Successful banker, Anthony P. Kirby, has just returned from Washington, D.C., where he was effectively granted a government-sanctioned munitionsmonopoly, which will make him very rich. He intends to buy a 12-block radius around a competitor's factory to put him out of business, but one household refuses to sell. Kirby instructs his real-estate broker, John Blakely, to offer the houshold a huge sum, and if they still refuse, to cause trouble for the family. Meanwhile, Grandpa Vanderhof convinces a bank accountant named Poppins to quit work and pursue his dream of making animated toys.
Kirby's son, Tony, a vice president in the family company, has fallen in love with a company stenographer, Alice Sycamore. When Tony proposes marriage, Alice is worried that her family would be looked upon poorly by Tony's rich and famous family. In fact, Alice is the only relatively normal member of the eccentric Sycamore family, led by Vanderhof. Vanderhof describes the living arrangement as "lilies of the field" in that they engage in work they enjoy and run their own businesses. Granddaughter Essie makes and sells candy, her husband Ed Carmichael is a musician and printer, her father Paul manufactures fireworks in the basement with resident DePinna, and so on. Unbeknownst to the players, Alice's family lives in the house that will not sell. Vanderhof is protecting not only his property but the families and businesses in the twelve-block area Kirby wants.
Kirby and his wife strongly disapprove of Tony's choice for marriage. Tony not only loves Alice but feels she encourages his taste for spontaneous fun and farcical humor. Before she accepts, Alice forces Tony to bring his family to become better acquainted with their future in-laws, but when Tony purposely brings his family on the wrong day (reasoning that he would rather the two families meet as they are, not in a formal "stuffed-shirt" setting), the Sycamore family is caught off-guard, and the house is in disarray. As the Kirbys are preparing to leave after a rather disastrous meeting, the police arrive in response to what they perceive as printed threats on flyers, made by Ed as Independence Day promotions ("the revolution is coming", etc.) for Paul's fireworks. When the fireworks in the basement go off, they arrest everyone in the house.
Held in the drunk tank preparing to see the night-court judge, Mrs. Kirby repeatedly insults Alice and makes her feel unworthy of Tony, while Grandpa explains to Kirby the importance of having friends, and that despite all the wealth and success in business, "you can't take it with you". At the court hearing, the judge allows for Grandpa and his family to settle the charges for disturbing the peace and making illegal fireworks by assessing a fine, for which Grandpa's neighborhood friends pitch in to pay. He repeatedly asks why the Kirbys were at the Vanderhof house. When Grandpa, attempting to help Kirby, says it was to talk over selling the house, Alice has an outburst and says it was because she was engaged to Tony, but is spurning him because of how poorly she has been treated by his family. This causes a sensation in the papers, and Alice flees the city.
With Alice gone, Grandpa decides to sell the house, thus meaning all his neighbors must vacate to prepare for building the new factory. Now, the Kirby companies merge, creating a huge fluctuation in the stock market and ruining Ramsey, Kirby's competitor. Ramsey dies after confronting Kirby for being ruthless and a failure of a man, saying he too will end up ruined, alone and friendless. Kirby realizes Ramsey is right, he is heading for the same fate, and leaves the meeting where the contract signing is scheduled to occur. Tony quietly confronts his father, saying he's quit the company and never wanted it in the first place.
As the Vanderhofs are vacating the house, Tony tries to speak with Alice. Kirby arrives and talks privately with Grandpa, sharing his realization. Grandpa responds by inviting him to play "Polly Wolly Doodle" on the harmonica that Kirby gave him. The two let loose with the rest of the family joining in the merriment, and Alice decides to reunite with Tony. Later, at the dinner table, Grandpa says grace for the Sycamore family and the Kirbys, revealing that Kirby has sold back the houses on the block.
James Stewart and Jean Arthur in You Can't Take It with You
In 1937, Harry Cohn of Columbia Pictures bought the film rights of the original play for $200,000 ($3,589,000 in 2019).[6][7]
After seeing actor James Stewart portray "a sensitive, heart-grabbing role in MGM's Navy Blue and Gold", Frank Capra cast Stewart for the role of leading male character, Tony Kirby, to "[fit] his concept of idealized America".[8]
Barrymore's infirmity was incorporated into the plot of the film. His character was on crutches the entire movie, which was said to be due to an accident from sliding down the banister. In reality, it was due to his increasing arthritis– earlier in the year he had been forced to withdraw from the movie A Christmas Carol.[9]
Ann Miller, who plays Essie Carmichael, was only 15 when You Can't Take It with You was filmed.
Reception
The movie premiered at the Radio City Music Hall, and Frank Nugent of The New York Times called the film "a grand picture, which will disappoint only the most superficial admirers of the play".[10]Variety called it "fine audience material and over the heads of no one. The comedy is wholly American, wholesome, homespun, human, appealing, and touching in turn." The review suggested that "it could have been edited down a bit here and there, though as standing it is never tiresome".[11]Film Daily wrote: "Smoothly directed, naturally acted and carefully produced, 'You Can't Take It With You' has all the elements of screen entertainment that the fans could wish for."[12] "Excellent", wrote Harrison's Reports. "Robert Riskin did a fine job in adapting it from the stage play for he wisely placed emphasis on the human rather than on the farcical side of the story; yet he did this without sacrificing any of the comedy angles."[13] John Mosher of The New Yorker thought that the stage version was superior, writing that many of the story's new additions for the screen made the film "a long one and at times a ponderous thing, the more so the further from the play the screen version strays".[14]
Reviewing the film in 2010, James Berardinelli wrote that it "hasn't fared as well as the director's better, more timeless offerings" due to the dated nature of screwball comedies and the "innocence permeating the movie that doesn't play as well during an era when audiences value darkness in even the lightest of comedies. Still, You Can't Take it with You provides a pleasant enough two hours along with a reminder of how era-specific the criteria for winning an Oscar are".[15]
Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a rating of 94% from 79 reviews and an average rating of 7.50/10. The consensus summarizes: "It's predictably uplifting fare from Frank Capra, perhaps the most consciously uplifting of all great American directors – but thanks to immensely appealing performances and a nimble script, You Can't Take It with You is hard not to love."[16]
A line from this film, "Confidentially, she stinks!", said by Kolenkov the ballet master about one of his students, was used in a few Looney Tunes cartoons from the 1940s.[18]
Digital restoration
In 2013, Sony Colorworks and Prasad Corporation digitally restored the film, removing dirt, tears, scratches and other artifacts to emulate the film's original look.[19][20]
Related Research Articles
Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, his rags-to-riches story has led film historians such as Ian Freer to consider him the "American Dream personified".
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite tries to get out from under her father's thumb and falls in love with a roguish reporter. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the August 1933 short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. Classified as a "pre-Code" production, the film is among the last romantic comedies created before the MPPDA began rigidly enforcing the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code in July 1934. It Happened One Night was released just four months prior to that enforcement.
Moss Hart was an American playwright, librettist, and theater director.
It's a Wonderful Life is a 1946 American Christmas supernatural drama film produced and directed by Frank Capra. It is based on the short story and booklet "The Greatest Gift" self-published by Philip Van Doren Stern in 1943, which itself is loosely based on the 1843 Charles Dickens novella A Christmas Carol. The film stars James Stewart as George Bailey, a man who has given up his personal dreams in order to help others in his community and whose thoughts of suicide on Christmas Eve bring about the intervention of his guardian angel, Clarence Odbody. Clarence shows George all the lives he touched and what the world would be like if he had not existed.
Lady for a Day is a 1933 American pre-Code comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra. The screenplay by Robert Riskin is based on the 1929 short story "Madame La Gimp" by Damon Runyon. It was the first film for which Capra received an Academy Award nomination for Best Director and the first Columbia Pictures release to be nominated for Best Picture. Capra also directed its 1961 remake, Pocketful of Miracles.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 American comedy-drama romance film directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in her first featured role. Based on the 1935 short story "Opera Hat" by Clarence Budington Kelland, which appeared in serial form in The American Magazine, the screenplay was written by Robert Riskin in his fifth collaboration with Frank Capra.
Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is a 1939 American political comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra, starring Jean Arthur and James Stewart, and featuring Claude Rains and Edward Arnold. The film is about a naive, newly appointed United States senator who fights against government corruption, and was written by Sidney Buchman, based on Lewis R. Foster's unpublished story "The Gentleman from Montana". The film was controversial when it was first released, but successful at the box office, and it made Stewart a major star. It was also loosely based on the life of Montana U.S. Senator Burton Wheeler, who underwent a similar experience when he was investigating the Warren Harding administration.
You Can't Take It with You is a comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The original production of the play premiered on Broadway in 1936, and played for 838 performances.
Lionel Barrymore was an American actor of stage, screen and radio as well as a film director. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance in A Free Soul (1931), and is known to modern audiences for the role of villainous Mr. Potter in Frank Capra's 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life.
The year 1938 in film involved some significant events.
Jean Arthur was an American Broadway and film actress whose career began in silent films in the early 1920s and lasted until the early 1950s.
Travers John Heagerty, known professionally as Henry Travers, was an English film and stage character actor. His best known role was the guardian angel Clarence Odbody in the 1946 film It's a Wonderful Life. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his supporting role in Mrs. Miniver (1942). Travers specialised in portraying slightly bumbling but amiable and likeable older men.
Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy-drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, written by Robert Riskin, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man and pursued by the paper's wealthy owner. It became a box-office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked No. 49 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers. In 1969, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication. It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, the other being Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).
Robert Riskin was an American screenwriter. He is best known for his collaborations with Frank Capra.
Lois June Nettleton was an American film, stage, radio and television actress. She received three Primetime Emmy Award nominations and won two Daytime Emmy Awards.
Broadway Bill is a 1934 American comedy-drama film directed by Frank Capra and starring Warner Baxter and Myrna Loy. Screenplay by Robert Riskin and based on the short story "Strictly Confidential" by Mark Hellinger, the film is about a man's love for his thoroughbred race horse and the woman who helps him achieve his dreams. Capra disliked the final product, and in an effort to make it more to his liking, he remade the film in 1950 as Riding High. In later years, the distributor of Riding High, Paramount Pictures, acquired the rights to Broadway Bill. The film was released in the United Kingdom as Strictly Confidential.
Harold George Bryant Davenport was an American film and stage actor who worked in show business from the age of six until his death. After a long and prolific Broadway career, he came to Hollywood in the 1930s, where he often played grandfathers, judges, doctors, and ministers. His roles include Dr. Meade in Gone with the Wind (1939) and Grandpa in Meet Me in St. Louis (1944). Bette Davis once called Davenport "without a doubt [. . .] the greatest character actor of all time."
Ah, Wilderness! is a 1935 American comedy-drama film adaptation of the 1933 Eugene O'Neill play of the same name. Directed by Clarence Brown, the film stars Wallace Beery and features Lionel Barrymore, Eric Linden, Cecilia Parker, Spring Byington, and a young Mickey Rooney. Rooney stars as Richard in MGM's musical remake Summer Holiday (1948).
Jimmy was a raven actor who appeared in more than 1,000 feature films from the 1930s to the 1950s.
You Can't Take It with You is an American sitcom television series produced for syndication in 1986. It was based on the 1938 film adaptation of the 1937 play by the same name.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
