Daily Dialogue — October 22, 2011
Peter Bailey: You know, George, I wish we could send Harry to college with you. Your mother and I talked it over half the night.
George Bailey: Mmm, we have that all figured out. Harry’ll take my job at the Building
and Loan, and work there four years, then he’ll go.
Peter: He’s pretty young for that job.
George: Well, no younger than I was.
Peter: Maybe you were born older, George.
George: How’s that?
Peter: I say, you were born older. I suppose you’ve decided what you want to do when you get out of college.
George: Oh well, you know what I’ve always talked about…build things… design new buildings…
plan modern cities… all that stuff, I was talking about.
Peter: Still after that first million before you’re thirty.
George: No, I’ll settle for half that in cash.
Peter: ‘Course it’s just a hope, but you wouldn’t consider coming back to the Building and Loan, would you?
George: Well, I…I… [notices Annie eavesdropping] Why, Annie, why, why don’t you draw up a chair. Then you’d be more comfortable and you could hear everything that’s going on?
Annie: I would if I thought I’d hear anything worth listening to.
George: You would, eh?
Peter: I know it’s soon to talk about it.
George: Oh, now, Pop. I, I couldn’t. I couldn’t face being cooped up for the rest of my life in a shabby little office… Oh, I’m sorry, Pop, I didn’t mean it that way, but this business of nickels and dimes
and spending all your life trying to figure out how to save three cents on a length of pipe…I’d go crazy. I…I wanna do something big and something important.
Peter: You know, George, I feel that in a small way we are doing something important. Satisfying a fundamental urge. It’s deep in the race for a man to want his own roof and walls and fireplace. And we’re helping him get those things in our shabby little office.
George: I know, Pop. I, uh, I, I know that I, I… I wish I felt… but I, I’ve been hoarding pennies like a miser here in order to… Most of my friends have already finished college. I, uh, I just feel like if I didn’t get away, I’d bust.
Peter: Yes, yes. You’re right, son.
George: You see what I mean, don’t you, Pop?
Peter: This town is no place for any man unless he’s willing to crawl to Potter. And you’ve got talent, son. I’ve seen it. You get yourself an education. Then get out of here.
George: Pop, you want a shock? I think you’re a great guy. [notices Annie again] Oh, did you hear that, Annie?
Annie: I heard it. About time one of you lunkheads said it.
— Peter Bailey (Samuel S. Hinds), George Bailey (James Stewart), Annie (Lillian Randolph), It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), screenplay by Frances Goodrich and Albert Hackett and Frank Capra, story by Philip Van Doren Stern
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is mealtime conversations, suggested by Deaf Ears.
Trivia: The set for Bedford Falls was constructed in two months and was one of the longest sets that had ever been made for an American movie. It covered four acres of the RKO’s Encino Ranch. It included 75 stores and buildings, main street, factory district and a large residential and slum area. The Main Street was 300 yards long, three whole city blocks!
Dialogue On Dialogue: This conversation has a clear beginning, middle and end. How would you break that down per its three movements?