Amazon.com essential video: Frank Capra's 1938 populist spin on the George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart play about a family of happy eccentrics is a great deal of fun, though it significantly rewrites the original work and doesn't represent Capra (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) at his best. Jean Arthur plays a member of the blissful Vanderhof household who falls in love with a rich man's son (James Stewart) and brings him into her nutty home. Lionel Barrymore, who played such a bad guy eight years later in Capra's It's a Wonderful Life, is the wonderful Grandpa Vanderhof, who addresses God during the dinner prayer as "sir" and speaks plainly and beautifully of why it's good to be alive. Capra took this opportunity to rail against big business and champion the common man, but the overall tone of the film--typical for the director's comedies--is buoyant and snappy. --Tom Keogh
A Parable About the Purpose of Life This 1938 film was a big hit in the years of the Great Depression. It is terribly dated and unfunny today, given a changed culture. It begins on Wall Street when Mr. Kirby arrives at the building that has his name on it. Kirby & Co. will have the biggest monopoly on war munitions after he has bought all the property surrounding a competitor's factory. An early mechanical calculator is shown. The Vanderhoff family do their own thing at their large home. [This must be attractive to the unemployed of that day.] We meet each of them and their personality. [Only in Hollywood?] The culture of that time provides the background. "Hello, Mother." Could the son of a millionaire marry his secretary? Does this drama seem dated?
The neighbors are afraid of being forced out as someone is buying up all the land. [No eminent domain then?] Grandpa's house has too many memories for him to leave. What will he get for paying his income tax? "Not with my money." Do these activities suggest family insanity or the stress from losing their wealth in the crash? Is "having fun" the purpose of life? The scene in the restaurant is interesting and funny. The family's activities are like a circus when the Kirbys arrive. Their dinner will be hot dogs, sauerkraut, and corn! Was there a mistake over dates? The conversation leads nowhere. Then some strange men enter and arrest everyone.
These G-men found literature in a candy box. The fireworks go off, they all go to jail. Can anything else go wrong? There are speeches in the jail that discuss philosophical outlooks. [Do they make sense to you?] The trial in the courtroom provides drama. Grandpa decides its time to move on with his family. A. P. Kirby has triumphed. Ramsay has gone bust, but warns Kirby of a future fate. [Does the ending seem tacked on?]
Can people's problems be solved by making music? Only in a Hollywood movie. The scene at the dinner table looks like a Norman Rockwell painting. Everything that was broken was put back together for the ending. [The scene where everybody puts up money was repeated in "It's A Wonderful Life".]
I really didn't like this movie I know many people like it, but I just don't. Maybe its because it was one of the last Capra classics I saw, or maybe I wasn't having a good day, but I just did not like it hardly at all.
I really do like his other movies. Meet John Doe, Mr. Deeds, Wonderful Life, Happened one night, Arsenic, Mr Smith, etc. All really good, watchable, enjoyable movies.
Then again, as a born again Christian, my world-view has changed dramatically since getting saved, and that may have something to do with my dislike of this picture. (But I recently watched Happened one night, and I still liked it a lot.)
So I don't know what it is. Maybe its because several of these cast members are more familiar to me in their other Capra movies. Jimmy Stewart is Mr. Smith, or George Baily. Jean Arthur is Clarissa Saunders, and Eddie Arnold is too much like Jim Taylor in Mr. Smith, and D. B. Norton in John Doe. Lionel Barrymore is simply Henry F. Potter, and that's all there is to it! I can't suspend my disbelief at them at all.
Plus, the movie is really weird. I didn't take to the cast of zanies at all, (whereas I usually like Capra's screwballs in his other pictures.) I kept waiting for the movie to get good, and it never did for me. (Several scenes were well done, like the restaurant visit, for one.) But overall, the movie was very tedious for me to watch.
I know I'm in the minority here. It happens, eh? Sometimes we just don't like certain movies, and this is one of them for me.
Simply wonderful.... A must have! This is such a wonderful film, and a MUST have for any collection. They don't make pictures like this anymore. Great comedy, it will keep you laughing. Reminds you of what is important in life...family, friends and happiness, not the empty pursuit of money. The entire cast is fantastic! The quality of film is excellent. Ths movie is well worth every penny!
You Can't Take It With You This DVD has excellent sound and picture quality. For a movie that was made in the late 30's, it has been well preserved. Any DVD I order from Amazon has excellent quality.
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