POTTER (sarcastically) Look at you. You used to be so cocky! You were going to go out and conquer the world! You once called me a warped, frustrated old man. What are you but a warped, frustrated young man? A miserable little clerk crawling in here on your hands and knees and begging for help. No securities �� no stocks �� no bonds �� nothing but a miserable little five hundred dollar equity in a life insurance policy. You're worth more dead than alive. Why don't you go to the riff-raff you love so much and ask them to let you have eight thousand dollar? You know why? Because they'd run you out of town on a rail . . .But I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you, George. Since the state examiner is still here, as a stockholder of the Building and Loan, I'm going to swear out a warrant for your arrest.
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GEORGE (gasping for breath) I'm sorry, Mary, Janie. I'm sorry. I didn't mean . . . you go on and practice. Pete, I owe you an apology, too. I'm sorry. What do you want to know?
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GEORGE (shouts) How should I know? What do you think I am, a dictionary?
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You know, maybe my kids aren't the best-dressed kids; maybe they don't have any decent clothes . . .
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She puts a restraining hand on his arm. He shakes it off. She cannot know that George's tirade against Mrs. Welch is really a tirade against the world, against life itself, against God. Over the phone we hear Mrs.
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GEORGE (shouts) I don't know. Ask your mother.
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UNCLE BILLY (cont'd) (looks bewildered) I know I had . . .
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Congratulations! How's Mother standing it? . . . She did? What do you know . . .
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GEORGE'S VOICE I know what I'm going to do tomorrow and the next day and next year and the year after that. I'm shaking the dust of this crummy little town off my feet, and I'm going to see the world . . . And I'm going to build things. I'm going to build air fields. I'm going to build skyscrapers a hundred stories high. I'm going to build a bridge a mile long.
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GEORGE (cont'd �� vehemently) No . . . no . . . no . . . no, now wait a minute, here! I don't have to talk to anybody! I know right now, and the answer is no!
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As they shake hands, George feels a physical revulsion. Potter's hand feels like a cold mackerel to him. In that moment of physical contact he knows he could never be associated with this man. George drops his hand with a shudder. He peers intently into Potter's face.
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(looking around skeptically) You're not talking to somebody else around here, are you? You know, this is me, you remember me? George Bailey.
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(pleasantly and smoothly) George, I'm an old man, and most people hate me. But I don't like them either, so that makes it all even. You know just as well as I do that I run practically everything in this town but the Bailey Building and Loan. You know, also, that for a number of years I've been trying to get control of it . . . or kill it. But I haven't been able to do it. You have been stopping me. In fact, you have beaten me, George, and as anyone in this county can tell you, that takes some doing. Take during the depression, for instance. You and I were the only ones that kept our heads. You saved the Building and Loan, and I saved all the rest.
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