I watch A LOT of (mostly classic) movies every year, partly for my site, but mostly because I love them. I also tend to notice similarities and/or connections between one film and another. Obviously I’m not the only one who does; for instance, there is a movie connections link for most films on IMDb.com. These are used to recognize originals and their remakes or sequels, spoofs, films within films, and other references or homages such as the use of an expression or sequence popularized (or even made iconic) by an earlier film – e.g. the screaming violin music from Psycho (1960) or the bass notes from Jaws (1975) which portend danger.
But there are also further minutia that, AFAIK, is not cataloged anywhere else except perhaps in the minds of movie lovers with great memories or film historians, such as myself, who remember or save these tidbits for whatever reason. This will be the first of (what I hope will be many in) a regular series of posts I plan to make with this subject line template, these “small things that a group of classic movies have in common”. I’ll post a list of films which meet the criteria and then challenge you to come up with others which qualify – demonstrate your knack for retaining trivial bits of classic film detail!
For example, there are only a handful of classic movies I’ve seen which portray a “run on the bank” – a rush by many of its customers to withdraw all of their money at the same time; this can be disastrous for the institution whose deposits are typically invested in the community in lieu of being stored within its vaults.
The first one I thought of was (one of my all-time favorite movies) It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) - who can forget the scene where George Bailey (James Stewart) and his newly married bride (the former) Mary Hatch (Donna Reed) are on their way out of town for their honeymoon when there’s a “run on the bank” (the Bailey Building and Loan) and the two newlyweds work together, Mary volunteering their travel money and George using his charisma, to reassure their customers and save (a “Mama dollar and a Papa dollar” &) the business from the evil Mr. Potter (Lionel Barrymore).
Another scene that quickly came to mind was from Mary Poppins (1964) - young Michael Banks (Matthew Garber) refuses to give his (“feed the birds”) tuppence to old Mr. Dawes Sr. (Dick Van Dyke) to deposit in the bank. When the wily old-timer snatches it away anyway, the boy shouts “give me back my money” and the confusion among other customers, who think that they will not be allowed to make their withdrawals, causes a “run on the bank”; the tellers close their windows and the security officers try to close the outside doors on those customers that have rushed up the steps to enter, while Michael and his sister Jane escape in the confusion.
The last one I’ll provide is Dark Command (1940) starring John Wayne, Claire Trevor, and an oddly cast Walter Pidgeon as the leader of a band of renegades during the Civil War that are seizing arms shipments and raiding other banks in the towns surrounding Lawrence, Kansas. News of these activities (and an avenging widow played by Helen MacKellar) causes a panic among the residents and a “run on the bank”, during which its Irish owner (Porter Hall) is shot.
What other classic movies can YOU think of which depict a “run on the bank”?
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Another Capra film American Madness (1932), starring Walter Huston and Pat O'Brien. Things can get brutal when money's involved!