You Can't Take It With You (1938)

You Can’t Take It With You stars a bunch of no-names like Lionel Barrymore and Jimmy Stewart, but the entertaining script and outrageous physical comedy make up for the lack of star power. Adapted from the successful play of the same name, the plot introduces a familiar “rich, proper family has dinner with wild, wacky outsiders” theme and hilarity ensues. No doubt movies like The Jerk and Meet The Fockers were influenced by this concept but there is one major difference: this film was not in color.

Alice (played by Jean Arthur) is the only “normal” member of the Sycamore family, which includes her always-dancing sister, her xylophone-playing brother-in-law, her non-taxpaying father (Barrymore) and her spacey mother, who steals the show almost every time she speaks. Alice falls in love with Tony (Stewart), whose parents are of the stereotypical wealthy, snobby type, and fears she’ll never be accepted. Alice and Tony agree to have their families get together for dinner; Team Movie Meats’ Nick wondered aloud, “I wonder what will happen when they meet for dinner,” to which Jimi responded, “All I know is that they can’t take anything with them.” And he was absolutely right.

Tony knows Alice’s family will act differently around them so he purposely gives his parents the wrong date so they will see Alice’s REAL family. As you can imagine, they were none too pleased, especially Alice. In fact, the chaos ends up landing both families in jail. Don’t worry; we won’t give away the ending because you have only had 73 years to see it, so it is still in the spoiler alert range. Just know Tony’s parents have a lot to learn about love and friendship, which they have sacrificed over the years for financial and societal status. And yes, hilarity does indeed ensue.

There are lots of great scenes in this movie. As expected, the funnier moments come when the families meet each other for the first time, especially when dance instructor Boris Kolenkhov bodyslams Tony’s dad after hearing he was a former wrestler. Also, Tony gets Alice to scream in the middle of a restaurant when she becomes scared that he will be the one to cause a scene, and her dad confuses the hell out of an IRS agent at one point, explaining why it makes no sense for him to pay taxes. But Alice’s mother, played by Spring Byington, delivers TMM’s favorite line of the movie in the courtroom: when it is said the whole family must be guilty, Byington gasps to her daughter Essie, “I don’t feel guilty, do you?” (Byington was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for the role but did not win.)

You Can’t Take It With You was the highest grossing movie of 1938, bringing in almost $5.3 million worldwide, which in today’s numbers is somewhere in the neighborhood of $700 billion. The film earned seven Academy Award nominations and won Best Picture (obviously) and Best Director (Frank Capra). The competition was nowhere near as fierce as it would be the following year, but there was one glaring omission: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs was not nominated for Best Picture, as the Academy felt including an animated feature would set a “bad precedent.”

And now for the moment ya’lls beens seriously waiting for: Team Movie Meats scoring!

JIMI: (1.8 Acting + 1.65 Visuals + 1.9 Wow + 1.23 Story + 1.68 Enjoyability) = 8.26

TRACY: (1.82 Acting + 0.87 Visuals + 1.79 Wow + 1.32 Story + 1.8 Enjoyability) = 7.60

RACHEL: (1.75 Acting + 1.7 Visuals + 1.5 Wow + 1.5 Story + 1.43 Enjoyability) = 7.88

TAD: (1.71 Acting + 1.44 Visuals + 1.69 Wow + 1.0 Story + 1.5 Enjoyability) = 7.34

NICK: (1.8 Acting + 1.611 Visuals + 1.68 Wow + 1.2 Story + 1.7 Enjoyability) = 7.991

FINAL: 7.81

Interesting score notes: Rachel’s score was almost identical to the final average score, off by just 0.07 … Once again, sourpuss-ass Tad had the lowest score. He made a point to say YCTIWY was a lot of fun but it might be a mistake to put Enjoyability very high since we’re only 2 films in and will probably see ones much more exciting than this, leading the others to say, “Oh shut up, just give it what you think it should get.” … The only person to score less than a 1.44 in Visuals was Tracy, who gave them a 0.87; she was not as impressed by the impromptu basement fireworks as the rest of the group … With Jimi giving a 1.9 for Wow Factor, it marked his second consecutive movie he gave a 1.9 score in one category. No one else has given higher than a 1.82 in any category yet. Jimi is also the first to give an 8+ for an overall score … Though the scores indicate Nick enjoyed the movie the most, his overall score just missed an 8 by nine-thousandths of a point … Points appear to have been docked due to Ramsey being the same damn character as Jacob Marley in A Christmas Carol, even down to the dead part.

FAVORITE LINE: “I don’t feel guilty.” (Byington) Honorable mention: “What do you think I am, a goop?” (Arthur)

RANDOM VISUAL: A bunch of random kids dancing for Tony and Alice during their date in the park. These kids were like 8 years old and all of a sudden it’s friggin’ Stomp The Yard over here? Come on.

MOVIE MEAT: Plump, juicy turkey with a side of franks. (Random pairing, no?)

TIME OF DEATH: 11:30 PM on January 6, 2011

NEXT UP: An American in Paris (1951), selected by Jimi