You Can’t Take It With You (1938) Director: Frank Capra
“Sometimes you’re so beautiful it just gags me!”
★★★★★
An eminently charming, sentimental romantic comedy, You Can’t Take It With You won Best Picture in 1938 (director Frank Capra also won an Oscar for Best Director that same year). In many ways, Capra was the king of the Academy Awards in the 1930s, winning Oscars for his sunny, hopeful films like It Happened One Night in 1934, and Mr. Deeds Goes To Town in 1936. You Can’t Take It With You is based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name by George Kaufman and Moss Hart. Appropriately, as one of the most successful stage performances at the time, when made into a film it became a box office smash success.
Starring Jimmy Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Jean Arthur, and Edward Arnold You Can’t Take It With You is a hopeful tale about the class struggle in America. The film’s title is a reference to the advice one character gives to another over what happens money when you die: ‘You can’t take it with you!’ Anthony Kirby (Edward Arnold) is a successful real estate investor who has been granted a virtual monopoly on a 12-block urban area, however there is one obstinate home owner who refuses to sell his property. Kirby instructs an associate to offer a large sum of money for the home, and if that is not accepted, he directs his associate to cause trouble for the family. Meanwhile, Kirby’s son Tony (Jimmy Stewart) has been promoted to Vice President of the company and at the same time he also embarks on a romantic relationship with his secretary, Alice (Jean Arthur). While Tony comes from a posh upper-crust family, Alice comes from an eccentric lower-class family. Her father plays the harmonica, her sister dances in a ballerina dress, and her family houses a cohort of friends in their basement where they build firecrackers that routinely explode at unexpected moments. Alice’s father is a poor but kind-hearted man who opens his home to support and care for people who wish to escape the drudgery of corporate life. As time goes by, we discover that Alice’s oddball family are actually the owners of the very home that is holding up Kirby’s deal. With this in mind, the two families get together at Alice’s and Tony’s behest for one delightfully awkward evening until they all wind up in jail thanks to a scheme concocted by Kirby’s associate, who did not realize Kirby was at their home at this time. As the film goes along, Kirby realizes that he has been too greedy (a la Ebeneezer Scrooge) and he makes a last minute decision to put things right by playing a harmonica duet with Alice’s father. It is a touching end to a charming film.
Released on the heels of the Great Depression and in the shadow of World War II, Frank Capra’s You Can’t Take It With You serves as a reminder of what really matters in life. It’s a bit of a saccharine and corny film, but hey, it’s Frank Capra and Jimmy Stewart in the ’30s! You Can’t Take It With You is a true delight for movie-goers who have a penchant for heart-warming Golden Age films.
Credits:
- Director: Frank Capra
- Screenplay by: Robert Riskin
- Based on: “You Can’t Take It with You,” a 1936 play by George Kaufman and Moss Hart
- Produced by: Frank Capra
- Starring:
- Jean Arthur…..Alice Sycamore
- Lionel Barrymore…..Grandpa Martin Vanderhof
- James Stewart…..Tony Kirby
- Edward Arnold…..Anthony P. Kirby
- Cinematography: Joseph Walker
- Edited by: Gene Havlick
- Music by: Dimitri Tiomkin
- Production Company: Columbia Pictures
11th Academy Awards
Hosted by Frank Capra at the Biltmore Hotel on February 23, 1939, the 11th annual Academy Awards celebration was another eventful evening. Despite serving as host, Capra swept the top two categories with awards for Best Directing and Best Picture (for his film You Can’t Take It With You). Ultimately, the film stole the night with seven nominations in total and it wound up being James Stewart’s breakthrough role. Interestingly enough, radio coverage was banned at this time during the Academy Awards ceremony. But that didn’t stop a reporter named George Fischer from briefly broadcasting for twelve minutes while locked inside a booth for Los Angeles’ Mutual Radio Network station, KHJ (which had been reporting from the Academy Awards since 1930). Security guards finally broke down the door to stop him. Partial radio coverage was subsequently permitted again at the 1942 ceremony.
At this time, the Best Writing category was still broken out between an award for Best Writing (Original Story) and Best Writing (Screenplay). This year the winner for Best Writing (Screenplay) was Pygmalion credited to George Bernard Shaw, Ian Dalrymple, Cecil Lewis, and W. P. Lipscomb, based on Shaw’s play. Shaw’s screenplay win for Pygmalion made him the first –and, for over 60 years, only– person to win both a Nobel Prize and an Academy Award until Bob Dylan received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016 after having won an Academy Award for Best Original Song in 2001. However, Shaw angrily protested his win, apparently roaring, from London: “It’s an insult! It’s perfect nonsense. My position as playwright is known throughout the world. To offer me an award of this sort is an insult, as if they have never heard of me before—and it’s very likely they never have.”
- Best Picture: You Can’t Take It With You
- The Adventures of Robin Hood
- Alexander’s Ragtime Band
- Boys Town
- The Citadel
- Four Daughters
- Grand Illusion (first non-English language film to be nominated for Best Picture)
- Jezebel
- Pygmalion
- Test Pilot
- Best Director: Frank Capra – You Can’t Take It with You (Frank Capra became the first person to win three Best Director awards, to be followed by John Ford –who would go on to win four– and William Wyler).
- Michael Curtiz – Angels with Dirty Faces
- Norman Taurog – Boys Town
- King Vidor – The Citadel
- Michael Curtiz – Four Daughters
- Best Actor: Spencer Tracy – Boys Town as Father Edward J. Flanagan
- Charles Boyer – Algiers as Pepe le Moko
- James Cagney – Angels with Dirty Faces as William “Rocky” Sullivan
- Robert Donat – The Citadel as Dr Andrew Manson
- Leslie Howard – Pygmalion as Professor Henry Higgins
- Best Actress: Bette Davis – Jezebel as Julie Marsden
- Fay Bainter – White Banners as Hannah Parmalee
- Wendy Hiller – Pygmalion as Eliza Doolittle
- Norma Shearer – Marie Antoinette as Marie Antoinette
- Margaret Sullavan – Three Comrades as Patricia Hollmann
- Best Original Story: Boys Town – Eleanore Griffin and Dore Schary
- Alexander’s Ragtime Band – Irving Berlin
- Angels with Dirty Faces – Rowland Brown
- Blockade – John Howard Lawson
- Mad About Music – Marcella Burke and Frederick Kohner
- Test Pilot – Frank Wead
- Special Awards:
- Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney: for their significant contribution in bringing to the screen the spirit and personification of youth, and as juvenile players setting a high standard of ability and achievement.
- To Harry M. Warner in recognition of patriotic service in the production of historical short subjects presenting significant episodes in the early struggle of the American people for liberty.
- To Walt Disney for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, recognized as a significant screen innovation which has charmed millions and pioneered a great new entertainment field for the motion picture cartoon. One statuette and seven miniature statuettes, representing the Seven Dwarfs, on a stepped base was presented to Walt Disney by Shirley Temple. This instance marks a rare case of a film being recognized in two succeeding ceremonies, as the film was also nominated for Best Score the previous year at the 10th Academy Awards.
- To Oliver Marsh and Allen Davey for the color cinematography of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer production, Sweethearts.
- For outstanding achievement in creating Special Photographic and Sound Effects in the Paramount production, Spawn of the North. Special Effects by Gordon Jennings, assisted by Jan Domela, Dev Jennings, Irmin Roberts and Art Smith. Transparencies by Farciot Edouart, assisted by Loyal Griggs. Sound Effects by Loren Ryder, assisted by Harry Mills, Louis H. Mesenkop and Walter Oberst.
- To J. Arthur Ball for his outstanding contributions to the advancement of color in Motion Picture Photography.
Did the right film win Best Picture?
You Can’t Take It With You is a marvelous, charming selection for Best Picture, but I would have undoubtedly chosen Jean Renoir’s masterpiece La Grande Illusion instead. I was also delighted to see Michael Curtiz’s splendid The Adventures of Robin Hood nominated this year.
Click here to return to my survey of the Best Picture Winners.