"A soaking wet George Bailey and Clarence, warming up by the fire in the toll house on the bridge, discuss why Clarence jumped into the freezing water. It was to help George, Clarence tells him. Only one way you can help me, George says sarcastically. You don't happen to have 8,000 bucks on you? The film then cuts to an elated George running through town, gleefully shouting Merry Christmas to the You are Now in Bedford Falls sign, Mr. Potter, the bank examiner."
"Amazon streams the full version of the movie for Prime members, but the abridged version is available free for anyone, with ads. The abridged version cuts about a half hour out of the 1946 Frank Capra film's runtime, axing the entire Pottersville scene, where Clarence the angel (second class) guides George through an alternate reality in which he never existed."
"The Greatest Gift' It's a Wonderful Life is loosely based on the 1943 short story The Greatest Gift, written by Philip Van Doren Stern. In The Greatest Gift, the main character, George, confides in a stranger on a bridge that he wishes he had never been born. The stranger tells him to go back to town, where George finds his life in disarray. No one knows him, and George's brother, whom he had saved as a boy, had drowned."
Amazon offers both the full version of It's a Wonderful Life to Prime members and an abridged, ad-supported version free to all. The abridged cut removes about a half hour, eliminating the entire Pottersville sequence in which Clarence shows George an alternate reality in which he never existed. Removing that pivotal sequence renders the film's conclusion confusing and nonsensical. Thousands of viewers posted confused and outraged comments after seeing the abridged edition. Copyright law interpretation motivated the cut. The Pottersville scene closely mirrors the 1943 short story The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern, which features a similar alternate-reality plot.
Read at www.mercurynews.com
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