I'll take chocolate.

George puts some chocolate ice cream in a dish.

GEORGE: With coconuts?

MARY: I don't like coconuts.

GEORGE: You don't like coconuts! Say, brainless, don't you know where coconuts come from? Lookit here –– from Tahiti –– Fiji Islands, the Coral Sea!

He pulls a magazine from his pocket and shows it to her.

MARY: A new magazine! I never saw it before.

GEORGE: Of course you never. Only us explorers can get it. I've been nominated for membership in the National Geographic Society.

He leans down to finish scooping out the ice cream, his deaf ear toward her. She leans over, speaking softly.

CLOSE SHOT –– Mary, whispering.

MARY: Is this the ear you can't hear on? George Bailey, I'll love you till the day I die.

She draws back quickly and looks down, terrified at what she has said.

CLOSE SHOT –– George and Mary.

GEORGE: I'm going out exploring some day, you watch. And I'm going to have a couple of harems, and maybe three or four wives. Wait and see.

He turns back to the cash register, whistling.

ANOTHER ANGLE –– taking in entrance to prescription room at end of fountain. Gower comes to the entrance. He is bleary-eyed, unshaven, chewing an old unlit cigar. His manner is gruff and mean. It is evident he has been drinking.

GOWER: George! George!

GEORGE: Yes, sir.

GOWER: You're not paid to be a canary.

GEORGE: No, sir.

He turns back to the cash register when he notices an open telegram on the shelf. He is about to toss it aside when he starts to read it.

INSERT: THE TELEGRAM. It reads:

"We regret to inform you that your son, Robert, died very suddenly this morning of influenza stop. Everything possible was done for his comfort stop. We await instructions from you.

BACK TO SHOT. George puts the telegram down. A goodness of heart expresses itself in a desire to do something for Gower. He gives the ice cream to Mary without comment and sidles back toward Gower.

INTERIOR PRESCRIPTION ROOM OF DRUGSTORE –– DAY

CLOSE SHOT –– Gower, drunk, is intent on putting some capsules into a box.

GEORGE: Mr. Gower, do you want something . . . Anything?

GOWER: No.

GEORGE: Anything I can do back here?

GOWER: No.

George looks curiously at Gower, realizing that he is quite drunk. Gower fumbles and drops some of the capsules to the floor.

CLOSE SHOT –– capsules spilling on floor at their feet.

BACK TO SHOT –– George and Gower.

GEORGE: I'll get them, sir.

He picks up the capsules and puts them in the box. Gower waves George aside, takes his old wet cigar, shoves it in his mouth and sits in an old Morris chair in the background. George turns a bottle around from which Gower has taken the powder for the capsules. Its label reads "POISON." George stands still, horrified.

GOWER: Take these capsules over to Mrs. Blaine's. She's waiting for them.

George picks up the capsule box, not knowing what to do or say. His eyes go, harassed, to the bottle labeled poison. George's fingers fumble.

GEORGE: Yes, sir. They have the diphtheria there, haven't they, sir?

GOWER: Ummmm . . .

Gower stares moodily ahead, sucking his cigar. George turns to him, the box in his hand.

GEORGE: Is it a charge, sir?

GOWER: Yes –– charge.

GEORGE: Mr. Gower, I think . . .

GOWER: Aw, get going!

GEORGE: Yes, sir.

INTERIOR DRUGSTORE –– DAY

MEDIUM SHOT –– George comes out into main room. As he puts on his cap he sees a Sweet Caporals ad which says:

INSERT: "ASK DAD HE KNOWS" –– SWEET CAPORAL

BACK TO SHOT: With an inspiration, George dashes out the door and down the street. Mary follows him with her eyes.