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You Can’t Take it With You, 1938
Alice (Jean Arthur) is a stenographer who is in love with businessman Tony (Jimmy Stewart). Unfortunately, Alice’s eccentric family----ruled over by gentle contrarian Martin (Lionel Barrymore)---is not a good fit for Tony’s more uptight, wealthy parents (Edward Arnold and Mary Forbes). Worse still, Tony’s father is attempting to buy out an entire neighborhood just to spite a rival.
This is a gentle, endearing screwball comedy.
What this film gets most correct is the balance between the more plot-centric sequences involving Tony and Alice, and the looser sequences just observing the quirky family doing their thing.
The most enjoyable parts of the film are where we simply watch the family going about their daily routine. They have a hodge-podge of interests and money-making hobbies. The film begins with Martin going to an office and basically poaching a worker named Poppins (Donald Meek) and bringing him home where Poppins is delighted to discover a workshop in the basement where he can create moving figurines. The youngest daughter, Essie (Ann Miller) dances ballet under the tutelage of ballet instructor Kolenkhov (Mischa Auer), who conveniently always shows up at dinner time. Alice’s mother, Penny (Spring Byington), pursues a range of creative interests from writing to painting.
The romantic arc between Alice and Tony is also a lot of fun. Jimmy Stewart is obviously a super likable person, and Jean Arthur brings both likability and force of spirit to her role as Alice. What we see of their courtship is very sweet: dancing with little hustling kids in the park, exchanging a mix of snarky flirting and nonsensical declarations of love. But they also don’t shy away from some of the complicated nature of dating with a large wealth disparity. Tony and his family are Alice’s bosses. Tony is charmed by Alice’s family, but he’s not sensitive enough to her anxiety about how they will be perceived by his parents. In a really stunning betrayal, Tony brings his parents over to Alice’s house unannounced, leading to an embarrassing, stilted interaction. When things come to a head and Alice accuses Tony’s parents (and Tony himself) of “slumming,” there’s definitely some truth to her accusation. Tony is a rich kid and he doesn’t understand that there’s a stress and precariousness to living the kind of free and eccentric life that the family does.
The one piece of the film that isn’t quite as overall compelling is the character arc of Tony’s father, who right from the start is set to discover that money doesn’t buy happiness. While this part of the film is very predictable, it does have one moment I absolutely loved: as a way of throwing a bone to the family----whose house he is scheming to steal---Tony’s father offers to pay a moderate fine that they’ve been charged. Martin declines the offer politely, but the friends of the family, the people from their neighborhood, regard Tony’s father with something more like contempt. They recognize the difference between a self-soothing gesture of charity and actual giving, and rally themselves to raise the needed cash.
For me the only downside to this movie is just how narrow the film’s idea of a good family is. Okay, this is a movie from the 1930s, fine. But it’s striking that this family who supposedly is sort of living on the edge, still has two Black servants, Rheba (Lillian Yarbo) and Donald (Eddie Anderson). Like, even when you’re these eccentric rebels who don’t pay income tax and manufacture fireworks in your basement, there will still be Black servants around to do all of the cooking and the laundry. The exact nature of how Rhaba and Donald fit into the house is left a bit vague----are they paid? When we see Donald helping in the basement is that because he wants to?---but there’s no question that they are ordered around by everyone else in the house, even the teenager. It’s an interesting window into the limits of imagination when it comes to what the “ideal” family looks like.
Overall, the winning element to this film is the cast. Everyone in it is absolutely pitch-perfect, and it’s amusing even when they are all in their home doing their own thing. I don’t hear this film talked about as much in Capra’s filmography, but I thought it was a delight.
You Can’t Take it With You, 1938
Alice (Jean Arthur) is a stenographer who is in love with businessman Tony (Jimmy Stewart). Unfortunately, Alice’s eccentric family----ruled over by gentle contrarian Martin (Lionel Barrymore)---is not a good fit for Tony’s more uptight, wealthy parents (Edward Arnold and Mary Forbes). Worse still, Tony’s father is attempting to buy out an entire neighborhood just to spite a rival.
This is a gentle, endearing screwball comedy.
What this film gets most correct is the balance between the more plot-centric sequences involving Tony and Alice, and the looser sequences just observing the quirky family doing their thing.
The most enjoyable parts of the film are where we simply watch the family going about their daily routine. They have a hodge-podge of interests and money-making hobbies. The film begins with Martin going to an office and basically poaching a worker named Poppins (Donald Meek) and bringing him home where Poppins is delighted to discover a workshop in the basement where he can create moving figurines. The youngest daughter, Essie (Ann Miller) dances ballet under the tutelage of ballet instructor Kolenkhov (Mischa Auer), who conveniently always shows up at dinner time. Alice’s mother, Penny (Spring Byington), pursues a range of creative interests from writing to painting.
The romantic arc between Alice and Tony is also a lot of fun. Jimmy Stewart is obviously a super likable person, and Jean Arthur brings both likability and force of spirit to her role as Alice. What we see of their courtship is very sweet: dancing with little hustling kids in the park, exchanging a mix of snarky flirting and nonsensical declarations of love. But they also don’t shy away from some of the complicated nature of dating with a large wealth disparity. Tony and his family are Alice’s bosses. Tony is charmed by Alice’s family, but he’s not sensitive enough to her anxiety about how they will be perceived by his parents. In a really stunning betrayal, Tony brings his parents over to Alice’s house unannounced, leading to an embarrassing, stilted interaction. When things come to a head and Alice accuses Tony’s parents (and Tony himself) of “slumming,” there’s definitely some truth to her accusation. Tony is a rich kid and he doesn’t understand that there’s a stress and precariousness to living the kind of free and eccentric life that the family does.
The one piece of the film that isn’t quite as overall compelling is the character arc of Tony’s father, who right from the start is set to discover that money doesn’t buy happiness. While this part of the film is very predictable, it does have one moment I absolutely loved: as a way of throwing a bone to the family----whose house he is scheming to steal---Tony’s father offers to pay a moderate fine that they’ve been charged. Martin declines the offer politely, but the friends of the family, the people from their neighborhood, regard Tony’s father with something more like contempt. They recognize the difference between a self-soothing gesture of charity and actual giving, and rally themselves to raise the needed cash.
For me the only downside to this movie is just how narrow the film’s idea of a good family is. Okay, this is a movie from the 1930s, fine. But it’s striking that this family who supposedly is sort of living on the edge, still has two Black servants, Rheba (Lillian Yarbo) and Donald (Eddie Anderson). Like, even when you’re these eccentric rebels who don’t pay income tax and manufacture fireworks in your basement, there will still be Black servants around to do all of the cooking and the laundry. The exact nature of how Rhaba and Donald fit into the house is left a bit vague----are they paid? When we see Donald helping in the basement is that because he wants to?---but there’s no question that they are ordered around by everyone else in the house, even the teenager. It’s an interesting window into the limits of imagination when it comes to what the “ideal” family looks like.
Overall, the winning element to this film is the cast. Everyone in it is absolutely pitch-perfect, and it’s amusing even when they are all in their home doing their own thing. I don’t hear this film talked about as much in Capra’s filmography, but I thought it was a delight.