You Can't Take it With You

In 1938, Frank Capra produced and directed another film for which he’d win Best Director. A romantic comedy starring Jean Arthur, Lionel Barrymore, Edward Arnold, and Jimmy Stewart, You Can’t Take it With You not only won Best Picture, but was the highest grossing film of 1938.

The film begins as banker Anthony P. Kirby (Arnold) is returning from Washington DC, where he was granted a government sanctioned munitions monopoly. Intending to buy a 12 block radius around a competitor’s factory to put it out of business, there is one house that is holding out. Kirby instructs his real estate broker, John Blakely, (Clarence Wilson) to offer a considerable amount of money for the house. And if they won’t accept, cause trouble.

Kirby’s son, Tony (Stewart) is a vice president in the company and has fallen in love with a company stenographer, Alice Sycamore (Arthur). Tony proposes, but Alice is worried that her family would be looked upon poorly by Tony’s family. The truth is that Alice is the only relatively normal member of the extremely eccentric Sycamore family, who are the owners of the house that will not sell.

Kirby and his wife (Mary Forbes) disapprove of Tony’s choice and before she accepts his proposal, Alice forces Tony to bring his family to become better acquainted with hers. Tony purposefully brings his family on the wrong day and the Sycamores are caught off-guard and the house is in disarray. The meeting is a disaster and while the Kirbys prepare to leave, everyone in the house is arrested for making unlicensed fireworks and disturbing the peace. While they are held in the drunk tank preparing to see the night court judge, Mrs. Kirby insults Alice and makes her feel unworthy of her son. At the court hearing, the judge (Harry Davenport) repeatedly asks why the Kirbys were at the house. Grandpa (Barrymore) says it was to talk over selling the house, but Alice has an outburst and says it was because of her engagement to Tony but spurns him because of how poorly she has been treated by his family. The papers snatch the story up and Alice flees the city.

With Alice gone, Grandpa decides to sell the house, meaning the whole section of the town must vacate to make way for the new factory. While the Kirby companies merge, Kirby’s competitor (H. B. Warner) dies after confronting him for being ruthless and a failure of a man. Kirby realizes that what Grandpa told him in the drunk tank, that he didn’t have any friends is true. Kirby visits the Sycamore house as they are moving out, where he plays the harmonica and realizes that these lower-class people he once belittled are good people. Alice takes Tony back and the film ends as the Sycamores and Kirbys enjoy a meal together.

Just as It Happened One Night succeeded with actors whose chemistry made their character development realistic, You Can’t Take it with You has great leading characters made believable by the acting work of Stewart and Arthur. While Stewart hasn’t promised anyone the moon just yet, his down to earth style of acting gives depth to a character that has just fallen in love. Arthur really gives Alice the air of uncertainty anyone would feel when they have a fairly odd family without ruining the delivery.

However, where the film really succeeds in its romance, it just passes with its comedy. Yes, Alice’s family is eccentric and screwy and their introduction is great. But when Tony brings his family by, the fun wackiness of the family keeps ratcheting up and trying to top itself. By the time they’re all in the court room, these characters’ traits have gone overboard into annoying and one wonders just how Alice has stayed as normal as she is. And when Kirby eventually realizes they’re not all bad and goes to see them, the over the top hilarity becomes more stifled. However, that might be the effects of having to leave a home one grew up in.

Everything else about the film is good though. Like It Happened One Night, any music the film might have is produced in-universe and none of it seems out of place. And while the film is a little slow to start, it picks up fairly quickly.

I’m sure this got Best Picture for showing how a rich tycoon learned that the little people aren’t all bad.

Final Call: Great acting by Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur, but the comedy ends up going into annoyance. It’s not terrible, but it won’t cross the Edge of Enjoyment. Instead, it’ll replace The Life of Emile Zola as #4

It Happened One Night

1934 was a historic year for the 7^th Academy Awards. Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night became the first of three films to win Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Director, and Best Actress (Claudette Colbert) simultaneously. The other two were One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s News in 1975 and Silence of the Lambs in 1991. Shirley Temple also won the first Juvenile Award at the age of six and became the youngest actor to ever win an Oscar. The film centering on a runaway heiress, is also the first Romantic Comedy to win best Picture.

The film begins as Ellie Andres (Colbert), spoiled heiress and daughter of the wealthy Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly), marries King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Mr. Andrews being completely against the marriage, demands an annulment. In response, Ellie runs away boarding a bus to New York City to reunite with Westley. Here, she meets Peter Warne (Gable), a recently fired newspaper reporter, who recognizes her and gives her a choice to either give him an exclusive on her story, where he will help her reunite with Westley, or he will tell her father where she is and collect the reward offered for her turn. Ellie takes the first choice.

At one of the bus stops, Ellie’s bag is stolen, leaving her to rely completely on Peter. This sets a chain reaction of adventures where Ellie loses her disdain for Peter and starts to fall in love with him. at one point, they have to hitchhike. Peter, claiming to be an expert on the subject, fails. Ellie then stops a car by lifting up her skirt and showing some leg. (The first instance of this trope actually).

At a stop, the driver, (Alan Hale) tries to leave with their luggage, prompting Peter to chase him down and take his car. One night, near the end of the film, Ellie confesses her love to peter, who mulls it over and decides he loves her too. After she falls asleep, he then leaves to make arrangements. However, the owners of the motel they are in notice the car is gone and kick Ellie out of bed, leaving her to think that Peter has deserted her.

Ellie then calls her father who agrees to let her marry Westley. However, after Peter obtains money from his old editor to marry Ellie, they pass each other on the road. Ellie, believing Peter betrayed her for the reward money, agrees to a second, formal wedding with Wesltey.

Ellie tries to pretend that nothing has happened, but she is unable to fool her father. On her wedding day, she finally reveals the whole story from her perspective. When Peter comes to Ellie’s home, Mr. Andrews offers him the reward money, but Peter insists on being paid only his expenses: 39.60. When Ellie’s father presses him for an explanation of his odd behavior, Peter admits he loves Ellie, though he believes he is crazy for doing so. Westley arrives for the wedding in an autogiro.

At the wedding ceremony, Mr. Andrews walks his daughter down the aisle, revealing Peter’s refusal of the reward money to Ellie and quietly encourages her to run off again, telling her that her car is out back for a quick get-away. At the point where she is to say “I do,” she makes up er mind and runs off to find Peter. Her pleased father pays Westley off, enabling Elli to marry Peter.

It’s a standard romantic comedy plot. “The young bride/fiancée gets stuck with a guy and neither can stand each other at first, but in time, they both end up in love.” It’s been seen so many times in film and television, probably even as early as 1935. Yet, so few are able to pull it off. It Happened One Night is one of those films where it worked, mainly due to the chemistry of Gable and Colbert. Ellie and Peter are at each others’ throats for much of the film and the way the pair acts makes the character development seem real. The outcome of the film is predictable, yes, but when the characters have a dynamic that actually makes you care about them and their story, the final destination isn’t as important as the ride there.

The comedic aspects of the films are done very well too, mixing sophisticated wit with visual humor and unrefined levity, including one running gag that meets its end in a very bawdy (for the time) manner.

The visuals aren’t all that impressive, but they really don’t have to be, considering the movie is simply following two people going from point A to point B. On the other hand, Westley landing for the wedding in the precursor to a helicopter did look good.  There’s also not a lot of music in the film, save for the beginning credits and a twice where the characters joyfully sing to pass the time. But this works as well. It didn’t feel like it needed music and the parts where there was singing (the crowd singing on a bus and Gable singing in the car), it felt in place.

The only complaint I really have is in the pacing. There were a couple spots where it was off, but it quickly corrected itself.

I honestly have no idea why this won best picture, seeing as how Cecile B. DeMille’s Cleopatra was also nominated. But I’m not questioning it.

Final Call: It Happened One Night is a great and enjoyable film, replacing Grand Hotel as #1