Movie Review: You Can’t Take It With You[1938]

Brief Review:

Another Capra movie. The list seems to go on and on. Yet another Black & White movie. This movie was beautiful and I totally loved it. The concept the movie tries to portray comes once again as wonderful. Full marks to Capra for that.

The movie stars the by now regulars in Capra movies - Jean Arthur, James Stewart, Lionel Barrymore (Drew Barrymore’s grandfather), Edward Arnold and others. There is actually a reason to this and I shall be covering that in a post later on.

The best thing about the movie and all Capra movies in general is that they all portray things that make sense. Things we should not be dismissing a silly and taking more seriously. Instead we seem to think such things exist only in movies. How wondrful it would be if we could all pursue our passions without actually having to worry about the money we make or starvation. How wonderful it would be to pursue your interests instead of working for someone and working at something you are not interested in. These are the questions the movie begs the viewers to ask themselves.

Also equally importantly portrayed is the need to love your neighbours and be nice to them. While this may seem cliched by now, it actually is not. It is still the one fundamental thing that would make our lives more pleasurable. Something we think once again exists only in fairy tales and Capra movies. Believe me, you and I can do it too and we should.
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Movie Review:Arsenic and Old Lace[1944]

My Rating: (3.0/5)

Another of Frank Capra’s movies. You will have to excuse me, but I am on a Capra movie watching spree. This is just the second of some 7 movies. This movie was released before It’s a Wonderful Life. After having watched It’s a Wonderful life, this movie didn’t come across as a master piece. It’s a good movie, mind you. Just not in the same league as IAWL.

IMDB Rating:
IMDB rates the movie 8.0/10. The movie however does not find a place in the top 250 best movies ever list. Clearly not as good as some of the other Capra movies.

Cast:
Cary Grant (Mortimer Brewster) and Priscilla Lane (Elaine Harper) play the leads. Other cast members include Josephine Hull and Jean Adair as the two aunts, Raymond Massey as Jonathan Brewster, Mortimer’s brother, Peter Lone as Dr. Herman Einstein and John Alexander as Theodore Brewster.

I have earlier seen Cart Grant (Archibald Alec Leach) in the movie North By Northwest. (The irony is North by Northwest was shot much later compared to Arsenic and Old Lace.) However, I was not aware of this fact till I saw the list of movies in which Grant had acted. Like James Stewart in his older movies, Cary Grant also looks almost completely different. Grant did get an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1970.

Priscilla lane looked wonderful in the movie. (Even if her on screen appearance is only for a short while.) She is one of the four Lane sisters and the youngest.

The Movie:

The movie is based on a play by the same name by Joseph Kesselring. There was also a play which ran in Broadway. Because of this, the movie was released only in 1944 even if it was completed in 1941. Even Ronald Reagan was approached to play the lead role.

The movie was interesting and the story was definitely not run of the mill. However, Grant’s acting though good comes across as a little unnatural. But I imagine that can be said about all actors from the black and white age. Subtle acting was simply not an option I guess. You had to look and sound animated.

Capra does well as director. The movie kept me engaged almost till the very end. Somewhere towards the end, things did become a little predictable.

You can read the entire plot and more here.

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