A Bank Run (video)

“Don’t look now, but there’s something funny going on over there at the bank, George. I’ve never really seen one, but that’s got all the earmarks of being a run.”

Taxidriver Ernie Bishop (Frank Faylen). It’s a Wonderful Life (1946), now the fifth greatest picture ever made; at the time, #3.


By N.S.

The bank is George and Mary Bailey’s own Savings & Loan, at the height of Great Depression I (circa 1933). The audience had lived through the horror of thousands of bank failures, beginning in 1929. To Americans, the phrase, “a run” was the stuff of horror movies come true.




@almcmemeshack8443
“I never understood how great this scene was when I was younger, cause I didn’t get quite what was going on. George really did kinda single-handedly keep the town afloat”

N.S.: An army of George Baileys kept the nation afloat through Great Depression I, and beat two of the greatest war machines in the history of the world. And first private, lieutenant, captain, major, chicken colonel and full-bird colonel James Stewart, of Indiana, Pennsylvania and the U.S. Army Air Forces were a real, life air force of George Baileys, except that Jimmy had the hearing in one ear ruined, flying bombers over Nazi Germany, rather than in a boyhood accident, saving his kid brother’s life.

(Stewart eventually made it to brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force Reserves, after The War.)

@ericburns9132
“I still think that Jimmy Stewart should have won the Oscar for this movie…”

N.S.: I think he gave the greatest performance ever by a lead actor, in what was then the third greatest picture ever made. The problem was, Life bombed at the box office, and the critics weren’t all that crazy about it, either. But he got nominated real good.

Freddie March won the Best Actor Oscar that year for The Best Years of Our Lives. March was brilliant, and Best Years was the box office king that year, was beloved by the critics, remains the greatest picture ever made, and had long Oscar coattails.