Continuity mistake: When George Bailey crashes his car into the tree after leaving "Martini's Place", notice its position against the tree; an upward angle. In the ending scene when he's running home he cheers and taps the hood of the same car, now at a downward angle.
Continuity mistake: The bouncer in Nick's bar has his right hand grasping old man Gower's right shoulder, but the next shot when the bouncer throws Gower out of the bar, the bouncer's left hand is now holding Gower's right shoulder.
Continuity mistake: When George Bailey is going to jump off the bridge, watch the snow carefully. In one of the shots where Clarence is shouting in the water the snow all of a sudden quits, then it goes back to snowing when George jumps in.
Continuity mistake: When George is kicking stuff and knocking stuff over in his house (after yelling at his children), his hair is messed up. In the next shot, it's combed again.
Continuity mistake: During a confrontation between old man Potter and Peter Bailey at the Building and Loan, Potter's bodyguard stands behind the wheelchair on its left side. But in the close-up shot of Potter, the arms and hands of his bodyguard can be seen extending from the right side of the wheelchair. In the next full screen shot, the bodyguard is seen on the left side of the wheelchair once again.
Continuity mistake: When Uncle Billy sees Potter in the bank, he walks to the teller window and there's no line, but a second later there's a line of a dozen or more people behind him.
Continuity mistake: In the scene on the bridge, before Clarence jumps, George's hands do not indent the 2-3" of snow on the rail. In a later shot, after George jumps, you see two snow-less spots on the railing.
Continuity mistake: When the pharmacist hits young George, the amount of blood coming from George's ear changes back and forth between long shots and close ups.
Continuity mistake: The old man's cigar disappears when he sends young George to deliver a prescription.
Continuity mistake: The pen in Potter's right hand is instantly placed on his desk as the scene cuts from him to George Bailey when Bailey is begging for Potter's help in replacing the missing $8,000.
Continuity mistake: Outside of Ma Bailey's Boarding House, Clarence is leaning on a mail box, holding his copy of Tom Sawyer. The position of the book changes in Clarence's hands as the shots quick cut from him to George Bailey and back.
Continuity mistake: Just after George's brother comes home, George is walking across the street and a man is approaching him, but it's then a woman that passes him, not the man.
Continuity mistake: When Ernie is about to take George during his "never born" sequence, if you look at the building next to the taxi, there is the Indian Club. As Ernie is driving along around 20-30 seconds pass inside the cab. When we see outside the cab and Ernie signals to the policeman, you can see the cab has only traveled roughly 20 meters from the Indian Club.
Continuity mistake: While George is in Potter's office begging for $8,000, the snow flakes hanging around on the shoulders of George's coat should have melted away immediately after he enters Potter's office.
Continuity mistake: When George is in the Bridge Tender's office, he says he wishes he had never been born while holding a coffee cup close to his mouth, but the next quick cut of him shows his arms in his lap with no coffee cup.
Continuity mistake: Potter's rent collector is showing Potter a map of the new houses George Bailey built, but a page is folded over on the desk, covering half of an ink pen set on the desk. When the rent collector prepares to leave, that page is now a few inches to the right of the ink pen set (viewer's perspective) and hanging off Potter's desk entirely.
Continuity mistake: Ernie hangs out of the window of his cab as Violet Bick strolls by, then ducks into his cab after the car horn blast. A quick shot later and Ernie is again hanging out of the cab's window, watching Violet walk.
Continuity mistake: In the final scene, when Mary comes into the house, she removes her headscarf, but there is still snow all over the front part of her hair that wasn't covered. When she runs up the stairs to see George, there is a quick cut to a tighter shot of them both, and all of the snow on her hair is suddenly gone.
Continuity mistake: When Violet is leaving for New York, right before she says "I'm glad I know you George", the scene cuts. This is the same camera angle as before so the scene appears to be an edit splice. The jump cut is obvious. The reason for the rough edit is that a short sequence was cut where Violet asks George to run away with her to New York. It doesn't excuse the jump, but does help explain it.
Continuity mistake: On the day before Christmas, George is showing a couple guys the newspaper about Harry being decorated by the President. The paper goes from being folded in half to open depending on the angle.
Answer: No. It's just that they didn't have to tell anyone that their funds were unavailable, which really would have made them go under.
Brian Katcher