There Is No Mary Problem in 'It's a Wonderful Life'

[Nevilledog]

https://www.thebulwark.com/there-is-no-mary-problem-in-its-a-wonderful-life/


Despite its sinking into insignificance upon initial release, the eventual ascendency of It’s a Wonderful Life was always almost inevitable. For one thing, it stars Jimmy Stewart. For another, like all the greatest Christmas literature, it has an undercurrent of darkness to it. Like A Christmas Carol or A Charlie Brown Christmas, it deals with the death of human hopes as much as their renewal. And, most importantly, its emotional punch grows, not diminishes, with rewatching over the years.

An icon with such well-established status is an irresistible target, and the competition to come up with the definitive contrarian takedown of the film is now a Christmas sub-tradition in its own right. Every year people write their little pieces about how Mr. Potter is a new urbanist or Bedford Falls is full of NIMBYs or George is a toxic narcissist or Uncle Billy caused the financial crisis or umm, the movie is actually really depressing?, or high school gyms don’t really have swimming pools underneath them. Every year I read them and laugh, knowing the movie will bury them all.

But there has always been one criticism I found harder to ignore: the Mary problem. When George Bailey, after a lifetime of sacrificially thwarted ambitions and dreams, facing ruin and disgrace at the hands of his venal enemies and incompetent friends, tries to commit suicide, his guardian angel Clarence is dispatched to help him. In order to convince George that he has in fact had “a wonderful life” that it would be a crime to throw away, Clarence shows him what his town would have looked like had George never been born into it. So far, all well and good.

Clarence shows George the lives in which George intervened at a critical moment or that he shaped through the cascading effects of his choices: the brother he saved from drowning in childhood, the pharmacist distracted with grief whom he prevented from accidentally poisoning a child, and so on. Finally, George asks Clarence to show him his wife, Mary. “You’re not going to like it,” says Clarence. Absent George, Mary is an old maid, closing up the library in a skirt-suit and spectacles.

*snip*

[NewHendoLib]

1. very nice. And to think that most repubs probably watch the movie and Mr Potter is their hero.

We watched it again this year, like we have for decades - and once again were struck by what a near perfect movie it is - in fact, it doesn't need to be a Christmas movie.

[Yavin4]

2. I dunno. Mary's alternate life seems pretty good to me.

Nice job. Nice town. Gets to read books. What's not to like?

[DemocraticPatriot]

11. No love from a good man ?

Nothing to do at home but read books ???


she clearly wanted to have children


I did also, but I needed a 'Georgina' instead of a 'George'....

Anyway, the 'good town' would not have been as good without George,
as the movie attempts to demonstrate....


I tried to watch this movie on TV this year,
I wrote down the schedule to remind myself---

Unfortunately, I woke up in the middle and could not stay awake much longer---
I think i missed the whole 'bar scene'--
(but I had my own whole 'bar scene' previously, that is the problem--
guess I need to obtain my own DVD copy of the movie--- )

Was never a big favorite of mine, but I become fonder of it
as all the years stack up--- but the closing scenes of the movie
are the best

[Yavin4]

13. We don't know that.

She could have had several lovers.

[JI7]

23. +

[MyMission]

3. I love the feminist version with Marlo Thomas

From 1977, "It happened one Christmas" is the same story with Mary Bailey and George Hatch. Chloris Leachman played Clara, the angel. It was a TV movie.

I rewatched it this year, found it for free on YouTube and Tubi.

I was a teenager when I first saw it. It impressed me more than the original because I could relate more, but I enjoy watching both versions around the holidays.

[2naSalit]

8. I remember watching that!

Thanks for posting, now I can find it and watch it later this weekend.

[Raine]

19. I love that one. I've only seen it once

but never forgot it. I wish they would show it every year along with the original (which I love too). THANKS now I know where to find it!

[Takket]

4. very well written! thanks for sharing.

[oldfart73]

5. Listen up!

[BigmanPigman]

6. Most of Hollywood would depict females as "old maids"

and has been doing so since films began. They are a reflection of society. If you were not married, no matter how OLD you were, you were still labeled an "old maid". Usually it implied that you were unattractive, too. I watch classic films and this is very, VERY common. Same is true for young, attractive women being called "gold diggers". And there is the ongoing double standard of old men marrying young women being acceptable but the opposite is not acceptable, even in 2022. Women were and are second class citizens in many ways and in many eyes. "Two steps forward, one step back" seems more like "one step forward, two steps back" to me.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

14. As a woman who did not get married until I was 32, I get it.

While I was never officially labelled an "Old Maid", and while I always wanted to marry and have children, I was very aware of society's rules.

For me, those long years of being single and having my own life ultimately defined me. I realized that I was not just what society thought. I was my own person.

I am very glad I had a decade or more as an adult on my own before I married and had children. I knew who I was. I am very glad I was able to be a stay at home mom for my two sons. That matters enormously to me.

[exboyfil]

7. Wonder Woman

Pining for Steve Trevor from 1918 to 1984 and then to 2016.

Now Trevor is a stud but really.

[betsuni]

9. No no no. If George was never born Mary wouldn't know he ever existed and would've married Sam.

That's what her mother wanted, and Mary wanted children. She would've ended up unhappy, Sam often away on business and not always traveling alone, children shipped off to boarding school, living in a beautiful New York penthouse with a closet full of furs and jewels and hidden bottles of scotch.

This is a much worse life than a librarian spending your nights with books and a kittycat and not worrying about how you look.

When my family watched this movie around Christmas we'd all burst into laughter at the old maid scene. Except my mother.

[Oneironaut]

10. In my head cannon, none of the things George was shown would have ever happened.

Clarence just wanted his wings so bad that he scared George straight with an exaggerated fantasy world. lol

I don’t think that’s what happened, but, it would be funny to see Clarence be tricky like that.

[303squadron]

12. Most people miss the true hero of Its A Wonderful Life

Mary!

Mary throws their vacation money at those storming the bank - saving the bank.

Mary puts up with a leaky ramshackle house being married to an also ran and she loves her family!

When George's fix is the life insurance money if he drowns, Mary invents GoFundMe and saves the day!

Mary as an old maid librarian doesn't get to throw her rock in the pond of life and make the world a better place.

How uninteresting that tragedy would be!

[Bluethroughu]

17. Mary

"She's the kind of girl that can help you find the answers",
Ma Baily

Mary lead the way all along.

[Skittles]

21. ...

[Hekate]

15. One of the marks of an excellent work & insightful critic is how much more is revealed...

…with time, repeated exposure, and maturation of the critic.

This is it. I can give no higher praise. Thank you for this gift, Nevilledog.

💖💕💕💕💕💕💕💕💖

[Nevilledog]

24. ...

[Bluethroughu]

16. I actually like this part of the movie.

My perspective is she never met another her equal. She looked unhappy closing the library, so I understood this as unhappy with her life, unknowingly without George. Besides, who would want a man from Pottersville.
It's like a Mara-Loser party.


My husband and I always tease my daughter with, she never married she's closing up the library. It is her dream to be doing just that, a man is an after thought.

Mary was an educated, well traveled, independent woman that knew what she wanted. No George, no man.

It's one of our favorites.

[nolabear]

18. Well damn. That was great.

Funny but watching this year I was, for the first time, bothered by the “old maid” thing. The depiction of her sans makeup or joy, and the judgment on being a librarian, bugged me.

I still think the idea that being a librarian is unappealing is bogus, but the prospect of Mary “creating” George as much as she loves him for himself is very interesting, and not half bad.

Thanks for sharing!

[KS Toronado]

20. Mary as a wheelchair bound librarian would have been better

Especially since she got that way from a car accident on senior prom night because George
wasn't there to meet her at the prom and walk her home.

That's my story & I'm sticking to it.

[betsuni]

22. Oh yes, didn't think of that. Old maid eyesight without George is bad and she has to wear glasses,

and not pluck her eyebrows, so why not a wheelchair too.

[ProfessorGAC]

25. Enjoyable Read

I get the starting concern and agree with the resolution of the conflict.
There's something about Mary! [Hey, that should be a movie title. ]

[Maeve]

26. I'm glad I came back and read the whole article

Except now I have to watch the movie again with this view of Mary in mind!
Thank you