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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 Customer Reviews: Rating: 
Date: 2008-06-30
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. Rating: 
Date: 2008-04-08
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! Rating: 
Date: 2007-11-09
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. Rating:
Date: 2007-06-08
We like this one
Corny? Yes.
Hammy? Yes.
Delightful? Yes. Rating:
Date: 2007-05-07
Fun, fun, fun!
I saw this movie on the shelf at the library and, after finding it had James Stewart in it and was directed by Capra, figured it had to be good. I was not disappointed. My kids groaned when they realized it was in black and white but they quickly got over it and realy enjoyed this film. The story has been told by many of the other reviewers so I won't rehash it here. It was fun to see Lionel Barrymore in a role so totally reversed from the Mr. Potter he plays in "It's a Wonderful Life." The supporting cast is a lot of fun. I don't know all the actor's names but there were a lot of familiar faces. It was especially fun to see and hear a very young Dub Taylor as the xylophone playing ex-college football player from Alabama who came for dinner one night and didn't leave. I even liked Ann Miller and usually her characters just annoy me.
This film is a lot of fun and has a great message to it. It did leave me with one question however - what shampoo did Jean Arthur use to get her hair so shiny? I'd love to have some. |
