Film Review
The film that won Frank Capra his third (and arguably least deserved) Best
Director Oscar is this crowd pleasing adaptation of the hit Pulitzer
Prize-winning play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. Although
the film also won the Best Picture Oscar and was the highest grossing
film of the year it is far from being Capra's best work. It
doesn't just wander coyly into Schmaltzville; it boldly marches in and
sets up permanent residence there - not that this spoils one's
enjoyment of the film greatly. The film may be corny but that doesn't
stop it from being fun.
You Can't Take It With You
marked the first of three collaborations between Frank Capra and actor
James Stewart (at the time a virtual unknown). They would
subsequently work together on two of Capra's most highly regarded
films:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(1939), the film that made Stewart a star, and
It's a Wonderful Life (1946), one of
the great classics of American cinema.
The star of this film is the veteran performer Lionel Barrymore, who by
this stage in his career was visibly suffering from the crippling
arthritis that would ultimately confine him to a wheelchair. To
conceal his ailing health, Barrymore appears throughout the film on
crutches, which is explained (plausibly) by the fact that he had an
accident when he slid down the banister.
Whilst the over-earnest moralising (dubbed
Capracorn by the director's
detractors) does get mildly irksome in a few places,
You Can't Take It With You still
manages to be one of Capra's more entertaining films. The jokes,
when they come, are hilarious, and the ensemble cast are clearly having
a great time. In common with many of Capra's films, this one
champions individuality and good honest citizenship over soulless
conformity and capitalist greed, and its messages ring loud and clear
today.
© James Travers 2009
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Next Frank Capra film:
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)
Film Synopsis
Anthony Kirby is the president of a major US bank. The
embodiment of soulless capitalism, he has resolved to buy up a block of
houses to make way for a munitions factory that will make him even
wealthier. One man thwarts his ambitions, an eccentric oldster
named Martin Vanderhof who owns one of the houses and who stubbornly
refuses to sell up. Vanderhof is a social dropout who
encourages his friends and family to do as he does, which is to avoid
work and live a free-spirited life, doing only what pleases them.
Unbeknown to Kirby, his son Tony has fallen in love with Vanderhof's
granddaughter, Alice, the rebel of the family (because she has a paid
job). Tony is determined to introduce his mother and father to
his future in-laws and so arranges for them to drop in on the
Vanderhofs one evening...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.