It’s A Wonderful Life is objectively one of the best Christmas movies*.

And one of the best scenes in this best movie was the result of some accidental off-camera chaos.

After a party at Harry Bailey’s house, the hapless Uncle Billy (Thomas Mitchell) drunkenly staggers off home. After Billy walks offscreen, then there’s a loud crash and he yells “I’m all right! I’m alll right!” It would seem he blundered into some trash cans or something.

What really happened is that a crew member accidentally knocked over some equipment at that moment, and Mitchell yelled this great ad-lib.

Director Frank Capra kept the scene as is, although later added sound effects to augment the crashing noise.

Capra also reportedly gave the clumsy crew member $10. Or $129 in 2018 money, which isn’t bad for a a screwup like that. Christian Bale would have murdered him.

This scene makes me laugh every damn time. I hope you enjoyed it as well.

(Apologies for posting this gross colorized version. It’s shockingly hard to find clips in proper black and white.)

*Don’t you dare mention Die Hard in this conversation. It’s not a Christmas movie, it just takes place at Christmastime.