Lesson: Count your blessings (and your friends). After $8,000 goes missing on the eve of an important audit, banker George Bailey (Jimmy Stewart) realizes he's on the verge of bankruptcy, scandal and prison. Consumed by worry, he starts to act erratically -- screaming at a daughter's schoolteacher, "terrorizing" his children, drowning his sorrows at a local bar and even contemplating suicide, convinced he's worth more dead than alive.

Sadly, dark times do seem to fuel dark thoughts. Although the image of Wall Street bankers jumping to their deaths after the 1929 crash is mostly myth, the suicide rate did rise from 1929 to 1933, going from 14 to 17 deaths per 100,000 people. Today, depression is on the rise, if pharmaceutical sales are any indication.

What lessons can we glean from a movie many people consider nothing more than Christmas corn? For starters, Clarence, the guardian angel, is able to show George his many blessings, great and small, a shift in perspective that brings about an important change of heart. Mary Bailey (Donna Reed) finds out what's behind her husband's erratic behavior and turns to friends and neighbors for help -- not only raising the cold, hard cash they need but, more importantly, surrounding her husband with those who love him. Experts say that's a good way to keep dark thoughts at bay. (For more, see "Stress less about this recession.")

Continued: "The Money Pit"