Mary Hatch-Bailey is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside Clarence Odbody) of the 1946 Frank Capra film It's a Wonderful Life. She's George Bailey's high school love interest and eventually wife.
She was portrayed by the late Jean Gale as a child and the late Donna Reed as an adult.
What Makes Her Pure Good?[]
- Even as a child (around 9 years old), she shows how caring she is as she admires George Bailey's dreams of exploring the world, whispering that she'd love him until the day she died and she overheard and found out about Mr. Gower's accident with the pill and his deadly mix, but rather than blackmailing or manipulating him in order to keep the secret alive, she never tells anyone about the incident and keeps his reputation alive. It's one of the first signs that Mary is an unambiguously good person.
- When she's 18, she still deeply loves George as she ignored and ditched her previous date to be with George for the first time in 9 years. Then when the two of them are walking home together, and playfully making wishes by throwing rocks in the old Granville house, her wish turns out to be to live in and repair the old Granville house.
- Four years later, she would prepare a nostalgic reunion for her and George, as they recall their walk together from 4 years earlier and show romantic interest, proving herself to have remained true to her "love George till she dies" claim all those years ago. Sure, she temporarily gets upset over their awkward reunion, but when George comes back to grab his hat which he had left behind, George overcame his resistance to her and starts to kiss her, holding her intensely and their love for each other overwhelms them both.
- Chooses to marry George Bailey for his big hopes and dreams as well as his optimism, even though she had the chance to marry Sam Wainwright for his wealth and glamour. It shows she doesn't care about being wealthy and just wants a nice, happy, healthy relationship.
- As she and George are about to embark on a honeymoon trip after their marriage, the two of them notice the people of the Bailey Bank and Loan were trying to withdraw their funds, so she not only allows but encourages George to take action on the crisis, even if it meant putting a halt to the honeymoon.
- In addition to that, when she finds out George had little cash left on hand to pay the people with, she offers to use the honeymoon money they had saved up and gives up their dreams to leave town, showing she cares more about others' happiness than their own.
- After George used their money to pay everyone and keep the bank open, Mary doesn't get angry at George for having to give away their vacation money or hold any kind of grudge. Rather, she makes up for not being able to go on their honeymoon by improvising an imaginative honeymoon composed of a romantic candlelight dinner in the Granville house.
- She and George had helped an Italian family move into their new home, and built a housing development together known as Bailey Park.
- Upon finding out she was having a child, she instantly prepares herself for said child. Then, as the years pass, Mary would have her first two kids which she would deeply care for and give her love to, while also spending those years repairing the old Granville house.
- As World War II kicks in and Mary had two more kids, she would continue to spend a reasonable amount of time nurturing the kids, while also having time to run the USO.
- On Christmas Eve, upon George coming home angry about the $8000 going missing and his job at risk, Mary immediately notices something was off with George and goes to see what the problem was and comfort him.
- When George unjustly yells at the kids, Mary comes to their defense and calls him out on it. Then when he leaves, Mary calls his uncle Billy and encourages the children to offer prayers for their troubled father.
- She has an offscreen subplot where after calling her uncle-in-law Billy, she gets informed about how he had misplaced $8000 and George was at risk of going to prison, and Mary immediately takes action. She and Billy would spend the whole night going around town and telling them her husband was at risk of going to prison, encouraging the townspeople to all pitch in and helping to pay off the missing $8000. It just goes to show how much she cares for her husband and his concerns.
- Also, some may argue that since it happened offscreen it doesn't count, but the after-effects of Mary's subplot are shown at the very end of the film as the entire town of Bedford Falls is seen providing George with their money to save George from false criminal offenses and prison sentence, so this moment still stands.
- Overall, she's proven to be just as pure-hearted, loyal, and selfless as her husband, and in some cases even more so. She's an excellent wife and mother due to the fact that that she deeply cares about George's feelings and will not want anything bad to happen to her kids. She went through various painful issues her husband also had to deal with (having to stay in Bedford most of the time; raising four children; having their company at stake) and yet she stayed perfectly calm throughout all of it. Even George ended up cracking after the $8000 went missing. All she wants is to be with the love of her life and her kids.
Trivia[]
- She's one of two candidates from It's a Wonderful Life (the other being Clarence Odbody) to qualify as Pure Good.
External Links[]
- Mary Hatch on the Heroes Wiki
