You Can't Take It With You

A charming glimpse into a bygone era in America, a generous spirit within the overall social milieu.

If you like slapstick and a bit of wit - with a feel good ending - then this is a great family movie.

Capra made many great films. This is not one of them. Based on a successful broadway farce, it is a confused mess that is cobbled together from a ridiculously large amount of footage — essentially Capra had a story, he came up with everything imaginable in hope of creating enough gags to make a good movie, and then he tried to string it together into a long, overwrought, senseless and usable film. Out of all the footage he managed to create threads that are left hanging and then abandoned, while inserting other seemingly key elements without providing a foundation. The overriding issue is weirdness just for the sake of weirdness, which becomes terribly repetitious. There is no coolness to the offbeat antics. You wonder if the plumbing has a catastrophic lead problem and they simply suffering from brain damage. There may be some who really enjoy this film. I found it to be utterly exhausting. I should mention that I first saw it some 15 years ago and recently viewed it again recently in the hope that my first reaction was mistaken. I was right the first time. This is awful. If people want to give a Capra movie five stars, there are plenty of them but this movie is not in the same league as the others.

Wonderful movie!!