It's a Wonderful Life goofs

A young George Bailey is depicted working in a chemist's in 1919 at 0:05:53 (2007 DVD); despite the period setting, he stands beside a Coca‑Cola Silhouette Girl thermometer that was not produced until 1938.

Young George Bailey refers at 0:06:41 (2007 DVD) to a 1919 National Geographic Magazine article about Fiji and coconuts; however, no such piece appeared in that magazine in 1919.

While Mary and George are strolling along the street after the dance, she asks him at 0:24:46 (2007 DVD), "Well, why don't you say it?" In the following shot George's voice is heard replying, "I don't know. Maybe I will say it," yet his mouth does not move at all.

George plunges into the river to rescue Clarence. As he pulls him to safety, Clarence keeps crying out "help," yet his mouth remains still.

On one occasion in the film, George (James Stewart) addresses Violet (Gloria Grahame) as 'Gloria'.

Ma and Pa Bailey, Old Man Gower, Uncle Billy and even Henry Potter remain unchanged in age throughout the film, covering the period from 1919 to 1946.

Whilst George and Uncle Billy are waiting for Harry's train, George pulls out a handful of leaflets for various places around the world. He refers to one of them as "Venzuela (instead of Venezuela) oil fields."

An uncredited performer clad in a dark roll-neck jumper, in an unnamed part, is the second boy to slide down the riverbank. At 0:04:20 (2007 DVD), when he is about halfway down, a voice shouting "Come on, Marty" is heard on the soundtrack, although Marty (who is the third to slide) remains at the top of the bank watching the second boy descend.

Early in the film, George appears to be sledging with his contemporaries — children roughly his own age — and Harry seems to be tagging along. If George were not there, Harry’s presence among the older boys would be hard to account for. That said, Harry may well have been observing them and asked to have a go, and the older lads might have been somewhat aloof towards him until he got into trouble.

At 1:25:35 (2007 DVD), while embracing Tommy on Christmas Eve, George is clean-shaven. By 1:28:36, when he climbs the stairs to check on ZuZu, a heavy five o'clock shadow has appeared on his face.

While George and Clarence are drying off in the bridge keeper's hut, the postcard pinned beside the thermometer on the wall next to the door keeps vanishing and then reappearing between takes.

When George comes up to Bert and Ernie beside Ernie's taxi, and the three of them stare at Violet as she walks along the street, the same woman — wearing a printed dress and clutching the brim of her hat — passes by five times within 30 seconds, from 0:13:25 to 0:13:59 (2007 DVD).

When Mary puts on "Buffalo Gals" on the gramophone at 0:43:38 (2007 DVD), she starts a ten-inch, yellow-labelled record, but in the next shot a dark-labelled record is playing. Also, when Mary breaks the record at 0:46:46 after the conversation with George, she breaks a twelve-inch, yellow-labelled record instead of the original ten-inch one.

Moments before George telephones Harry, he takes a wreath off his arm and puts it on a table; the wreath then immediately reappears on his arm.

During the dance, whilst everyone dives into the pool, one person enters the water twice.

Whilst Clarence vanishes as he is wrestled by Bert, the policeman, at 1:56:26 (2007 DVD), you can spot Ernie the cabbie’s shadow wagging his finger. Yet when the shot cuts to Ernie, he initially has both hands on the tree and only then begins to wag his finger.

While George and Mary are pelting the run-down house with stones on their way home from the dance, George hurls his stone when the window Mary is meant to aim at isn’t there; then, as Mary gets ready to throw hers, the window suddenly reappears.

When George collides with the tree at 1:37:38 (2007 DVD), there is very little snow on the vehicle. Yet when he climbs out at 1:37:40 to inspect the damage, the car is suddenly covered in a great deal of snow.

George and Clarence swap places as they are ejected from Nick's.

Ol' Man Gower's cigar goes missing after he sends the young George off to deliver a prescription.

During the scene inside the Building & Loan, the hat shifts position on the coat stand outside George's office. At 0:53:20 (2007 DVD) the hat sits atop the pole, whereas at 0:55:09 it hangs on a hook.

During the scene at the school dance when the floor opens onto the swimming pool, Freddie (Mary Hatch's irritating date) and his mate, who has the key to the opening floor, look at each other and jump into the pool. Yet a few seconds later, when the camera angle shifts, they are suddenly seen at the bottom left of the frame still standing beside the pool. They exchange looks again and then jump in exactly as they did moments before.

On returning home, George finds Mary lying there; he places his right hand over her right hand and kisses her. In the subsequent shot he is gently stroking her head with his right hand.

The actor who portrays Mr Gower was 70 years old at the time of filming and appears that age when George is a young teenager, but 27 years later he's far too energetic for a man who is supposed to be 97.

At 0:13:47 (2007 DVD), as Violet moves away from George, Ernie and Bert, Ernie observes her through the window of his cab. He ceases watching and steps back from the window at 0:13:57. In the subsequent shot, he is once more peering out of the window at 0:13:59.

As George crosses the road (shortly to be joined by Violet), the man approaching him with a pipe abruptly becomes a woman at 0:41:11 (2007 DVD).

On Christmas Eve Ma Bailey has lunch with Harry and President Truman, but she's already back in Bedford Falls by the time Mary comes back with the money they collected, even though Harry Bailey turns up later after having flown through a blizzard.

When George is on the bridge at 1:38:46 (2007 DVD), the pattern of snow and ice on the left shoulder of his coat is identical to how it looks when he is in Potter's office at 1:32:38, even though he was in the pub at 1:35:28 and is seen afterwards without any snow.

When George enters the Bailey Building & Loan with a wreath looped over his arm, he tosses it onto a desk. In the next shot the wreath is back over his arm and he drops it onto the desk once more.

When George visits his father, Peter, in his office and finds him arguing with Potter, Peter is standing behind his desk. At 0:09:44 (2007 DVD) the shot cuts to a close-up of Potter in his wheelchair, continuing the argument. At 0:09:52 the shot returns to a wider view, but now Peter is seated on the front edge of his desk, face-to-face with Potter.

As George and Mary prepare to drive Martini's family to their new home, a close-up shows Mary grasping the goat's horn. The shot then cuts to an extreme long shot in which her hand is nowhere near the goat.

At the chemist's, Little Mary and Little Violet alternately gaze at one another and look away across successive shots from 0:06:09 to 0:06:10 (2007 DVD).

George's pipe vanishes while he is speaking to Violet in his office.

When George has Mary's robe, the cord is lying on the ground at 0:29:20 (2007 DVD), but when George tosses the robe onto the hydrangea shrubs where Mary is hiding at 0:28:25, the cord is all bunched up.

When George asks where the Building and Loan is while Violet is being arrested, a large crowd has gathered outside "The Indian Club" where they are standing. George then spots Ernie in his taxi, runs over and hops into the cab. In the background, "The Indian Club" is visible across the road with hardly anyone outside.

Some confetti from George's wedding can be seen in his hair during his telephone conversation with Potter, though it is not visible in the preceding shots.

When Little Mary asked for chocolate ice-cream, she was facing George, but when she stuck her tongue out at Little Violet she had her back to George.

As Ernie glances towards Violet, a woman passes by his cab; in the subsequent shot no-one is present at 0:13:48 (2007 DVD).

As Potter tells the board that Bedford Falls doesn't require the Bailey Building & Loan, Uncle Billy is seen looking towards George; in the subsequent shot he's looking at Potter.

After George is rendered 'unborn' and he and Clarence return to town, he comes upon the tree where he had earlier crashed his car. When he asks the man who owns the tree his car struck, the man leans over, sniffs George and says, "You must mean two other trees," suggesting the man is intoxicated. Because George's life has been reset, even the drink he had at Martini's never occurred.

After George storms out of Uncle Billy's house, Uncle Billy rests his head on his folded arms. At first his arms are crossed right over left, but straight away they switch so the left lies over the right.

A hat being held by a donor in the Bailey household shows changing amounts of snow: initially a light dusting, then a heavier covering, and finally none at all. At 2:06:53 (2007 DVD) a little snow is on a grey hat at the left of the screen as Ernie reads Sam Wainwright's cable; at 2:07:14 much more snow; at 2:07:20 no snow; 2:07:25 no snow; 2:07:32 no snow; 2:08:18 no snow.

When the young George Bailey sees Potter heading to work, Potter appears identical to how he looks ten years later, when George is in his twenties. Potter remains the same age throughout.

When Mr Potter offers George a post, the objects upon the desk intermittently materialise and vanish, and shift their positions.

Alignment of George's car when it strikes the tree. At 1:37:39 (2007 DVD) George has driven the left side of the front bumper straight into the tree trunk. At 1:37:40 the trunk is positioned to the left of the front-left wheel. At 2:02:47 the trunk remains to the left of the front-left wheel.

At 0:08:34 on the 2007 DVD, when Mr Gower tells George to be off, the cigar he's been smoking throughout the scene isn't in his mouth.

Snow on Ernie's cab vanishes and then reappears as it reaches George's run-down house.

While Potter is speaking to Billy at the bank, Potter's scarf is plainly visible when Billy snatches his newspaper at 1:19:21 (2007 DVD), yet it is hardly noticeable as Billy reads the headline aloud at 1:19:23, and then becomes clearly visible again as he tucks his spectacles away at 1:19:34.

At 0:34:32 (2007 DVD) Dr. Campbell emerges from the Bailey Building & Loan board meeting to tell George that the board rejected Potter's motion to wind up the Bailey Building & Loan on one condition. At 0:34:42 the camera is trained on Dr. Campbell while Uncle Billy looks at George, then the shot cuts to George with Uncle Billy now looking at Dr. Campbell, who states the condition: that George accept his appointment by the board as executive secretary.

After Old Man Gower strikes George upon his return, the bloodstain on his ear noticeably fluctuates in size over the course of the scene.

As George shows Ernie the headline about his brother Harry (we are also shown a close-up), the paper goes from being folded in half to being unfolded, then reverts to being folded.

George Bailey is the first of six boys at the top of the riverbank to slide down on a grain-scoop shovel. At 0:04:11 (2007 DVD), as George slides onto the river ice, a seventh boy is visible at the top-left of the frame sitting on a crate on the ice, but he is not seen as George crosses the ice and walks back. He is likely a remnant of a line in the script — perhaps someone keeping track of who slid the furthest — that was cut in the edit. He is also the boy who trips over Sam's leg at 0:04:58 when the boys form a human chain.

In the 1919 summer sequence, as young George and Harry Bailey and four friends stroll along one side of the boulevard with their arms linked, Harry Bailey is holding a catcher's mask in his right hand at 0:05:11 (2007 DVD). Yet by the time they reach the chemist's at 0:05:29 he is wearing the catcher's mask, despite their arms still being linked.

When Potter shouts at Peter in his office, Peter averts his gaze to the floor at 0:10:04 (2007 DVD). In the subsequent shot he is facing Potter at 0:10:05.

The 'George Lassos the Moon' image shown in the close-up is not the same as the one displayed on the easel. The easel version has a border surrounding the central image.

During the scene in which the floor opens to reveal a swimming pool at the secondary school dance the character Freddie Othello (Mary Hatch's annoying date) and his friend (who has the key that operates the opening floor) look at one another and jump into the pool. However, when the camera angle shifts a few seconds later both are suddenly seen at the bottom-left of the screen still standing beside the pool. They then look at one another and jump in exactly as they had seconds earlier.

When Ernie drives George and Mary away from their wedding, it's bucketing down. The exterior shots show the taxi's windows open, yet in the interior scenes no rain can be seen entering.

When Tommy asks George to be excused, Tommy looks up at George. In the preceding shot he is looking at his brother Pete.

Whilst George sits at the table and everyone, especially Harry, arrives, his collar is turned up, but Zuzu's arm intermittently appears and disappears around his neck.

The position where Potter's bodyguard is standing when Potter speaks to Peter Bailey at the Building & Loan at 0:09:25 on the 2007 DVD.

When George ushers Carter inside and follows him in, he is holding his pipe in his left hand. Yet in the next shot, when someone asks whether he has hung up the phone, the pipe is suddenly in his right hand.

During George's visit to his father's office — while his father and Potter are arguing — Potter's bodyguard alternately appears in close-up and in long shots.

George returns home late from work and finds Mary in bed. Shortly after they both say "Hi" to one another, George kisses her, and in the following camera shot the positions of both their arms have shifted.

Whilst Potter is offering George a job, as George stands and leans over Potter's desk, above Stewart's head and beyond the window can be seen what appears to be a 'modern' vehicle (coloured blue in the colourised version) fitted with a chrome door handle.

At 37:12, as George walks past the railway station, a crew member with her arms folded is visible in the window's reflection.

In the sequence showing the new houses at Bailey Park, hills typical of California can be seen beyond them, yet the film is set in the state of New York, which only features much gentler, undulating hills.

When Clarence learns what will happen to George Bailey, he is told it will occur "at 10:45, Earth time." However, 10:45 will reach some point on the planet at some time that day. With no location specified, Clarence would have to check the entire globe throughout the day. Even the contiguous United States span four time zones.

When Harry has his accident, he slips from the ice into a broad area of open, flowing water, not merely through a small hole in the surface. In such conditions, the ice at the edge would have been too thin to bear the weight of the boys already standing there.

The enormous blooms in Mary's front garden couldn't possibly have reached that height on the night of her graduation (in May or June) in upstate New York.

Both George and Mary assume ZuZu caught a chill after walking home with her coat unbuttoned. George even reproaches her teacher for having sent her back 'half-naked'. But people do not contract a cold, pneumonia or other illnesses merely from being out in cold weather; they catch them from other people. ZuZu most likely picked up her cold from another pupil.

(at 2:06:07) (2007 DVD), The Bells of St. Mary's (1945) is playing at the Bijou Theatre. It had its New York City premiere on 6 December 1945, but was not actually released to the first-run major-city theatre circuit until 27 December 1945. Therefore it would not have been showing on the neighbourhood, small-town theatre circuit as early as Christmas Eve 1945.

In some colourised versions, Ernie the taxi driver is seen in the final scene wearing a pale blue shirt with epaulettes and an Air Force "flying star" shoulder patch. The Air Force uniform did not include light-blue shirts until 1949, two years after it separated from the Army and three years after this film was made; light-blue shirts with epaulettes were not introduced until the 1970s, and in any case shoulder patches were never authorised on any form of light-blue shirt. As the Air Force was still part of the Army at the time, and given the pale tone, Ernie's shirt was most likely khaki in reality.

Supposedly, the $8,000 is still unaccounted for at the end of the film. Although family and friends have put additional money into George Bailey’s hands by that point, if an audit were to be carried out he would still need to account for the sum that his absentminded uncle misplaced. That would leave him in essentially the same position he occupied before receiving the extra donations or deposits. Without a convincing explanation for the missing funds, it would quite likely be assumed that the cash had either been stolen by Uncle Billy or embezzled by George himself, and both the Building and Loan and George Bailey could face legal action. That said, cash is cash. The Building and Loan does not have to account for the exact serial numbers of the bills that were lost; it merely needs to have $8,000 on hand to keep the accounts correct. For the same reason George can use $2,000 of his honeymoon money to keep the B&L solvent, he can apply the $8,000 donated by the townsfolk to balance its ledgers. Likewise, George can take the $25,000 sent by Sam Wainwright and either deposit it in Potter's bank—making him a client Potter would have reason to treat with respect—or place it in the Building and Loan's strongroom as collateral to prevent Potter from taking it over.

Many viewers assume that the bank run on George and Mary's wedding day stems from the 1929 stock market crash, which would place the wedding uncomfortably close to Harry's 1928 graduation and seem inconsistent if Harry had spent at least four years at university. Bank runs in the United States continued through 1933, however, so the timeline is plausible: Harry could have left for university in 1928, returned four years later in 1932, with George and Mary marrying in 1932 or 1933.

The characters of cousins Tilly and Eustace do not present a problem. Both are Baileys, as their surname is shown on their desk nameplates. These two, along with George and Harry, all call Billy "Uncle Billy" throughout the film. It is further made clear that Peter Bailey is the father of George and Harry, with no mention of Billy having children of his own. However, it is never established that Peter and Billy were the only brothers in that generation of the family, nor the only brothers involved with the Building and Loan. (Presumably Tilly's and Eustace's father (or fathers) is/are deceased by the start of the story.)

When George Bailey is arguing with Mr Potter in the boardroom after Peter Bailey's death, George tells Mr Potter: "What did you say only a minute ago? They had to wait and put by their money before they ought even to consider a proper home." We never hear Potter utter those words, but it is possible they were said near the beginning of the meeting, which we did not witness.

When George is 'unborn,' his car, the flower petals and the insurance policy, among other things, all cease to exist, but his clothes remain. However, this was likely the work of Clarence and his superiors, as they apparently never intended for George to remain 'unborn' permanently and only subjected him to this as a test; they would not have permitted him to undergo the experience without his clothes.

During the boardroom confrontation between George Bailey and Mr Potter following Peter Bailey's death, George doesn't mispronounce "gnawing" as "gawing"; he actually says "... and it's GALLING you!"

It was never disclosed what ultimately happened to Mr Potter at the film's close, despite his role as the chief antagonist. Since George likely cleared his name and didn't go to prison over the missing $8,000, there was no way to prove Potter had taken it: Uncle Billy had put the money inside Potter's folded newspaper without realising he had done so. Consequently any criminal charges against Potter would have been dropped for lack of evidence. Potter would deny possessing the cash, and his bodyguard would corroborate him. Even if Uncle Billy later realised he had unwittingly handed Potter the $8,000, no one would believe him — he was regarded as scatterbrained and frequently drunk, so the story would be dismissed as absurd. The reason Potter is not seen at the end is not that he was arrested, but that he remained in his office savouring George's supposed impending arrest, and there would have been no reason for George Bailey to have Potter in his home.

Harry Bailey is not "shown jumping from a plane with other paratroopers". He appears in the Ready Room aboard his aircraft carrier (the walls and door of which plainly do not resemble the interior of a troop-carrying transport aeroplane) and walks out through the exit onto the flight deck to his fighter. He and the other fighter pilots wear padded cloth flying helmets with radio headphones and goggles, not "steel pots" like paratroopers would, and there is no overhead static jump line at the doorway to which paratroopers' parachutes would be attached.

At 0:29:25 (2007 DVD) George leaves Mary's dressing gown on a bush, but in the subsequent shot it has vanished. Mary was hiding in the shrubbery and would have taken the dressing gown.

In the bridge keeper's hut, while they are drying off, Clarence introduces himself as "Clarence Oddbody AS2", telling George that AS2 means "Angel second class." That explanation does not quite make sense; it ought to read "A2" or "ASC." As Clarence phrases it, the designation would come across as "Angel second 2."

When Clarence introduces himself to George he identifies himself as Clarence Odbody, AS2. When George asks what AS2 means, Clarence explains it stands for Angel Second Class. The proper abbreviations would be ASC or A2C; AS2 would not be correct.

George is content by the end when he realises that having been born is preferable to never having existed, and the townsfolk have donated money to pull him out of financial ruin. However, it seems unlikely this will last, since he still has the issue of the $8,000 to deal with — he ought to report it to the police — and he must also continue to cope with Potter making his life miserable.

Whilst George is at the railway station awaiting Harry's arrival, he hands Uncle Billy a handful of brochures from around the globe. He then says, "Here, Venzuela oil fields" (mispronouncing Venezuela).

It’s rather odd to find Mr Welch having a drink in Martini's bar on Christmas Eve instead of at home comforting Mrs Welch, especially as George had earlier given her a telling-off over Zuzu falling ill.

By the film's conclusion nobody realises that Potter possessed the missing money, so he seemingly gets to keep it without suffering any repercussions.

When George and Clarence are ejected from Martini's — which has become Nick's in the alternate timeline — George is the first to spot the change of name. However, he apparently does not notice it when he earlier enters the premises through the very same doorway from which they are later thrown out.

In the alternate universe where George Bailey never existed, it is suggested that his brother, Harry, drowned as a child because George wasn't there to pull him from the freezing water after falling through the ice. Yet if George had never existed, it prompts the question why Harry would have been out on the ice playing with George's friends that day in the first place.

James Stewart's hairpiece comes off after he and Donna Reed tumble into the pool during the Charleston competition.

The film spans roughly thirty years, yet the chemist Mr. Gowers never seems to age and appears unchanged from the film's beginning to its end.

In the chemist's, when Mary leans across the counter to whisper into George's ear, a strip of tape can be seen on the edge of the counter between George's and Mary's heads at 0:06:59 (2007 DVD). It was probably placed there as a reference mark for the young actors so the focus puller could achieve precise focus.

Shortly after 12-year-old George gives Mary her ice-cream (topped with coconut, even though she said she didn't want it), Mr Gower sends him off to deliver some capsules to a customer. When George returns to the shop after pausing to see his father because he was worried about the contents of the capsules, Mr Gower is on the telephone with the customer, saying that George should have been there "over an hour ago." Although George has clearly been away for a considerable time, Mary is still sitting at the counter with a half dish of unmelted ice-cream.

When Uncle Billy is counting the cash at the bank for the deposit, you can clearly see the first few notes are five-dollar notes, followed by no more than twenty additional notes. Given that these would have been monthly cash payments on $6,000 mortgages, it is unlikely that anything close to $8,000 was in that small bundle. It is about one third the size of the wedding fund, which itself was roughly one quarter of the total.

When the film jumps from 12-year-old George Bailey in Mr. Gower's chemist's shop to the grown-up George Bailey in the luggage shop, the character has evidently aged by at least twenty years (Jimmy Stewart was 37 or 38 at the time of filming), yet both his father and Mr. Gower appear not to have aged at all in the subsequent scenes. They look the same as they did when George was 12.

When Mary (Donna Reed) throws her rock at an upstairs window of the dilapidated house, the rock vanishes a split-second after leaving her hand and then reappears in the distance just before crashing through the glass. The roof of the house was a matte painting, added after principal photography by the visual effects department. When Ms Reed threw the rock (and it was her throwing it, not a stand-in), the arc of its flight was slightly too high and it crossed the matte line for most of its travel. Consequently it was obscured by the painting, which had been added later. Apparently the live-action crew failed to notice the potential problem while filming the shot.

In the colourised version, Mr Gower's telegram appears white. It has long been known that Western Union telegrams were traditionally yellow in colour.

On their first evening at 320 Sycamore, Mary tells George this is what she wished for when she tossed the stone; yet she is facing his left-hand side, and the film had already established that he was deaf in that ear.

Towards the end of the film, in the graveyard, Clarence states that Harry Bailey "broke through the ice and was drowned at the age of 9". However, the gravestone records Harry as being born in 1911 and dying in 1919, which means he could have been at most eight years old at his death.

As the staff of the Building and Loan count down the final five seconds to 6 pm, the camera lingers on a clock whose hand seems to move toward the 12 o'clock position, advancing one second at a time.

In fact the 'second hand' is a date indicator. Outside the usual 12-hour dial there is an outer ring marked 1–31, and the hand extends beyond the inner dial into that outer ring. So it is actually a date hand. The date pointer was likely moved manually into successive positions to create the illusion of a seconds hand, or alternatively the movement may have been a standard clock with a real seconds hand but fitted with an incorrect face.

In the montage showing what becomes of the townspeople of Bedford Falls during the Second World War, Joseph narrates, "Marty [Mary's brother] helped capture the Remagen Bridge," whilst Marty is seen calling out urgently and making the familiar infantry "Follow Me!" gesture. In the rear-projection stock footage used as the backdrop, however, American troops are actually strolling onto the bridge in a non‑tactical way. The paler rectangle on the right-hand tower of the bridge is, in fact, a sign that reads "CROSS THE RHINE WITH DRY FEET, COURTESY OF 9TH ARMD DIV.," which was erected the day after the bridge was captured.

At 41:05, just as George says, "Goodnight Mrs Bailey," the film briefly speeds up for a few seconds — it’s most obvious with the party guests in the background, who suddenly begin dancing in fast motion.

When they were younger, Mary asked for chocolate ice-cream. George scoops her portion into a dish and suggests she try it with coconut. Mary protests, "I hate coconut." Later she is sitting at the counter with chocolate ice-cream topped with coconut. Perhaps George is urging Mary to be more adventurous.

As George pulls Clarence from the river, the Ivory Soap Flakes used as snow become damp and run down the actors' faces.