Mr_Poppins Wow. Started watching this one time with no expectations. Was delightfully entertained. Written by Frank Capra with some of the Its a Wonderful Life cast. The surprise is that the villain from "Life" is the beloved inspirational character in this one. Positively zany throughout but with a message. Especially liked Donald Meek as Poppins who liked to "invent things". Makes a definitely statement against the "rat race".

mark.waltz I don't believe in following any crowd, getting involved in trends I consider ridiculous, and hanging out with people I consider pretentious or fools. That being said, the eccentric family lead by Lionel Barrymore is by far the wackiest on screen, sometimes a bit too much, but oh how much fun they have. Toss in the staid wealthy Kirby family, secretly trying to buy up all the surrounding family and get them out to put in a smelly factory. Once again in this Frank Capra comedy (based upon a much revived Broadway play by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart), Edward Arnold is the heavy, as powerful here as he would be in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Meet John Doe", but not nearly as evil. It's only because he's in a comedy that he's not classified as a villain, and to lighten his load (as only he can), Arnold shows a sly amusement to the surroundings he's thrust into when he shows up on the wrong night with wife Mary Forbes and some James Stewart, who just happens to be engaged to Barrymore's granddaughter (Jean Arthur).Several normally "straight" actors get to show off their comedic side, having a ball, but oh what a silly bunch of funny entertainers there are, including Spring Byington as Barrymore's playwright daughter (complete with a live paper weight kitten), Ann Miller as Arthur's ballerina sister, Lillian Yarbo and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson as the servants, treated like members of the family, Donald Meek as a wacky inventor and Mischa Auer as a wild Russian lothario. Two of Hollywood's snarkiest character actors (Charles Lane and Clarence Wilson) are foils for Barrymore who get a great comeuppance.While this doesn't have the social messages of Capra's original comedy dramas, it does show the ridiculousness of the elite, whether the snobby Forbes or the power hungry Arnold. Barrymore even gets to take a swing at the IRS (Charles Lane as the exasperated auditor), giving plenty of laughs to a country coming out of the depression. While I don't consider the best film of 1938 (certainly though in the top 10), it is one of the best screwball comedies of the 1930's, and nostalgic and popular enough to still be revived on Broadway as evidenced by a recent hit production with James Earl Jones in the Barrymore role.

drmalama Here's the thing about eccentrics: They're not the best people to look to for a coherent ideology.So it is with the Vanderhoffs and Sycamores, a clan of crazy, loving, and lovable people who have decided to exit the rat race and follow their wandering muses... and boy, do they wander! Grandpa spends his days playing his harmonica and attending the graduation ceremonies of people he doesn't know. His daughter, Penny, decided to become the next George Bernard Shaw after someone dropped a typewriter at the home by mistake. Granddaughter Essie dances very, very badly, and her sister Alice, rebelling against her family of rebels, decides to become a banker's secretary (she still finds time to slide down banisters, though). Grandpa, it should be known, hasn't paid his taxes, well, ever, and his defense of this fact to the rather dunderheaded IRS agent who comes a'calling has been lauded by Tea Party types and abhorred by modern- day liberals as a polemic in favor of bathtub-sized government. Yet it should be noted that another resident of the house is on government relief and Grandpa seems totally fine with that. He may have thought through his rejection of soulless corporate America, but that doesn't mean he's right or consistent about everything. SPOILER AHEADWhat's more, for all his praise of the virtues of friendship over money, he actually betrays his friends pretty epically when he agrees to sell the house to a company trying to take over his neighborhood. While he does this in order to move closer to Alice, it nearly gets all his neighbors evicted. Not very friendly, right?END SPOILERDoes all this mean that Grandpa is a bad person? No. Is he a questionable role model? Yes, and Frank Capra's attempt to make him a populist hero doesn't quite work. But you should watch and enjoy the hell out of You Can't Take It With You--it's touching, hilarious, and does contain genuine insights on how to live a good life. But don't go to it for a ready- to-serve political belief system. Go for the wish fulfillment: the chance to imagine doing exactly what you want with your life without fear of failure or poverty. I've got a good idea about what I'd do (drawing, acting, college classes on film appreciation, etc.), and I suspect you do too.

gavin6942 A man from a family of rich snobs becomes engaged to a woman from a good-natured but decidedly eccentric family.Frank Capra has a certain sensibility that people associate with him. And that sensibility you expect will certainly be evident here. This is like a cross between his "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Arsenic and Old Lace". The eccentric scenes are great, with dancing and music for no real reason. There is a discussion of income taxes and what good they serve. (Keep in mind income tax started around 1913, so people of the time knew an era without it.) And best of all, we have a rat. A rat with hair on it. That cracked me up pretty hard.