You Can't Take It with You (1938)
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Director: Frank Capra
Honors:
The Pulitzer Prize winning play that gained fame in 1936
with its mix of colorful characters and comedy is turned into the best film on
the silver screen of 1938 in Frank Capra’s picture You Can’t Take It with You. Once again the director from the
smaller studio of Columbia Pictures turns out a motion picture that seems to be
bursting with life and irrevocable entertainment like no other filmmaker in
Hollywood seemed to possess at the time, turning it into his third Academy
Award winning work as director. With an ensemble cast that mix with energy so
kinetic and tangible that you feel you are in the room with this family of
characters. The feature shins as the finest work out of Hollywood in 1938 as
seen by critics and peers of the industry.
You Can’t Take It with
You is a romantic comedy about a simple girl from an happy, erratic family who
falls in love with a rich banker’s son, but plans to marry go array thanks to a
dinner introducing the two families does not go as planned. In a large home
lives a happy, freely expressive family led by the patriarch Grandpa Vanderhof
(Lionel Barrymore). Its walls are filled with colorful family while his
granddaughter Alice (Jean Arthur), who seems to be the most normal of the lot, falls
in love and plans to marry a rich banker’s son, Tony Kirby (James Stewart),
whose father is attempting to purchase the very house the family lives in for
major development, but Grandpa refuses to sell because he very content with
living there.
When Alice plans to introduce her family to the Kirby’s
things go terribly wrong, first with Kirby’s arriving a day early allowing the
Kirby’s to see Alice’s family in their natural state instead of the cleaned up
manner she wished to display them in. To Tony’s father Anthony P. Kirby (Edward
Arnold) and his stuck up wife (Mary Forbes), Alice’s family comes off as very
below them, disapproving of her family and the marriage. Embarrassed and
ashamed Alice calls off the engagement and leaves the house. Stricken by the
wave of sorrow Grandpa decides to sell the house which devastates the entire
community, but through the charm and irrevocable happiness that Grandpa delivers
to all he interacts with, Grandpa reintroduces a level of delight within
Anthony P. Kirby, through the simple joys in life. Learning that it is love,
friends, and family are what matter in life over money, as you can’t take that
with you when you die, Kirby then approves of Tony and Alice marriage, saving
the family and the community.
Expanding the characters and world created by the original
play, the picture You Can’t Take It with
You is filled with humor and overall entertaining energy that is highly
appealing to audiences. With a masterful exicution by director Frank Capra you
are draw into the feature in a manner that makes one feel as if they are a
party of this highly energetic and loving family, one that allows for you to
express yourself freely though song, dance, writing, or even fireworks. The
picture produces an appeal that makes anyone want to live in this world in the
mind of Mr. Capra as he assembles it in a way that makes the picture feel different
from any other director’s work at that time.
The wonder filmmaker of Columbia Studios, Frank Capra, has a
way of filming that at first glance may not seem so different, but as the
picture goes along quickly you realize is vastly unalike any other major motion
picture in Hollywood. Here he rarely shoots scenes straight on, meaning he
films his actors and sets from angles, never from perpendicular angles to the
walls or settings in the background. This angularity allows the picture to feel
a bit more intimate, despite the fact it permits the frame of the shot contain
far more background and depth of field. After all, people do not live their
lives only looking at things from flat angles, but from various angles with
objects both in the foreground and background. This simple idea of shooting
might go unnoticed in the conscious mind of the audience member, but it does
create a sense of more natural life and gives this Capra picture added intimacy
in a film filled with many things going on at the same time. For his work for
masterful directing and assembling such a great picture, Capra would take home
his unprecedented third Academy Award for directing.
The casting of the picture deserves its own merit as the
picture brings together a wonderful mix of talent. Jean Arthur, at the time 37,
still brings a youthful exuberance to the role of Alice as a young lady in
love, then devastated, and once again irreversibly joyful. Eight years her
junior is the actor that plays her love interest, James Stewart. Merely at the
beginning of his career of being a leading man, he serves as a major role in
the overall picture, but does very little carrying of the emotional plot
itself. Capra saw much talent in the young actor, which would lead Stewart to
much bigger and better things in their future works together.
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| Barrymore, Stewart, Arthur, and Arnold anchor a great cast. |
The emotional center of the feature would be held by Lionel
Barrymore as the patriarchal Grandpa. Barrymore’s joyfulness in the role makes
one wish that he was their grandfather, a man supportive and always looking on
the bright side of life no matter what the world holds. An aspect of the
picture would be manipulated to aid the aging and deteriorating veteran actor. Barrymore
at the time was suffering from pains of arthritis in his hips and legs which
crippled him with agony, therefore in the script Grandpa was written to have
suffered a sprained ankle and throughout the picture is seen on crutches.
Barrymore was mindful of his appearance of screen and does his best to hide his
real life affliction that would one day make him immobile, but as a true
professional he remained very much in the moment of his character in a great
performance, even though on pain killers.
The gem of a supporting cast adds to the film a remarkable
ensemble of characters that make the picture as a whole memorable and lovable.
Edward Arnold, the actor portraying Anthony P. Kirby, by this time in his
career was primarily a character actor due to his weight, but makes it easy see
a wealthy, snooty man rediscover the joys of t a simpler life. Spring Byington
brings the strong, supportive motherly touch to the role of Penny, Alice’s
mother. Alice’s sister, the aspiring dancer who performs ballet moves while
caring out normal household chores, is played by Ann Miller. She in fact was
only 15 years-old at the time of filming, appearing far more mature in a role
that calls for an adult. Her Russian dance instructor would be played by one
time Best Supporting Actor nominee Mischa Auer. These performance plus many more
would come together to make for a large array for characters that draw you into
the story and create humor and a sense of family like so few films have created
before.
You Can’t Take It with
You was a critical success for 1938 nominated for seven Academy Awards, the
most of any film that year, winning apart from Capra’s award for Best Director
the prize for Best Picture on the year. The film stands well as an entertaining
feature even for contemporary audiences with its array of character and down
home plot. It is funny and gripping at the same time, a fine example for a best
picture in the era after the production code went into effect and before the
outbreak of World War II.
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