Classic Film Friday: You Can’t Take it With You

Unenthusiastic Vice President of his father’s company, Tony Kirby (Jimmy Stewart) falls in love with his secretary, Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur). Which is nothing earth shattering, but thus begins the dual plotline that sets moral epiphanies throughout. It just so happens that Tony’s father A.P. Kirby (Edward Arnold) is about to create a monopoly (in the munitions business of all things) and to do so he needs to buy off Alice’s grandfather, Grandpa Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore) to do so. The problem is Grandpa isn’t selling, no matter what the price.

In fact Grandpa is a bit of an eccentric and on top of that he encourages people to quit doing things they hate, and start doing what they love. This leads to a house full of weirdos doing all manner of things from dancing or writing, to constructing their own fireworks. When the snobs from Kirby meet the kooks from Vanderhof the sparks really fly and by the end of the movie, everyone winds up in jail.

This Frank Capra directed movie was made in 1938 and many of the premises it tackles are applicable to today’s world. I will say there seems to be a bit of a communism bent to the film, but the movie goes out of its way to dissuade anyone from practicing anything with an “ism” attached to it. You Can’t Take it With You is a parable in its own way, but it will also make you laugh... hard. If you’re not smiling by the time the credits roll at the end you might need to check yourself for a pulse.