Day #70 - You Can't Take it With You

I got crazy swamped with Mootinis so unfortunately my movies took a backseat - I actually watched You Can't Take it With You a few days ago but haven't posted yet - I'm so behind! Tonight I am starting on Ben Hur - I think I will post in two parts since that's how I'll have to watch it. Very excited :)

You Can't Take it With you is a 1938 Frank Capra movie starring Jimmy Stewart, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold and Jean Arthur, amongst others. It's VERY Capra-esque, very similar in many ways to It's a Wonderful Life. The story is basically about love/family/friends vs. money/what money can buy. Alice (Jean Arthur) lives with her family in a crazy home - they have picked up many strangers over the years which has led to a wild and interesting bunch of people bunking together. Alice's grandfather (Barrymore) truly feels that one should only spend their life doing what makes them happy and places next to no importance on money and material things. Alice spends her days working as a secretary for the Tony Kirby (Jimmy Stewart). As part of the Kirby family, Tony has a ton of money and power as his Dad controls much of the going-ons in the city. When Tony and Alice fall in love, Alice's family only cares about her happiness and so they are supportive - however, Tony's family is none too happy. They think Alice is far below what Tony deserves and they think her family is absolutely out of control. One night, the Kirby's are visiting Alice's family and all goes haywire, resulting in everyone getting arrested!! While everyone is in jail, Alice's grandfather tries to tell Mr. Kirby that if he were take away his money, he would have no friends, because, after all, "you can't take it with you.". This was my favorite part of the movie - I really like the message in the movie, that money may buy you nice things, but in the end, it's the people that care about you that really matter. In a very "Capra-esque" turn of events, Mr. Kirby eventually sees the errors of his life and makes friends with Alice and her family.

You Can't Take it With You was the 1938 Best Picture Oscar winner. Frank Capra also took home the Best Director statue :)

Jimmy Stewart is, of course, so cute. I love him. ...and I really enjoyed Lionel Barrymore. I definitely recommend this movie - and give it some time. It took awhile to grow on me and in the end I was really happy with it:) Chris really liked Jean Arthur, as he also did in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. I liked her a lot until I found out she didn't like working with Jimmy Stewart, at which time I declared her to have no soul.