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You Can't Take It With You
Studio: Columbia
Year: 1938
Rated: NR
Film Length: 125 minutes
Aspect Ratio: Full frame (1.33:1)
Subtitles: English, French, Japanese, Portugese,
and Spanish
Having done some research on director Frank Capra,
I found out something very interesting about his
rise to Hollywood fame. He actually bluffed his
way into the film business during the early 1920s.
He started from the ground up, working in the prop
and lab departments, eventually settling in as a
gagman with Mack Sennett. By the early 30s he had
moved to Columbia Pictures where he started directing
small low-budget films that entertained movie audiances
during the Depression. His first huge success was
a film called It Happened One Night, a
comedy starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.
The film won Oscar acclaim and Capra became an
instant success.
Four years later, Capra won another two Oscars (Best
Picture & Director) for You Can't Take It With
You, a wonderful screen adaptation of Kaufman
and Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway play.
The story concerns Tony Kirby (James Stewart) the
son of wealthy banker Anthony Kirby (Edward Arnold),
a ruthless tycoon who is about to buy out an entire
neighborhood in order to make room for a munitions
plant. Standing in this tycoon's way is the zany
Sycamore household, presided over by Grandpa
Vanderhof (Lionel Barrymore), who has turned his
back on a stressful society, enjoying life at its
fullest. His entire family lives on the same
philosophy -- always singing, dancing and partaking
in general everyday merrymaking.
It just so happens that young and wealthy Tony
Kirby is madly in love with the most sane member
of this household, Alice Sycamore (Jean Arthur).
Tony suggests that the only way the two families
can come to a compromise is if they meet each other
in person. This sets up a set of hilarious screwball
encounters as the wealthy stuffed-shirt Kirbys meet
the carefree Sycamores.
Columbia's release of You Can't Take It With You
on DVD is not entirely welcomed here. On the one
hand, I thoroughly loved this film. In addition
to its offbeat humor and quirky characters, the film
has an important social message to it. The
performance of its cast is just sensational, in
particular, Barrymore and Arnold who have opposite
viewpoints yet want to attain the same things out
of life. Capra has such a warm way of capturing
the essence of his characters. It's no wonder he
became such a popular filmmaker, making audiences
feel uplifted during America's darker times.
So why do I feel that You Can't Take It With
You is an unwelcome presence on DVD? Read on...
How is the transfer?
In a single word -- miserable. To look at the back
box cover one would be highly enthusiastic when
reading that this film was Remastered in High
Definition. It's sort of funny to read the
words remastered and high definition
only to see a final product that looks no better
than what one would expect from VHS tape.
I am at complete odds here over this transfer. I
can't help but think that Columbia did the best
they could with this release. But thinking about
all the beautiful B&W transfers of this period
from studios like Fox, Warner and Paramount, this
transfer looks like garbage.
Looking over my review notes, I see words like
dirty, noisy, and gritty. Those
words properly sum up this entire transfer. The
print is just filled with all sorts of blemishes
from nicks to scratches and even a sudden half-second
blackout near the end of the film. If that wasn't
bad enough, the picture is not very sharp and the
overall contrast level is a bit too bright. There's
a night scene in the beginning of the film where
Stewart and Alice are sitting at a park bench. The
scene is just totally blurred.
The audio portion of this DVD is also supposedly
digitally mastered. To be honest, I wouldn't rave
about it. The audio is a bit muffled, scratchy,
and often very shrill.
Special Features
Another disappointment here is that a Best Picture
film like this has no additional content to support
the film. Perhaps some sort of tribute to Frank
Capra may have been in order here, and more
importantly, perhaps the simplest thing like the
film's original theatrical trailer would have been
nice as well. Not here.
Instead, we are given trailers for Mr. Deeds,
Picnic and Sense and Sensibility. Yawn!
Final Thoughts
It astonishes me that a studio has given such
disregard to a Best Picture film like this. I
really wasn't exaggerating when I said that one
could do equally well watching this film on VHS.
Had Columbia put more effort into this release
in both transfer and content I would hailed this
as a Highly Recommended viewing. It's a
shame, instead, that this very special movie has
been ruined by the very studio the film won an
Oscar for.
Tsk. Tsk.
Release Date: February 18, 2003
All screen captures have been further compressed.
They are for illustrative purposes only and do not
represent actual picture quality
. Are you sure that the transfer is that miserable? I mean the screenshots look pretty darn good to me and it is afterall a 1938 film. Just looking for additional comments as I would definitely pick it up if it ends up being a decent transfer. I have been spoiled by Criterion but I will put up with sub-Criterion transfers if they are decent.
