You Can't Take It with You (1938)

Too much of everything

Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Am I Missing Something?

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

The core messages of this film is simple: (1) relationships that we have with others are key to our happiness and (2) follow your bliss.It is an important film to watch with your children then discuss afterward. It is an important film to watch with your potential spouse then discuss afterward. The values in this film are as more critical today as we face increasing pressure to create the perfect external circumstance for life than they were 80 years ago before the information age.

In a time where It's a Wonderful Life is known now as one of the greatest films of all time, I think a lot of people forget about the greatness that is, You Can't Take it With You. Capra's films often deal a lot with the essence of community and family that trumps all. This film does just that and does it to perfection.It stars James Stewart but the entire cast is incredible. Stewart is very young and in the early stages of his career so the rest of the actors really nail each and every scene they are in. In particular, Lionel Barrymore has about as good as of a performance you can have and the entire Vanderhof family gets their time to shine. Much like It's a Wonderful Life, this film is not only very enjoyable, but it's highly re-watchable. Capra does a great job of directing his actors to some of their best performances of their career, along with creating a unique household full of what is probably one of my favorite families in film history. Everyone loves the Vanderhof's, and so do I.The film is very light hearted and I can understand if people think it could be corny, much like It's a Wonderful Life, but I don't think there's anything wrong with having a story that everyone can enjoy. It's the classic tale of Romeo and Juliet/Cinderella but it's told and structured in a unique way that really hits home. It's a predictable but really sweet script that plays out just that way on screen. I love everything about You Can't Take it With You.+Sweet story+Everyone in the family is interesting+Twist on the R&J story+Barrymore carries the film10/10

Though Frank Capra movies are typically classified as comedies, yet they really are not that funny. One reason is that they come across as homilies, and as there is nothing humorous about moralizing, there is an inconsistent tone throughout. Worse yet, the moral of his movies tends to be so simplistic as to have no practical value. Some of his movies are better than others, of course. But notwithstanding the fact that it got the Academy Award for Best Picture, this is not one of them.The message in this movie in particular is that everyone ought to just do whatever he wants to do. Well, I don't know about you, but if I did what I wanted to do, no one would pay me for it. I like watching movies and writing reviews like this, and if someone wants to pay me to do so, I'll be happy to take his money. But until I retired (and could finally do what I wanted), I spent thirty-five years holding down a job that wasn't much fun. It wasn't a bad job, as jobs go, but it was not what I wanted to do, which was mostly just take it easy and have a good time.The movie centers on a family that embodies this principle of doing whatever you want to do. Grandpa Vanderhof supposedly collects stamps and is able to make money off his expertise, even though it is not clear how. His daughter writes plays, though we doubt she publishes them. His son-in-law and another man fool around with firecrackers in the basement, supposedly selling them from time to time. One of his granddaughters, Essie, takes ballet lessons, so she represents an expense rather than providing an income. And so it goes. There is only one person in the household, Essie's sister Alice, who holds down a real job, as a secretary, which would seem to violate the principle of doing whatever you want to do; but in any event, her income could hardly support the rest of the household. I suppose I should mention they have a full-time maid, who also is their cook, and they live in a house worth $25,000 in 1938 dollars, which adjusted for inflation would be over $400,000 today (at one point they are offered $100,000 for the house, or about $1,670,000, adjusted for inflation).Doing what you want apparently includes not paying your income taxes. When an Internal Revenue Agent shows up to talk to Grandpa Vanderhof because he never files income tax returns, he says he doesn't believe in paying taxes because he doesn't care for the things the money is spent on. This completely confounds the IRS agent, as if the agency had never had to deal with that attitude before. When warned by Alice's fiancé, Tony Kirby, that he might get in trouble, Grandpa says he really doesn't owe the IRS any money. I guess that stamp-collecting expertise hasn't been all that remunerative after all.By now you may be thinking that I have missed the whole point, that this is just a comedy. Well, that brings us back to my original point. The movie just is not that funny. And because it is not very funny, I had time to reflect upon the sermon being preached by this movie, which I concluded was absurd for the reasons just given.The ridiculous moral lesson of this movie is not the only thing that works against the intended humor. The movie is more manic than funny. We are supposed to be delighted by this crazy household, when in reality, none of us could stand being in that living room for more than a few minutes. You would not have to be a stuffed shirt like Tony's father or a snob like Tony's mother to be appalled that your son wanted to marry into a family like that.

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!