CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

Executscan Expected more

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Numerootno A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

saraccan It's your typical rich family vs not rich family comedy. I guess it paved the way to creating this comedy sub-genre but after seeing so many i find it hard to really enjoy it anymore.It's about the two young lovers from families with different approaches in life and their struggle making their parents like each other.

mark.waltz I don't believe in following any crowd, getting involved in trends I consider ridiculous, and hanging out with people I consider pretentious or fools. That being said, the eccentric family lead by Lionel Barrymore is by far the wackiest on screen, sometimes a bit too much, but oh how much fun they have. Toss in the staid wealthy Kirby family, secretly trying to buy up all the surrounding family and get them out to put in a smelly factory. Once again in this Frank Capra comedy (based upon a much revived Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart), Edward Arnold is the heavy, as powerful here as he would be in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Meet John Doe", but not nearly as evil. It's only because he's in a comedy that he's not classified as a villain, and to lighten his load (as only he can), Arnold shows a sly amusement to the surroundings he's thrust into when he shows up on the wrong night with wife Mary Forbes and some James Stewart, who just happens to be engaged to Barrymore's granddaughter (Jean Arthur).Several normally "straight" actors get to show off their comedic side, having a ball, but oh what a silly bunch of funny entertainers there are, including Spring Byington as Barrymore's playwright daughter (complete with a live paper weight kitten), Ann Miller as Arthur's ballerina sister, Lillian Yarbo and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as the servants, treated like members of the family, Donald Meek as a wacky inventor and Mischa Auer as a wild Russian lothario. Two of Hollywood's snarkiest character actors (Charles Lane and Clarence Wilson) are foils for Barrymore who get a great comeuppance.While this doesn't have the social messages of Capra's original comedy dramas, it does show the ridiculousness of the elite, whether the snobby Forbes or the power hungry Arnold. Barrymore even gets to take a swing at the IRS (Charles Lane as the exasperated auditor), giving plenty of laughs to a country coming out of the depression. While I don't consider the best film of 1938 (certainly though in the top 10), it is one of the best screwball comedies of the 1930's, and nostalgic and popular enough to still be revived on Broadway as evidenced by a recent hit production with James Earl Jones in the Barrymore role.

mmallon4 You Can't Take It With You follows the Sycamore/Vandrerhof household; the ultimate eccentric family. In fact eccentric probably isn't the right word, they're complete nuts. They live a counter cultural lifestyle of not working or playing taxes (and somehow getting away with it) and doing whatever makes them happy without a care in the world; people who aren't afraid to live. There are like cartoon characters who can twist their way out of any situation with people more in tune with reality, such as when Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) manages to convince the timid Mr Poppins (Donald Meek) to stop throwing his life away working as bureaucrat and start having fun. The Sycamores/Vanderhofs are family we probably can't be in real life but wish we could.Even with a large ensemble cast, Lionel Barrymore is the actor at the heart of the film in a role which is the polar opposite of his part of Henry F. Potter in Frank Capra's It's a Wonderful Life. The scene in which Vanderhof is confronted by a government official played by the always miserable looking Charles Lane feels like a dig at big government. When Grandpa asks the official what the government gives him for his money he is given the response of "The government gives you everything", emphases on the word everything, followed by Vanderhof's humorous but thought provoking rebuttals. The family's refusal to pay taxes may be ethically questionable but it's a movie fantasy and could never happen in real life. Don't you wish you could deal with bureaucracies as easily as Grandpa Vanderhof?One of Grandpa Vanderhof's other fascinating moments is his monologue on "ismmania" although I'm quite sure what to make of it ("when things go a little bad nowadays you go out and get yourself an 'ism' and you're in business"). The message feels similar to a 1948 animated short "Make Mine Freedom" in how the danger of isms can cripple the people. All we need is our Americanism as Vanderhof proclaims, which itself is an ism but I digress. Regardless his line which following this, "Lincoln said, with malice toward none, with charity to all - Nowadays they say think the way I do or I'll bomb the daylights out of you"; that gives me chill every time.One the sweetest, most heartwarming scenes in any film ever is when Grandpa Vanderhof tells Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur) about his love for his deceased wife and how the room still smells of her perfume. Ugh, it just kills my poor little soul; a perfect display of Capra's gift for directing very intimate, emotional scenes in which the rest of the world ceases to exist. Likewise there doesn't seem to be any actress whom James Stewart didn't share a great dynamic together. James Stewart and Jean Arthur share a perfect chemistry together, pairing the embodiment of the everyman and the embodiment of the everywoman.Non conformity is the name of the game in You Can't Take It With You. Grandpa Vanderhof understands the preciousness of life as he pursues his own interests and his own forms of fulfilment. He encourages others to follow their dreams and not submit to the will of others. In one scene Alice speaks of Grandpa's thoughts on how "most people are run by fear, the fear of what they eat, fear of what they drink, fear of their jobs, their future, their health, scared to save money and to spend it. People who commercialise on fear scare you to death to sell you something you don't need". Amen sister! - Only thing to fear is fear itself. You Can't Take It With You promotes what we would now refer to as a libertarian mindset, live and let live as long as you're not hurting anyone. As Tony Kirby (James Stewart) tells his father Antony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold) towards the end of the film, "I think this business is great. It's good for you because you like it. I don't, and I never will". In many ways the Sycamore/Vandrerhof family is the embodiment of the American Dream. They own their property, each member pursues their individual dreams and they are above all happy. They live their live without inference from the government or other such bodies: Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. One of the other messages derived from You Can't Take It With You is the same as that to come from the ending of It's a Wonderful Life in which the townspeople come to George Bailey's aid, giving him money so he won't have to do jail time followed by the final message from the angel Clarence; "No man is a failure who has friends". A very similar incident occurs in YCTIWY in which friends and neighbors of the Sycamores pay for their fine in night court so they won't be locked up. Likewise the family's arrest for being mistakenly identified as communists feels like a foreshadowing to McCarthyism. Then again they should have thought that a fireworks show based on the Russian Revolution as well as advertising it perhaps isn't the greatest idea; it stinks!There are those who will hear the name Frank Capra and have a reaction along the lines of "Oh Frank Capra, sentimental, saccharine, manipulative rubbish". I don't make apologies when I say that dismissing a film for being sentimental is the nonsense film criticism to end all nonsense criticisms; it stinks! Newsflash, stories have been manipulating people's emotions since the dawn of time. Pulling of effective sentimentality is a skill and I have not come across a single good reason as to why it is a problem. You Can't Take It With You is Capra at his most sentimental, manipulative, saccharine and all those other dirty words and I love it for that. So if that's the crime of the century, then lock me up for life. Capra-corn and proud of it!

The_Film_Cricket Frank Capra's work a window on a time before American idealism was replaced by the more modern trend of cynicism, the age that was washed out by the devastating experiences of World War II, Vietnam and Watergate. This kind of early positive Americanism is long gone and it is such a gift to have Capra's work to remind us of a time long gone. In that way, his films are invaluable In 1934, Capra hit the ground running with "It Happened One Night", a film so successful and with such a far-reaching effect that it basically invented the institution of the screwball comedy and the romantic comedy. 80 years later, it still holds up. He won the Oscar for that film, and four years later won again for his adaptation of George Kaufman and Moss Hart's stage success "You Can't Take It With You", which had been so successful that it won the Pulitzer Prize. Capra's adaptation won Best Picture yet, while it contains all of Capra's trademark, time has not been kind and, in spite of its status in Oscar history it has more or less slipped into the dustbins of history.The movie isn't bad, just dated. The story is clunky with over-sized characterization and an antiquated theme about the value of friends over money. The story involves Capra's favorite kind of villain, the heartless corporate businessman, in this case a certain Anthony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold) The C.E.O. of Kirby and Co., a bank that seems to be booming despite the depression. Kirby wants to expand his business to get in on the munitions market and needs land to do it. He has been successful so far at buying out the residents except for one hold out who won't sell even when offered four times what the house is worth.The man causing the trouble is Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), a genial Joe who plays the harmonica and refuses to work in favor of having fun. His reason for holding out on the sale is simple: He places a value on the memories that he has tied to the house over any kind of money that Kirby is willing to shell out. Kirby is the kind of bullish business man who doesn't take no for an answer and orders his underlings to get Vanderhof and his family out of the house by any means necessary.Meanwhile, Kirby's sweet-natured son Tony (Jimmy Stewart) has become engaged to Alice Sycamore, his secretary. Unknown to either party, Alice is actually Vanderhof's granddaughter. She's actually the only normal member of the family. The rest are defined by their quirks. Sister Essie (Ann Miller) dances everywhere she goes. Her husband Ed (Dub Taylor) plays the xylophone. Penny (Spring Byington), Alices's mother bangs away on the typewriter. Paul, Alice's father (Samuel S. Hinds), plays with erector sets. A defected Russian named Boris (Mischa Auer) hangs around the house and acts as Essie's dance instructor. And a new member of the household, Mr. Poppins (Donald Meek), likes to make things.Everyone in the house has a personality quirk and they are so quirky because Mr. Vanderhof allows their qualities to flourish. He describes his household as "a place where everyone does what they want." Naturally, it isn't long before the blue-blooded Kirby's and the bohemian Sycamores have a culture clash that brings Vanderhof to full-froth over Kirby's greed and lack of humanity. It's all too obvious.Nothing seems to work here. The message is inane and dated. The characters are all types, not people. The romance is dull, which is surprising given that they are played by Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur. The movie has no grace or reality. It is the kind of movie that is set up to push its message and does so with the hammer. What once seemed fresh and original has dated badly, especially in the wake of similar social message pictures that Capra would make later like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "It's a Wonderful Life". What we have here is third-rate Capra, the work of a director whose films would improve over time.** (of four)