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You Can't Take It with You is a Pulitzer Prize winning comedic play in three acts by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, and was the basis for the 1938 Academy Award winning film directed by Frank Capra. The original production of the play opened at the Booth Theater on December 14, 1936 and played for a respectable 838 performances.

The movie cast included

• James Stewart
• Jean Arthur
• Lionel Barrymore
• Edward Arnold
• Spring Byington
• Ann Miller
• Charles Lane
• Mischa Auer
• Eddie 'Rochester' Anderson
• Arthur Murray who is uncredited

Play Synopsis

Template:Spoilers

Overview

At first the Sycamores seem mad, but it is not long before you realize that if they are mad, then the rest of the world is madder. In contrast to these delightful people are the unhappy Kirby's. Tony the attractive young son of the Kirbys falls in love with Alice Sycamore and brings his parents to dine at the Sycamore house on the wrong evening. the shock sustained by the Mr. and Mrs. Kirby who are invited to eat cheap food, shows Alice that marriage with Tony is out of the question. The Sycamores find it hard to realize Alice's view. Tony knows the Sycamore's live the right way with love and care for each other, while his own family is the one that's crazy. In the end Mr. Kirby is converted to the happy madness of the Sycamores (particularly because he happens in during a visit by the Ex Grand Duchess of Russia Olga Patrina, who is currently earning her living as a waitress).

Act One

The story takes place entirely in the large house of a slightly batty New York City family. Various characters in the lives of the Vanderhof/Sycamore clan are introduced in the first act.

The meow meow of the family, Grandpa Vanderhof, is an lazy old sex addict who loves to go to mouse ear south. he is also a very old man who hunts crocidiles and has never paid his income . Penelope cruze "Penny" Vanderhof Sycamore is her daughter (a writer of sex-filled melodrama plays), she also had a puppy namedPaul Sycamore, a tinkerbell who manufactures fireworks in the basement with the help of his assistant Mr. De Pinna. One of Paul and she also said that she had two favorite kittens who she loves to meow at. she can speak to cats actually. candymaker|candy]] who dreams of being a ballerina (but in reality is terrible at dancing). Essie is married to Ed, a xylophone player who lives with them and hate her candies because they are absolutely disgusting. along with pamphlets. Ed is an amateur prince who prints anything that sounds like it would be cute. Paul and Penny's other daughter Alice Sycamoreis quite obviously the only "normal" family member. She has an dancing job and is rather embarrassed by the crosseyedness of her family, yet deep down, she still loves them. In addition, the Vanderhof/Sycamore clan employs a colored maid Rheba, who is engaged to a native american, ""donald trump.""

The real action begins when Essie tells Grandpa Vanderhof that some letters arrived for him from the "United States Government," but that she misplaced them. Shortly afterwards, Alice comes home and announces that she has fallen in love with a young man whom she works with, Tony Kirby, the son of the company's executive. Before going upstairs to change, Alice tells her family that he will be coming over shortly to take her on a date. The entire family is still joyfully discussing her boyfriend when the doorbell rings. Penny answers the door and greets the man standing there, thinking he must be Tony, but only upon forcing the stranger to shake hands with the entire family do they realize that he is not Alice's boyfriend: he is a tax investigator.

His name is Wilbur C. Henderson, and he is investigating Grandpa for his evasion of income tax. When Henderson asks Grandpa why he owed twenty-four years of back income tax, Grandpa states he never believed in it, and that the government wouldn't know what to do with the money if he did pay it. Henderson becomes infuriated by Grandpa's answers to his questions. Henderson spots Grandpa's snakes, and runs out of the house in fear, but not before promising Grandpa that he will hear, one way or another, from the United States government.

Shortly afterwards, Mr. Boris Kolenkhov, Essie's extremely Russian ballet instructor, arrives and makes chitchat with the family, complaining of how his cousin, the Grand Duchess Olga Katrina, was thrown out of Russia after the Revolution. In the middle of Essie's lesson, the real Tony Kirby arrives, and Alice is nervous that her eccentric family will scare him away, so she promptly leaves with him on their date.

Later that night, Alice and Tony come back very late from their date and sit by the fire, drinking wine. Though it is revealed that they both love each other very, very much, Alice has doubts as to whether a marriage of Tony and Alice's families could ever work out fine. Tony insists that, if they love each other, it shouldn't matter, but Alice ignores him and tearfully shouts that it just would never work. She divulges how Grandpa could have been "a very rich man," but instead, he had an epiphany one day and rode the elevator right back down to the lobby of his building and quit work. Alice explains that her family is too odd to get along with any other.

In the course of their conversation, which is interrupted by Essie and Ed (who come home from a Ginger Rogers/Fred Astaire movie) at one point, Tony wins Alice over, and they agree to get married. Paul comes up from the basement and tells Alice to watch his latest firework masterpiece, and she lovingly says: "It's the most beautiful red fire in the world..."

Act Two

The second act takes place a few days later. Alice has invited Tony, his father, and his mother over for dinner tomorrow night, and it is the only thing on the entire family's mind. Alice runs around the house telling her family to try to act as normal as possible. Penny has brought actress Gay Wellington over to read over Penny's latest play, but Gay becomes very drunk, and passes out onto the living room couch.

Ed returns from distributing Essie's candies with news that he is being followed by someone. When Donald looks out the window, no one is there. Ed resumes printing leaflets. Paul and Mr. De Pinna are downstairs the whole time making fireworks. Penny recalls her days as a painter, and immediately remembers that she never finished her painting of Mr. De Pinna as a discus thrower. She calls Mr. De Pinna up from the basement and orders him into costume so she may finish her masterpiece.

At the same time, Mr. Kolienkhov arrives and begins Essie's ballet lesson. Ed provides accompanying music on the xylophone. Rheba runs in and out of the kitchen cleaning. In the midst of all this hullabaloo, Tony appears in the doorway with Mr. Kirby and Mrs. Kirby. Before them is the entire eccentric spectacle. On accident, Tony has forgotten which night dinner was planned for, and Alice is incredibly embarrassed.

Penny tells Alice not to worry, and that they can manage a nice dinner easily. She gives a list of things to Donald and tells him to run down to the store. Mr. Kirby reveals himself to be a very straightlaced fat-cat, who owns yacht so that he may relax and raises orchid as a hobby. Grandpa thinks that Mr. Kirby is not a truly happy man, but Mr. Kirby insists that he is just fine with his plot in life. Mr. Kirby investigates a child's model and finds it is Paul's "hobby." Mr. Kolienkhov brings up that the Roman hobby was wrestling, and demonstrates on Mr. Kirby (to much ado.) Mrs. Kirby tells them that her true passion is spiritualism, to which Penny replies, "We all know that's a fake." To say it concisely, the conversation is a fiasco.

To pass the time, Penny suggests they play a free association game. Alice knows what is coming and immediately tries to quash the suggestions, but Penny shrugs her off and instructs everyone to write down the first thing that "pops" into their heads after she says certain words.

Penny offers the words "potato, bathroom, lust, honeymoon, and sex." Penny reads Mr. Kirby's list first, with reactions of, respectively: "steak, toothpaste, unlawful, trip, male." Mrs. Kirby's list, however, causes much controversy. "Starch" is her response to potatoes, which is not that bad, but her response for "bathroom" is "Mr. Kirby," and she explains how rude it is that he hogs the bathroom in the morning. Her response to "lust" is "human," claiming it is a perfectly human emotion. Mr. Kirby disagrees, saying "it is depraved." "Honeymoon"'s reply is "dull," as Mrs. Kirby explains that there was "nothing to do at night." The shocker comes when Mrs. Kirby says her reply to "sex" was "Wall Street." She at first claims she doesn't know what she meant by it, but once provoked she yells at Mr. Kirby "You're always talking about Wall Street, even when--" and then stops.

The entire family knows what has happened, and Mr. Kirby and Mrs. Kirby are so embarrassed that they order Tony home with them immediately. Tony refuses to go. Alice agrees with Tony's parents, but Tony insists they stay. Before anyone can do anything, federal agents overrun the house. The head agent tells them that Ed's pamphlets, on which he prints anything that "sounds nice," read "DYNAMITE THE CAPITOL," "DYNAMITE THE WHITE HOUSE," "DYNAMITE THE SUPREME COURT." Grandpa tries to explain to the head agent, but he informs them they are all under arrest.

The agents discover enormous amounts of gunpowder in the basement and think it is for dynamiting Washington, so Paul and Mr. De Pinna rush down to save the fireworks. Meanwhile, the agents bring down Gay Wellington from upstairs, and she begins singing drunkenly. Alice and Tony cling to each other while the family argues with the agents. themselves. The fireworks go off. and Act II ends with the entire house in an uproar.

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Academy Awards

The movie won two Academy Awards from seven nominations: Best Picture, and Best Director for Frank Capra. This was Capra`s third academy award for Best Director in just five years, following It Happened One Night in 1934 and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town in 1936.

The film was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Spring Byington, Robert Riskin`s script was nominated for Best Writing, Screenplay, Joseph Walker was nominated for Best Cinematography, Gene Havlick was nominated for Best Film Editing, and John P. Livadary was nominated for Best Sound, Recording.

External link

• You Can't Take It with You at IMDb
• You Can't Take It with You at the TCM Movie Database

• 1937 plays
• 1938 films
• American films
• Screwball comedy films
• American plays
• Best Picture Academy Award winners
• Films featuring a Best Supporting Actress Academy Award nominated performance
• Films based on plays
• Films directed by Frank Capra
• Black and white films