Characters I Hate In Movies I Love: It's A Wonderful Life

(In this feature I will discuss characters I can't stand - justifiably or not - in classic or personal favorite movies. Mostly these aren't the characters you're supposed to hate, like villains or romantic rivals, but rather characters that offend me personally.)

For this, the first installment (and also Holiday Edition) of Characters I Hate In Movies I Love (CIHIMIL), I will be discussing It's A Wonderful Life and, more specifically, fucking Harry Bailey. Now, you may ask, why Harry? Why not Henry F. Potter or Uncle Billy? Certainly they are both hateable in their own rights, but they make up for it by being either badass (in Potter's case) or hilarious (in Billy's case).

But Harry (Harry ...) has no redeeming value once you look beyond his attractive face. This bitch.

• First, he falls in some freezing water like a n00b and ruins George's ear.
• Second, he takes all of George's college money for himself and leaves George at the garbage-pail Building and Loan.
• Third, when he's supposed to come back and help George out, he comes back with a surprise wife and ditches him at the B&L yet again!
• Fourth, he invites his mom to meet the President's wife but not George! Don't you think George deserves to go to the White House, Harry???

Seriously, what a little brother. And I say this as a youngest sibling. Who cares if George was "born older" and is more responsible than Harry? Doesn't he deserve nice things? Why does he have to have a mental breakdown to get any attention? I seriously resent Harry Bailey.

Maybe I'm jaded because I've watched this movie every year since I've been alive. I used to hate Uncle Billy the most (he is truly awful/stupid and should never be trusted with money, or anything really, ever) but his drunken silliness has grown on me over the years. Harry has had the opposite effect. While I was once neutral toward him, my neutrality has morphed into full-on hatred. My man-friend emphasized to me (after seeing IAWL for the first time this year) that the moral of the story is that doing good is more important than doing well but that Harry's not a bad guy because he got opportunities to do well. I disagree. Harry's a selfish turd and that's that.

The End.
Superglue