Edward Arnold : Anthony P. Kirby & 

Lionel Barrymore  : Grand-père Martin Vanderhof

 

 

 

 

*

 

 

La critique d'Oskar Champs

You Can’t Take It With You – 1938

 

You Can’t Take It With You clobbered me.  It beat me over the head with a message… but I didn’t mind.  The message of this Outstanding Picture winning movie was:  There are things in life that are more important than money.  It is a very true statement, to be sure, and at times the message was so blatant and unrepentant that it bordered on being preachy.  But that being said, I really did enjoy the movie.

 

We’ll start off with the cast of actors.  Jean Arthur as Alice Sycamore, our kooky female romantic lead, Lionel  Barrymore as Grandpa Martin Vanderhof, Alice’s eccentric grandfather , Edward Arnold as Anthony Kirby, the stuffy business man, and a very young James Stewart as Tony Kirby, our other romantic lead.  Barrymore did a particularly good job as the head of the Vanderhof/Sycamore/Carmichael clan.  His character was very gentle, loveable, understanding, self-sacrificing, and charming, and yet human enough to lose his temper and really blow up at someone when driven to it.  Barrymore brought all this out quite believably.  Kudos to him.

 

Interesting note:  Barrymore’s arthritic foot was written into the script as a sprained ankle, allowing the actor to be on crutches for the entire film.