You Cant' Take It With You (1938)

Rating: 85%
Alright so finally I get to the last best picture winner to review from the 30's. So let's finish this decade with You Can't Take It With You.

Plot: Tony is the son of a wealthy banker, Anthony P. Kirby who has fallen in love with his secretary, Alice. Alice tries to arrange to have Tony's parents meet her eccentric family, but they all find out that her grandfather, Grandpa Vanderhof is the person responsible for stopping Anthony from destroying his neighborhood for a large deal.

This movie is kind of hard to review because it's definitely one of the very nice, very charming kind of films that are a little hard to find anything particularly unlikable about it. While it can be a little slow and more or less predictable at what happens at the end, it's for the most part a light and simple film with charming characters, a great cast to perform them, some cute comedy that's rarely used but is still done pretty well, and a good fun simple story all around. The most notable actors/characters are Lional Barrymore as Grandpa Vanderhof with his optimism, wit and wisdom, (though I can't believe that's the same guy that plays Mr. Potter in It's A Wonderful Life), Mischa Auer as Kolenkhov mostly because of how her delivers his lines for whenever he says that something stinks, and of coarse James Stewart as Tony. Why? BECAUSE IT'S FRICKING JA-...you know what? Most of you regular viewers out there have probably read my review for The Greatest Show on Earth, so you know how I feel about the guy. Anyway, the only real complaint with this film that some people seem to have is how it's message can seem preachy. And I can see why people would feel that way with how it plays a bit more into the 'money can't buy you happiness" kind of theme more or less, but for the most part, that's what make this film so simple, it leaves a good message that is a cliche today but isn't necessarily less important then it was back them it came out. Plus they told it in a rather unique way considering how particularly eccentric the Vanderhof family are, and that's a good thing to have I think with such a message.

And that's my review for You Can't Take It With You. Even if it's somewhat slow and predictable and has a message you've probably hear before, it still has a fun cast, with unique characters, and a story that make this a nice, simple enjoyable film to watch.