Daily Dialogue — June 12, 2013
GEORGE: Mary!
She looks up, surprised, but, not recognizing him, continues on.
GEORGE: Mary!
Mary starts to run away from him, and he follows, desperately.
GEORGE: Mary! Mary!
He catches up to her, grabs her by the arms, and keeps a tight grip on her. She struggles to free herself.
GEORGE: Mary, it’s George! Don’t you know me? What’s happened to us?
MARY: (struggling) I don’t know you! Let me go!
GEORGE: Mary, please! Oh, don’t do this to me. Please, Mary, help me. Where’s our kids? I need you, Mary! Help me, Mary!
Mary breaks away from him, and dashes into the first door she comes to, the Blue Moon Bar.
INT. BLUE MOON — NIGHT
Small tables, booths, perhaps a counter. It is crowded. Many of the people are the same who were present during the run on the Building and Loan. Mary comes running in, screaming. The place goes into an uproar. George comes in, practically insane. Some of the men grab and hold on to him.
GEORGE: (shouting) Mary… (to men holding him) Let me go! Mary, don’t run away!
MAN: Somebody call the police!
ANOTHER MAN: Hit him with a bottle!
ANOTHER MAN: He needs a strait jacket!
MARY: (from back of room) That man — stop him!
GEORGE: (recognizing some of them) Tom! Ed! Charlie! That’s my wife!
Mary lets out a final scream, then faints into the arms of a couple of women at the bar.
GEORGE: Mary!
MAN: Oh, no you don’t!
GEORGE: (screaming) Mary!
George can’t fight through the men holding him. Desperately he thinks of Clarence, and heads for the door.
GEORGE: Clarence! Clarence! Where are you?
EXT. SIDEWALK — NIGHT
Just as George breaks through the door, Bert arrives in his police car. He gets out and heads for the door, to run into George as he comes out.
BERT: Oh, it’s you!
He grabs for George, who lets him have one square on the button, knocking him down, then continues running down the street yelling for Clarence. Bert gets up, takes out his gun and fires several shots after the fleeing figure.
BERT: (to crowd) Stand back!
Bert gets into the police car, and, siren screaming, sets off in pursuit of George.
— It’s A Wonderful Life (1946), screenplay by Frances Goodrich, Albert Hackett, Frank Capra, story by Philip Van Doren Stern
http://static.movieclips.com/embedplayer.swf?shortid=RwX6
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is all is lost, suggested by Turambar. Today’s suggestion by Traci Nell Peterson.
Trivia: Dalton Trumbo, Dorothy Parker, Marc Connelly, and Clifford Odets all did uncredited work on the script. The film was a flop when it played theatres in 1946. Voted the #1 inspirational film of all time in AFI’s “100 Years, 100 Cheers” (June 14th, 2006)
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Traci: “Up to this point George is in denial mode, refusing to believe Clarence The Angel. But now, All is Lost when he realizes his beloved Mary doesn’t know him. It’s heart crushing to see and hear him beg Mary for help. At his breaking point, he scrambles to find the only person that does know him — Clarence.”