You Can't Take It with You poster & wallpaper

Ann Miller, Donald Meek, Dub Taylor

Martin Vanderhof is the eccentric patriarch of a clan of frustrated artists, who decided thirty years ago to retire from the rat-race and encourage his family to follow their dreams. He paints, badly,...( read more  read more... ) but is happy, and his children pursue various strange hobbies. Only Alice has a normal job, working as a receptionist in the offices of a somewhat shady businessman. She falls in love with her boss's son, who fears that his dour father would never approve of a marriage to the crazed Vanderhof family. The family tried to act normal for one night to impress the prospective in-laws, but it all goes horribly wrong.

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Unrated, 2 hrs. 6 min.

Directed by: Frank Capra

Release Date: August 23, 1938

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DVD Release Date: February 18, 2003

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James Stewart and Jean Arthur You Can't Take It with You You can't take it with you
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Flixster Reviews (525)

  • mjgildea
    March 14, 2009
    mjgildea
    You Can't Take It With You falls into the category of movie I love so much that I want to kick myself in the ass for not seeing it sooner. Many call it a screwball comedy, which at moments it definitely is especially during the restaurant and courtroom scenes. But I'd say it smel...( read more)ls more like a drama since I got misty with happiness at the end when Edward Arnold cracked. Frank Capra's direction as always is flawless here and the cast is astonishing. And Jesus was Jean Arthur a doll...!
  • kenstachnik
    August 20, 2008
    kenstachnik
    So Capra-esque your teeth will hurt

    and I'm sorry, I don't care if this did win the Academy Award.
    Robin Hood is the best film of 1938. Period. (Maybe Angels with Dirty Faces)
  • FangsFirst
    January 10, 2008
    FangsFirst
    Quintessentially "Capraesque," You Can't Take It with You won Best Picture in 1939, also earning Frank Capra yet another Best Director Oscar, and managed to continue a streak of winning films (yes, there were films between, I know!) Capra made for Columbia Pictures in the ...( read more)30s, the run ending the next year with Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. This was the first collaboration between Jimmy Stewart and Capra (continuing into Mr. Smith and the RKO flick you just might have heard of known as It's a Wonderful Life) and it shows in a sense, because Stewart does not exactly have the leading role in the film.

    "Grandpa" Martin Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) is a man who lives life the way he wants to lead it--he tells characters that one day he was going in to work and realized it didn't make him happy...so he left. Now he lives in the home he owns with a truly bizarre cast of characters--Essie (Ann Miller) and Ed (Dub Taylor) Carmichael, she a constant and childish dancer, he a seemingly stupid ex-Alabama football player and...vibraphone player?, Penny (Spring Byington) and Paul (Samuel S. Hinds) Sycamore, she an aspiring playwrite, he a manufacturer of fireworks, maid Rheba (Lillian Yarbo) and fiance Donald (Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson--he's a slightly disturbing racist caricature of "the lazy black man"), Boris Kolenkhov (Mischa Auer) the Russian dance instructor of the enthusiastic Essie. The only "normal" family member is Alice Sycamore (fairly consistent Capra collaborator Jean Arthur), who is secretary to banker's son and vice president Tony Kirby (Stewart), who has just proposed to her.

    The essence of the film circles around the class conflict between the upper crust of the Kirbys--or at least, Anthony P. Kirby (Edward Arnold) and his wife, played by Mary Forbes--and the strange lower class of the household that lives under Vanderhof, which only gets stranger with the addition of one Mr. Poppins (Donald Meek, one of those wonderful soft spoken elderly geeky looking types who appeared in films in the 30s and 40s, Meek having even Stagecoach and Captain Blood with his name under them) who builds toys, like a strange...I'm not sure, I think it was a head of cabbage, but it definitely had a bunny in it that would rise, rotate, prick its ears and then rotate back down. Everyone found it terribly cute, and I suppose it was, but, man, it was odd. Grandpa finds Poppins working for Ramsey (H.B. Warner) when he went into Ramsey's office because Ramsey was assigned by A.P. Kirby to try and buy out Grandpa's home, so that the block surrounding it could be used to construct a factory. Alice tries desperately to hide her family, while Tony tries to make sure that his family sees them for who they are, completely uncaring about what his own family thinks of hers, but disagreeing with the deceit of hiding them. Alice is concerned that if Tony's family does see hers, his father will never bless their marriage, meaning she could never agree to it.

    The thematic essence, though, is not the romance between Alice and Tony, nor is it even about the little man standing up to the big man or corporate greed crushing the little man--at least, not exactly. The title of the movie, spoken at one point by Grandpa to A.P. Kirby, is the real meaning of Capra's film. Money is not the important thing in life--it's enjoying what you do and having friends and love. You can't take money with you, but you can take love, so he argues with the wealthy banker that in fact what he should do is what he likes, not what earns him fortunes. He shrugs at most of the political systems of life (in an admittedly ineptly argued scene about income tax, for instance--a thread that's actually never really resolved, either, unless we are intended to clap and cheer at the childish and inane arguments Grandpa gives--though we do forgive him this) and even the social ones, simply choosing to do things his own way and help as many people along the way as he can. This philosophy is the core of everything, and the reason that Jimmy and Jean are nearly pushed to the background, despite the fact that their romance is the catalyst for the entire plot.

    Performances, as per usual with Capra, are uniformly excellent, with the rapidfire dialogue of Robert Riskin still in play for one last movie and even the more inexperienced actors easily coming into their own. The humour is still pretty spot-on, and there are some nice character variations. As much as folk like to pigeonhole Capra, and certainly there's a thematic unity to his work, there is at least not a cookie cutter set of characters or personalities for occupations that remain primarily nameless. I was interested to find the judge that appears in this movie bears absolutely no resemblance to the one in Mr. Deeds Goes to Town--in that one, we had a stern, even, calm and restrained judge, a hardliner of sorts, but one whose mind could be swayed and who clearly had a heart. Here the judge wears his heart on his sleeve, clearly delighted with Grandpa's philosophy and with the response he engenders. He smiles a lot, sighs and resigns himself to the madness that ensues from the nature of the courtroom he has found himself in, not at all annoyed or attempting to maintain control eventually. The wealthy father is not the same kind-hearted one as we saw in It Happened One Night--though admittedly because the goal of changing his mind and showing him the error of his ways is the central idea of the piece, it remains true nonetheless.

    Two strange things really caught my attention in the film though--the use of a kitten as a paperweight was terribly cute (no, I'm not kidding, and yes, a live kitten) and the very smart trained crow was a fun sight as well. Unfortunately, or fortunately, one can't be sure, though Donald's character makes me suspicious, the Crow's name is Jim. I'll leave it to you to make what I hope is an obvious connection...I'm not sure whether to be disappointed or not, or whether someone just really wasn't thinking at all when they chose the name.

    Still, this is the longest of Capra's films I've seen so far, and it still managed to maintain its pace throughout, though if you see a rating on this (depending on where you read it!) it's just below a full rating because of the awkward IRS plot that is just left dangling, and the poor resolution of sorts that it does have early on, as well as the aforementioned arguments surrounding it.

    Still, nothing I was too taken aback by, nothing that completely ruins the film, and I'm still very pleased with Capra's work so far, though I've only two films left in my collection to actually view--something likely to change before too awfully long.
  • AgentLexi2132
    August 15, 2007
    AgentLexi2132
    old classic
  • purplemegan
    August 7, 2007
    purplemegan
    Meh, it was alright. They added a totally new plotline to the play though and it wasn't nearly as funny as the stage version.
  • LYNNWOODS04
    September 1, 2009
    LYNNWOODS04
    Watched this movie on a rainy day with my mom who loves these old movies. I really enjoyed it. Thought it was clever, and funny. There are a lot of different characters in this movie and they are very entertaining to say the lease. I liked this movie very much.
  • Sunshineyness
    August 15, 2009
    Sunshineyness
    Sap. Unadularated sap, and not in the best way. Very similar to It's a Wonderful Life but I think what makes this movie not nearly as good is the lack of the reality of the situation. Yes, yes, that's a lovely thought be a "free spirit" but not all of us have a well-off grnadpa t...( read more)o mooch off of to get to live that way.

    Also, during the scene where the Grandpa says he doesn't pay taxes I wanted to scream at him. What do taxes pay for? Schools, roads, public works that are keeping people in jobs. Hey you know when the fire department showed up to save your house from going up in flames???? INCOME TAXES THAT PAY FOR THE FIRE DEPARTMENT!

    I think this is the movie here Capra turned around for me. I love his early works- which were all slightly subversive and about having sympathy for the culturally unsympathetic characters that stick in your craw afterward. This is the start of the over-sentimental Capra that most people think of when they think of him. Now, that's not to say I HATED the movie. Bright spots are for sure Jimmy Stewart who is young, funny, affable, and sweet. Jean Arthur is also quite sweet and natural in her role. If the movie had just been about those two I might have liked it a lot better.

    But oh no, we get bashed over the head with a fairy tale "free spirit money is super evil" moral that sounds all well and good on the surface but lacks any real introspective in trying to find any happy medium between being happy and having friends but still having responsibility.
  • crichardson5
    July 28, 2009
    crichardson5
    If you only see Lionel Barrymore in this movie and "It's a Wonderful Life" you will understand why he's a legend. He makes this movie--every actor seems to naturally revolve around him.
  • ahhh1989
    July 12, 2009
    ahhh1989
    Very sweet and hilarious film. Ann Miller is outstanding.
  • JamesThePirate
    April 19, 2009
    JamesThePirate
    Seen It
    Review Coming Soon

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You Can't Take It with You Trivia

  • Who played in "You cant take it with you", "Pot of Gold" and "the man who shot liberty valance"?  Answer »
  • What two movies have James Stuart and Lionel Berrymore been in together?  Answer »
  • In which movie did actor James Stuart, play a wealthy young man marrying into an eccentric family?  Answer »
  • The following were nominated for an Academy Award for Outstanding Production in 1938. (Note: ten productions were nominated that year; I randomly picked four others from the list to include with the winner for this quiz.) Which production won the Oscar? HINT: Oh, yes, I can!  Answer »
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